This is a blog for journalists, authors, and those who enjoy reading and learning. Here you will find a variety of posts about all forms of writing–from fiction and non-fiction to the news media and journalism. It is produced by a former foreign correspondent and journalism school dean.
Keyes Beech, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1951 for his Korean War battlefield coverage, was based in Hong Kong when he wrote the essay below for The Chicago Daily News centennial edition in 1976. A renowned correspondent for The Chicago Daily News Foreign Service until it was closed in … Read more…
In 2015 the National Review ran an interesting story on Vietnam and the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and South Vietnam. The article makes some good points. There is a German proverb that says: “A great war leaves the country with three armies — an army of cripples, … Read more…
[This is a follow-up to the story I posted yesterday on the 44th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon in 1975. ) After I and several dozen others were evacuated April 29th, 1975 from the hulking Military Assistance Command-Vietnam building at Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut airbase I filed my final … Read more…
(NOTE: I make it a point to re-run this story every year on the anniversary of the Fall of Saigon–an event I covered for the Chicago Tribune in 1975. I hope you find it of interest) Forty-four years ago today I was in a place called Saigon as it fell … Read more…
Tomorrow I will be posting my recollections of the Fall of Saigon–an event that I covered for the Chicago Tribune 44 years ago. I invite you to join me for this series of four posts that will run until May 2. As many of you may know, the war in … Read more…
Beginning Monday, April 29 I will be posting my recollections of the Fall of Saigon–an event that I covered for the Chicago Tribune 44 years ago. I invite you to join me for this series of four posts that will run until May 2. As many of you may know, … Read more…
(Periodically, I post stories I wrote while working as a foreign correspondent. Following is a story I wrote about Bangkok’s network of canals (klong). Many have already disappeared under concrete roads, but life goes on along those that remain.) Some 150 years ago, when Anna Leonowens, the prim English governess who has … Read more…
Fellow author Amy Neftzger recently wrote a column for a writer’s group that I belong to called BookDaily in which she provided some good advice for novice writers. Amy is an author of fiction for both adults and children and you can find out more about her and her work … Read more…
There are laws made by human beings. Those laws are often ignored and broken. Then there are laws of predictable constants, laws of physics, and laws of nature. These are essentially immutable. But there are also laws created by some unknown and mysterious power that are also seemingly inviolate. As … Read more…
I have been writing, in one form or another, for most of my life. I learned the techniques and skills of writing by toiling for almost 30 years in the relentless and stressful world of journalism. I was in some pretty good company. Ernest Hemingway began his writing career as … Read more…