General and Concise Thoughts, Comments, and Updates from the Author.
(NOTE: Tomorrow and Thursday I invite you to join me as I relive the last 24 frantic hours in Saigon as it fell to Communist North Vietnamese troops on April 29-30, 1975–an event I covered for the Chicago Tribune in 1975. I hope you will stop by) Forty-five years ago … Read more…
I am pleased to share this new 5-Star review of The Lost Years of Billy Battles from Artisan Book Reviews. Here is a little about Artisan from its website: “Artisan Book Reviews is passionate about books and the reading experience. Our goal is to provide readers with the very best … Read more…
Welcome to the Rave Reviews Book Club’s October-ween Book, Blog & Trailer Block Party which will run the entire month of October. At each stop on the tour, there will be DAILY GIVEAWAY PRIZES and all you have to do to earn a chance at winning is to read the … Read more…
Two years ago Clare Hollingworth, one of the toughest, most determined, and inexhaustible war correspondents who ever lived passed away in her Hong Kong home. I posted on her passing at the time, but because she was such a unique and iconic journalist, I feel compelled to post my story … Read more…
Along with a few hundred other authors, I attended the 2019 Chanticleer International Book Awards Conference which took place April 26-28 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Washington. As with some 275 other authors from around the world, I was a semi-finalist in one of 16 divisions from which … 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…
I’m sharing a little good news today. ‘The Lost Years of Billy Battles‘ has been named an “Official Selection” in the HISTORICAL FICTION category of the Fifth Annual New Apple Literary Awards. The Lost Years of Billy Battles is the final book in the award-winning Finding Billy Battles Trilogy. It was published … Read more…
Today, I am reposting a recent article by author and actor Michael Knowles, who also hosts the Daily Wire’s The Michael Knowles Show. In his article, Knowles discusses how sadly ill-informed American Millennials are when it comes to such critical topics as economics, socialism, capitalism, and America’s system of representative … Read more…
The link below will take you to a podcast/radio interview I did a while back with C. P. Lesley of the New Books Network about writing historical fiction. Ms. Lesley is herself the author of six historical fiction novels set in 16th Century Russia during the reign of Ivan the … Read more…
At least once every year I find it useful to take a look at the late Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing. It is sage advice from a master. Every writer should read these rules and remember them. I’m doing my part by posting them here at the beginning of … Read more…