Browsing all posts in Featured.
It’s The Sheep That Are Polarizing US Politics!
I originally wrote this piece for Dvorak Uncensored, the blog for my good friend, John Dvorak. Not the useful four-legged species that give us sweaters and butterflied leg of lamb with mint jelly. Nope, we’re talking the far less helpful, two-legged kind, you know: Democrats and Republicans. A USA Today Poll out today identified the […]
Bestsellers: The Easy, Sleazy Way
When all the bets are down on a particular book and a bestseller is what’s gotta happen, publishers — and now authors — have ways of buying their way onto the bestseller lists. I’m not talking just about the megabucks for megabooks promotions that anointed authors can count on. SLEAZE ROCKET LAUNCH IN 3 … […]
Finally: Good Economic News From Greece!
Well, good economic news for me. I got a check in the mail this week for royalties from the Greek edition of my book, Daughter of God (one of my thrillers ripped off by The Da Vinci Code). It’s always good to get an unexpected check. But that happened because super agent Natasha Kern was […]
We Should NOT Be Crying For Barnes & Noble. Nope. Uh, Uh.
No Crying. Instead, we should be praying for resurrection through vision, critical thinking and the outmoded notion of customer service. First independent book stores blamed chains like Barnes & Noble for stealing their customers. Then Crown Books went under. And Borders made a big splat. They blamed Amazon. B&N is the last brick-and-mortar titan standing […]
New vets showing Gulf War Illness: Well DUH!
From the Jan 24, 2013 issue of USA Today: “WASHINGTON — Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may be suffering from the 20-year-old set of symptoms known as Gulf War Illness, according to a new report released Wednesday by the federal Institute of Medicine. ” ‘Preliminary data suggest that (chronic multisymptom illness) is […]
Ice Climbing: How To Die. How Not To.
In all my thrillers, I try to make things as authentic and real by personally doing what my characters do — within the realm of ethics, legality and personal ability. While the act of using a weapon or engaging in particular activities can be demanding, the process makes it easier in the long run to […]
More Than Gun Control Needed To Curb Gun Violence
TODAY’S NEWS, ITEM ONE: For second time in month, man pushed to death in New York subway TODAY’S NEWS, ITEM TWO: Suspect in homeless woman’s burning is mentally ill, police say Sick people do sick things. They can do them with a car, a can of gasoline, knives, poison and guns. The coming emotional debate […]
Christianity Is Alive And Well In Genre Fiction
The New York Times asserts that fiction has lost its faith. “[I]f any patch of our culture can be said to be post-Christian, it is literature. Half a century after Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Reynolds Price and John Updike presented themselves as novelists with what O’Connor called “Christian convictions,” their would-be successors are thin on […]
Tactical Writing, Hands-On Realism
When I read reviews of my books, one of the things that I am most proud of are the comments from people who know a place, a method, a system, a weapon and who mention that I have captured the correct look, feel and emotions associated with them. The best way I know how to […]
The Sun Has Started To Revolve Around The Earth Again
Look out! The sun has started to revolve around the Earth again. “A gaggle of energetic and amusing, mostly anonymous, neuroscience bloggers — including Neurocritic, Neuroskeptic, Neurobonkers and Mind Hacks — now regularly point out the lapses and folly contained in mainstream neuroscientific discourse. This group, for example, slammed a recent Newsweek article in which […]
