So the other day I saw this play, Protest, by Václav Havel. You remember Havel: he was the founding President of the Czech Republic, and before that the first President of a free Czechoslovakia. But before that he was a playwright, and also a prison inmate. The two vocations were related.
Smiling Through Bad Weather
I do not normally read, or review, children’s books because I am not a child, I have no children, and I principally appreciate children as metaphors or plot devices. My loss, I know, but there you have it.
However, recently a story, written for children, came to my attention which so astutely captured the function of stories that I would be stupid not to mention it. Captain Devin and His Little Red Boat is the Continue reading Smiling Through Bad Weather
White House Journalist’s New Book, “At Mama’s Knee”
The journalist April Ryan has written a book about African-American mothers, and the effect that they have on their communities and their children. I am a sixty-five year-old man with no children, and I am as white as Dick Cheney. Thus I am, or should be, the book’s target market. Continue reading White House Journalist’s New Book, “At Mama’s Knee”
BAM! Selling Capital City, One Book at a Time
If you’re a writer, your imagination is fixed on certain markers. Continue reading BAM! Selling Capital City, One Book at a Time
It Could Get Worse
So in Splinterlands, the very unusual novel by John Feffer, the world has fallen to tribalism. We’re not talking about Brexit or the dissolution of Yugoslavia; we’re talking about the Walloons of South Brussels at war with the Flemish of North Brussels and the Independent Nation of Vermont and New Hampshire. It is the war of all against all, and, yes, somebody’s making a profit.
Capital City on TV — Watch It Now
For those of us who toil for the spotlight — on behalf (like me) of a book, or a movie, or a political point of view — television is not exactly a seller’s market, but it is more of a seller’s market than it was, say, in 1951, when there were only two nationwide networks. Continue reading Capital City on TV — Watch It Now
Deborah Kalb asks about Capital City
Lee Hurwitz and I were honored to be interviewed about Capital City by none other than Deborah Kalb, journalist, author of children’s books and co-author, with her father, legendary journalist Marvin Kalb, of Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama.
She has a blog dedicated to writers and had some good questions for us.
The Day After I Became a Published Author
Here’s what you believe, if you’re like me: the day you become a published author — Published! Author! by a real Publishing House! — your life is transformed. Continue reading The Day After I Became a Published Author
Trouble in the Nation’s Capital City. Enjoy!
There once was a Mayor of a great American City who was so feral, so clever and devious and charismatic, that he could commit crimes in plain sight — even go to jail — without losing his electoral mojo. He succeeded because he managed to convince his constituency, who were of the same ethnic identity and color as he was, and who were the majority in his town, that he was their protector and friend. Continue reading Trouble in the Nation’s Capital City. Enjoy!
President Trump’s First Year in Office
January 20, 2017 — President Donald J. Trump takes the oath of office as the nation’s forty-fifth president. In his inaugural address, he reiterates his pledge to build a wall between the United States Continue reading President Trump’s First Year in Office