The op-ed gets its name for being an opinion piece that originally appeared opposite the editorial page. An editorial page editorial is signed by the board, while an opinion piece is signed by an individual. The term is also sometimes thought to be an abbreviation of opinion-editorial. Athletes before taking... read more
Title image: MK Czerwiec, aka the Comic Nurse We fiction writers sometimes underestimate the value of our own work – or, at least, I do. I sometimes have to remind myself that we humans understand our world through narratives and that if you can tell a good enough story, you... read more
This blog is the book cover reveal for one of my favorite new authors, Rose Vane. I’ve read two of her stories in manuscript form, but I haven’t yet read the one she recently sold to Carina Press, A Deep Dark Call. A gloomy manor in nineteenth-century Wallachia (the Romanian... read more
Title image: Florida governor Rick Scott giving updates on Hurricane Irma. Note the sign language interpreter to the left. I’m sitting high and dry in Durham, North Carolina, living in a hotel, feeling a bit like Eloise all the while acknowledging that my hotel ain’t The Plaza. But that’s not... read more
This semester for the second time I am in charge of a novel course/workshop at Duke University. Because I’m giving the students some of the same advice I gave last year, I’m reposting this blog from 2016. Just like last year, when I moderated the course for the first time,... read more
Title image: Baldwin Auditorium, East Campus, Duke University with statue of Benjamin N. Duke Upon my return to Duke last week for the start of classes, I was reminded how much I’ve always loved East Campus with its Georgian architecture. Maybe it’s because I lived there when I was a... read more
This is the fourth entry in my latest short story, The Red Palace. Click here to start with Chapter 1, or catch up on Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. Chapter Four In the morning Gita came with another tray of food and a fresh robe. She replaced the old tray on the low table with the new... read more
This is the third entry in my latest short story, The Red Palace. Click here to start with Chapter 1 or catch up on Chapter 2. Chapter Three Elizabeth was rigid with emotional shock and limbs stiff from immobility. Thus, when Gita came to help her up and to enfold her in... read more
The next few blog entries will be the opening chapters of my short story The Red Palace. Click here to catch up on Chapter One. Chapter Two Badar Ali had enlisted the help of Gita, his old nurse who was like a mother to him, his own having died in... read more
Over the next two weeks I will be posting the first four chapters of my new short story The Red Palace. Other stories are available as free downloads on my site: A Most Curious Courtship, Lord Blackwell’s Rude Awakening, The Wedding Night and The Alpha’s Edge. Rajgurat, India 1857 Chapter... read more