Latest From The Blog
What is I, John of Salisbury about?
My new novel, I, John of Salisbury, is about the life and times of John of Salisbury; but, you may ask, who the heck was John of Salisbury and why should anyone be interested in him and what he did? I first came across his name almost twenty years...
What makes a good short story? What makes a good collection of stories?
When one writes, or should I say, attempts to write a modern short story one has to ask oneself what will make it interesting to contemporary readers and what will make it stick in their minds after they’ve read it? And when one assembles a...
About The Inquisition
A number of people have asked me about this story: why did you write it as a hybrid of narrative prose and play script, and why did you choose such grim material, namely cancer and the Stalinist terror?
Where do the stories come from?
Where do my ideas for contemporary short stories come from? I sometimes think that I’m a bit like a magpie—maybe even a thieving magpie—in that I’m attracted to things that catch my eye (or my ear). Many of the stories in both The Lost Heifetz and...
Why write about Aphasia?
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines aphasia as the “loss or impairment of the power to use or comprehend words usually resulting from brain damage (as from a stroke, head injury, or infection).” Some of you may know about aphasia because it has...