On September 6, I published an essay here entitled “The Authoritarian Madness of Donald Trump.” I’ve since deleted it, because two days ago I heard from Jay Jochnowitz, the Editorial Page Editor at the Albany Times Union, that they’re going to run it sometime next week. I’d nearly given up on their publishing it, which… [Read More]
Donald, the cock of the walk: inside a twisted mind
Bashing Donald Trump is a popular pastime among the writers I know, especially the poets. Wondering what I could add to the flurry of fiery condemnations, I decided to try writing from the point of view of The Donald himself. As the author of mysteries and suspense novels, I love getting into the heads of… [Read More]
RED ALERT–a poem for the gloom-and-doom folks who think America’s never had it worse
I vowed that after the election, I’d stop writing about politics, but I’m afraid that’s a promise I’ll inevitably break. Last week I wrote this poem to read at the open mic at New World Home Cooking in Saugerties. The reading featured Therese Broderick and Alifair Skebe, both reading from their excellent new books, which… [Read More]
Onward and Upward with NaNoWriMo
It’s Tuesday, November 15, 2016. November is half over, and so is NaNoWriMo. Once again it’s National Novel Writing Month, and I’ve vowed to write 50,000 words by November 30. So far, I’ve written just over 10,000, and the jazzy graph of my statistics on the NaNo website predicts that at the rate I’m going,… [Read More]
I’ve got the Stupid America blues
Once again this November, I signed up for NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, with the goal of writing 50,000 words, though this year I’m working not on a novel, but on a nonfiction book about creativity and the shadow side. I got off to a good start, but in the past three days, as… [Read More]
Has my prediction come true? Is Trump truly flipping out?
Is Trump on the verge of a bipolar meltdown? Tonight I’m feeling smug and self-satisfied because my recent prediction may be coming to pass even sooner and more spectacularly than I thought it would: Trump may be spiraling straight into mania right before our eyes. The Albany Times Union printed the following Op Ed on… [Read More]