Archive for the ‘Brit Abroad’ Category
Something of a pot-pourri today. Good news continues to roll in about the book. We are now hearing about media coverage in newspapers and magazines, and it is all very exciting. I will post nearer the time when and where things will be appearing. In the meantime, I have to share this wonderful review of Click here to continue…
One of the reasons why I never contemplated a career as a litigator when I re-qualified as a lawyer in the United States was that I had visions of my delivering elegantly-crafted closing arguments only to have the jury look at each other and ask each other quietly what the guy with the funny accent Click here to continue…
Tomorrow is a big day for Columbia and the University of Missouri. It is the 100th Annual Homecoming. Not being from round these parts, I’m not entirely sure what homecoming means or what its purpose is. There is a parade – I know this, because my children will be in it. And, naturally, there is Click here to continue…
Over the past few years I’ve occasionally given readings of A GOOD AMERICAN while it was still a work in progress. Invariably at the Q & A part of the event, someone would put up their hand and ask, often a little tentatively, “Shouldn’t you be reading that with an American accent?” It’s a fair Click here to continue…
Earlier this week I arrived back in Missouri after a blissful week in Maine. From ME to MO. What a difference a letter makes. I wrote a lot, read a lot, climbed a few mountains, and ate an awful lot of delicious fresh seafood. My cottage was on a secluded cove near Acadia National Park. Click here to continue…
Yesterday I returned to Missouri after a wonderful week with my children in San Francisco, where we stayed with my sister and her lovely family. Living in mid-Missouri, going to San Francisco is, understandably, always a bit of an event. Weeks ahead of time, we raid the library for travel guides and plan what to Click here to continue…
Look, I know. This is supposed to be a light-hearted blog. I’m supposed to serve up wry, self-deprecating posts about me and my writing. I’m meant to be developing, God help me, a brand, in the hope that you’ll all go out and read my novel when it comes out next year. But light-hearted is a Click here to continue…
This afternoon I shall be climbing into a car with my good friend Chris Stevens and we’ll be setting off south. Destination: New Orleans. We’ll be in a Mini Cooper, which doesn’t seem very Jack Kerouac to me, but never mind. It’ll probably be more comfortable than a battered old van, I suppose, and we Click here to continue…
“Frederick loved America. He loved its big open spaces, the sunsets that drenched the evening sky in blistering color. Above all, he loved the smell of promise that hung in the air. Europe, he could see now, was slowly suffocating under the weight of its own history. In America the future was the only thing Click here to continue…
Click here for a nice profile today in Vox magazine, the weekly sister magazine to the Columbia Missourian. I should say, in my defense, (jazz snob alert!) that the reference to “smooth jazz” was a little journalistic license on the part of the lady who came to interview me. I would hate for anyone to Click here to continue…