Could a reporter bot have been me in real life in the 1970s—or Jonathan Stone, the far more dashing investigative journalist in my novel The Solomon Scandals? And who would have made a better s...
I call it the ScandalsBot. If you ask what Washington sleaze inspired The Solomon Scandals, the bot will oblige. The bot can also compare my corruption novel with All the President’s Men and ot...
Does your stomach churn if a novel mixes genres? As the author of The Solomon Scandals, I cheerfully plead guilty. My book blends suspense, naturalism, and satire. The goal is to entertain but al...
The November 2023 edition of The Solomon Scandals doesn’t just have an improved cover and a new essay on the difference between my fiction and the actual history inspiring the novel. This secon...
https://www.solomonscandals.com/solomon-scandals-hardcover-is-now-out/
Just 63 percent of U.S. high school graduates enrolled directly in college in 2020—a decline from 70 percent just four years earlier. What’s going on? Covid? And maybe more temptation to go d...
https://www.solomonscandals.com/after-the-ivory-tower-falls-a-book-review/
One bloody American Civil War is enough. The cannons I photographed this week are at Fort Ward in Alexandria, Virginia, just a walk from my place. They inspire reflection. The best way to prevent...
https://www.solomonscandals.com/civil-war-ii-the-best-way-to-prevent-it/
Got a beef with establishment Democrats? I do—more than a few. I worked for a once-thriving factory town newspaper in Ohio that today operates out of a hamburger stand. Bipartisan trade policie...
Herbert Hoover didn’t singlehandedly cause the Great Depression, but he fumbled in his efforts to fix the American economy. One upshot was the name given the shantytowns housing hundreds of tho...
https://www.solomonscandals.com/trump-virus-please-not-chinese-one/
A nuclear bomb from China or North Korea—that’s how I expected to die if Donald Trump was too inept to handle a major crisis. The Trump-worsened coronavirus threat is so prosaic by comparison...
https://www.solomonscandals.com/stupidity-can-kill-how-to-vet-and-test-would-be-presidents/