Liar’s Path, notes on truth, working truths, and deception
Istria, December 2013
Rovinj, December 2013 Days this side of the Adriatic tend to be cool, but sun-drenched. I understand that Venice, directly west across the sea, is cloud-covered and rainy Nov-April. Adriatic storms flood Rovinj's main square now and then, but for the most part it...
Thirteen Coats, A Translation (from Russian)
Serge Kotlar and I (Yay!, Merrill, Wisconsin) translated Thirteen Coats from Russian to English as research for the next book in The Long War series, The Executioner’s Son. I read and speak Russian and have studied the country and its culture since my 17th year on...
The Executioner’s Son, Suzdal, NE Russia, early 1950s
On a spring day in 1953 on Illian Meadow across the Kamenka River and beneath the walls of the Suzdahl Kremlin, Danton Larionov, son of the NKVD executioner and a bully, spies the stranger, fourteen-year-old Ekaterina Soroka, daughter of the dancer and a storyteller....
Arriving in Rovinj, Croatia, November 2013,
Travel Notes Patrice and I have settled in Rovinj, Croatia, until at least 15 April 2014. The first apartment we rented (12th century plague house) did not meet our needs. Patrice found another apartment, which meets our needs in spades. These travel notes is an...
Book Review, Hot Country and The Star of Istanbul by Robert Olen Butler:
While traveling these last two weeks via Istanbul, Venice and Trieste to Rovinj, Croatia I have been rereading Robert Olen Butler's Christopher Marlowe Cobb novel, Hot Country and its follow-on, The Star of Istanbul. I think Hot Country is as good as any novel he...
Arriving Rovinj
Patrice reported our travels from the United States through Venice here and here. We stayed in Venice five days. Venice, even stormy, flooded and windswept, was charming, warm and inviting. The Italian artists––Titian, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, et.al.––like voluptuous...