Book cover of 'The Star of Istanbul' by Robert Olen Butler featuring a woman on a couch.
12 Nov

Book Review, Hot Country and The Star of Istanbul by Robert Olen Butler:

Book Reviews / Publishing
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,...
Nighttime waterfront with boats and cozy indoor seating area.
17 Nov

Arriving in Rovinj, Croatia, November 2013,

Croatia / Deception / Publishing
Travel Notes Collage, Rovinj Patrice and I have settled in  Rovinj, Croatia, until at least 15 April 2014.  The first apartment we rented (12th century plague house)...
A weathered tree trunk carved into a humanoid figure outdoors.
20 Nov

The Executioner’s Son, Suzdal, NE Russia, early 1950s

Russia / Soviet Union
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...
01 Dec

Thirteen Coats, A Translation (from Russian)

Book Reviews / Deception / Publishing / Russia / Soviet Union
Thirteen Coats, A Translation Serge Kotlar and I (Yay!, Merrill, Wisconsin) translated Thirteen Coats from Russian to English  as research for the next book in The Long...