1. Writing 2. Publishing 3. Notes

On July 4th, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country, the Theodore Roosevelt Library will open in Medora, North Dakota. Although I can’t be there in person, I will be there in spirit as it’s the best way I can imagine to celebrate all about my country that I love.

One would have

A week ago I typed THE END on page 264 of the manuscript for the fourth and final book in my CASTLE series. I’ve done this before for every one of my fourteen novels. It’s always a strange moment. I’m a slow writer and this book’s characters have been keeping me company for the best part of two

I have been asked many times to consider writing a biography of my father, Stewart Alsop, a journalist who wrote a weekly syndicated newspaper column, Matter of Fact, with his older brother, my uncle Joe from 1946 to 1958. After a decade as the Washington editor of the Saturday Evening Post, Daddy

When I speak at writer’s conferences, I often get the same questions from beginning writers. Do you write with a pen or a computer? Do you write in a journal? Do you write at the same time every day? Where do you write? I know people in the audience are hoping to uncover some secret method, some

Because he knows that I’m a fan of Lewis Hine, the great child labor photographer, a friend sent me this review of a new book based on Hine’s photos of the “roughneck daredevils” who worked on the Empire State Building for the 13 months it took to complete the structure during the Great Depression.

As so many writers have reported, we are now besieged by AI generated, pay to play scam offers, most probably coming from somewhere in Nigeria, according to the very wise and well-informed investigator, Victoria Strauss of the WRITER BEWARE blog. We are being offered book club appearances,

Jane Friedman, a publishing industry expert upon whom I rely for trustworthy information recently updated her very helpful guide to hybrid publishing. For anyone considering this publishing route, be sure to read this guide carefully as she outlines many of the warning signs when you consider

As I wrote in last month’s post, I was approached by a media company in the UK asking for an interview. This was the first of what has become a flood of AI generated emails from all over the web enticing writers to participate in what we’ve come to call a “pay to play” scheme. It goes like this.

I’ve written before about how difficult it is these days to make a living as a writer. Besides the proliferation of ways to be published (traditional, hybrid, self-publishing), entire industries now exist to convince writers that this publication or that award or this marketing company will

As a follow up to the newsletter I posted last weekend about my father and Joseph McCarthy, here is my uncle Joe’s take on freedom of speech which my brother Stewart sent on to me. You can read the article about it in the May 22nd issue of the Atlantic here. In 1953, when he was a member of the