Christmas in Bangkok

current events

The Thai people, I’m told, Like holidays— All sorts of holidays: Chinese, Buddhists, Christian; All great occasions To decorate the monster shopping malls. Downtown, on Plenchit Street, In a restaurant where I eat lunch— Shrimp with cashew nuts, Diet Coke with ice;...

Literary references

book background, history, literature

The business of comparing national literatures across languages and time is definitely tricky. Take the English 19th century prose from Jane Austen through Dickens, the Brontë sisters, Trollope, George Eliot, Hardy, to Joseph Conrad. By any yardstick it would be...

Strange Moment in American-Russian Relationship

history, Russia

In 1775, Colonies in North America rebelled against the British rule.  The British government discovered that it had a serious problem.  It had the best fleet in the world but it hardly had an army.  The British, like other monarchies of that period,...

Rules for Writers to Help Them Write

literature, writing life

Many writers develop rules to help them write.  Sometimes such rules embody almost inhuman abilities in areas such as discipline.  Anthony Trollope would write several hours every morning, no matter what.  Once he finished a novel while he still had...

Now on Twitter

About

Get updates on the novel and other various ideas at Twitter. Follow me here: https://twitter.com/Berengaut.