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- Cordell Logan Series
Deep Fury, my seventh Cordell Logan mystery, debuts today. The publication of a new book is always a thrilling if not tremulous occasion for any author, regardless of how many titles they’ve already put out there. Will readers enjoy what I’ve written this time? Will the critics be kind? Will I sell enough copies so that I don’t have to go out and find a real job somewhere,...
I came across some startling statistics the other day. According to the National Literacy Institute, 54% of American adults read below a 6th-grade level. One in five is considered functionally illiterate. Perhaps no less sobering, America’s literacy rate ranks 36th in the world–behind Ukraine, Russia, Cuba, Finland, and even North Korea. For somebody like me who earns his keep largely from the printed word, and who aspires to...
I had a great time talking with Hank, my fellow author and journalist, about DEEP FURY and all things writing-related. She’s a terrific interviewer.
Among the graduate-level courses I teach at Harvard University’s Extension School is one called “Fact to Fiction.” The course emphasizes how the skills required of a journalist can prove invaluable when crafting novels and short stories. I encourage my students to think like news reporters, crafting clean, succinct copy while exercising a keen eye for real-world details that can make their prose more believable. A key lesson is...
The other day, my wife and I were flying near Sedona, Arizona, heading home to California after visiting relatives in Colorado, when we experienced something that felt a bit like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” though I’d be the first to admit I’m not exactly sure what it was we experienced. Please permit me a brief, airplane-geek digression to offer some technical context and to better...
If you’ve read any of my Cordell Logan mystery novels, you’ll know that Logan flies an old, cantankerous, four-seat Cessna 172 Skyhawk. Ditto in Logan’s latest adventure, Deep Fury, set for release Dec. 17. The plane, nicknamed the Ruptured Duck, has unreliable radios, hail-dimpled wings, and a faded orange, yellow and white color scheme that practically screams 1970’s, which makes sense, considering that’s when the Duck first took wing from Cessna’s...