What’s in a Name?
A response to the announcement of an Executive Order changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico and Google's rapid compliance with this decree.
“Be Wary of Paramilitaries”
Recognizing the rise of paramilitaries in the US following the pardons of the January 6 insurrectionists and what to do.
A Creative Crisis
Deciding to write a different kind of historical novel in the face of a more repressive environment, but not giving up my commitment to social justice.
Giving Characters Agency in Restricted Spaces
How writers can give their protagonists agency even if the characters are very young or live in very restricted environments.
The Lost Democracies of the 21st Century
A discussion of the fates of democracies that gave way to dictatorships from the mid-1990s to the present. How many of them are democracies again?
Gambling With Freedom
An election in which our very democracy and freedoms are at stake, and what we lose if we lose them to shiny promises and violent solutions.
Rally Against Project 2025
Why I'm going to a rally to protest Project 2025. What it is and why it's a danger.
First Look at Eyes Open
Signing advance copies and getting advance praise for my next book, the YA verse novel Eyes Open set in Portugal in the 1960s.
On This Day 100 Years Ago: The Fascist “March on Rome”
A guest post by historian Walter Adamson explores Mussolini's March on Rome and its connection to the January 6, 2021 insurrection in the U.S.