From an interview with a literary agent in the fascinating online magazine Guernica, about the agent's beliefs about talent. He says he means to provoke with the following statement: “I frankly think that initiatives like National Novel Writing Month are insulting to...
I'm a bit late getting to this piece of news, but I just read a story about Virginia Woolf's suicide. I've never read any of her work. I need to catch up. (Pics from Getty, via the BBC article link.) Woolf and her husband criticized Victorian rules. I saw the...
Survey results are in! Thanks to so many for participating! I thought you might want to know the outcome! Yep, it's goats and AKs from Peshawar. Thanks to all who participated! Percentages of the top six qualifiers are below: One does not normally...
Hello word fans! Can you help me with a sentence? Just one little subject, predicate, object, some punctuation, and bingo! These are from my forthcoming novel, Spy Act. I'm keen to hook a particular agent. Here are a few of my faves: please vote for one you like....
Does that sound salacious? Well they are some enormous honking carrots: How about a foodie tour of Bogota to celebrate my new author website? This is from February, when Ali and Shane came for a great visit. Though I knew these tours existed, and I'm not immune to the...
International development is driven by donors. Whoever has the money gets to pick what kinds of interventions are paid for and undertaken. This is a mixed bag. Pros Cons $ and mandate to buy public goods not being provided by recipient countries. Political...
I promised to write about the peace talks this week, and I will. But not yet. There's some seriously unfinished business on my mind. Can someone tell me how we're still fighting these battles? Didn't the country just (more or less) finally admit it's alright to be...
Bogota has its share of problems. It's a big, noisy, gritty city with more inhabitants than it can reasonably handle. Unlike back home, demand for public transportation is enviably high: bus it and they will come. Supply is another story. Foto: Carlos Julio MartÃnez...
What a joy this week to head to Barranquilla for Carnaval with my best buds Shane and Ali. Barranquilla hosts the second largest Carnaval in the world, with Rio (natch) holding the top spot. I don't know... I can't quite imagine more feathers than what we saw:...
I bet that's not a headline you could have predicted. Me either! I was surprised to read a story about USAID outfitting city vultures with GPS and cameras to try to track urban dumping. Yes, really Knowing USAID as I do, I read between the lines of the story a lot of...