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Phillip Margulies

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What are you currently working on?

Phillip Margulies Glad you asked me that, Goodreads Bot. Right now I'm polishing up another historical novel. It's called The Traitors. Set in New York City at the time…moreGlad you asked me that, Goodreads Bot. Right now I'm polishing up another historical novel. It's called The Traitors. Set in New York City at the time of the American Revolution, it recounts the adventures of the DeWitts, a family of well-to-do loyalists, their slaves, and several characters closely related to them, from 1774 to 1783. In the microcosm of the DeWitt family, where, as a matter of conviction, everyone favors authority and the old order, the crisis brings a little revolution; the family’s weaker members are liberated by the war and its stronger members are defeated by it. With several interweaving plot lines that give equal weight to masters and servants, I am shamlessly describing the novel to publishers as a mash-up of Gone with the Wind and Downton Abbey.

I have always been bored to death by the American Revolution. I hate the eighteenth century, Colonial Williamsburg, pigtails, buckled shoes, and Founding Fathers. On the other hand, I’m drawn to the theme of people who live through historical change so great that it redefines right and wrong. This was the situation of the loyalists. They were steadfast in a sea of treason; their world changed; and without altering their own allegiance they became traitors, despised by their neighbors.
In addition, two relatively unfamiliar facts intrigued me. First, one out of five people in New York City was a slave. Slavery was not abolished in the north until around 1800. So even in New York we have the irony of slave-owners, some of the luckiest, best-fed, least-oppressed people in the world, crying out for their liberty. Secondly, New York City was the British base of operations in America. They conquered it in 1776 and occupied it for the rest of the war. Loyalist refugees from all over the colonies crowded into the city. Almost to the end they kept hoping their side would win, although it became hard to imagine how loyalist and patriot could live in peace after all the terrible things they had done to each other. Meanwhile the rule of New York by the British was very corrupt. Some of the loyalists were outraged by this. Others profited by it.

So the American Revolution turns out to have moral complexity if seen from the right angle and I feel like I can say new things about it.
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How do you deal with writer’s block?

Phillip Margulies I write anyway, just badly.

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Phillip Margulies’s books

Average rating: 3.84 · 3,318 ratings · 521 reviews · 27 distinct works • Similar authors

	Belle Cora 3.85 avg rating — 3,244 ratings — published 2014 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Devil on Trial: Witches, Anarchists, Atheists, Communists, and Terrorists in America's Courtrooms by Phillip Margulies (Goodreads Author), Maxine Rosaler 3.42 avg rating — 59 ratings — published 2008	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	West Nile Virus 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2003 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Creation of Israel really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2005	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Al Qaeda: Osama Bin Laden's Army of Terrorists really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2003 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2003	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Everything You Need To Know About Rheumatic Fever really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2004	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Deparatment of Energy liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2005 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Writ of Habeas Corpus: The Right to Have Your Day in Court did not like it 1.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2005	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The EXXON Valdezoil Spill 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Phillip Margulies's Blog

Belle Cora, Shame, and When Time Speeds Up

My first novel, Belle Cora, came out last Tuesday.

Since all the reviews focus on novel's New York scenes, I thought I would use this blog to talk about the last third, the San Francisco third, without throwing in too many spoilers. After all, San Francisco was the location of the true events that gave me the idea for the novel.

Several years ago, while reading Frontier Women: The Trans-Mississipp Read more of this blog post »

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Published on January 15, 2014 10:10

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Phillip Margulies rated a book it was amazing The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 17, 2016 12:37PM · like
Phillip Margulies voted on a poll When in a reading cycle are you most likely to use Goodreads? He voted for: When I finish a book I rate/review it
Jan 17, 2016 12:29PM · like · take the poll
Phillip Margulies answered Goodreads's question: How do you get inspired to write? I am very used to writing, so it is a routine for me. I get up in the morning and bring my laptop to the Starbucks two blocks from where I live, which I treat like an office, and it's full of other people treating it like office. I get a grande capuc See Full Answer
Aug 03, 2015 01:39PM · like
Phillip Margulies is accepting questions on his profile page.
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Phillip Margulies rated a book really liked it Prelude to a Certain Midnight by Gerald Kersh	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Gerald Kersh was a unique talent; he wrote like nobody else, he sometimes attained perfection in his short stories while most of his novels tend to fall apart at some point after promising beginnings. Prelude to a Certain Midnight is the exception. I ...more
Nov 12, 2013 02:09PM · 1 like · like · see review
Phillip Margulies rated a book really liked it The Factory of Facts by Luc Sante	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 08, 2013 12:42PM · like
Phillip Margulies liked a quote “When mannequins have nipples, it's a cold-hearted world.” ...more Roy Blount Jr.
Apr 10, 2013 09:51AM · like · more quotes by Roy Blount Jr.
Phillip Margulies rated a book really liked it Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920's by Frederick Lewis Allen	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 09, 2013 06:04PM · like
Phillip Margulies rated a book liked it Five Points: The Nineteenth-Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum by Tyler Anbinder	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 09, 2013 06:04PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Five Points by Tyler Anbinder. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Five Points by Tyler Anbinder <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Phillip Margulies rated a book really liked it Evidence by Luc Sante	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 09, 2013 06:03PM · like

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Quotes by Phillip Margulies

“Beauty misleads without lying, like an ambiguous prophecy in a Greek play. We read into it our hopes, to which it is indifferent. We ask it to be true and good, but it has its own way of measuring worth, its own standard and authority.”
― Phillip Margulies, Belle Cora

3 likes

“The truth was withheld only because so much else had to be forfeited.”
― Phillip Margulies, Belle Cora

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“Talk about something else. Tell me about this book you are writing."
"What book?" I say. Then : "Oh, I know what you mean. I am not doing that anymore. I couldn't finish._________
I don't think he knows, not really. Not yet.
In my haste to finish this story before death overtakes me, inevitably I have left out many things, and often I have expresses myself inelegantly, and no doubt here and there I have said more than I meant to. When you return, my dear type writer, we will review what we have done, and add this and subtract that. This work has become my hobby and my consolation, and I enjoy it.”
― Phillip Margulies, Belle Cora

tags: writing-process

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Phillip’s Quotes

“Fiction writing is a kind of magic. If I communicate the magic spell . . . it loses its force for me.”
― Angus Wilson

1 likes

“When mannequins have nipples, it's a cold-hearted world.”
― Roy Blount, Jr.

2 likes