Ronald E. Yates's Blog, page 103

Historical Fiction & Political Correctness

I belong to a lively online Historical Novels discussion group in which authors engage in lots of discussions ranging from how one researches historical novels to selecting book titles. Most recently someone started a discussion about whether or not we authors should be politically correct when writing historical fiction. The result was a long thread of ... Read more...

The Challenges of Writing Historical Fiction: Part 3

During a recent “virtual book tour” with several book bloggers, I was asked what three lessons I learned while writing the first two books of my Finding Billy Battles trilogy. It was a good question because it caused me to stop and think about the fiction-writing process in a way I never had before. Here ... Read more...

The Challenges of Writing Historical Fiction: Part 2

When I was signing copies of my Finding Billy Battles trilogy at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books recently, I was asked several times how I conduct research when writing historical fiction. I explained that researching the first book in the Finding Billy Battles trilogy began with my memories. I grew up in Kansas listening to ... Read more...

The Challenges of Writing Historical Fiction: Part One

Those of us who write historical fiction are faced with a plethora of unique challenges. In fact, there are so many that it would be difficult to deal with all of  them in one post. So I will break the challenges down into several parts which I will share with you over the next several ... Read more...

Guest Blogger: Bruce DeSilva: How I Made the Transition From Journalist to Crime Novelist

Bruce DeSilva is a fellow former hack. (FYI, Hack is not a pejorative when journalists use it to describe one another). For some 40 years, he toiled for a couple of newspapers and then at the Associated Press. As many of us recovering hacks have done, Bruce moved on from the daily grind of journalism ... Read more...

A Forgotten Story from World War II

During my career covering war and mayhem around the planet I often came across stories that spoke to the less violent side of humanity. Granted, those were few and far between because when human beings engage in war the “softer” side of soldiers’ personalities are not often on display. After all, they are there to ... Read more...

An Open Letter to Mr. Khizr Khan

Occasionally I post commentaries from others on my blog—especially when they have relevance to the critical issues of the day. Today, I am re-posting a commentary from Ray Starmann, a former officer in the U. S. Army and Iraq War veteran. His open letter to Khizr Khan appeared in U.S. Defense Watch, a blog that focuses ... Read more...

Queen Hillary’s Convention Speech: An Analysis

I admit it. I watched Hillary’s mind-numbing bombastic harangue Thursday night. Well at least as much of the long-winded posturing as I could stomach. I found myself skipping past segments of her outburst the same way I use the high-speed button on my remote to bypass annoying commercials. After Hillary’s 55-minute onslaught, I tuned in ... Read more...

The Donald’s Convention Speech: Analysis

I am always amazed at how pundits manage to twist, squeeze, knead, and otherwise manipulate reality to fit their perception of it. Take, for example, Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the GOP convention Thursday night. It was a ripsnorter, a humdinger, delivered with passion and Trumpesque intensity. It not only explained what’s wrong with our ... Read more...

Study Says All Stories Conform to One of Six Plots

It had to happen. Scientists recently analyzed more than 1,700 stories from classics like Romeo and Juliet to modern tales like Harry Potter and identified six core plots which form the building blocks of all complex narratives. Okay, now bear with me. Things get rather technical at this point. But please read on because at ... Read more...