I tried to correct something on Wikipedia once -- my place of birth, I think -- and was told that my word wasn't good enough. I needed to link to another source. I had my birth certificate and everything! I gave up and decided to never look at my page there again. In other words, I learned to trust the process. :)

Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson. Not only is it one of the great short story collections of the 20th century, but it has a special resonance for me because Johnson was writing about his life in Iowa, my home state. I was such a fan of his that I once snuck into a class he taught at the Iowa Writers Workshop. No one noticed I was in the back because they were hanging on his every word.

Avoid the "official" memoirs, which are full of spin. Bob Woodward is great, but he's far from the only game in town. Redemption Song: An Irish Reporter Inside the Obama Campaign by Niall Stanage is a fascinating outsider's take on American politics. Pretend I'm Not Here: How I Worked with Three Newspaper Icons, One Powerful First Lady, and Still Managed to Dig Myself Out of the Washington Swamp by Barbara Feinman Todd is a fun, under-the-radar Beltway account of being a ghostwriter for Woodward and Hillary Clinton.

The NYTimes compiles a weekly list of bestselling books, from various bookstores that report their sales to them. There are 10 or 15 slots for each category per week (fiction, nonfiction, children’s, cookbooks and misc). The categories sometimes change and there are some special monthly categories too. Basically, you need a lot of print sales to make the list—4k-5k depending on the competition that week.

Great question! I actually began writing a Trump mystery in early 2016, back when Trump was a primary candidate with little chance of winning the Republican nomination. 'The Day of the Donald' was a satirical thriller about a (then) hypothetical future where a reality TV host becomes president. By the time I finished and published it that summer, Trump was the nominee...thus killing the market. The book sold less than a thousand copies and faded from memory. I learned an important lesson: if you write satire, you run the risk of real life being more bizarre than fiction.

I have never worn socks with sandals. However, I see the appeal: I was in a subway station in Manhattan waiting for a train once, sitting on a bench in sandals, when a rat the size of one of my cats shuffled within an inch of my bare toes. I would have liked to have had socks on at that time.

I’ve worked with many different traditional publishers, and self-published some work. Self publishing can be difficult, lonely, and expensive! I prefer working with publishers when I can because then I can concentrate more on the writing process.

To get a publisher, you first need A) a completed novel and B) a literary agent. The agent shops your manuscript to acquiring editors at publishers. So step one is to get that novel finished! And step two is to make a list of agents to query (usually agents who represent authors in the same genre you write) and to send them emails asking if they’d like to read your manuscript. I would not be concerned with them taking an idea, though—ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is what matters. I submitted my first book to 10 agents. 7 never responded, 2 rejected me, and 1 signed me…but for my next book. She didn’t like the one I submitted, but liked my writing.

Never lived there, but I did visit in 2021 to get a feel for the state and found it much different than I was expecting. In many ways it reminded me of Oregon, where I lived for a couple of years. It’s definitely a unique place, with a lot of undeveloped wilderness…and a lot of tourists and part-time residents.

Before I researched this book, I didn’t. Reading multiple accounts of 2016 and 2020 changed my mind, however. Was there a concerted effort by journalists? No, but journalists generally lean left and, in an effort to thwart Trump, they collectively threw their weight behind the “best” Democratic candidate in each primary season—the establishment candidates, in other words. I don’t think this was conscious or in bad faith. It just resulted in a lot of coverage portraying Bernie as a third party candidate instead of as a serious contender for the Democratic nomination.

One example that comes to mind is the “Bernie Bros”—often talked about in the media, but not something I saw in the crowds at his rallies, which attracted diverse crowds/ Check out The Fighting Soul by his former campaign manager Ari Rabin-Havt for specifics. It’s an eye-opening book.

I don't want to give away the book's ending, but no, Biden is the amateur sleuth in Hope Never Dies and not the murderer.