Notes from the desk

Research findings, archival detours and occasional thoughts on writing history as fiction.

• June 18, 2026 Research The letter that changed the book A line in my father's Army correspondence — 'We are being sent to Nevada next week' — sent me down a road I never expected to walk. 6 min read →
• May 2, 2026 Cold War Why 1960 is the perfect year for a spy novel An Olympic village in the Sierra, a U-2 shot down over Sverdlovsk, and an aircraft so secret it did not officially exist. 5 min read →
• March 14, 2026 The Writing Life Twenty-seven years, and then a first novel How a family mortgage business taught me more about narrative structure than any writing course could have. 4 min read →