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Jon Friedman‘s first book was what you might expect from a young financial-markets journalist. Published in 1993, “House of Cards” was a fast-paced story of the blunders at American Express during the 1980s, including smear campaigns, duff accounting, and a CEO whose name was synonymous with hubris (until, in recent years, hubris became the official [...]

Machiavelli wrote that “Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.” That’s certainly true of the Six-Day War of 1967. When fired upon in Jerusalem some months after the passage of those six days, Graham Greene commented that it was perhaps an inaccurate name for the conflict. Indeed the battle [...]

The hottest new voice in crime fiction is Jasmine Schwartz. Her great debut “Farbissen” and its follow-up “Fakakt” have earned plaudits for her and for her detective, neurotic New York fashionista Melissa Morris. The books have been called “Bridget Jones with guns and dead bodies.” But Jasmine’s no Renee Zellweger softie, as you’ll see from [...]

Jessica Steinberg writes a fine article on The Times of Israel about English-language writers living in Israel and the way in which they’re ignored by the culture around them. The spur for the article is the current Mishkenot literature festival in which none of these local writers are involved. It’s full of international writers on [...]

When I was a very young journalist in London, I had the last interview with Salman Rushdie before Khomeini pronounced his fatwa against the writer. Unfortunately I was drunk. He was rude, and so was I. Here’s the story of how it happened. Download the Podcast: (Download the MP3) Subscribe via iTunes

Georges Simenon wrote “L’Affaire Saint Fiacre” (“Maigret Goes Home”) in 1932. It’s one of the first of the 103 novels involved Inspector Jules Maigret. You can tell from books like this that the writer was a bit of a bastard. And we ought to be grateful for that. The opening of “Saint Fiacre” (I’m going [...]

James Ellroy went out to dinner a few years ago with some French journalists in Paris. One of the journalists later recounted to me how Ellroy pressed them to take him out to Pigalle, which is a sort-of Red Light district. With distaste, they agreed. “Okay,” growled the Demon Dog, “so which one of you [...]

This is a guided meditation for writers. Sit or lie down and listen to it. Do what I suggest in the podcast, and you’ll be meditating. I’ve used meditation techniques to help my concentration and to build my creativity in writing my award-winning crime fiction and historical novels. I’ve also found it transformative in my [...]

I’ve used meditation techniques to help my concentration and to build my creativity in writing my award-winning crime fiction and historical novels. I’ve also found it transformative in my daily life. This podcast describes why that is and tells you a little about the guided meditation for writers I’ll be doing in my next podcast. [...]

Crime novelists generally write a novel a year. It’s what publishers want. Some big writers—and I mean, 25 million books sold—have told me their publishers and agents complain that if they don’t produce a book a year their readers will forget them. In the case of such writers, some of those 25 million may have [...]