Jenny Milchman

Jenny Milchman is the Mary Higgins Clark award winning and USA Today bestselling author of five novels. Her work has been praised by the New York Times, New York Journal of Books, San Francisco Journal of Books and more; earned spots on Best Of lists including PureWow, POPSUGAR, the Strand, Suspense, and Big Thrill magazines; and received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, and Shelf Awareness. Four of her novels have been Indie Next Picks. Milchman's short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies as well as Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and a recent piece on touring appeared in the Agatha award winning collection Promophobia. Milchman's new series with Thomas & Mercer features psychologist Arles Shepherd, who has the power to save the most troubled and vulnerable children, but must battle demons of her own to do it. Milchman is a member of the Rogue Women Writers and lives in the Hudson Valley with her family.

Her new novel is The Usual Silence.

Recently I asked Milchman about what she was reading. The author's reply:

Getting lost in a book with nothing else to do besides read it is a unique joy that got me through childhood, but is now pretty much relegated to taking a rare—like, as in a hundred year storm rare—vacation, my birthday, and those fleeting bits of summer when time suddenly and fleetingly expands.

So I am juggling three books right now.

One is a novel called You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto. I’m reading this as research to inform an aspect of my forthcoming novel, which has a subplot concerning influencer culture. Sultano captures the more outrageous details of being an influencer—purchasing organic carrots at a farmers market, then burying them in your own fallow garden so you can dig them up for a TikTok—which she wraps in a novel that’s less of a whodunnit than a will-she-get-away-with-it?

Next is Red River Road by Anna Downes, which concerns van life and a woman traveling alone. Since there’s little I find more compelling than a wilderness thriller, reading about Phoebe who vanishes from the remote Australian coast rises both hairs and hackles for me.

Finally, as I prepare to launch myself with arms spread as wide as wings into the pages of a new novel, I look to books on craft, which lend inspiration as well as concrete guidance. My choice this time is The Technique of the Mystery Story by Carolyn Wells, a lesser known counterpart to such mystery grande dames as Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers.

Learn more about the book and author at Jenny Milchman's website.

My Book, The Movie: Cover of Snow.

The Page 69 Test: Cover of Snow.

The Page 69 Test: Ruin Falls.

My Book, The Movie: Ruin Falls.

My Book, The Movie: The Second Mother.

The Page 69 Test: The Second Mother.

Q&A with Jenny Milchman.

My Book, The Movie: The Usual Silence.

The Page 69 Test: The Usual Silence.

--Marshal Zeringue

Paula Munier

Paula Munier is the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Mercy Carr mysteries. A Borrowing of Bones, the first in the series, was nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and named the Dogwise Book of the Year. Blind Search also won a Dogwise Award. The Hiding Place and The Wedding Plot both appeared on several “Best Of” lists. Home at Night, the fifth book in the series, was inspired by her volunteer work as a Natural Resources Steward of New Hampshire. Along with her love of nature, Munier credits the hero dogs of Mission K9 Rescue, her own rescue dogs, and a deep affection for New England as her series’ major influences. A literary agent by day, she’s also written three popular books on writing: Plot Perfect, The Writer’s Guide to Beginnings, and Writing with Quiet Hands, as well as Happier Every Day and the memoir Fixing Freddie: The True Story of a Boy, a Mom, and a Very, Very Bad Beagle.

Munier's new Mercy Carr mystery is The Night Woods.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Munier's reply:

My TBR pile is eclectic if nothing else. I’m reading for research as I write the next Mercy Carr mystery (coming next year), and I’m reading for just plain fun and friendship (she says happily, as many of her friends are writers with new books):

For research:

In the mystery I’m writing now, it’s December. Which means I get to play with all of the holiday tropes. So, I’ve been reading up on everything from Christmas carols to New Year’s traditions. Three of my favorites:

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris / I love this hilarious collection of holiday stories so much that I often give copies as Christmas presents to friends and family. I myself have read it multiple times and was thrilled to have an excuse to read it again. If you haven’t read this one, pour yourself a bourbon and eggnog and get to it.

The Secret History of Christmas, by Bill Bryson / I’m a big fan of Bryson’s work, most notably A Walk in the Woods and I was delighted to discover he’d written a book about Christmas. Bryson gives us the historical lowdown on the holiday’s rituals and traditions—from Santa Claus’s many past lives to the risqué origins of Christmas carols. All good fodder for the writing mill.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens / You knew I had to reread this classic. But this time I listened to the audiobook version of the story, read by Hugh Grant. This is Bah Humbug! at its best.

For just plain fun and friendship:

Death at the Sign of the Rook, by Kate Atkinson / Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie ranks among my all-time most beloved detectives, right up there with Maigret and Morse and Vera. In this new entry in the series, #6, Atkinson brings back some of my favorite characters—most notably Reggie and Louise—to play with Jackson in a send-up of Golden Age mysteries that’s as funny as it is clever. Atkinson is the only crime writer I read with a dictionary by my side, which I naturally consider a plus.

Argos: The Story of Odysseus as Told by His Loyal Dog, by Ralph Hardy / Just in time for the publication of The Night Woods, Mercy Carr #6 and my humble homage to The Odyssey, I met Ralph Hardy, who’s penned the most wonderful adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, written from the point of view of the dog. Just. Plain. Awesome. Note: I write books with dogs in them, but I’ve never had the chutzpah to write from their POV. If I ever do, I hope I do it this well.

Blue Christmas Bones, by Carolyn Haines / Carolyn, my pal and sister Minotaur author, writes the bestselling Sarah Booth Delaney mysteries. Her latest, which pubs October 15) is a murderous romp through Tupelo during the annual holiday-themed Elvis Festival. Elvis. Christmas. Murder. What more do you want?

I could go on and on, but I have a book—untitled Mercy Carr #7—to write. (If you have any ideas for a Christmas-related title, please let me know.) And a book—The Night Woods—to promote. Until next time, happy reading!

Visit Paula Munier's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Paula Munier & Bear.

My Book, The Movie: A Borrowing of Bones.

The Page 69 Test: A Borrowing of Bones.

Writers Read: Paula Munier (October 2019).

My Book, The Movie: Blind Search.

The Page 69 Test: Blind Search.

My Book, The Movie: The Hiding Place.

The Page 69 Test: The Hiding Place.

Q&A with Paula Munier.

My Book, The Movie: The Wedding Plot.

The Page 69 Test: The Wedding Plot.

Writers Read: Paula Munier (July 2022).

Writers Read: Paula Munier (October 2023).

My Book, The Movie: Home at Night.

The Page 69 Test: Home at Night.

My Book, The Movie: The Night Woods.

The Page 69 Test: The Night Woods.

--Marshal Zeringue

Margaret Mizushima

Margaret Mizushima writes the internationally published Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. She serves as past president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and was elected Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. She is the recipient of a Colorado Authors League Award, a Benjamin Franklin Book Award, a CIBA CLUE Award, and two Willa Literary Awards by Women Writing the West. Her books have been finalists for a SPUR Award by Western Writers of America, a Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award, and the Colorado Book Award. She and her husband recently moved from Colorado, where they raised two daughters and a multitude of animals, to a home in the Pacific Northwest.

Mizushima's new Timber Creek K-9 mystery is Gathering Mist.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

I’ve recently begun reading Den of Iniquity by New York Times Bestselling Author J.A. Jance. I try to read everything written by Jance, and this is her latest release. A couple decades ago, I started reading her Joanna Brady series, and those books inspired me to write a mystery of my own about a spunky female K-9 handler serving in a rural jurisdiction in the Colorado high country. Thus, my Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries were born. J.A. Jance has been one of my author idols ever since.

Den of Iniquity is the latest installment in a different Jance series, this one featuring J.P. Beaumont. Like most of her novels, this book focuses on families and their dynamics while delivering a suspenseful puzzle. A retired homicide cop, Beaumont has formed his own private investigation agency. When he’s asked to look into what appears like an accidental death, he uncovers evidence that leads him to believe that something more sinister happened. At the same time, he begins to investigate a case that is much closer to home—one involving his grandson’s stepmother who is driving a wedge between the boy and his dad. These two cases become more and more complicated, and the cover flap description indicates the two will eventually collide.

Every time I read one of her books, Jance hooks me with her twisted plots and engaging characters. I can’t wait to continue reading to see what she has in store for me in this terrific novel!

Visit Margaret Mizushima's website and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Coffee with a Canine: Margaret Mizushima & Hannah, Bertie, Lily and Tess.

Coffee with a Canine: Margaret Mizushima & Hannah.

My Book, The Movie: Burning Ridge.

The Page 69 Test: Burning Ridge.

The Page 69 Test: Tracking Game.

My Book, The Movie: Hanging Falls.

The Page 69 Test: Hanging Falls.

Q&A with Margaret Mizushima.

The Page 69 Test: Striking Range.

The Page 69 Test: Standing Dead.

The Page 69 Test: Gathering Mist.

--Marshal Zeringue

S.E. Redfearn

S. E. Redfearn is the award-winning and Amazon #1 bestselling author of seven novels: Two Good Men, Where Butterflies Wander, Moment in Time, Hadley & Grace, In an Instant, No Ordinary Life, and Hush Little Baby. Her books have been translated into twenty-five different languages and have been recognized by Goodreads Choice Awards, Best Book Awards, RT Reviews, Target Recommends, Publisher’s Marketplace, and Kirkus Reviews. In addition to being an author, Redfearn is also an architect. She currently lives in Laguna Beach California, where she and her husband own two restaurants: Lumberyard and Slice Pizza & Beer.

Recently I asked Redfearn about what she was reading. Her reply:

I’m currently listening to All the Colors of the Dark, by Chris Whitaker, and it is spellbinding. I love psychological suspense, and this one is absolutely brilliant. I’m not sure how it ended up on my radar, but I’m certainly glad it did. It is the most haunting missing person story I’ve ever read.

And I am reading Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. The book won the 2023 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fiction, which is why I chose it. It’s fascinating to read a fictionalized version of what it’s like to be a bestselling author. While some of it rings true, a lot of it is greatly exaggerated and romanticized. But I am definitely getting a kick out of reading a story that hits so close to home.

Visit Suzanne Redfearn's website, Facebook and Instagram pages, and Twitter perch.

Coffee with a Canine: Suzanne Redfearn and Cooper.

My Book, The Movie: Hush Little Baby.

The Page 69 Test: Hush Little Baby.

The Page 69 Test: No Ordinary Life.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (February 2016).

My Book, The Movie: No Ordinary Life.

My Book, The Movie: In an Instant.

The Page 69 Test: In an Instant.

Q&A with Suzanne Redfearn.

My Book, The Movie: Hadley and Grace.

The Page 69 Test: Hadley & Grace.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (March 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Moment in Time.

My Book, The Movie: Moment in Time.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (February 2024).

--Marshal Zeringue

Kate Robards

Kate Robards is the author of two thriller novels. Her debut novel, The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard, was nominated for the 2024 Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award and received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews. Her second novel, Only the Guilty Survive, was released this summer.

She studied journalism and advertising at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Currently, Robards works in communications at a nonprofit organization.

When she isn’t writing her next book, Robrads is spending time with her children, gardening, reading, or tackling a new sewing project. She lives outside Chicago with her family.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

Currently, I’m reading A Flicker in the Dark, the suspenseful debut by Stacy Willingham. It follows Chloe, a psychologist haunted by the crimes her serial killer father committed twenty years ago. It’s well-written and engrossing—the very definition of a page-turner. This is the second book I’ve read by Willingham, and I’m impressed by her character development and pacing.

I like to balance my reading list, alternating between fiction (mostly thrillers and mysteries) and nonfiction. I just finished Tangled Vines: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders by John Glatt. This story proves that truth can certainly be stranger than fiction. Glatt is thorough in his presentation of the events leading up to the crimes. My interest in this case was piqued after seeing a documentary series on Netflix, but I was left wondering why and why now. Glatt answered those questions in his book.

Mysteries always appeal to me, especially when I can see fictional thrillers happening in real life and when I have to suspend belief in true crime accounts. Those are the stories that always make it to the top of my reading list.

Visit Kate Robards's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard.

The Page 69 Test: The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard.

Q&A with Kate Robards.

--Marshal Zeringue

Robert Swartwood

Robert Swartwood is the USA Today bestselling and ITW Thriller Award-winning author of The Killing Room, The Serial Killer’s Wife, No Shelter, Man of Wax, and several other novels. He’s also the author of Girl Gone Mad, One Year Gone, and Dear Seraphina, written under the pseudonym Avery Bishop.

Swartwood's new novel is Enemy of the State.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. His reply

To start, I should note I often read several books at once: usually one digitally, one physically, and one audio-ly.

Sing Her Down by Ivy Pochoda

I've had this one on my Kindle forever. In fact, I think I somehow got a digital ARC. I remember reading the first few pages and immediately deciding to set it aside because the language was so rich that I knew I wanted to come back to it. And I've been reading it on and off for the past year. Not because it's not a good book — it's great in fact — but because it's the kind of book you want to savor. The characters and story are excellent, sure, but it's the language, the visuals, that I don't want to end.

You Like It Darker by Stephen King

I grabbed the hardcover when it came out, just as I do with pretty much all King books. I've been a King fan since middle school but haven't read many of his more recent books for whatever reason. So this collection is the first King I've read in several years, and King's writing style is like a warm blanket: it's so inviting and comforting. Plus, King slipping a short novel into a short story collection like it's no big thing is probably one of the most Stephen King thing ever. You've gotta love that.

Cold In July by Joe R. Lansdale, read by Brian Hutchison

Nobody writes like Joe Lansdale. That's why he's one of a kind. And this book — like all the rest — is a lot of fun.

Visit Robert Swartwood's website.

Q&A with Robert Swartwood.

The Page 69 Test: The Killing Room.

--Marshal Zeringue

James Benn

James R. Benn is the author of the Billy Boyle World War II series, historical mysteries set within the Allied High Command during the Second World War. The series began with Billy Boyle, which takes place in England and Norway in 1942.

Benn newest novel is The Phantom Patrol, the nineteenth installment of the series. Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Benn's reply:

The Bug in the Martini Olive and Other True Cases from the Files of Hal Lipset, Private Eye by Patricia Holt

Hal Lipset worked in the Army's Criminal Investigations Division during WWII and returned home to start his own private investigator business. He became a pioneer in electronic surveillance techniques, and Francis Ford Coppola's movie The Conversation was partly based on Lipset. The book, written by a former operative who worked for Lipset, shows how he used a mix of old and new techniques. Long, arduous days of surveillance and verifying detailed background checks, combined with devising and deploying new electronic surveillance devices. Lipset never took sides, always claiming that guilt or innocence was up to the courts. He was a central player at the dawn of expanding electronic eavesdropping, for better or worse. A fascinating look at the man and the era he helped usher in.

Learn more about the Billy Boyle WWII Mystery Series at James R. Benn's website.

The Page 99 Test: The First Wave.

The Page 69 Test: Evil for Evil.

The Page 69 Test: Rag and Bone.

My Book, The Movie: Death's Door.

The Page 69 Test: The White Ghost.

The Page 69 Test: Blue Madonna.

Writers Read: James R. Benn (September 2016).

Q&A with James R. Benn.

The Page 69 Test: Proud Sorrows.

The Page 69 Test: The Phantom Patrol.

--Marshal Zeringue

D.W. Buffa

D.W. Buffa's newest novel to be released is Evangeline, a courtroom drama about the murder trial of captain who is one of the few to survive the sinking of his ship.

Buffa is also the author of ten legal thrillers involving the defense attorney Joseph Antonelli. He has also published a series that attempts to trace the movement of western thought from ancient Athens, in Helen; the end of the Roman Empire, in Julian's Laughter; the Renaissance, in The Autobiography of Niccolo Machiavelli; and America in the twentieth century, in Neumann's Last Concert.

Here is Buffa's take on the American Constitution:

Alexander Hamilton wanted a monarchy; Benjamin Franklin wanted everyone to pray. Everyone wanted a government that would protect the rights of individuals; no one thought democracy anything but the greatest threat to liberty the country could face. Everyone in the Constitutional Convention that met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 had a different idea of what the new government should look like; everyone agreed that George Washington was the only proper choice to preside over their deliberations. Proving their decision right, he “lamented his want of better qualifications,” and “claimed the indulgence of the House towards the involuntary errors which his inexperience might occasion.”

During the nearly four months the Convention deliberated, Washington spoke only once, but ruled the Convention with a steady hand and an even gaze. The rules themselves were quite clear. When someone rose to speak they addressed Washington directly. While someone was speaking, no one was allowed to talk or read. When it was time to adjourn, everyone was to stand in their place “until the President shall pass him.” One rule was more important than all the others: everyone was sworn to absolute secrecy about the proceedings: “That nothing spoken in the House shall be printed, or otherwise published or communicated without leave.”

By agreeing to keep secret what was said in the Convention, no one had to worry what the public might think about what they said or how they voted. This did not mean that they did not want a permanent record of what they had done. They knew what they were doing and how it might change the world. James Madison determined “to preserve as far as I could an exact account of what might pass in the Convention.” He was not “unaware of the value of such a contribution to the fund of materials for the History of the Constitution on which would be staked the happiness of a people great even in its infancy, and possibly the cause of Liberty throughout the world.”

Six days a week for nearly four months, never absent even a single day and seldom absent for more than a fraction of an hour, Madison wrote down everything that was said, and did it at the same time he was taking a leading part in the very debate he was transcribing. It was, at the end, a perfect record, the most thorough report of its kind ever written. And no one but Madison ever read it, until after he died, nearly half a century later. He had followed faithfully Washington’s rule that nothing that happened in the Convention could be revealed to anyone who had not been there.

More than anything an American has ever put on paper, Madison’s Notes teach that freedom without limits is no freedom at all, and that democracy itself can become freedom’s greatest threat. That was the issue - democracy - the delegates had come to address. On Thursday, May 31, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts said what was on everyone’s mind: “The evil we experience flows from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue, but are the dupes of pretended patriots.”

Whatever the failings of democracy, everyone agreed that the lower house had to be elected directly by the people. The only disagreement was on how much time should pass between elections. There were those who insisted that there should be annual elections because this was the only way to keep representatives attached to the opinions of their constituents. Madison opposed this for reasons that go to the heart of the great, if largely forgotten, change that has taken place: not how much larger, but how much smaller, the country has become. In l787 a man on horseback was the measure of the fastest time anyone could travel from one place in America to another. A trip across country that now takes five hours by plane, took months, if it was possible to make the trip at all. Madison thought members of the House should have a three year term because it would take the better part of a year just to manage everything involved in traveling only once back and forth between the nation’s capitol and its most remote districts.

This extended territory, which seemed to make democracy, in which the citizens meet together to make decisions, impossible, was for Madison the “only defense” against the dangers of democracy. If everything is decided by a majority vote, if the majority decides to take away some, or even all, of a minority’s rights, there is nothing the minority can do. As Madison put it, “in all cases when the majority are united by a common interest or passion, the rights of the minority are in danger.” To make his point as emphatically as he could, Madison uses an example that shows how little understanding the present has of the American attitude toward slavery in the past: “We have seen the mere distinction of color made in the most enlightened period time, a ground of the most oppressive dominance ever exercised by man over man.”

The remedy, the way to prevent the danger, was to make the existence of a majority almost impossible, and make a majority, if one came into being, unaware of its own existence. Democracies had always failed because they had always involved small places in which all the citizens gathered together to make decisions. This could not be done in America, and that was precisely the reason why freedom - the rights of individuals - could for the first time be protected: “enlarge the sphere, and thereby divide the community into so great a number of interests and parties, that in the first place a majority will not be likely at the same moment to have a common interest separate from that of the whole or of the minority; and in the second place, that in case they have such an interest, they may not be apt to unite in pursuit of it.”

This argument, made famous as Federalist #10, a perfect description of 18th century America, describe conditions that no longer exist. We now live in a world in which majorities that form in the morning are known everywhere that same evening. Public opinion polls that tell us what a majority wants and how large that majority has become, are broadcast to every distant corner of the country. The only security against the “majority faction” Madison viewed as the greatest threat to liberty is now government itself, a government divided against itself, each part guard against the misconduct of the others, and yet still able to work together in the best interests of the nation. The central problem was the power of the House of Representatives. It had to be elected by the people and it had to work as a democracy, everything decided by the vote of a majority, but how could it be stopped from doing harm to a minority?

Two plans were offered as the basis of discussion about how a republican government should be constructed. The Randolph Plan, offered by John Randolph of Virginia, called for two branches of a national legislature, the first elected by the people; the second elected by the members of the first branch “out of a proper number of persons nominated by the individual legislatures,” that is to say, the state legislatures. A national executive - the president - would be chosen by the national legislature and would be ineligible for a second term. The judiciary would also be chosen by national legislature and would serve “during good behavior.”

It was the second branch - the senate - that gave all the trouble. The small states, which meant all the states except Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, insisted that each state should have an equal vote. Delaware, and some of the other small state delegations, had been expressly prohibited from changing the equality of votes the states had under the Articles of Confederation. That was the legal argument. The political argument was that without this protection the new, national government, dominated in both the House and Senate by the larger states, would destroy the small states. Charles Pinkney of South Carolina, with a quick, incisive, and at times inventive, mind, suggested giving every state at least one senator and no state more than five. This went nowhere. The small states were adamant: equal vote in the Senate or they would never join the Union.

In an attempt to make a fresh start, Patterson of New Jersey offered a plan of his own. He opposed a national government and reminded the Convention that some of the delegates from the small states would rather submit to a foreign power than come under the domination of the large states. The states were sovereign, and for that reason representatives “must be drawn” from the States, not from the people; “we have no power to vary the idea of equal sovereignty.” John Randolph was appalled, and had an immediate reply: “When the salvation of the Republic is at stake, it would be treason to our trust, not to propose what was necessary.” The issue was clear: “The true question is whether we shall adhere to the federal plan or introduce a national plan.”

Two days later, on Monday, June 18, Alexander Hamilton rose for the first time to address the Convention. His speech destroyed whatever hope those who opposed a national government ever had. Hamilton had not spoken before, “partly from regard to others whose superior abilities and age and experience,” made him “unwilling to bring forward ideas dissimilar to theirs,” and partly because he did not agree with the views of his colleagues from his own state. He was unfriendly to both the Randolph and the Patterson plans, especially the latter. The “amazing violence and turbulence of the democratic spirit” was the cause of “the union dissolving or already dissolved - he sees evil operating on the States which must soon cure the people of their fondness for democracies….” Aware that “it went beyond the ideas of most members,” he offered a sketch of what he thought would be the best government. The House, elected by the people, would have a three year term. The members of the Senate, elected from election districts in the States, would, like the executive and the judiciary, serve for life, “or at least for good behavior.”

No one was for any of this, but now, instead of two, there were three plans, and the Randolph Plan, the plan that proposed a national government, was no longer at the opposite extreme from the Patterson Plan; it was now the moderate position. Hamilton had effected a compromise. Opposition to the idea of a national government all but disappeared. But that did not mean the small states would yield on the question of equal representation in the Senate.

Benjamin Franklin, who at eighty-one was the oldest delegate, had heard enough: “after four or five weeks close attendance and continued reasoning with each other - our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes as ayes, is methinks a melancholy proof of the imperfections of Human Understanding.” Why, he asks, have we not thought of “humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings?” It had been done before. “In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of the danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection - Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.”

Having reminded everyone that it was in the very room in which they were now deliberating that American Independence had been declared and the war for American liberty begun, Franklin warns them that if they fail in their responsibilities the consequences will be nothing short of catastrophic. Divided by “our little partial local interests…we shall become a reproach and a bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.”

Cautioned by Franklin, the Convention began to work in earnest. No one talked anymore about a new confederation of sovereign States. There would be a national government, but a government, as Madison, nearly half a century younger than Franklin, put it, that would not only “protect the people against their rulers,” but against “the transient impressions into which they themselves might be led.” To do this required two main things. The first was “a body in the Government sufficiently respectable for its wisdom and virtue,” a Senate that, as the Convention eventually agreed, would be made up of two senators from each state serving six year terms. The second was a single executive, a President, elected by electors chosen by the state legislatures and in that way made independent of the national legislature.

No one worried who the first President might be; the concern was with what might happen later. When Franklin observed that, “The first man put at the helm will be a good one,” everyone knew he meant George Washington. When Franklin added that, “No body knows what sort may come after,” and that the “Executive will always be increasing here, as elsewhere, till it ends in a Monarchy,” they understood that the threat to liberty is never ending. It was the reason Alexander Hamilton hated democracy: it always led to despotism, the rule of one man supported by a mob.

Day after day, James Madison wrote down every word of the greatest sustained debate ever undertaken over what a constitution for a free people should be, until, at the end, he had written close to a quarter of a million words. No one read what Madison wrote while he was alive; not nearly enough have read it since. Lincoln spoke of the necessity to make the Declaration of Independence America’s Civic Religion; Madison’s Notes on the Constitutional Convention should be American’s Civic Textbook.

Visit D.W. Buffa's website.

Third reading: The Great Gatsby. 

Third reading: Brave New World.

Third reading: Lord Jim.

Third reading: Death in the Afternoon.

Third Reading: Parade's End.

Third Reading: The Idiot.

Third Reading: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Third Reading: The Scarlet Letter.

Third Reading: Justine.

Third Reading: Patriotic Gore.

Third reading: Anna Karenina.

Third reading: The Charterhouse of Parma.

Third Reading: Emile.

Third Reading: War and Peace.

Third Reading: The Sorrows of Young Werther.

Third Reading: Bread and Wine.

Third Reading: “The Crisis of the Mind” and A Man Without Qualities.

Third reading: Eugene Onegin.

Third Reading: The Collected Works of Thomas Babington Macaulay.

Third Reading: The Europeans.

Third Reading: The House of Mirth and The Writing of Fiction.

Third Reading: Doctor Faustus.

Third Reading: the reading list of John F. Kennedy.

Third Reading: Jorge Luis Borges.

Third Reading: History of the Peloponnesian War.

Third Reading: Mansfield Park.

Third Reading: To Each His Own.

Third Reading: A Passage To India.

Third Reading: Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

Third Reading: The Letters of T.E. Lawrence.

Third Reading: All The King’s Men.

Third Reading: The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus.

Third Reading: Naguib Mahfouz’s novels of ancient Egypt.

Third Reading: Main Street.

Third Reading: Theodore H. White's The Making of the President series, part I.

Third Reading: Theodore H. White's The Making of the President series, part II.

Third Reading: Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Third Reading: Fiction's Failure.

Third Reading: Hermann Hesse's Demian.

Third Reading: Frederick Douglass, Slavery, and The Fourth of July.

Third Reading: Caesar’s Ghost.

--Marshal Zeringue

Julie Czerneda

Julie E. Czerneda is a biologist and writer whose science fiction has received international acclaim, awards, and best-selling status. She is the author of the popular "Species Imperative" trilogy, the "Web Shifters" series, the "Trade Pact Universe" trilogy and her new "Stratification" novels. She was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Her stand-alone novel, In the Company of Others, won Canada's Prix Aurora Award and was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award for Distinguished SF.

Czerneda new novel is A Change of Place.

Recently I asked the author about what I was reading. Czerneda's reply:

Karin Lowachee’s The Mountain Crown

I love dragons—and have huge respect for Karin Lowachee’s writing (she’s the author of the magnificent Warchild Mosaic). Imagine my joy to find her writing them in her latest, The Mountain Crown. Impressive, wonderful masses of original and fascinating dragons (called suons) permeate the landscapes of her world and if this wasn’t enough to make me hug this book, there’s more. The main character, Méka, is a member of the Suonkang family, a Ba’suon, with the innate ability to reach into nature—and the minds of suons—to create a partnership. When she’s sent into the land of their magic-blind enemies to coax a king dragon from the wild, little does she realize where her path will lead. It reminded me of my favourite moments in McCaffrey’s Dragonriders. I’m delighted this is only the first in Lowachee’s new Crowns of Ishia series. Trust me, the rest are on my must-have list.

John Wiswell’s Someone You Can Build a Nest In

Trust me, I’m a bit of a stickler when it comes to shapeshifter stories but this one is perfect. For me, the wonderful thing about Wiswell’s monster, Shesheshen, is her sensible vulnerability. She goes from thinking of herself as the apex predator to being apex prey without hesitation, just as she goes from wanting most to hide what she is to desperate to reveal it all for love.

While I adore everything about how she forms and reforms herself from whatever she can find—not to mention her frustration over keeping herself mostly in one piece—it’s Shesheshen’s inner debate, her interpretations of what is it to be human and to be valued that charmed me most.

Wiswell’s story, though unique, begs for comparisons which I almost never do. Here you go: His language flows like Patricia McKillip’s, sparse and powerful and lyrical. The story feels like The Last Unicorn meets Betelguese, until it takes a swing over to “The Princess Bride” and beyond. How’s that? By the end, who’s a monster and who isn’t is left to the reader. I can guarantee you won’t ever forget Shesheshen and Homily, and be warmed inside forever. Hmm. About time I read this again.

Visit Julie E. Czerneda's website.

The Page 69 Test: To Guard Against the Dark.

The Page 69 Test: The Gossamer Mage.

The Page 69 Test: Mirage.

Q&A with Julie E. Czerneda.

The Page 69 Test: To Each This World.

My Book, The Movie: To Each This World.

My Book, The Movie: A Change of Place.

The Page 69 Test: A Change of Place.

--Marshal Zeringue

James Markert

J. H. Markert, the author of The Nightmare Man, Mister Lullaby, and Sleep Tight, is the pen name for writer James Markert, an award-winning novelist of historical fiction. Markert is a produced screenwriter, husband, and father of two from Louisville, Kentucky, where he was also a tennis pro for 25 years, before hanging up the racquets for good in 2020. He graduated with a degree in History from the University of Louisville in 1997 and has been writing ever since. With a total of 10 published novels under his belt, Markert writes historical fiction under his name and horror/thriller under J.H. Markert. He has recently completed his next historical novel, Ransom Burning, a civil rights era family/crime drama that Markert calls “my best book yet!” He recently finished another horror novel called Dig, and is currently hard at work on his next novel, Spider to the Fly.

Recently I asked Markert about what he was reading. His reply:

This prompt caught me in between books, one author I’m quite familiar with and another I’m admittedly getting a late start on. I just finished Stephen King’s newest collection, You Like It Darker (yes I do, thank you very much), and thought it was vintage King, the reason I ever started writing in the first place. But onward now to a novel I’ve been wanting to read since finishing the mind-blowing The Cabin at the End of the World, and that is A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay. I can already tell, twenty pages in, that it just might creep me out, but in the best of ways!

Visit J.H. Markert's website.

Q&A with J. H. Markert.

My Book, The Movie: The Nightmare Man.

The Page 69 Test: The Nightmare Man.

My Book, The Movie: Sleep Tight.

The Page 69 Test: Sleep Tight.

--Marshal Zeringue