Author: Edward McSweegan

Travel, Writing

On the Eastern Shore

Edward McSweegan

Last weekend, I attended the Eastern Shore Writers Association annual conference at Chesapeake College on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It was a good one-day event. While I was there, I drove down to the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and saw my first bald eagle. Actually, I saw two, so it was definitely worth the drive down to the flooded, swampy lowlands of Eastern Shore. Lowlands may be an understatement. I’d forgotten how flat and rural a lot of this huge peninsula (ignoring the C&D Canal, which makes it an island) is. Heading north toward Delaware, I drove 40 miles without seeing a store or gas station. Just farms and fields and stands of young trees. Nice.

Books

Kirkus Reviews

Edward McSweegan

“McSweegan seamlessly weaves together traditional frontier story elements with the sociological battles of the emerging Suffragette and women’s equality movements, then adds a hearty portion of astronomy. Descriptions of the solar eclipse, with daylight vanishing behind a blackened moon surrounded by a pulsing corona, are riveting (“it appeared like a giant black mouth about to devour us”). Desperados, gunfights, a quartet of marauding Indigenous people, dusty trails, and drenching storms are juxtaposed against Eastern refinement and comforts. Nolan, the soulful, newly-minted cowboy from Chicago, is a winning hero. During the long, treacherous journey to Denver, he discovers that young astronomer Cora Harrison is as indomitable as he.”

“An enjoyable western with contemporary sensitivities.”

Misc.

And an Oyster

Edward McSweegan

A friend recently reminded me of this quote by Anthony Bourdain: Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyway. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride.

Good advice. So I acted on some of it the other night. I ate in a local restaurant. I did not have the cream sauce; I had the whole red fish. I had a negroni. I wanted a second, but I was driving. I took my time eating. I tipped the server and the valet. Everything else Bourdain mentioned I have done at one time or another. I checked in on Jorge this afternoon. And I have eaten an oyster…without contracting a vibrio infection.

Books

Fiction Thieves

Edward McSweegan

Over the last year or so, I’ve worked my way through a number of fiction stories about authors/writers who steal someone’s book idea or use someone’s life as the basis for their own fiction. It never ends well for the writer-thief. How often does this happen in real life?