Edward McSweegan

A Blog of few Words

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  • Writer’s and their Friends
    I read, The Plot, about a once successful novelist in need of another good story, which he finds in the dead hands of one of his MFA students. I read The Mystery Writer, about a young woman who falls into a murderous, hidden literary world while trying to finish her novel and uncover the reason behind her mentor’s murder. I read Three-Martini Lunch about the literary world of 1958 NYC and what three very… Read more: Writer’s and their Friends
  • “The High Mountains of Portugal”
    Back from another trip to Portugal—one day before a general strike shut down most of the air and ground transportation in the country. We wandered through some of the northern towns this time, including Porto, Vila do Conde, Régua and Pinhão along the Douro River, Vila Nova de Foz Côa, mountainous Monsanto, and a quick visit to Portugal’s surfing capital at Nazaré.
  • Books in Boston
    In town for the annual Boston Book Festival in Copley Square. Lots of tents and tables between Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library (BPL).
  • A Necessary Idea
    A friend of mine had an interesting idea about what to do for the White House after Trump the Squatter is finally evicted: Reconsecration. Normally, reconsecration means to make a church “holy again after it has been desecrated or otherwise rendered unfit for worship. The act of reconsecration typically involves prayers, rituals, and symbolic actions to purify and dedicate the church for its intended purpose again.” The White House will… Read more: A Necessary Idea
  • National Day on Writing
  • Passing Through Old Lyme Again
    Looking at the Lieutenant River from behind the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme. Wondering why a line of mushroom anchors is sitting on the high tide line at OLS.
  • Call me slow in getting here.
    I started my own little literary tour of New England authors at the end of 2022. My last visit and blog entry about this tour was in July 2023. Finally, yesterday, I was able to add a new site to the tour. This one: Arrowhead. Herman Melville’s home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts where he penned Moby Dick and never imagined someone would sell t-shirts printed with the words, “Call me Ishmael.” Three more… Read more: Call me slow in getting here.
  • In the Library
    One’s missing. I guess The Fever Hut was checked out.
  • A nice day pedaling around R.I.
  • Scamming the Literary World
    Really? Scamming starving writers in their drafty garrets? How much could a scammer possibly make? Apparently, enough to warrant the effort as suggested by some recent headlines and warnings: This last item happened to me earlier this year. Someone pretending to be a well-known writer contacted me through Facebook. I could not imagine why he/she would be writing to me so, after several FB messages, and a look at… Read more: Scamming the Literary World
  • One More Platform
    Back in February, I wrote a little blog post wondering how many websites/platforms an author needed today. The answer was, “Apparently, a lot.” So many that I forgot one. BookBub.  Here it is. So now I have… eleven sites?
  • Reading
    Catching up on my Iceland Writers Retreat reading. Rick Jervis, USA Today reporter. Eliza Reid, former First Lady of Iceland.
  • End of an Era
    I’ve got four nice National Geographic map cases full of city maps, foreign country maps, and those wonderful National Geo maps that used to come with periodic issues of the magazine. But no one looks at paper maps or nautical charts anymore. Everything is online or on someone’s phone, and GPS satellites are ready to guide the dimmest of travelers from one spot to another.  So, I’m giving up most of my map… Read more: End of an Era
  • Northern Europe
    Just back from Iceland, and a quick tour of northern Europe, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and a quick train trip into Sweden. Now if I can just get back to writing.
  • Iceland
    Just back from the Iceland Writers Retreat in Reykjavik. Great to be back in Iceland. Great to have met so many interesting people and fellow writers.
  • How to interpret your books’ Amazon ranking
    “If your book has an Amazon rank of 1,347,566, should you feel happy or sad? Most authors I know would feel disheartened that more than 1 million other titles are selling better than theirs. I suggest reconsidering that sadness. A sales rank of 1.34 million is light years from the bestseller list, but it’s also in the top 10 percent of book sales. Amazon currently offers around 15 million… Read more: How to interpret your books’ Amazon ranking
  • Measles
    Forbes: The Measles Outbreak Keeps Spreading. Yeah, that’s what it does until everyone is infected, dead, or vaccinated. This is one of the viruses responsible for wiping out close to 95% of the coastal Amerindians before the Europeans even had a toehold on the continent. (See: Measles) Now RFK, Jr—himself a picture of health and vitality—has decided to plunge the US into a grand experiment in which everyone will have to… Read more: Measles
  • Messing with More Mockups
  • The Books RFK Jr didn’t get to
    In his foreword to “The Measles Book,” a Children’s Health Defense publication from 2021, Kennedy writes, “Measles outbreaks have been fabricated to create fear that in turn forces government officials to ‘do something.’ They then inflict unnecessary and risky vaccines on millions of children for the sole purpose of fattening industry profits.” The New Yorker How much money does the Big Pharma make giving measles vaccine to kids just… Read more: The Books RFK Jr didn’t get to
  • Behind Another Flag
    I have a little collection of desktop flags for all of the countries I’ve visited. I just order a Ukrainian flag. Not because I’ve been there or because I’m going anytime soon, but rather to show a little solidarity. I also dug out an old Canadian flag lapel pin to wear when I’m in Iceland and Europe later this spring. I don’t want the locals to automatically assume I’m… Read more: Behind Another Flag
  • Who’s Online?
    The Internet is a huge, complex digital garbage dump full of nonsense and noninformation. It seems specifically designed as a fantasyland for children, criminals, and crazy people. Case in point, recently, someone went to the trouble of creating a fraudulent Facebook page using the name and images of a well-known fiction writer, and then proceeded to contact other FB users pretending to be this writer.  I’m not sure what… Read more: Who’s Online?
  • Visions of the Future (from 1900)
    Jean-Marc Côté. The Hunt for Germs. From the series, France En L’an 2000. Public domain image. See the collection of visionary postcards at: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/a-19th-century-vision-of-the-year-2000/
  • Messing with Mockups
    Experimenting with Book Brush mockups. I always wondered how this was done.
  • Politically Correct Maps
    No matter whose politics. “Google Maps blocks Gulf of America reviews after rename criticism.” So, Google changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico. It’s not the first time they made a geographical name change to accommodates someone’s politics. On Google Maps, the country of Tibet is just a borderless ghost of an empty space. The Chinese Communist Party wants it that way: on Google’s maps and in reality.… Read more: Politically Correct Maps
  • Hiding WHO in PAHO?
    trump (small man, small ‘t’) pulled us out of WHO recently. When’s he going to pull us out of PAHO. After all, PAHO is doing all the things this small man hates, including: Maybe no one told him what PAHO is or that its HQ is only 3600 feet from the White House. Maybe he’ll demand they drop the “P” in PAHO. Who knows.
  • Death of a Program?
    “The AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships place Fellows in Congressional offices and executive branch agencies to provide the opportunity to increase the involvement and visibility of accomplished scientists and engineers in the public policy realm. At the Department of State and USAID, Fellows infuse scientific and technical expertise into myriad aspects of diplomacy and international development, from policy development and program planning, to implementation and evaluation.” I was an AAAS… Read more: Death of a Program?
  • Can You Hide an Epidemic?
    My copy of CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) arrived in my email this morning. I’ve been reading it off and on since grad school in the very early 1980’s when it used to arrive in the mail as a small, thin, stapled publication you could fold up and stick in a shirt pocket. For some reason, I thought today’s issue was a little light in content. And then I… Read more: Can You Hide an Epidemic?
  • After the Fact
    I probably should have read this book before starting my own story about a former Army intelligence officer turned private investigator who suffers from PTSD and agoraphobia. Fortunately, there’s nothing in Susannah Mintz’s index about either condition. And there’s only one reference to PTSD in the excellent list of fictional detectives and their disabilities at librarybooklists.com. So, I guess I’m on safe ground. Good thing because I’m already 60,000 words… Read more: After the Fact
  • MANAGE YOUR SOCIAL PROFILE
    How many websites does a writer/author need? Apparently, a lot. All for the sake of “marketing.” I have 10 websites. I could easily double that number. But then I think I’d spend all my time online updating each site, trying to attract visitors, and hoping they turn into readers and buyers. It seems like a huge amount of time and effort. I could spend that time writing and editing.… Read more: MANAGE YOUR SOCIAL PROFILE
  • Public Trust in Health Agencies Declines
    That’s not a surprising headline, but some new polling data provides insights into that decline, which is largely along political party lines. Democrats tend to side with experts. Republicans and the MAGA crowd—when confronted with facts that conflict with their beliefs or political needs—ignore reality in favor of those beliefs and needs. That’s why political affiliation was a risk factor for increased morbidity and mortality during the height of the Covid… Read more: Public Trust in Health Agencies Declines
  • Republished
    My third historical novel, The Fever Hut, was released by Fireship Press in February 2024. In June, the publisher, Mary Monahan, died and FP made plans to close as there was no one to take over the Press. By August 2024, my book was no longer available for readers to buy—mine and many other authors whose books made up the catalog of FP. It had been on the market only six months.… Read more: Republished
  • It’s Already Happening
    From the NYT: “Mr. Kennedy reveals one possible source of his anti-vaccine fervor. He casts doubt on the germ theory — the idea that specific germs cause specific diseases and that the prevention or treatment of those germs can be lifesaving (which is unequivocally true). He writes: “The ubiquity of pasteurization and vaccination are only two of the many indicators of the domineering ascendancy of germ theory as the… Read more: It’s Already Happening
  • Arranging Books
    A while ago, I started looking for a small desktop book stand or rack for some of my “paperbacks.” I had two such racks back in high school that held about 18 or so paperbacks each. They sat on my desk at home, the books angled at 45 degrees, and each rack could break down into four individual wooden pieces for easy moving and reassembly.  But then, looking at… Read more: Arranging Books
  • Writing in Iceland
    So, it’s back to Iceland in April for a writer’s retreat. I’m guessing it will be warmer in April than it was in December, but I’ll miss the Yule Cat in downtown Reykjavik. I left in a hurry last time—just as the Covid Omicron variant was emerging and people were being quarantined in a hotel in Reykjavik. Anyway, it will be nice to be back—sans the fermented Greenland shark dish—and maybe there… Read more: Writing in Iceland
  • Perplexity the A.I.
    According to Google, Perplexity AI is an “AI-powered search engine that uses natural language to provide answers to user queries.” (Yes, I asked a search engine about an AI. That’s the world we live in now.) I became aware of Perplexity when someone on the Authors Guild forum mentioned inputting his name into Perplexity and getting back a fairly accurate biography of himself. So, everyone on the Guild forum… Read more: Perplexity the A.I.
  • Jólabókaflóð
    It’s the Christmas “flood of books” in Iceland. The Icelandair website has a brief history of this very pleasant tradition of reading and book-giving. It certainly beats the usual stories and traditions of mayhem and terror during the Icelandic Christmas season. Like the Yule Cat, for example, which devours children who did not get new clothes among their presents. There’s usually a large Yule Cat set up in downtown Reykjavik as… Read more: Jólabókaflóð
  • HNS Blog Posts
    Lots of interesting posts by historical novelists, including this one:
  • 1970s Authors
    During the Bluesky #bookchallenge, I started thinking about the books my friends and I read back in the 1970s—all those writers of thriller/spy and historical fiction who have since been replaced by another generation of writers. They came to mind after I found old copies of Alistair MacLean’s “South By Java Head,” and Mary Stewart’s “The Hollow Hills.” (Both of which I re-read this year.) Here’s my list of… Read more: 1970s Authors
  • Promoting Anthologies
    This week, the Authors Guild forum had some discussion about promoting published anthologies to which you are a contributor. That seems like a good idea: advertising the book, the contributors, and the publisher. So, in that spirit, I’d like to promote the Maryland Writer’s Association’s 2023 anthology of short stories entitled, Caption This!.  Included are stories by Kathleen Fine, Claudine Marcin, Edward McSweegan, Jennifer Myers, Michael Norton, David Sloan, F. J. Talley, John White,… Read more: Promoting Anthologies
  • Scholastic Book Services
    I’ve been enjoying the 20 book covers event (#BookChallenge) on Bluesky. It got me looking through some of my old books. In the process, I came across what I remember to be the first book I ever bought for myself. It’s called The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key. Published in 1965—I think I was in 4th grade then—it’s the story of an alien boy who falls through a long-lost technological door on… Read more: Scholastic Book Services
  • Talking about…
    “In “A Tunnel of Uncertainty,” Dr. Osterholm and Chris Dall discuss several of Trump’s recent HHS nominations, the latest respiratory virus data, and two recent studies on long COVID. Dr. Osterholm also provides an update on the unfolding H5N1 situation and shares another “This Week in Public Health History” segment.” This is probably worth listening to, but I haven’t. When I was in Washington, talk was the coin of… Read more: Talking about…
  • The Least Visited Park in Old Lyme
    If you follow the Old Bridge Road in Old Lyme—and somehow, I managed not to do this for about 50 years—you’ll be compelled to stop at the site of the first car and trolley bridge connecting Old Saybrook and Old Lyme. Just south of that site is the location of the 1948 Baldwin Bridge. And south of that is the current bridge carrying Rt. 95. Someday there will be… Read more: The Least Visited Park in Old Lyme
  • Can he have two Waterloos?
    “California reports H5N1 [avian influenza] in more retail raw milk as virus infects 2 more dairy workers.” Read more here. Trump ignored Covid and it cost him. And 1M Americans. Since there is no learning among such people it’s likely he’ll ignore the percolating emergence of avian influenza in the U.S. too. Will a vaccine be available? See: “HHS advances plan to produce 4.8 million H5N1 vaccine doses.”
  • A Bird Flu Vaccine Might Come Too Late to Save Us from H5N1.
    This headline from Scientific American reminds me of the motto behind Seinfeld. There will be “no hugging, no learning.” There’s little hugging in the U.S. to begin with; there’s even less learning. One need only look to the most recent example of November 5. But now H5N1 influenza virus continues to percolate in several states, waiting for a chance to make the species jump to humans and start an epidemic. Which—given our international mobility… Read more: A Bird Flu Vaccine Might Come Too Late to Save Us from H5N1.
  • HPV vaccines linked to drop in cervical cancer deaths
    “We observed a substantial reduction in mortality—a 62% drop in cervical cancer deaths over the last decade, likely due to HPV vaccination.” Well, RFK, JR. with his spasmodic-dysphonia, brain parasite infection, and non-scientific, non-medical theories will get those cancer death rates back up where they belong.
  • DIY Publishing
    From Publishers Weekly: “Self-Publishing’s Output and Influence Continue to Grow.” Like a weed. Two-point-six million self-published books appeared in 2022. On the other hand, traditionally published books fell to 563,019. Read more about it here.
  • Kirkus
    So, the November 1 issue of Kirkus Reviews is out with a mention of Shadow of the Moon. It’s listed with “indie” books recommended by “indie” editors. My novel was published by Wild Rose Press, a small, independent publishing house. I always thought of “indie” as meaning “self-published,” but maybe my definition is different from that of Kirkus. Anyway, I hope a few librarians and booksellers see it.
  • Infinite Monkey Theorem
    So, some mathematicians proved a monkey, with infinite time on its cute little paws, could not randomly reproduce the works of Shakespeare. But could a monkey, given infinite time and a patient editor, produce a decent work of fiction?
  • New Review
    Finally, the Historical Novel Society has published a review of my historical novel, The Cottage Industry. Here’s the review. All three reviews of my novel by the HNS are posted here. 
  • Starry, Starry Night
    I went looking for this rapidly vanishing comet (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) the other night. No luck. Tonight is probably the last chance to see it before it heads back into very deep space. Judging from this recent image from Stellarium, it’s going to be tough to see. And I can’t wait another 80,000 years for its return so, Sunday night is one last search with my binoculars and night-sky phone app.
  • On Salt Pond
    A beautiful fall day for sailing out of the URI boathouse into Salt Pond. However, I also remember a chilly November day long ago when we “crashed and burned,” turtling the 470 and winding up in the water for about an hour or so. Did I mention November?
  • Northern Lights in Southern N.E.
    Every night in Iceland back in 2021, I stepped outside to check for the aurora borealis. No luck. Nothing but clouds or snow or maybe too little solar activity. But last night, on Narragansett Beach in RI, the aurora finally showed itself. The “space weather” forecast had reported a large mass of ejecta from the sun a couple of days ago. It finally arrived in the form of a… Read more: Northern Lights in Southern N.E.
  • I wrote this, not the robot
    Exclusive: Authors Guild to offer “Human Authored” label on books to compete with AI. See the full article here.
  • Infectious News
    For those of you wondering about the next epidemic or what might be lurking in your neighborhood, I’d like to recommend the daily newsletter from CIDRAP—the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. All the news that’s fit to make you nervous. Everything from dengue in San Diego and Marburg in Rwanda to babesia in your backyard and mPox vaccine trials in the DRC. Then there’s news on home… Read more: Infectious News
  • Reading Dublin
    From the NYT: The city’s Nobel laureates alone include the poet Seamus Heaney, the novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett (“Waiting for Godot”), the poet William Butler Yeats and the playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw (“Pygmalion”). Among those who grew up here are Oscar Wilde (“The Picture of Dorian Gray”), Jonathan Swift (“Gulliver’s Travels”) and Bram Stoker (“Dracula”). James Joyce (“Ulysses”) is in a category of his own. And then… Read more: Reading Dublin
  • Around the World
    Having recently been aboard the Sevilla-based replica of Magellan’s flagship, the Nao Trinidad, I thought I’d reread Laurence Bergreen’s excellent history of the 1519-1522 circumnavigation of the globe. It was not a fun cruise. The Trinidad was one of five ships that left Spain for the Spice Islands 500 years ago. Only the Victoria, and its skeleton crew, made it back. The replica ship is headed back to Florida for the winter. 
  • The Anatomy of Deception
    The Anatomy of Deception Conspiracy Theories, Distrust, and Public Health in America by Sara E. Gorman Provides new interventions for counteracting mistrust and misinformation in medicine Reveals the unexpected connection between medical mistrust and the move toward far right ideology in the United States Argues that investments in health equity are key to healing the schisms of modern American democracy
  • Jolabokaflod
    I saw this online somewhere. This is an Icelandic tradition I can get behind. And it’s probably one of the few not meant to terrorize the kids. Unlike the Yule Cat and the Yule Lads, and various trolls and giants. (Confession: I did like the giant Yule Cat set up in downtown Reykjavik.) A less traumatizing tradition also might be found in April at the Iceland Writers Retreat.
  • Pharmacists and Authors
    I spent the night in Old Saybrook in the James Pharmacy, which, once upon a time, was a pharmacy, but is today a French bakery and B&B. A century ago, it was owned and run by “Miss James,” the first African-American woman to be licensed as a pharmacist in Connecticut. (I stayed in the Miss James Room.) Her brother ran the pharmacy on Lyme Street in Old Lyme, and both… Read more: Pharmacists and Authors
  • Your Friends the Bacteria
    Celebrated annually on 17 September, International Microorganism Day is aimed at raising awareness of the importance of microorganisms within our daily lives. Dutch scientist, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, made the discovery of microorganisms on 17 September 1674 – being the first to observe and describe microorganisms using a microscope. The day now provides a platform for microbe enthusiasts to commemorate the discovery of microorganisms. (Yes, I’m still a bacteriologist at heart.)
  • Midwest Book Review
    The Midwest Book Review published a short synopsis and review of my historical novel, The  Cottage Industry. “Established in 1976, the Midwest Book Review is an organization committed to promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. The MBR publishes…monthly book review magazines specifically designed for community and academic librarians, booksellers, and the general reading public.”
  • Nao Trinidad
    Back onboard the Nao Trinidad in New Bedford Harbor. Looks like a nice place to write… if you’re the captain, but a terrible way to cross the Pacific or the Strait of Magellan or the Atlantic. In fact, any body of water larger than this harbor. The ship’s next port visit is in New Castle, Delaware, followed by wintering in St. Augustine, Fl. 
  • Kirkus Note
    I didn’t notice this about my debut novel (Shadow of the Moon) on the Kirkus Reviews site until yesterday. Nice.
  • On Campus
    Seventeen thousand students returned to campus this week–so no more mindlessly riding my bike around campus–and the Bay Campus held their annual Science Saturday today.
  • Historical Fiction
  • A Caravel
    Excited to see the Nao Trinidad is returning to New Bedford. It was the flagship of Ferdinand Magellan’s 1519–22 voyage of circumnavigation. Hope to be onboard again in a week or two. Here’s a link to some photos from the 2023 visit to New Bedford’s Pope Island Marina.
  • Bending but not Breaking History
    My essay for the Historical Novel Society-North America has finally appeared on their website at the HNS Conference site.
  • I Spy…a Billing Problem
    Currently, I’m writing something about the use of online databases to search for people. There seem to be quite a few of these services—Truthfinder, Spokeo, Beenverified , and Peoplefinders, for example—vacuuming up the digital noise of the Internet, bundling it, and then selling it as packages of factual, current data about a given person.  Currently, I’m writing something about the use of online databases to search for people. There… Read more: I Spy…a Billing Problem
  • Currently Unavailable
    I don’t know either!
  • Fun Facts
    From the Authors Guild’s spring-summer 2024 issue:“The first literary agent was A. P. Watt (1834–1914), an Edinburgh bookseller who moved to London and worked for a publisher until the house failed. [That sounds familiar.] In 1875, a friend asked him to market his stories. Watt did this as a favor, but sensed opportunity. He soon charged 10 percent of the gross to represent Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, and Arthur… Read more: Fun Facts
  • News from the Spring-Summer 2024 issue of The Authors Guild Bulletin:
    “Small Press Distribution (SPD), a crucial distributor for independent publishers and authors, has abruptly closed after 55 years, leaving small presses and writers facing uncertainty. Publishers must retrieve their inventory from SPD’s partners and seek alternative distribution channels. The closure poses financial challenges for small presses…”
  • Death Comes to the Publisher
     Small publishers are wonderful components of the national publishing ecosystem. They publish a lot of debut novels and keep many an emerging writer listed as “published author.” The only problem with small presses is if something happens to the owner or the publisher, the business may fail and close. If someone dies at one of the Big Five Publishers, no one cares.  Small publishers are wonderful components of the… Read more: Death Comes to the Publisher
  • California Writing
    I’m writing a new story that takes place in the Los Feliz neighborhood of LA, below Griffith Park and the Observatory, and around Venice Beach and the canals. Rather than rely on my fuzzy memory and imagination, I flew out to LA last week to do a little ground-truthing. Yeah, it was also an excuse to take a little vacation and see a few things around LA I had… Read more: California Writing
  • Scenes from a Book Party
    June 2024, Edgewater, Maryland
  • URI Magazine
  • Local Bookstores
    Check out the Bookshop website and support local bookstores. “Bookshop.org works to connect readers with independent booksellers all over the world. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. Our platform gives independent bookstores tools to compete online and financial support to help them maintain their presence in local communities.”
  • Latest Releases
    From Wild Rose Press
  • Yes, Let’s Celebrate
  • Historical Fiction
    From the Historical Novel Society North America (HNSNA): A guest post on “Using ChatGPT to Write Historical Novels.”
  • Reviews
    Happy to be on Fran’s list of reviewed books at Goodreads. With 702 reviews, she’s a reader/reviewer extraordinaire.
  • Writing and Sucking
    “Why Choose to Write Historical Fiction?” A nice article on the writing of historical fiction online here. Also, I recently participated in a webinar run by Jane Friedman and Allison Williams entitled, Getting Past the Gatekeepers: Learn to troubleshoot your novel’s first pages and query letter—and increase your chances of getting out of the slush pile. Very interesting and worth attending. I learned the opening of a story should SUCK—as in… Read more: Writing and Sucking
  • To the Editor, II
    Another letter in the digital pages of the Connecticut Examiner: “Small Histories and Small Towns.”
  • Shadow of the Moon
    A Review from Last Summer. See the Goodreads review and reader comments here.
  • The Path of Totality
    The eclipse came and went last week. I drove north, to Vermont, to be in the path of totality—a technical phrase (and location) that quickly caught on with the public and the press. It was the original title of my debut novel about the 1878 total solar eclipse. But my editor thought it was too obscure and technical a title for the reading public, so I changed it. Before… Read more: The Path of Totality
  • More Praise for The Fever Hut
    From the Fireship Press website: “The Fever Hut is a unique look at the American invasion of Cuba in 1898 (Remember the Maine!) through the eyes of doctors searching frantically for the source of Yellow Fever. Doctor Duncan Cleary does pioneering lab analyses and self-inoculates with the disease to record its effects. He also deals with military bureaucracy and instituted racism, threats from German officials, and manages to fall in love… Read more: More Praise for The Fever Hut
  • Newsletter News
    From the Eastern Shore Writers Association:
  • TB or not TB
    Tuberculosis (TB) is generally curable. “And it’s the world’s deadliest infectious disease. In 2022, TB killed 1.3 million people, according to the World Health Organization — more than covid-19 or malaria or HIV. Each week, 25,000 people die of TB, a bacterial infection that primarily attacks the lungs. Of the 10 million people who will become sick with tuberculosis this year, between 3 million and 4 million will go… Read more: TB or not TB
  • Pre-Order
    The Cottage Industry is available for pre-order at Amazon.
  • New Release Notice
    From Fireship Press.
  • Bring Out Your Dead
    It seems like every neighborhood in RI has at least one long-forgotten graveyard. There must be at least a dozen within a two-mile radius of my house. Some are overgrown with brush and trees just beyond the stonewalls that run through every backyard and neighborhood. Others are in danger of spilling onto the roads of South Kingstown. So why all the backyard cemeteries? According to the Rhode Island Historical… Read more: Bring Out Your Dead
  • On the River
    When we were young and had ready access to powerboats, my friends and I would sometimes travel up the Connecticut River to explore or stop at the Gris for drinks and dinner. I recently heard the river was once again home to bald eagles—I’d just seen two eagles in the Blackwater on Maryland’s Easter Shore—and wanted to see more. So, we took a river cruise out of the museum’s… Read more: On the River
  • To the Editor
    A letter in the Connecticut Examiner: “Fifty Years Have Passed, and Little Has Changed for Connecticut’s Beaches”
  • On the Eastern Shore
    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.… Read more: On the Eastern Shore
  • Read All About It!
    Finally, some forty years later, I make the student newspaper at the University of Rhode Island where I got my PhD.
  • Release Day
    February 21, 2024. The Fever Hut is out.
  • To Be Released
    Historical Novel Society Notice: Forthcoming historical novels for 2024 (Feb). “Edward McSweegan, The Fever Hut, Fireship Press (two men race against antiquated ideas, foreign competitors, and each other to find a cure for yellow fever and claim a place in history).”
  • Banned Books
    MORE THAN 1,600 BOOKS BANNED IN ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FLORIDA. I guess they’re trying to beat the old Soviet Union’s record for banned books. Go Gators! Read the article and see the list of banned books on the PEN America website. Read…while you still can.
  • A Second Book
    Pre-release copies. The actual release date is February 21, 2024.
  • Kirkus Reviews
    “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… Read more: Kirkus Reviews
  • And an Oyster
    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… Read more: And an Oyster