EVE OF IDES: A Play Of Caesar And Brutus – Now Available!
Those who know my work will recognize my constant blending of Shakespeare and history. It entertains me to reconcile gaps in history with the characters and plots of Shakespeare's plays. I often use these to explore various quirks of history, as well as the growth of...
Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet – The Juliet Trap
There is a particularly pernicious trap awaiting actresses cast as Juliet. A similar trap awaits Lady Macbeth, though of a different nature, as well as several of the more archetypal male roles. But none of them are as insidious as The Juliet Trap. Here’s how it...
Nellie Bly And The Economites
In Quaint Old Economy Sunday, January 8, 1888 There Dwells a Sect With More Millions Than Members. Of the Thousand Who Followed George Rapp to America in 1805 Eighteen Now Remain—They Think the World Will End Before the Last of Them Dies—Quiet and Simple Life in a...
Recent Posts
Nellie Bly’s Melancholy Christmas
Nellie Bly made several attempts at a regular column across her career. She was much more successful towards the end of her life, but she had a run of several months from the end of 1894 to early 1895 under the heading of "Nellie Bly Says." These seem to be nothing...
Nellie Bly Interviews Dr. Charles Parkhurst
In 1891, Dr. Charles Parkhurst, a clergyman elected president of the New York Society for the Prevention of Crime, launched a campaign against Tammany Hall's political and social corruption. He exposed their connections with the police and their role in shielding...
Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet: The King and the Beggar
In the space between the Capulet Ball and the famous Window Scene, we have a terrific mockery of love performed by an inebriated Mercutio, with a tipsy Benvolio laughing and shushing him. Early on, Mercutio tries to summon Romeo by invoking ‘love’: MERCUTIO Romeo,...
October Updates!
Hello, friends! Here's some October news from Blixt World. Collaborations are a joy. I'm working on two books with two friends of mine, Lisa Yarde and Shawn Pfautsch. The books themselves could not be different - one set in 15th-century Granada and the other in WWII...
Star Wars – Fixing Han’s Death
When I'm not writing, I teach theatre history. I often use Star Wars as an example of story structure, so naturally we discuss the films a little. Recently, a student asked me what changes I would make to Star Wars. It's a question I get a lot. Now, having grown up...
Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet – Sources For The Star-Cross’d Lovers
Tracing the sources of Shakespeare’s plays to their roots is fun, though sometimes vexing. Do you work backwards, or try and trace the evolution from ancient texts to his eventual recreation? Chronologically, the most obvious inspiration for Shakespeare's Romeo &...
How I Discovered The Lost Novels Of Nellie Bly
It was the first day of December, 2019, and like Alice, I was down a rabbit hole. I was working on a short-story follow-up to my 2018 novel What Girls Are Good For, recounting the early career of Nellie Bly, the pioneering American journalist known for her fearless...
The Bear: Dinner And Threats Of Violence
After seeing a terrific one-woman show on Friday night (Charlotte Booker's original show about Elsie Lanchester), Jan and I came home and she showed me THAT episode of The Bear. (We watched season one this summer, and I've been slowly catching up since we got home)....
Shakespeare’s Macbeth – Reimagining “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow…”
Shakespeare's Macbeth explores the darkest recesses of the human psyche, delving into themes of ambition, power, guilt, and the consequences of one's actions. Macbeth’s arc culminates in the "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" soliloquy in Act 5, Scene 5, a poignant...
Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet: Comedy Subverted, Tragedy Reinvented
“For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” William Shakespeare’s The Tragedie Of Romeo And Juliet reinvented theatrical Tragedy by taking standard Comedic elements and subverting them, with unhappy outcomes. This makes Romeo & Juliet...