On the website thecheckplease (which I am reliably informed is based “as of now” in Illinois, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Maryland, New York, and California), the satirist E.F. Watley has written a very complimentary piece about me and The Coup, which he calls my “most ambitious effort to date, a more sophisticated and viciously imagined world …
Praise is always welcome, but that’s especially true when it comes from someone who really knows what he is talking about. That’s why I’m especially pleased to have received admiring acknowledgments from Ben Cheever, himself a writer of critically acclaimed fiction and non-fiction (his latest book, Strides: Running Through History With An Unlikely Athlete, was …
On a clammy, sweet Central Park Saturday evening, the New York Shakespeare Festival celebrated the 40th anniversary of he musical Hair with the first of a three performance revival. Many in the crowd that was well-mixed between genuine youths and paunchier, grayer veterans youths who were in their salad days when Hair was in its …
There are a lot of unexpected pleasures that come from publishing a book, chief among them the realization that you’re reaching people far far away. One such person is Philip Cu-Unjieng, the book (and apparently hair-styling) critic of the Philippine Star, out of Manila. After describing the excellent cut he received from RJ Decena at …
Sure, I’m a macho guy who watches the NFL and FX-TV, but like everybody, once in a while I need a god cry. Whenever I do, I head straight for Lifetime TV, or to its website LifetimeTV.com. There, to my surprise and delight, my former colleague at Playboy Patti Lamberti has written a wonderful review …
I don’t think anything I’ve ever written has been compared to a pale ale before, but it turns out not to be unpleasant. Claire Ernsberger wrote this review in the Sullivan County [NY] Democrat : THE COUP by Jamie Malanowski (Doubleday). This is excellent timing–a comic political thriller. The vice president thinks he ought to …
Many thanks to Don Wilde for having me on his television program What’s Happening in Briarcliff. We spent a fast-moving half hour talking about The Coup, what’s it like to work at Playboy, the differences between writing for magazines and television, and other subjects. The best part of the experience was getting to know Don …
That’s a quote from my friend and colleague Chip Rowe, writing on the Playboy blog in praise of The Coup. It’s quite gratifying to have this compliment from this source, since Chip, who writes the Playboy Advisor column, has read more than a few breast descriptions in his day, and has some authority in this …
Folks in Buffalo certainly know a thing or two about taking shots at political figures; after all, Buffalo was where William McKinley got shot in 1901. Thus it was particularly gratifying to read Gene Warner‘s review in The Buffalo News on Sunday: “If you revere all things Washington, including the “public servants” of our universe, …
“An outrageous piece of work that should cause a slew of inappropriate public laughter,” enthused William Georgiades in Sunday’s New York Post. “Perfect nonsense sprinkled with bitter truths, much like Spy used to be back in those funny, funny years.” Thanks, Will. It’s hard to think of a compliment that pleases me more than one …