Russia | Working Truth

The Executioner’s Son, Suzdal, NE Russia, early 1950s

by Robert | Nov 20, 2013 | Russia, Soviet Union

On a spring day in 1953 on Illian Meadow across the Kamenka River and beneath the walls of the Suzdahl Kremlin, Danton Larionov, son of the NKVD executioner and a bully, spies the stranger, fourteen-year-old Ekaterina Soroka, daughter of the dancer and a storyteller....

Leaving Madison

by Robert | Oct 28, 2013 | Publishing, Russia

We are leaving Madison. Tonight we board Turkish Airlines flight 6 for Istanbul, Turkey, thence to Venice for a few days and onto Rovinj, Croatia. I’ve finished the final edit on my next novel (which Patrice will read on the plane), formatted Serge Kotlar and...

Leaving Boulder

by Robert | Oct 10, 2013 | Publishing, Russia

Tomorrow, the Rocky Mountains eastern slope and the Boulder, Colorado, Flatirons, disappears. I am glancing over my task list, which in the nature of task lists, is endless; however, there are strike-thru’s up there at the top. Patrice has been teaching; I...

Ледоход (Spirit Falls in Russian)

by Robert | Jul 16, 2013 | Deception, Russia, Soviet Union

Spirit Falls – Ледоход My long time, Merrill, Wisconsin, friend Serge Kotlar has been translating my Cold War inter-connected series of novels into Russian. The first volume, Spirit Falls (Ледоход in Russian) is now available in print and electronic...

Что Делать? What is to be done?

by Robert | May 9, 2013 | Deception, Publishing, Russia, Soviet Union

Nickolai Chernyshevski and Vladimir Lenin wrote essays fretting over What is to be done? As do I; fret, that is. Their ambition was to remake Russia; mine is somewhat less, merely to tell you what my plans are, or specifically, what I will publish over the next two...

Publisher and Writer – Landowner and Serf

by Robert | Jun 12, 2012 | Publishing, Russia, Soviet Union

I’ve spent a great deal of time composing this blog because I am writing a scene, time frame 1961, in which two young men, Rick Belisle and Andrei Byelenko, minor league baseball hopefuls and sons of Slavic immigrants, are discussing in context of their...