My Ethan Gage novels take place during the Napoleonic Wars. Did combat of that time produce Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? And was it bad enough that it could it be blamed for killings like the deaths of 16 civilians in Afghanistan allegedly committed by Army Sgt. Robert Bales?

In large...

People learn through stories. Jesus told parables. Abraham Lincoln charmed his way with humorous tales. Ronald Reagan enthralled audiences with anecdotes he kept on 3-by-5 cards.

Too many history textbook writers don't understand this, and the result is abysmal historical memory by many Americans. Most historians can't write,...

Here's an idea: let's make memoirs true and put the made-up stuff in fiction.

Ain't gonna happen. Too much money in lying. And literary bigwigs think it's sorta okay.

This grumpy assessment is prompted by "Three Cups of Deceit," Jon Krakauer's eviscerating take-down of Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea,...

It has been 70 years since the U.S. Congress declared war on anyone, and the United States presently finds itself in at least 3.2 wars: one in Iraq we've largely ceased hearing about, a grinding one in Afghanistan, an air campaign in Libya, and naval patrols against Somalian pirates.

Benjamin...

By day I'm a mild-mannered former newspaper reporter and college professor. By night I'm a thriller writer, which no doubt bewilders a colleague who christened me, with some justification, as "the world's most boring man."

Golly, do I have company.

I just returned from my third pilgrimage...

One definition of insanity is to make the same mistakes over and over again and expect a different result. By that criteria, BP is crazy.

But also normal. The oil company's performance during the Gulf oil spill has been so reminiscent of Exxon's in the Prince William...

The question after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill was not if another catastrophic spill would hit the United States, but when.

Now we know. Unless BP's mile-deep gusher can be capped or shut off, it may exceed in volume and damage the 11 million gallon spill that occurred in...

When I give presentations on my novels, I'm often asked two questions:

"When will it be a movie?" When snowballs persist in hell, apparently.

And, "How does it feel to go from writing non-fiction and journalism to fiction?"

I was a...

Tragedy struck my hometown of Anacortes, WA, this latest Good Friday when an explosion at the Tesoro Refinery just after midnight killed five workers and left two more in critical condition. The timing struck a chord because it was also after midnight on Good Friday, March 24, 1989, when the...

News flash: Cocky Muslim pirates prey on merchantmen from small boats and ships. Crews and cargoes are held for ransom. Powerful warships are ill-suited to intercept elusive raiders. A shore sanctuary for piracy is frustratingly immune.

No, this news isn't just about 21st Century Somalia. The same scenario was...