I was so excited when my friend Maya told me that this year’s Taiga Drama (*)is about Murasaki Shikibu’s life. Since I am doing a re-read of the Tale of Genji, I really wanted to watch the drama— though honestly I was a bit worried about how much I would understand. The story takes place in the Heian period and while there isn’t much 10th-11th century Japanese being used, I was still concerned that my decade-plus absence from Japan would have a negative impact on my ability to follow the story.

I have a new short story out today in a wonderful collection called IN THESE HALLOWED HALLS: A Dark Academic Anthology, edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane. I have to admit the dark academia trope is one of my all time favorites. I thought I’d share an essay I wrote for CrimeReads for the release of another dark academia title of mine, Good Girls Lie, to celebrate this awesome new collection!

As Georgetown men’s basketball tries to climb out of what is the lowest point in its storied program’s history, it’s easy to point the finger at Patrick Ewing as the root of the problem for many of the issues that have contributed to the downfall of a once-great basketball program. But while Ewing certainly deserves a lion’s share of the responsibility for what has happened this season, it’s hard not to question whether Ewing has the right people around him, too.

Sometime during the last millennium, when I started driving, I joined the Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange. This organization had roots in the mid-19th century as a fraternal organization for farmers. Our family had our insurance through the Grange, so I became a member. (At least that’s my recollection.) I rarely considered it again, except when I encountered the Grange in history books. However, I’ve been working on a reported story about local Granges and decided to dig in a bit deeper for The Classroom about one of its most visible achievements that remains prominent in many history books and most constitutional law texts.

1.        The Holy Sinner I had a different post lined up for this week – in fact I’ve written over half of it – but then this image came into my life and I can’t get it out of my head: As you can see, this is an image of Trump praying.  Only it is fake – or, as we call it these days, generated by AI. Trump’s right hand has six fingers, which is a common mistake that AI image generators often make, but which is also ironic given his insecurity about having small hands.