John A. Heldt

Like my brother-in-law, who can trace his lineage to the Mayflower , and millions of others, I am a fan of genealogy. For many years, I taug...

I exceeded Stephen King's ninety-day limit on drafts and departed from my "plotter" outline on more than one occasion, but in ...

For me, the comma has always been the most problematic of punctuation marks. As a newspaper reporter in the 1980s and 1990s, I was taught to...

"Progress," Victor Hugo wrote in Les Misérables , "is not accomplished in one stage." I consider that a good thing. Give...

I like sports. I played them as I kid. I tried to play them as an adult. I watch them now. I like everything from the competition on the fie...

Each autumn I hear its siren song -- and each autumn I resist it, though I must admit it's getting tougher. Despite the allure of being ...

If there is one thing I like about Nelson DeMille, it’s that he manages to get my attention just about when I am ready to give up on him. Tw...

In rankings of U.S. presidents, Ulysses Grant typically finishes at or near the bottom. Most contemporary historians have little use for the...

If there is one thing I like about being an indie author, it is having the freedom to dance to my own drum. Last spring, I faced a choice — ...

History, I think it is safe to say, favors the winners. It remembers and rewards those who try and succeed, not those who try and fail — or ...