Rothstein draws on his experience as a political strategist and media manager to craft a political thriller of epic scale
- Joe’s Library
His name is Sparky. He’s 4 years old, and wise beyond his years
What I’m reading
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
I missed this when it was first published, about 20 years ago. Now, I’m half through The Known World and agree with the critics who awarded it the Pulitzer Prize, and made it the finalist for the year’s National Book Award. The scene, the language, the characters all place the reader firmly in slave-holding Virginia in the years just prior to the Civil War. It takes awhile to get fully engaged because this is a land, time and culture unfamiliar to most of us. But once you are there, you really are there, living the complex lives of slaves, slave masters, those who want to free slaves and those who would make lives even more miserable for slaves who unsuccessfully try to escape. Author Jones writes with a rich pallet and a keen understanding of what drives emotions and events.
What I’ve read
The Horse by Geraldine Brooks
My father was a frequent horse player. When we’d go to the track he would send me out to pick up losing tickets other bettors had thrown away. There might be some winners among them, my father would say. Later, I realized it was his way of getting rid of me so he could rivet his full attention on the Daily Racing Form. I seldom go to the track now, but I love to read about racing. I’ve found a real winner in Geraldine Brooks’ novel, Horse. It centers on racing as it was in the mid-19th century, and mirrored against our own time. Then, black jockeys rode the best horses. Now, in Horse, conservators at the Smithsonian try to piece together the history of a famed stallion and those who owned and cared for him during the pre-Civil War era. A wonderful read.
Elephant Company by Vicki Constantine Croke
Whether you ‘ve been interested in the lives of elephants, or not, this book will teach you much that is awe-evoking about them. The setting is Burma, prior to and into World War II. The British are logging teak in the deep forests and the elephants are carrying the fallen timber to markets. When war comes, the elephants are enlisted to build bridges and perform other essential tasks for allied forces fighting the Japanese occupiers. That’s the story, and it’s true. But the reason to read this book is not for its war scenes, it’s to enter the minds of elephants, to learn of their complex social lives, and to be amazed at what you find.
AI 2041 Ten Visions for Our Future by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan
Are you interested in what’s called Artificial Intelligence? You should be. It’s coming to get you. Hopefully it will extend your life and make living much easier and more interesting. It will, and already is, affecting health care, travel, employment, education and just about everything we consider human activity. We see it in life-saving medicine, self-driving cars, breaking down language barriers and so much more. We also see it in humans being replaced in blue collar and white collar jobs, loss of privacy, social unrest. No less an authority than the late Stephen Hawking warned that AI could become our master rather than our servant. In this book, all these visions are discussed, both the promise and the scary. You don’t need to be a scientist to read it. But if you don’t learn more about AI, don’t say you weren’t warned.
Comments? Criticism? Advice?
Your contact information appreciated but optional
Why I Write
(Interview with Joe Rothstein, Washington Independent Review of Books)
Given our current political climate, it’s hard to imagine writing DC-themed fiction that’s stranger than truth, but Joe Rothstein has done just that in his new novel, The Moment of Menace: The Future Looks Glorious…Unless We All Die First. Rothstein, whose long career spans both politics and literature, braids the two worlds together in a riveting story that gives readers a glimpse of what our democracy could become — for better or worse.
Your deep knowledge of politics comes through in this book. Is it challenging writing fictional stories about a very real system?
Think about what it means to be a candidate. Depending on the political office at stake, you will need to raise considerable campaign money, much of it by personally asking friends, family, co-workers, strangers. In a real sense, you will have to learn to beg. You will have to hire a professional staff and recruit dozens, hundreds, possibly thousands of volunteers, a hugely difficult exercise in high-pressure management. You will need to appear in public every day, sometimes in the media, weighing every word lest it be misinterpreted, often purposely, by the opposition.
Tension will increase as Election Day approaches, whether the polls have you ahead or behind. The money won’t be enough. The attacks on your character will increase, all in public media. Your family will feel under siege. You will get conflicting advice. Every day, you will need to make decisions, any one of which could cause you to win or lose the election. This is stuff of high drama, and I lived it through more than 200 campaigns. Marriages were…destroyed, so were reputations, wealth, hopes, and dreams. I don’t need to use my imagination to develop characters and situations. I just need to remember.
Your novel follows a charismatic American president named Isabel Aragon Tennyson. How did you shape this character?
During my campaign career, I met many strong, capable, and courageous women: candidates, spouses, campaign leaders, and others. We’ve never elected a woman president. I decided that I would, and that she would be a composite of many women I met who would have made great real-life presidents.
This book is as much a dystopian novel as a thriller. Do you find it difficult to approach the dystopia genre without being overly pessimistic?
I’m a democrat with both a small and capital D. But democracy is struggling to effectively meet the challenges of the 21st century. And because democracy is underperforming, anti-democratic forces are presenting a serious challenge. It’s essential to recognize and meet this challenge. So, I write not as a purveyor of doom but rather with a call to action. Rather than write essays about this, I’ve chosen to write entertaining thrillers and wrap them around real public problems.
What does waiting to write until you’ve gained some life experience bring to the resulting work?
Perspective. The curved edges of “good” and “evil” and “right” and “wrong.” Living through chapters of life to see many of them resolve, gaining insight from experience.
What’s next for you?
One of my summer-vacation jobs in college was with an automobile stunt show, sort of a car circus of smashed cars, daredevil motorcyclists, and a finale with a car and driver being shot out of a cannon. We traveled the country as the Motor Olympics. I was “Suicide Saunders.” That’s my next book.
Welcome to my corner of the Internet. It’s where I talk about my novels and about current events. I have a lot to discuss.
I sat down to write my first book when I was in my 20s. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I could not write a book because I had nothing useful to say. I’d have to live my life first. Among other things, between then and now:
–I was the advance man for a traveling automobile stunt show. In the act I was “Suicide Saunders.” (That’s my next book).
–I sat, as an aide to the governor of Alaska, in the private quarters of the top military commander in Alaska, while he clutched a red telephone expecting a call telling him we were at nuclear war with Russia over the Cuban missile crisis.
–I experienced the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history, in Alaska, and worked on rebuilding in the aftermath.
–I became editor of a daily newspaper, The Anchorage Daily News, before I was 30.
–I flew as a passenger with the Navy’s Blue Angels (and have the photo to prove it).
—-As chief of staff of a United States Senator I was deeply involved in the Pentagon Papers episode.
–I was political consultant to Congressman Peter Rodino of New Jersey as he presided of Richard Nixon’s impeachment.
–I worked as strategist and media producer to help elect and re-elect nine U.S. Senators, dozens of members of Congress, and countless other candidates.
–I’ve started five businesses, one which went public, and another that’s become an important Internet news distribution service.
–Also, I’ve had the experience of raising four sons and, among other things, coaching their Little League baseball team, which was one of the most intense political experiences I’ve ever had.
And now, in my 80s, I’ve written three novels with two more in progress. Having something to say no longer is an obstacle.
My first three novels feature a charismatic Mexican-American heiress who becomes the president of the United States and is confronted with a series of events like none other in U.S. history.
I hope you enjoy them. And if my words and thoughts in these novels and my current events blogs prompt responses from you, please share them with me at jrothstein@rothstein.net.
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- Joe’s Library
His name is Sparky. He’s 4 years old, and wise beyond his years
What I’m reading
Outpedaling the Big C: My Healing Cycle Across America by Elizabeth McGowan
Elizabeth is a Pulitzer Prize-winner Elizabeth McGowan, who survived melanoma and decided to bicycle from America’s west to east coast to raise funds for the western Wisconsin cancer center that treated her. It’s a wonderful saga of survival, endurance, and a gallery of interesting people she met along the nation’s longest biking trail.
The Night Agent by Matthew Quirk
The reviews say that this is a political thriller reminiscent of early novels by John Grisham and David Baldacci. Since I write political thrillers and read a lot of them I looked forward to this one. But 25% into it I don’t see it. So I set it aside to read McGowan’s work. I’ll give Quirk one more try, but so far it’s been a disappointment.
What I’ve Just Read
1984 by George Orwell
A re-read, actually. Maybe a third re-read. Incredibly, 1984 still shows up on New York Times and other best seller lists. Why? Because the warning sirens that blast through its pages are as loud and ominous today as when it was first published in 1949. Doublespeak. Big Brother. Hate Week. War without end. Jarring.
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
By coincidence, this was a selection by my book club just a few months before the sunken ship was found under the Antarctica ice. After reading about this amazing adventure I was all worn out. Surviving 10 months with their ship frozen in the ice pack was just the easy part. Then there was passage through endless hurricane weather on lifeboats to find a small rock island. Followed by an 800 mile lifeboat trip to the closest whaling station. Followed by a trek across a mountain range that even experienced climbers could not complete. “Incredible” hardly describes it.
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf
Did you ever wonder why so many places are named “Humboldt?” Read this book. Alexander von Humboldt was an explorer who from 1788 to 1804 mapped the Americas from a scientific point of view: botanical, geographical, metrological, magnetic. He counseled President Thomas Jefferson about the American west. He mapped passages from the Atlantic to the Pacific through Panama and Nicaragua. He’s considered the founder of the field of metrology. He described the phenomena of human-induced climate change. He wrote a multivolume treatise which he titled, “Kosmos,” describing the universe as one interacting entity. His contributions to so many fields of human activity were amazing. Just as amazing—hardly anyone living today knows anything about him.
etc.
Like most people outside Russia I’m so impressed and heartened that Ukranians are fighting so hard for their freedom and independence. They are willing to die for democracy. Isn’t their bravery a stark contrast with U.S. Republican politicians who are so timid about preserving democracy that they won’t even stand up to Trump’s overt campaign to undermine ours.
I feel a personal attachment to the events in Ukraine. My mother was born in Odessa.
Help me understand this: Polls show that large majorities of Americans want an improved health care system, more action to combat climate change, universal kindergarten and safe and affordable child care, a fairer tax system, and other reforms Democratic legislators are attempting to enact. Those reforms are being blocked by nearly every Republican in Congress. The result, according the polls: voters are angry with Democrats for not getting it done and would replace them with Republican majorities. Why does this make sense? To throw out those trying to do what you want done and elect those who don’t? Shouldn’t the obvious answer be to elect stronger Democratic majorities?
Comments? Criticism? Advice?
Your contact information appreciated but optional
Rothstein draws on his experience as a political strategist and media manager to craft a political thriller of epic scale
Why I Write
(Interview with Joe Rothstein, Washington Independent Review of Books)
Given our current political climate, it’s hard to imagine writing DC-themed fiction that’s stranger than truth, but Joe Rothstein has done just that in his new novel, The Moment of Menace: The Future Looks Glorious…Unless We All Die First. Rothstein, whose long career spans both politics and literature, braids the two worlds together in a riveting story that gives readers a glimpse of what our democracy could become — for better or worse.
Your deep knowledge of politics comes through in this book. Is it challenging writing fictional stories about a very real system?
Think about what it means to be a candidate. Depending on the political office at stake, you will need to raise considerable campaign money, much of it by personally asking friends, family, co-workers, strangers. In a real sense, you will have to learn to beg. You will have to hire a professional staff and recruit dozens, hundreds, possibly thousands of volunteers, a hugely difficult exercise in high-pressure management. You will need to appear in public every day, sometimes in the media, weighing every word lest it be misinterpreted, often purposely, by the opposition.
Tension will increase as Election Day approaches, whether the polls have you ahead or behind. The money won’t be enough. The attacks on your character will increase, all in public media. Your family will feel under siege. You will get conflicting advice. Every day, you will need to make decisions, any one of which could cause you to win or lose the election. This is stuff of high drama, and I lived it through more than 200 campaigns. Marriages were…destroyed, so were reputations, wealth, hopes, and dreams. I don’t need to use my imagination to develop characters and situations. I just need to remember.
Your novel follows a charismatic American president named Isabel Aragon Tennyson. How did you shape this character?
During my campaign career, I met many strong, capable, and courageous women: candidates, spouses, campaign leaders, and others. We’ve never elected a woman president. I decided that I would, and that she would be a composite of many women I met who would have made great real-life presidents.
This book is as much a dystopian novel as a thriller. Do you find it difficult to approach the dystopia genre without being overly pessimistic?
I’m a democrat with both a small and capital D. But democracy is struggling to effectively meet the challenges of the 21st century. And because democracy is underperforming, anti-democratic forces are presenting a serious challenge. It’s essential to recognize and meet this challenge. So, I write not as a purveyor of doom but rather with a call to action. Rather than write essays about this, I’ve chosen to write entertaining thrillers and wrap them around real public problems.
What does waiting to write until you’ve gained some life experience bring to the resulting work?
Perspective. The curved edges of “good” and “evil” and “right” and “wrong.” Living through chapters of life to see many of them resolve, gaining insight from experience.
What’s next for you?
One of my summer-vacation jobs in college was with an automobile stunt show, sort of a car circus of smashed cars, daredevil motorcyclists, and a finale with a car and driver being shot out of a cannon. We traveled the country as the Motor Olympics. I was “Suicide Saunders.” That’s my next book.
Welcome to my corner of the Internet. It’s where I talk about my novels and about current events. I have a lot to discuss.
I sat down to write my first book when I was in my 20s. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I could not write a book because I had nothing useful to say. I’d have to live my life first. Among other things, between then and now:
–I was the advance man for a traveling automobile stunt show. In the act I was “Suicide Saunders.” (That’s my next book).
–I sat, as an aide to the governor of Alaska, in the private quarters of the top military commander in Alaska, while he clutched a red telephone expecting a call telling him we were at nuclear war with Russia over the Cuban missile crisis.
–I experienced the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history, in Alaska, and worked on rebuilding in the aftermath.
–I became editor of a daily newspaper, The Anchorage Daily News, before I was 30.
–I flew as a passenger with the Navy’s Blue Angels (and have the photo to prove it).
—-As chief of staff of a United States Senator I was deeply involved in the Pentagon Papers episode.
–I was political consultant to Congressman Peter Rodino of New Jersey as he presided of Richard Nixon’s impeachment.
–I worked as strategist and media producer to help elect and re-elect nine U.S. Senators, dozens of members of Congress, and countless other candidates.
–I’ve started five businesses, one which went public, and another that’s become an important Internet news distribution service.
–Also, I’ve had the experience of raising four sons and, among other things, coaching their Little League baseball team, which was one of the most intense political experiences I’ve ever had.
And now, in my 80s, I’ve written three novels with two more in progress. Having something to say no longer is an obstacle.
My first three novels feature a charismatic Mexican-American heiress who becomes the president of the United States and is confronted with a series of events like none other in U.S. history.
I hope you enjoy them. And if my words and thoughts in these novels and my current events blogs prompt responses from you, please share them with me at jrothstein@rothstein.net.
