Mike? Are you still there, Mike?

Yes, although you wouldn't know it from this Archive. So here's a brief update for all my fans. (I know you're out there, I can see you clicking here by accident.)

Anyhow, I'm still at The Dallas Morning News. Still editing book reviews. I write them now and then -- here's one I did of a biography called Sonic Wind, by Craig Ryan, and here's a lovely title called The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built, by Jack Viertel. I also had time to interview Loving Day author Mat Johnson. And I just had the honor of moderating a panel at the Dallas Book Festival with the excellent Sarah Hepola and Merritt Tierce. You can see all the coverage my colleagues and I pulled together at this site.

  (Atmospheric photo via the Twitter account of my colleague Christopher Wynn.)

I guess that somewhere in there, I also managed to weigh in on that "new" Harper Lee book and even got my out-of-office reply reviewed in The New York Times. Really.

All of which is a prelude to explaining the main reason why I haven't been updating this archive much in the past year: It's because I've been busy writing something else. OK, technically, I have been rewriting. And then rewriting some more. And the result is ...

My first novel, Revenge of the Star Survivors, which was sold last fall to Holiday House books. As of this moment, it is not listed in their catalog, but they have signed papers and let a very good editor spend a whole lot of time thinking about how my manuscript could be better, so I'm hopeful it will actually happen, perhaps by next spring.

When that happens, I'm pretty sure I will not be so quiet about updating you. And everyone else.

Emily St. John Mandel, James Bond, computers and Mr. Spock

Last fall, I talked with Emily St. John Mandel at the Texas Book Festival. Later, I reviewed Walter Isaacson's The Innovators and recently wrote about Goldeneye - Where Bond Was Born: Ian Fleming’s Jamaica, by Matthew Parker.

That was shortly after I said farewell to Leonard Nimoy.

As a reminder, if you're really keen to see how I spend my days (hint: it's not all writing about things I was obsessed with as a teenager), please examine the books pages of The Dallas Morning News or the Healthy Living coverage in the same.

Chatting with Lev Grossman, and becoming a HONY

Earlier this year, I covered BookExpo America, which was the usual blur of activity -- quick chats with authors such as Eula Biss, Jesse Burton and Tom Robbins, plus a particularly enjoyable interview with Lev Grossman, which I turned into this story. As a bonus feature, I shared his advice on how to murder your darlings while self-editing, particularly if it involves Fraggle Rock.

Of course, all anybody wants to talk about was that encounter with the Humans of New York guy. Which I blogged about here. (It's a good tale. Not so good that it should eclipse every other piece of writing I have done in my life. But 150,000 or so Facebook users can't be wrong, can they?)

Let me introduce you to Khaled Hosseini, Timothy Egan and Rick Atkinson – and an amazing young artist

It was a busy season for author events in Dallas. I was a part of three of them: I interviewed Khaled Hosseini as part of the Tate Lecture Series (the SMU student paper did  a nice writeup here.) I also introduced Timothy Egan at the Dallas Museum of Art (and mused about it in this blog post.) And last week, I introduced Rick Atkinson in the same venue. (I interviewed Atkinson about The Guns at Last Light here.)

Away from the books page, I was the conduit for the remarkable work of local artist Sara Stahl, a high school senior who told the story of her adoption through a series of remarkable images. I had worked with her mother, Lori, and conducted a series of interviews and coordinated the efforts of a bunch of really talented designers (Lisa Veigel in print, Paul O'Donnell and John Hancock online) to bring the tale to readers. You can see the finished product here.

Elizabeth L. Silver, Bill Bryson, Terry Teachout and Jennifer duBois

In recent months, I got to chat with a couple of exceptional young writers, meet some masters of history and biography, and get paid to think long and hard about Muppets.

I am reminded that my job could be a lot worse.

Anyhow, here's my interview with Elizabeth L. Silver, author of "The Execution of Noa P. Singleton."

And this is my interview with Jennifer duBois, author of "Cartwheel" and "A Partial History of Lost Causes."

I spoke with Bill Bryson about "One Summer: America, 1927."

Terry Teachout and I discussed his newest, "Duke." 

And here's a review of "Jim Henson: The Biography," by Brian Jay Jones. 

Philipp Meyer, Khaled Hosseini and everyone else in publishing

In recent weeks, I've pushed the ever-encroaching piles of papers to the edge of my desk for just enough time to chat by phone with Philipp Meyer and Khaled Hosseini. 

I also ran away from my desk long enough to cover Book ExpoAmerica. (Chris Vognar teamed up with me on the story. Also led me to a good Indian restaurant, for which I am grateful.) 

Michael Merschel on "Gun Guys," by Dan Baum

Last month, I reviewed Dan Baum's Gun Guys for The Dallas Morning News.

If you can't get access to that, you should be able to read the blog post about my own personal encounter with a gun guy.


UPDATE Feb. 18, 2019: The blog post linked above is dead. But you can find the text about that encounter below.

 

So while I was reading Dan Baum's Gun Guys in preparation for this review, I had an encounter with an apparent gun enthusiast that seemed to embody everything that anti-gun people hate about gun enthusiasts.

It was at a local sporting goods store. I was roaming the fishing aisle, looking for lead weights for an ultimately unsuccessful Pinewood Derby project (and probably daydreaming about how much I'd rather be drowning some flies in a Montana lake or something) when I drifted over to the hunting aisle. Now, I don't hunt, but I'm not opposed to venison, either. So I probably would have drifted right back if I hadn't overheard the clerk behind the counter explaining a product to a customer. The product looked something like this:

[image of large, black shotgun] 

Now, that's a weapon that will get your attention. But -- we are in Texas. And I was in a sporting goods store. So, thus far -- not much of a story.

Then I heard what the clerk was saying: He was explaining how this particular shotgun was excellent for home defense -- because you could blast right through a wall if somebody were hiding on the other side.

And then, he pointed the weapon at a doorway at the end of the gun counter. I think he was aiming above the door -- I was at an awkward angle, and caught the motion out of the corner of my eye, and I don't want to accuse someone of being reckless when I did not have a chance to ask him about it later. (OK, to be honest -- I could have gone back but did not want to confront a guy who was holding a wicked black shotgun.) So call this a casual observation. Although I distinctly heard the boast about being able to shoot someone through a wall.

And what went through my mind was:

a) Exactly how many of the Cardinal Rules of Gun Safety were being violated, at least in spirit, at the moment, because

b) Moments before, I had been on the opposite side of that door, potentially in the line of fire.

The Cardinal Rules of Gun Safety come up a lot in Gun Guys. They are: 1) Treat all firearms as though they are loaded. 2) Never allow your muzzle to cross anything you are not willing to destroy and pay for. 3) Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target and you are ready to fire. 4) Be sure of your target and what is around and behind it. 5) Maintain control of your firearm.

Baum drives home that if gun-rights advocates preached about gun safety with the same enthusiasm that some use to talk about the sanctity of the Second Amendment, it would go a long way toward providing solutions about gun violence.

I happen to agree. I'm no gun collector, but I've never been afraid of owners, either -- because the owners I know are people who know the Cardinal Rules.

And this probably helps explain why I liked Baum's book. Baum is able to show respect and admiration for firearms and their owners while also being willing to point out irrational behavior on all sides.

I like that he isn't shy about how much fun guns can be. For years, I proudly displayed a framed target that showed a rather impressive grouping (I thought) from my trip to a firing range. And many years ago, I had a good time reporting a story from a Soldier of Fortune convention in Las Vegas. Shooting at stuff in the desert is a LOT of fun.

But as Baum's wife points out -- "You can project idiocy a long ways with a gun."

Put another way -- I don't mind living in a world where people collect machine guns, attend country clubs where they run and shoot at stuff, or even walk the mean streets of Boulder, Colo. armed and ready to shoot, to cite some examples from the book. I'm pretty sure I am more likely to be taken out by a reckless Mini driver on the way home, or maybe by a stray banana peel in my kitchen, as I am to be injured by anyone engaged in such activity.

But I'm not sure I feel safer knowing that somewhere out there is a gun owner looking for an excuse to test the idea that his shotgun could take out someone on the other side of his door. That strange rustling might be a burglar, sure. But it might be a book critic, just looking for some fishing weights, glad he made it home safely to deliver them to his son.