Thriller novelist Raelynn Hillhouse has started a political blog called The Spy Who Billed Me. She joins a growing number of authors (like Barry Eisler) who are avoiding the usual self-promotion/writing advice blog that most writers opt for. That’s not to say there isn’t a sly promotional angle at work here… her blog focuses primarily on the outsourcing of the war on terror, which just happens to be the subject of her next novel, OUTSOURCED, which comes out in May.
Sounds self-promotional to me.
Self-promotion? Moi?
True, probably I’d have to be crazy to spend so much time on the blog if the blog were totally unrelated to my day job. But… I am a little crazy. You have to be to spend as much time reading and thinking about what’s going on in the world as I do. The Heart of the Matter is my outlet for synthesizing all that reading and thought… also it removes some of the burden from my wife, who I like to test my theories on. Bad enough that I use her to research all those sex scenes…
BTW, check out the latest post on North Korea — something we all need to think about before our politicians make it worse…
🙂
Barry
Toi, Barry.
Actually for the Spy Who Billed Me blog I’m lying kinda low on the self-promo side right now, downplaying that I’m a novelist on the main page and emphasizing some of my academic pedigree. It’s tough to be taken seriously as a political affairs analyst when you admittedly spend hours upon hours making shit up. So I’m actually blogging under R J Hillhouse, PhD.
While reasearching OUTSOURCED, it really shocked me that over 48,000 soldiers in Iraq work for private, for-profit corporations and that the majority of people working for the CIA are actually employees of outsourcing firms. This has huge national security implications that don’t seem to be discussed anywhere. I started the blog to bring greater attention to this. Call me a little crazy, but I’m in good company. 😉