Harald

Rumors of the Demise of Books Greatly Exaggerated

January 18, 2017 — by Harald 2 Comments

3 books — I own all 24 paperback books in the Tarzan series!

A recent Gallup Poll has some good news for people reading—and writing—books:
— 35% say they read more than 11 books in the past year
— 53% of young adults read between one and 10 books in the past year

While there are some questions about the methodology of Gallup’s research, the study headline is a great one: Rumors of the Demise of Books Greatly Exaggerated (if you don’t know, that’s a play on the Mark Twain quote about him being dead).

It’s Alive!

December 6, 2016 — by Harald 1 Comment

Frankenstein at operating table — “It’s alive,” I say, “it’s alive!” (*Frankenstein*, 1931)

Do you know the scene in the 1931 movie Frankenstein? The one that includes the famous line uttered by mad scientist Henry Frankenstein, who exclaims ghoulishly when his creation of a monster starts to move: “It’s alive! It’s alive! It’s alive!” Well, except for the mad-scientist part, and the part where the monster (Boris Karloff) hurls Frankenstein off the top of an old mill, that’s how I feel now that my first creation in the book series The Manhattan Novellas — 1609 — is out in the world. It’s alive!

But a lot of things went on behind the scenes before this book’s release. Here’s a peek behind the curtain…

[Read more…] about It’s Alive!

New York, New York – Final Research

November 7, 2016 — by Harald 11 Comments

hat across — Calculating the distance across. In bow shots.

So there I was, standing on the north shore of Governors Island and looking over the water to the tip of Lower Manhattan. It seemed so close. Even though I knew that the original shoreline on September 12, 1609 (when Henry Hudson sailed right past where I stood) was about a block inland, I figured that it was about 4-5 bow shots across. That’s assuming I was a Munsee-speaking, Algonquin native in 1609 calculating the distance. That’s how they did it back then.

Walking Back in Time into New Amsterdam

October 3, 2016 — by Harald 3 Comments

Tour guide Justin Rivers explains the 1660 map at Peter Minuit Plaza.

On September 18, 2016, I joined a walking tour of Lower Manhattan on one of my research trips to NYC. A very specific tour. A history tour. It was hosted by a tour group called Untapped Cities and called “Remnants of Dutch New Amsterdam in NYC.”