George Patrick Dovel
About me
Pre-emergent writer toiling in the field of historical fiction. Current project: 13th-century France. Next project: 19th-century England.
Find me online
Recent tweets
Dear middle-of-the-night self: After-dinner self asks you to remember how good this coffee tastes.
Having finished a 20-yr study of dietary regimes, I report this with great sadness: 0.0% of them recommend chocolate éclairs for breakfast.
Received unexpected tax refund from a previous year. $1.83. Party at my place.
“Oh, yeah? Well, I’m gonna be a thousandaire.” Me at 6 or 7, in response to brother’s plan to become a millionaire. Hey bro, I met my goal.
Just ordered a book that ranks 9,462,415 on Amazon’s best sellers list. Hoping to kick it up to 9,462,414.
From my website
A Right and Good Way to Think About One’s Writing
The magnificently named Augustus John Cuthbert Hare opened the preface of his 1887 guidebook Paris with the following statement: A better book than this might easily have been published, but no one else has tried to write anything of the kind, and I have done my best. I don’t know…
The Art of Invective: Ovid’s “Ibis”
Nikita Khrushchev: “We will bury you!” Dirty Harry Callahan: “Go ahead. Make my day.” Mike Tyson: “I’m gonna gut you like a fish.” Oh, boo hoo. You want to threaten somebody? Do it properly: While Thracians fight with bows, Iazyges with spears, while the Ganges runs warm, and Danube cold:…
Two Questions at the Heart of Historical Fiction
Tucked in among the weighty proclamations issued by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 is the delightful gem of Canon 16, which in part prohibits clerics from attending “the performances of mimics and buffoons” or wearing “curiously sewed together gloves.” If they could be transported to 2013, the Council attendees…