Archive - December 7, 2023

  Cupid’s Arrow by Susan English (Namibia 2004-06) Out on a Whim Press January 2022 318 pages $0.00 (Kindle); $2.99 (to buy)   When her utopian moon base is targeted by Earth’s authoritarian powers, can she stand in the face of tyranny to prove love is stronger than hate? Biologist Pavani Nampeyo is devastated to lose her soulmate. But with the world military preparing to raid their lunar science colony, the broken-hearted specialist makes the agonizing decision to stay behind while the love of her life escapes to another solar system. And when the brutal invaders fail to find the missing colonists, Pavani’s protective instincts steer her in the path of a violent assault. Bruised but undaunted, she and her team attempt to drive out the troops by broadcasting video of the illegal occupation across the planet. But with the threat of reprisal looming, Pavani’s only hope of reconnecting with . . .

Charlie Peters, the founder of the Washington Monthly who died on Thanksgiving, wasn’t easy but he cared intensely about the country. The magazine was the tool he had to help. by Nicholas Thompson December 6, 2023 Washington Monthly founding editor Charles Peters in 2008. Credit: Gunes Kocatepe/Wikimedia Commons The first time I met Charlie Peters was in a job interview. It was the fall of 1999: I was 24, he was 72, and I was a candidate to be an editor at the Washington Monthly. I trudged up the stairs to the third floor of 1611 Connecticut Avenue to a well-worn office filled with old magazines and crossed by the occasional cockroach. Charlie sat across from me and a big wooden desk with a box for incoming manuscripts and one for outgoing manuscripts that he had marked up with a felt green marker. “What is your relationship like with your father?” he asked a . . .