This week I will be in El Paso, Texas, my home town, to speak and sell and sign books at a number of places as part of the centenary of the Mexican Revolution there. Talks are scheduled for the El Paso Museum of History, Barnes & Noble, and the Central Library. I hear all this is well advertised so
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This summer, El Paso, Texas was named a 2010 All-America City. The All-America City Award, given to ten communities each year by the National Civic League, is considered the “Nobel Prize” of city awards. El Paso is my hometown and the beginning and ending settings of my historical novel, “Dos Gringos,” set during the Mexican Revolution. You wouldn’t guess that
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There is so much talk and teaching about “management” in these changing times. However, there is a difference between “management” and “leadership.” My own world experience has taught me that under good leadership, a good team manages to get the job done. Yesterday I visited the Milken Institute to hear a talk entitled “Defining Great Leadership” by Warren Bennis and
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I have been asked to join a panel discussion on October 30 at The El Paso Central Library, part of their celebration of the Mexican Revolution centenary. The host of the discussion will be David Dorado Romo and that is what this post is about. He is a very interesting man, author of “Ringside Seat to a Revolution: An Underground
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The allegations of extreme corruption in the Russian 2014 Sochi Olympics have got everyone talking, but so far we hear of no corrective action being taken. The media is full of it. The Moscow Times, The Christian Science Monitor and the Novaya Gazeta have covered it well. This speaks of incredibly negative public relations for Russia amidst the world community.
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I was asked by the respected Russia Profile magazine to consider if there is a connection between the legendary “Russian soul” and the chaotic world of Russian business today. My answer was absolutely yes! My resulting article, “The Piety of Soil and Spirit” is featured in the summer special edition of Russia Profile, the most respected English language magazine published
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Beautiful Pauline in El Paso, Texas, is the love interest of Arthur, the immigrant Norwegian mechanical expert who in “Dos Gringos” risks his life to raise a few dollars to buy a wedding ring. He volunteers, with his Irish partner, in the midst of The Mexican Revolution, to fix a gold mine in that warring country. Pauline comes from a German
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Last week I had my first “reading” of “Dos Gringos” for a living room full of intelligent people who had been told I had something to talk about. They apparently were not disappointed, but also I enjoyed the opportunity to share and to explain the thinking behind the story. For the reading from “Dos Gringos” I chose portions that underlined
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Not only is it a thrill to hold the book, my father’s tale, in my hand. But even more exciting, in a different way perhaps, is to see others laugh, smile, and read the first few pages of the book and come out with great comments. I took a few books to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books today. I
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Based on a true story from The Mexican Revolution In the middle of The Mexican Revolution, a penniless Norwegian and a drifting Irishman meet in an El Paso bar and are hired by a Pittsburg con-man to fix a gold mine in Mexico with parts which, they discover too late, purposely don’t fit. Arthur, the Norwegian, is focused on
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Taking the "road less traveled" has been a stand-out theme in the life and career of Frederick R. Andresen. Born and raised on the West Texas desert near El Paso, Andresen has spent a great deal of his professional life working and living abroad. Although his time in the military and his earlier career took him all over Europe and Asia, the nearly twenty years he has invested in building telecom companies in Russia have most inspired him as a writer and as a man.