Writer

In her historical novels, Annapolis author Erika Robuck invents everyday men and women whose lives intersect with those of acclaimed American authors. She figures that fiction is sometimes the best way of learning something true. "I'm interested in famous writers and how they used the people in their lives," Robuck says. "They take things, and they don't always ask permission. It's such a betrayal. " Robuck's current novel, "Hemingway's Girl," tells the story of Mariella Bennet, a young, half-Cuban housemaid who must negotiate the marital minefield created by Ernest Hemingway and his second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer.

Editor: In The Aegis of Nov. 28, the editor took a cheap shot at Dion Guthrie. I agree the TIF is a bad deal for taxpayers. The results of the TIF that was approved for Beech Tree is proof that TIFs do not benefit taxpayers. Boniface, Lisanti, Slutzky and Guthrie voted for the James Run TIF. Why didn't the editor criticize all four of the council members instead of singling out Guthrie? Why didn't the editor tell all four to take a jump? Boniface and Lisanti were the motivating force that got the James Run Project zoning changed to allow this project to be included in the development envelope?

Editor: Whatever happened to teen centers, CYOs and high school mixers? How do the teens (16-19) of Harford County socialize these days? Facebook, texting and interactive gaming! They boast about having hundreds, even thousands of Facebook friends, but in reality how many do they actually physically see and do social activities with? There is nothing for most teens to look forward to on the weekends. Of course, there is the mall, spending time in local restaurants, which can be costly!

And so are you, for reading here. The verdict is in from a reader who chose not to offer a name. Writing about the cautions against the holiday cliches (No, not this year's cautions , but last year's ), Anonymous said:  I find this article, and its message, to be written by a pretentious writer/editor for other pretentious writer/editors. Ninety-nine percent of the public are not bothered by the seasonal clichés you find so tiresome. There is a reason Hallmark makes hundreds of millions and editors do not. Maybe your assumption of knowing better than your customers (and saving them from themselves)

Editor: I see where Wendy Sawyer of the county Democratic committee has the temerity to suggest that, because her party maintains its hegemony in Annapolis, the Republicans elected by the citizens of Harford County to represent them should just abandon their principles and bow to the overlords. To this I politely say, fuhgeddaboutit! What really needs to happen is that Republicans need to take territory in every place the Democrats just gerrymandered to protect the hegemony. But until the voters of Baltimore City, Prince Georges County and Montgomery County get brains and stop sucking up the stuff being put out by the Democrats, Maryland is still in slavery.

Vernon Loeb, the Washington Post editor who worked with Paula Broadwell on the bio of David Petraeus, says he was blind-sided by the affair that ended Petraeus' stint as CIA director. "My wife says I'm the most clueless person in America," he begins in a first-person piece in the Post, describing his involvement in the book "All In. " Loeb says he got involved after a call from his agent about collaborating on a book about Petraeus' leadership. Loeb was a logical choice -- he had embedded with a division under the general's command in 2003, while covering the Pentagon.

When Anthony Bourdain brings his Guts & Glory tour to the Hippodrome on Saturday, it will be a return engagement for the notoriously opinionated "chef-at-large". Bourdain launched the Hippodrome 's annual Foodie Experience series in May 2010, when he shared the theater's stage with his friend, Eric Ripert. This time, Bourdain is working solo, but when we spoke with him in late September, he said that he's grown increasingly comfortable being on the stage. "I'm looking forward to it, "Bourdain said, "I've been doing [stage shows]

Yesterday my worthy colleague Phillip Blanchard posted this opening from a New York Times article on Daniel Day-Lewis and his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in the new Steven Spielberg film about Lincoln's last days: “NOW he belongs to the ages,” Edwin Stanton, Abraham Lincoln 's secretary of war, said at the president's deathbed. “And to the studios,” he could have added. Perhaps we should be grateful that Charles McGrath, the writer, did not clunk up the lead by adding at the end of that sentence: had he lived in the twenty-first century rather than the nineteenth . Still, the anachronism grates.

Members of the Harford Writers' Group come together for the joy of the written word. Others with a similar passion can join the Harford Writers' Group as they share their love of writing at the Abingdon branch of Harford County Public Library on Sunday, Nov. 18 at 2 p.m. The program will be moderated by Ted M. Zurinsky, the editor of the newly released and published HWG anthology, "Voices from the Susquehanna, Volume II: A Collection of New Fiction,...

The TIF bandwagon (certain officials of Harford County government and the Greater Harford Committee) promote the James Run TIF with the mantra  that it "spurs economic growth" - sure, especially the economic growth of the developer! But is economic growth (of the county) enough to justify the action? The illicit drug trade actually spurs economic growth, but I (and, I assume, they) strongly oppose that trade. Near the end of your piece on the subject (Aegis, 10/19/12) Councilman Joe Woods asked the critical question about payment to retire the resulting bonds, and was told that it will come from the property taxes of the eventual owners of the improved property. He asked the next very logical question about how they would be contributing to those county expenses that all the rest of us county tax payers support with our property taxes. The answer was that "income tax goes toward public services.