What made you decide to write this non-fiction work?
The politician in Washington stay for long periods of time and become disconnected from the Americans throughout the country.
Can you talk about your experience of researching this non-fiction work? And the dates of when you began researching and when your research was complete? My prior book, The Decline of America: 100 Years of Leadership Failures, published in 2018, was focused on the American presidency. After about a year, I felt it was time to address the failures of the US Congress.
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I then came up with the concept of this book as a deck of cards featuring 26 Democrats and 26 Republicans along with a Joker card. So, 2019 to 2021 was the main research and writing period. The book was set up for printing in late 2021 and released February 2022. I research and write at the same time.
Where did you do most of your writing for this non-fiction work? In the years when I was practicing law full-time, I bought a historic house in the Heights Historic District in Houston, TX. I maintain an office at that location and do virtually all of my writing there. My researchers work on their own or at the library, and email their research to me. I write on a full-size computer, not a laptop.
What were your writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? I work 7 days a week and since I am a full-time professor and still have law office and consulting clients, I have to budget my time carefully. I would mostly write on the weekends, but coordinated with my researchers on a continuous basis, regardless of the day of the week. I rarely permit any distractions, so no music or TV while writing. I do have a full kitchen available to me in the office, so I usually eat and drink while I keep working.
Please include an excerpt of one FACT or one set of FACTS that you were most impacted by in this non-fiction work. The excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer. This is from Chapter 1:
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Why was this one fact or one set of facts so compelling for you to discover and to write about? These senators and representatives complain that they are not being paid enough, but it is more than enough in my opinion.
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Were there any deletions from this excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please include a photo of your marked up rough drafts of this excerpt. Since I work electronically, drafts are replaced by later drafts. There are no “red ink” versions as I did my own editing on this book. In my prior book, I had a true publisher, and that version was reduced in length from 500 to 400 pages. That was very tough, but not repeated here.
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