Some book stuff:

(1) Are there any WAD blogs? readers are asking me. You bet. There are at least two. I’m running one on my own website here, and there’s some to and fro about the book on one of the Amazon history forums here.

(2) The Russian translation of Prime Obsession is proceeding towards publication at a speed barely perceptible but, the translator assures me, “nonzero.” We now have a cover designed. I kind of like seeing my name in Russian, but . . . shouldn’t there be a patronymic in there? My Dad was John too, so it seems to me I should be Джон Джонович Дербишир. I think this would go great in one of those heavy Russian novels.

At Bald Hills, Prince John Johnovich Derbyshire’s estate, the arrival of young Prince Andrew and his wife was daily expected, but this expectation did not upset the regular routine of life in the old prince’s household. General in Chief Prince John Johnovich (nicknamed in society, “the King of Prussia”) ever since the Emperor Paul had exiled him to his country estate had lived there continuously with his daughter, Princess Mary, and her companion, Mademoiselle Bourienne. Though in the new reign he was free to return to the capitals, he still continued to live in the country, remarking that anyone who wanted to see him could come the hundred miles from Moscow to Bald Hills, while he himself needed no one and nothing . . .

Born out of my time and place, that’s what it is. I would have been good to my serfs, I swear I would.