Microkhan by Brendan I. Koerner

Entries Tagged as 'The Next Book'

End of Act One

May 4th, 2012 · 3 Comments

As you read these words today, I’ll be putting the finishing touches on my book manuscript—an 84,000-word tale of a young couple that pulled off an amazing heist many moons ago, then went roaming about the world. Tough to believe I’ve reached this point in the process; I started working on this project nearly three […]

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A Different Approach

March 2nd, 2012 · 2 Comments

I’m a point in my book where I need to describe a cultural misunderstanding, one that has dire consequences for all parties involved. It’s a tricky thing to describe, since my worldview naturally aligns with the American characters—in trying to write the scene, I keep on expressing too much sympathy for their predicament. To wriggle […]

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The Knife Thrower’s Assistant

February 3rd, 2012 · 1 Comment

A big challenge I’ve faced with my book is the difficulty of grasping the rationales of truly eccentric characters. Even when I’ve been able to interview such folks, I rarely come away with a full understanding of why they made certain choices—their reasoning tends to be opaque, at least to a fairly normal bloke like […]

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A Name Lost to History

January 6th, 2012 · Comments Off on A Name Lost to History

Taking advantage of a brief lull in the Wired action to steal a day for the book. Back on Monday with a post about the history of submarine rescue, a teaser of which is posted above. One more thing: If anyone can shed light on the real name of an Algerian secret policeman who went […]

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The Evolution of Bomb-Squad Armor

December 1st, 2011 · 6 Comments

One thing my book research has taught me is that America used to have a serious problem with bombs. Every time I delve into the news archives from the early 1970s, I come away amazed at number of stories involving homemade explosive devices going off a nightclubs, bus depots, and Mafia social clubs. And I’m […]

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The Pivot

November 18th, 2011 · Comments Off on The Pivot

Dedicating the next three days to finishing another chapter of the book. This one’s key, because the meat of the narrative starts in the ensuing chapter. And as much as I enjoy weaving together random tidbits of historical background into a semi-cohesive whole, the real pleasure in this process will come from recounting the tick-tock […]

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Taking Advantage

October 19th, 2011 · Comments Off on Taking Advantage

Apologies for not keeping up with Microkhan like I should these past few days. Just too wrapped up trying to make progress on the book, which is coming along in fits and starts that occur all-too-rarely. I’m now challenging myself to have 25,000 words done before Halloween; otherwise, I fear that too many nights of […]

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Grunt’s Eye View

September 21st, 2011 · 1 Comment

I never did care much for war comics as a kid, and so always flipped past back issues The ‘Nam when searching for the latest Wolverine. But now that the latest book has got me looking for ways to bring the jungles of Long Khanh Province alive, I’ve found myself relying on some choice The […]

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Back to the Land of the Golden Arcs

August 25th, 2011 · 2 Comments

Winging my way back to Queens today, after a truly epic reporting trip in Southern California. Can’t wait to clue y’all in to the narrative I’ve been piecing together—it’s a doozy, to say the least. As I hurtle eastward through the air at slightly subsonic speed, enjoy a classic Sean Price track—yet another example of […]

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Truthiness

July 22nd, 2011 · 2 Comments

As I try and focus on the painful act of book-writing, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the unwritten rules of non-fiction‐or, rather, the fact that those rules seem to vary by creator. While I spend time agonizing over which version of a remembered quote to use, other writers seem to have no […]

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Mass Hysteria in Bangladesh

July 12th, 2011 · 4 Comments

One of the issues I’ll be exploring in my next book is the notion of psychological epidemics. How do certain behaviors go viral, and how do the arcs of such epidemics mirror those of their physiological counterparts? To this point, a lot of my research has focused on incidents of mass hysteria, which are endlessly […]

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The Single Step

July 11th, 2011 · 5 Comments

So pretty momentous day here ’round Microkhan’s new-ish Queens headquarters: after many weeks of inventing excuses to procrastinate, I’m finally starting to write my next book. It’s due in April, so I reckon I have just enough time to craft the tale and fill in the remaining research gaps. But right now the endeavor seems […]

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“Fat Styles Become a Stack…”

June 24th, 2009 · 3 Comments

Headed downtown to meet with our trusted rep and discuss that frightening concept known as The Future. So we’re gonna outro with the best track off The Beatnuts debut album. Like all songs by the pride of Corona, Queens, the lyrics are definitely not safe for work, so please do not play within earshot of […]

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Chewbacca Looks Reluctant

March 23rd, 2009 · 5 Comments

After playing Captain Bringdown with all the suicide talk, I thought I owed it to y’all to post something a bit more lighthearted. I’m in the midst of doing some groundwork for my next book, which deals a lot with global trade during the waning days of the British Empire. This research has led me […]

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Six Cents an Hour

February 13th, 2009 · 2 Comments

The main character in my (*knock on wood*) next book began life as a child coal miner, circa 1905. So I’ve recently taken a keen interest in accounts of what it was like to toil in the pits back then, especially for workers well shy of their tenth birthdays. You will be completely unsurprised to […]

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