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I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. The first time I heard that phrase, I thought it was pretty clever. After a couple hundred times, it got under my skin worse than poison ivy. It reminds me how golden age television comedians used to zing “Uncle Miltie” (aka Milton Berle, aka Continue reading “Metaphors and Uncle Miltie”

As an author I know how important reviews are. Some readers won’t take a chance on a book that doesn’t have a fair amount of reviews. That’s why when I finish a book I’ve enjoyed, I try to follow up by posting a review. Since “Voyage of the Heart” was a Christmas gift, Amazon declinedContinue reading “Keeping Writers Writing by Posting Reviews”

Very few of us are so gifted we can just sit and write without the benefit of learning from others. From time to time in “Within my Writes”, I like to share what I have learned on my writing journey. Not long ago I read “Word Painting”, the revised addition, published in 2014, by RebeccaContinue reading “Paint Like a Writer”

One night, before I wrote Night and Fog, my wife asked why I was watching a You Tube video in French when I don’t speak French. It was Dédée de Jongh modestly relating how she and her comrades simply did what had to be done to save Allied airmen during World War Two. Though muchContinue reading “But Who Should Write It?”

Readers aren’t drawn to historical novels simply because they’re historical. Someone who likes the Middle Ages, World War II, or Colonial America, may not be interested in a racial drama set in the American south in the 1940s. This makes for a smaller pool of potential readers than say romance, mystery, horror or suspense novels.Continue reading “History lessons tell you about it—Historical novels let you live it.”

I thought it was Senioritis, but it may have been misdiagnosed. It’s not that we vintage folks don’t possess the grey matter to learn how to use today’s electronic devices, but…. Back in the dark ages, it required a whole semester learning FORTRAN and the step by step “if/then” procedure in order to use aContinue reading “Senioritis”

Where were you when Pearl Harbor was attacked? Most of us weren’t even born yet, but this December 7 marked the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor—as President Roosevelt so stirringly put it, “—a date which will live in infamy”. Just 11 days before the bombings, Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, hadContinue reading “Pearl Harbor Memories”

I’m thrilled to announce (more like shout with glee) that Night and Fog received a very favorable editorial review from Midwest Book Review. “The attention to detail and intersecting scenarios that Rizzo takes the time to explore in his characters and settings will especially delight historical fiction readers seeking authenticity and facts from their stories.”Continue reading “Praise for Night and Fog”

               On a hot August night in 1941, a twenty-four year old Belgian girl silently crouched in the darkness along the River Somme scarcely breathing as a German patrol officer bicycled by little more than a footfall away from the weeds that concealed her. If caught, she would be put to death—punishment for her seditious actContinue reading “Most Obeyed Their German Conquerors—One Woman Fought Back”

“I won’t read that historical fiction garbage,” hissed a lady at the assisted living facility where a panel consisting of myself and other writers were describing our writing process. “History should be facts, not made up crap,” Interesting question. Why would anybody want to read a fictionalized version when they can read a history bookContinue reading “ONE WOMAN’S TRASH …”