Last week an outside link to Big Hollywood led me to a leftist blog I’d never heard of that goes by the name of Sadly, No! For lack of a better term, here’s a portion of their, uhm, mission statement:

Sadly, No! is a liberal/progressive humor site based in Germany, originally as a project of founder Seb, but since 2004 operating as a group blog, currently with American contributors. It has daily traffic between 7,000 and 15,000 visits. …

The site’s main running joke is in finding embarrassing slips or untrue statements by conservatives and linking to a refutation, saying, “Sadly, No!”

Well, even Germans need a hobby, though it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that “sadlyno” is the German translation for “get a life.”

Last week Sadly, No! decided to target John J. Miller’s Big Hollywood article about his novel “The First Assassin.”  Violating their own mission statement, the attack wasn’t based on any “embarrassing” or “untrue” statements made by Miller. They just found it oh-so hilarious that the novel is self-published. As a snark attack, it’s Gawker-lite –- and Gawker isn’t all that impressive — but here’s what’s especially confusing… (more…)

You’ve heard it said before: “The book is better than the movie.” But the movies helped me write my new book, The First Assassin.

The First Assassin is a historical thriller set primarily in Washington, D.C., at the start of the Civil War. Bestselling author Vince Flynn blurbs it on the front cover: “An excellent book–it’s like The Day of the Jackal set in 1861 Washington.”

The Day of the Jackal is a twofer: Both the book (by Frederick Forsyth) and the movie (the 1973 version) are excellent. But the book is still better. It’s super excellent.

Anyway, I started working on The First Assassin in 1996–more than 13 years ago. Yeah, that’s a long time. It was the project I kept setting aside when something more pressing came along, such as the birth of a child or a writing deadline that came with a guaranteed paycheck. (more…)