Novella Takes Hemingway and His Boat to an Historic Assassination
Agent for British Intelligence

Call it alternate history, even if that’s not quite accurate. There's a guy that inspired this novella that actually believes this is what happened. For sure, I invented most of the characters, but, according to the historical timeline, Hemingway actually could have done what this novella says he did.
Foreword
Enough time has passed that I can now reveal why I wrote “Hemingway, Hunter of Men.” Or, should I say, the main reason I wrote it. Because I always thought the idea of Hemingway involving himself in a political assassination would be fun to explore.
Ever since a Canadian guy on a Hemingway web forum years ago described how a guy in his family's past must have been involved in the killing of Harry Oakes. I've even got the supposed assassin's picture.
The truth was: I was trying to research some topics in Cuba in the run-up to and during the Obama-era rapprochement. Because of my background as a “journalist,” Cuban authorities wanted to me obtain press credentials to be able to interview anyone in government, which, depending on the topic, could be pretty much everyone.
That meant dealing with the de facto Cuban embassy in Washington, which was completely unresponsive the first time I tried. I arrived in-country credential-less, which caused a bit of a kerfuffle, and had to obtain credentials locally, which took up two days of an already limited schedule.
The little badge with my picture was good for one-visit only, and it was expensive.
So, as I was researching “Bromance and a Boat: The Voyage That Changed Everything and Gave Us Modern Miami,” I decided I would be an author rather than a journalist. Authors did not require credentials.
And as the French say, voilà!
If Cuban authorities questioned my assertion of authorhood, I could point them to a convincing facsimile of a book on Amazon. See, amigo: author.
Critical friends panned the book (what are friends for?). At least it didn’t take long to write. I wish it were better, but it was good enough for government work, or, as we used to say back in Massachusetts, “Good enough for the beach.”
THE NOVELLA
Hilarious.
In certain countries, everyone suspects a foreign journalist of being a spy. But who would suspect an author of being a foreign journalist? And if you needed another layer of deception, what would you choose? Food-writer?