RALEIGH — I wrote my first book — about what’s now called corporate ESG (for Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria) — in 1996. After six subsequent works of serious nonfiction, I redirected my authorial energies in 2020 toward writing historical-fantasy novels set in early America. Patriot soldiers battle flying demons. Daniel Boone hunts fire-spitting salamanders. Shadowy mages ensorcell Washington politicians into committing grave errors. Get the picture?

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s strong economic performance persists — as do the lessons it reveals about politics and public policy.

RALEIGH — Roy Cooper will reportedly make some headlines next month. I have no idea whether he’ll announce a run for the U.S. Senate in 2026. If he does, the former governor will present a formidable challenge to incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis. If he doesn’t run, it will be at least partly because Cooper believes he’ll win — and the prospect of spending the next six years in Washington may fill him with more dread than delight.

RALEIGH — Our state’s official seal presents North Carolina as a series of dualities. In the background of the circular emblem are green-topped mountains to the west and crystal-blue water to the east. In the foreground, two female figures in classical garb symbolize Liberty (clutching a constitution in one hand and the traditional “liberty cap” in the other) and Plenty (holding stalks of grain in one hand and an overflowing cornucopia in the other).

RALEIGH — Recessions hurt. North Carolina’s headline unemployment rate hit 11.2% during the peak of the Great Recession in 2010. During the COVID-era Great Suppression of 2020, it briefly hit a mindboggling 14.2%.

RALEIGH — It was 250 years ago this week that the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia to organize America’s rebellion against the British crown. War had broken out a few weeks earlier at Lexington and Concord. But there was as yet no national government, no formal American army or relations with foreign countries, and no clear explanation of what the rebellious colonists sought to accomplish.

RALEIGH — Few states are adding housing stock more quickly than our state — but far too many North Carolinians struggle to find reasonably priced residences to rent or buy.

RALEIGH — When my colleagues and I call ourselves Freedom Conservatives, it’s a pretty good tell that we believe freedom is essential to human flourishing — and that we place a high priority on conserving freedom for future generations.

RALEIGH — As the United States celebrates its semiquincentennial — Americans launched their rebellion against British rule 250 years ago this month at Lexington and Concord — I’ve been writing a series of columns chronicling the contributions North Carolinians made to the birth of our great nation.

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s motto is a Latin phrase: Esse quam videri. Popularized by the ancient Roman statesman and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero, who likely first read the Greek version from Plato and Aeschylus, the phrase means “to be rather than to seem.”

RALEIGH — There are many critters designated by law to symbolize North Carolina. For example, we have an official state bird (red cardinal), reptile (eastern box turtle), horse (colonial Spanish mustang), mollusk (Scotch bonnet), dog (Plott Hound), and mammal (eastern gray squirrel), as well as two state amphibians (the marbled salamander and Pine Barrens tree frog).