“Writing is easy,” wrote legendary sportswriter Red Smith. “Just sit down at the typewriter and open a vein.” Though most of us no longer sit at typewriters nor face blank pieces of physical paper, there’s nothing more daunting than a blank screen and the notion of putting something meaningful on it. Compound that with the idea of doing that for approximately 200 pages and you begin to realize why a lot of novelists end up…

MONDAY: Leftover anger from last week’s G8 Summit? Check out John Perkins at Politics and Prose tonight. He’ll be discussing his newest book The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption, which details the shady deals behind U.S. foreign aid to developing countries. 7 p.m. TUESDAY: Hurricane season is upon us yet again, and this August will mark the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating impact…

TUESDAY: Former vice president/rock star Al Gore will speak about his new book The Assault on Reason to a sold-out crowd at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium. Don’t expect An Inconvenient Truth, though; this is all about shrinking approval ratings for the president and Congress, not shrinking coastlines. 6 p.m. Political journalist Michael Barone will speak about his book Our First Revolution, which is actually a reference to Britain’s Glorious Revolution of 1688, not the…

>> Susan Coll, author of Acceptance: A Novel will take you back to those insane days of writing the perfect college application and the agonizing wait for the elusive big envelope. She’ll be at Olsson’s in Dupont Circle tonight. Bring a flask and learn to laugh at those anxiety filled days. [1307 19th St., NW, Free, 7 p.m.] >> As we mentioned Monday, Men at Work vet Colin Hay brings him impressive collection of…

MONDAY At Chapters, they’re mad for mystery writers on Mondays in March, and for alliteration at all other times. Today, they have a fine guest: Laura Lippman, who’ll be reading from her latest, What the Dead Know. 445 11th Street, NW, 1 p.m. TUESDAY Tom Bissell and his father, an ex-Marine who served in the Vietnam War, travel back to Vietnam on a journey that retraces both national and personal history. He’ll be in town…