Category: About
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Maybe Not so Mediocre
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An author revisits a languishing biographical sketch, finishes it, and wins a Golden Nib in the Virginia Writers Club statewide nonfiction category.
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Speaking of Tone-Lōc
I haven’t thought about Tone-Lōc in years, but I woke up on Friday eager write about him. The next day, a horse called Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby. It so happens I’m also studying synchronicity right now. Here in Mumbai we’re living through our own Tone-Lōc moment, a sort of Tone-Lōc-down. It’s déjà vu…
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Winning
The family sports teams are: sons v dad. Two on one. We compete in soccer, kickball, football. I make the rules. The boys don’t know all the rules. I design the rules to keep the action going, the ball in play, the competition fierce. Among the rules known to the boys: In soccer, no boundaries.…
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Hold My Hand
We barely walk together anymore. The limited times we venture out, now, the barren streets pose no threat. And anyway, you have long since been “too old” for my protection. Still, you reached for my hand. Hand-in-hand we moved along the sidewalk. In whatever chaotic place, in Mumbai, Washington, Mexico City, across whatever peaceful pasture…
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The United States Department of State
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Referred to as the State Department, State, and DOS, the U.S. Department of State has recently been called by an unfitting new label. I don’t care about the insult. Hearing it called “deep state department” glances off as a meaningless jab. I’ve long inured myself against the public bluster. What concerns me more is the…
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About Mohamed
Every year this time my thoughts turn to Mohamed (his story is here). I had reason to conjure his story this fall and found the image below. Pictured is the American Library, Kabul, circa 1958. Is this the building where Mohamed learned to love the United States? Where he read American authors and watched American movies?…
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It Rains, It Pours
Tuesday I flew to Delhi, this kitchen knife concealed in my shoulder bag. Security missed the 5-½” blade. Wednesday my phone blew up during a seminar I was conducting with 90 colleagues, a deluge of messages from Mumbai, much of the city underwater, including the 5km stretch between my son’s elementary school and home. A…
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Operation Sheltering Sky
Rajasthan is desert country, 70% of the state—India’s largest—an arid mix of scrub and sand. We trekked by camel into the Thar Desert about 50 km outside Jaisalmer. Abdullah led our beasts on foot, their names Simon, Paulos, and—inexplicably—Johnny No. 1. Toward sunset we reached the Sam Dunes. The wind died down and we made…
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Book Marketing & Helping Others
I’ve turned the tables on fellow indie writer and keen author interviewer Matthew Whiteside, who describes his Uniweb Productions website as A place for creativity, hope, inspiration, and all around good times. Anyone familiar with his interviews knows about the good times. But what about the hope and inspiration? What about the creativity? Find out…
Ben East Books 