Category: Blogs
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Other Jobs Feds Can Do for $0
It’s our fourth week working for the Republic in exchange for no money. In these lean times ($0 income!) a few other jobs I can do for equal pay—but greater pleasure—have crossed my mind. These include: 10. Post reviews of my travels to TripAdvisor(dot)com 9. Polish tombstones at my local cemetery 8. Document…
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Idling through the Shut Down
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in About, Blogs, Book Reviews, Fiction, Foreign Affairs, Holidays, Humor?, News, Non-Fiction, WritingRevisiting publication credits to stimulate and inspire 2019 projects. I’d like to make it a year of broader platforms with more non-fiction. The days ahead, if the Grinches in DC keep Grinching, might provide both the means and the need to fulfill that prospect. Non-fiction The Card from Kabul—The Foreign Service Journal May 2018 Transition Brief…
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Featured Blog—by Anonymous
The Skeptical Bureaucrat Bringing a new feature to Ben East Books by sharing a blog that caught my eye last week. The Skeptical Bureaucrat offers a number of excellent features, but none more excellent than it’s anonymity. Yes, it’s an established presence going back over a decade. Yes, it regularly runs the ‘Most Head Shakingly…
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Blog of the Week
This pleasant surprise came across my desk yesterday. A blogger at The Skeptical Bureaucrat writes: I picked up some nice items at the AAFSW* book fair last week, and one of them was this quirky novel Two Pumps for the Body Man, which the author describes as a soft-boiled diplomatic noir… The story is a…
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Question for Writers
Do you find more relevant blogs when searching under ‘writers’ or ‘writing’? Better question: what word do you search when you want to see what others are posting with regard to craft? I’ve also used ‘books’ and — yes, ‘literature’. Obviously genre names work, but its narrow. ##
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What We Talk About When We Talk About Writing
Writers write. This simple premise covers everything I need to know about our craft. The axiom provides all the cover I need to shut out the world and pretend I fulfill my purpose merely by sitting down with a few trusty instruments. A Parker Jotter. A Moleskine Cahier. A keyboard, perhaps. But the platitude, it…
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Always
Puzzled that I’d spend my time doing this, people will ask, ‘How long have you been writing?’ Part accusation, part sincere inquiry, it deserves consideration. The truest answer I have—and it’s not a wise guy answer—is always. I say ‘truest’ because of the stages leading up to my present output: two published novels; two mid-grade…
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Another One Bites the Dust
All in one Mumbai day we enjoyed these musical interludes. At Malabar Hill we toured the Hanging Garden (The Cure, Pornography, 1982). It doesn’t hang so much as stand upon a series of reservoirs that hold—depending on who you ask—30 or 90 or 300 million gallons of water. The garden’s benches and clocks and topiary fill the paths,…
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