Category: Book Reviews
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Maneater
This review just slays it. Jason Overdorf hunts with a sharp pen and takes down Dane Huckelbridge’s narrative about what would seem a brutally interesting topic. And he doesn’t stop there. He spills ink like blood all over the slain author’s enablers: “He is not without accomplices in this crime against the English language, either.…
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Speaking of Oscar
Previously blogged: Oscar KeyE is Dead. Long Live Oscar Keye. Rather than dwell on my dislike for all things Oscar Awards, trying to unravel the reasons for my disdain, I’ll revisit one thing I do love about Oscar: his utility as an early alter-ego. ‘Oscar Keye is dead and I am free,’ I wrote in…
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In the Pathless Woods: Revising
Three years after writing a novel called The Fortress for my eight-year-old son, I’m taking on the fourth revision. It’s got a new title, In the Pathless Woods, inspired by Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, the 18th century narrative poem by George Gordon, Lord Byron. Byron’s verse replaces a simple placeholder I’d inserted at the time, filler…
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Finding Your Market
This video is about examining your manuscript to find its best market opportunity. For me the process took ten years, failed representation, and an entire rewrite. But it was worth it. In this segment from my interview with Matthew Whiteside, I share lessons learned from the process of bringing out my first novel. Hint: I…
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Lousy Book Covers
This clip from my interview with Matthew Whiteside explores the marketing side of writing books, and why a title like Two Pumps for the Body Man can be a real challenge to promote. The cover didn’t help, not even when it was featured on a website called LousyBookCovers(dot)com (their snark goes to 11…). Check the design…
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A BenEast FilmFirst Production
This week I enjoyed a 30-minute interview with Matthew Whiteside, head impresario at Uniweb Productions. The man’s doing a lot for indie writers, pumping out interview after interview exploring the challenges we face, the inspirations that drive us, and the rewards that come with pursuing our creative demons. He even inspired me to put up…
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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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Shattered Glass
I picked up Greg Matos’ Shattered Glass—The Story of a Marine Embassy Guard with a narrow purpose. I wanted to read about the December 2004 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. I wanted to know what it felt like to be the Marine standing Post when five heavily armed terrorists stormed our compound, killing…
Ben East Books 