Category: Books
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A Borrower Be
The patient wait is over. Patchworks is now available through the Fairfax County Public Library. Reserve your copy today. Can one intern save us from ourselves, when the government he works for keeps shutting itself down? Patchworks shares a pound of absurdity for every ounce of tragedy, winking in dismay at the circumstances of our…
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Swamp Talk
Why do the murders keep happening? What are we doing to stop them? Can one earnest intern make a difference, when the government he serves keeps shutting itself down? Join the whole Patchworks crew for a bite at The Fed Buffet. Great Falls Library 9830 Georgetown Pike, Great Falls, VA Saturday Feb 3rd, 1:30-4:00 America’s next gun…
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Rock Paper Scissors Shutdown
Gun violence isn’t the only systemic failure of the federal government to be yodeled at with doomed futility in Patchworks. Furloughs and government shutdowns also pepper a story full of recurring small deaths. There comes a point—moments before the plot’s big turn—when two sympathetic colleagues must choose: which of them will take a round of furloughs instead of…
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The Mess We’re In
Only in our currently defiled situation could an unpaid intern have the gall and patience to assert moral power… This month’s Foreign Service Journal features an incisive review of Patchworks by author and retired Foreign Service Officer Dan Whitman. Generous praise from a great writer. Dan served as French interpreter for the State Department’s International…
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2018
Resolution: Let’s be deliberate in the year ahead. Let’s choose our time and our course and our actions with a certainty in what we hope to achieve. I’ll begin January working on the novel that will serve as a gift for my second son, who turns eight in July. That work will continue steadily during…
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This American Carnage
Just under a year ago we were promised an end to American carnage. Now, today, the wealth of the 99% is being ripped from our homes and handed blithely to those who already have so much. So how does the inaugural phrase “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” relate to signing…
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Stubborn 2nd Amendment
The law that guarantees the right to bear arms pegs that right to a well regulated Militia. Patchworks AMERICA’S NEXT GUN MASSACRE IS INEVITABLE. Unless one government intern can make a miracle of his odd jobs in Washington, DC. Gabriel Dunne’s federal internship has him tracking gun violence in America. But before he can start, his…
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A Well Regulated Militia
The gun lobby conveniently forgets a key aspect of the law that grants the right to arms. Congress need not be so forgetful. Neither should we, who elect them. Every November ask: Which side do you stand on protecting the nation from flying bullets? –
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Not One More
Working on a promotional series for Patchworks. This one takes up the refrain from Everytown for Gun Safety. It’s a good refrain. Not one more.
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Too Much of a Good Thing
This piece in the Post has me thinking about the Second Amendment. A corollary argument is unlikely to convince pro-gun extremists. But it should. They will one day wake up to find all their rights revoked if they refuse to allow reasonable limits to the size, shape, and scope of their arsenals. (I’m satisfied with…
Ben East Books 