Category: Uncategorized
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Arsenal of Democracy
Dear Grandpa, Today a couple dozen World War II aircraft buzzed the National Mall. They flew in honor of the 70th anniversary of VE Day. You can picture the scene: you worked in DC for three decades after leaving the Pacific behind. They flew from the west over the Lincoln Memorial, past your old worksite at…
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Hands Off My Free Speech
Hate-speech promoter Pam Geller reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld’s dentist, Tim Whately and his quest for total joke-telling immunity. When Jerry tells Father Curtis he thinks Whately converted to Judaism for the jokes, the priest asks, “And this offends you as a Jewish person?” “No,” says Jerry. “It offends me as a comedian.” Geller’s irrational defense of…
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Beginnings and Endings
You might inscribe the title of your novel a couple dozen times before it sticks. You might make it longer, shorter, TBD, Working Title, WIP, B.S., Nada, Whatever… whatever. And revert after all that to the original working title. Or not. But “The End”… this is a thing you only write once on a manuscript. Today was that…
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TITLES—ARGH!
One week to go before the deadline to submit your novel-length manuscript to the 2015 Leapfrog Press Fiction Contest. Get it done! The goal’s had me burning the midnight oil the past couple months, forcing me to put off a lot of other substantive posts. Among the big items I’d hoped to reflect on recently…
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In Which I “Interview” Jon Stewart
Good morning, Jon. Thank you for being here this morning. Thank you for having me. I didn’t know you also did morning programs. Actually, I think I just stayed up too late. What time is it? Let’s get right to it, shall we? After 17 years of attacking the schmucks in the media and in government, there…
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Foggy Bottom
From DC’s skyline to its underground rail system, one has to wonder how the capital of our great Republic has come to symbolize so much decay and brokenness. Escalator outages pervade Metro, clogging the human flow. Congress teases us with shuttering the Department of Homeland Security, even in the face of recent threats. These perversions…
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Why Criticize Williams But Not O’Reilly?
O’Reilly is not a journalist. He’s not worth my time. My criticism of Brian Williams, by contrast, was a necessary purge. I’d liked his work and trusted it, so felt betrayed, let down, disappointed. As far as O’Reilly is concerned, the Washington Post’s Paul Waldman put it best: Brian Williams got suspended from NBC News because…
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“Writer’s Block”: You Don’t Have It
I’ve been known to comment on various blogs: “I’ve never had writer’s block. I have no shortage of things to write about or the desire to write them. If I’m not writing, I’m chewing on it.” Ok. In January I blew through 20 chapters of a first draft. Four weeks and done, rough edges and all.…
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Banned Reading
Did you know that Popular Online Vendor X bans “distasteful content” from honest reviews of the very books they’d be happy to sell you? That’s right: reviews of books full of obscenities sold on their site won’t be posted if those reviews contain the same profane, immoral, or distasteful content as the product they want you to buy. I tried for two weeks to…
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Peace Corps Writer Awards 2014
Vote for your favorite Peace Corps Book of 2014. People in the Peace Corps community know well the agency’s three goals: To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served To promote a better…
Ben East Books 