Category: Writing
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Foreign Service Writings
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My favorite Foreign Service Journal issue of the year is out! All the recently published books by writers affiliated with America’s proud diplomatic corps are listed in one tight package this month. Pick up a few titles and learn about the Foreign Service. Read about how we promote U.S. interests and protect our citizens overseas.…
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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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The Writer Is…
…the woman at the stove adding cups of this and teaspoons of that to the soup while strange faces emerge in the place where her recipe should be recalled… …the man at the sink washing egg-yolk from the breakfast plates while the doctor, lawyer, hero, villain, sidekick, loser introduce their problems but the egg won’t…
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Everyday Life
The novelist is exhausted. Whole worlds suggest themselves to her but that is all. The worlds do not appear. They do not come ready-made. They do not exist. They require focus and time and attention. The worlds must be pulled forth. Forged. The novelist is exhausted. Characters whisper in his ear and run through caverns…
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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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A Gift at Navratri
Navratri celebrates female energy and the conquest of good over evil. Appropriately, this year’s nine nights marking Goddess Durga’s battles against the buffalo demon Mahishasuran arrived in concert with the power of India’s #MeToo movement. Accusations of sexual assault and harassment by men against women first took aim at prominent figures in the Indian film…
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The Story Belongs to All
In search of distraction from my low mood, and the month of foul headlines that created it, I turn to the library of familiar books recently arrived to the shelves of our Mumbai flat. Narratives on writing by V.S. Naipaul catch my eye. The author’s self-indulgence aside, he shares my way of thinking when it comes to…
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What’s in a Name?
Truckload of 229 boxes arrived today. Some in better shape than others. Pennywise, our organization hired the lowest-bidder for the job: turned out to be ‘Quality Services Moving and Storage.’ Boy, is that company smart! With a name like that, they’re free to provide ‘Terrible Quality Services,’ ‘Low Quality Services,’ ‘Lackluster Quality Services,’ and a…
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Ozymandias and the Alter Ego
Dunking Ganpati into the sea is all about dissolution (more). Even so, witnessing his mortal remains embedded in the mud tonight brought to mind the enormous ego of past Lords: ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck,…
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