Category: Writing
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The Old Man. The Sea.
Last spring we visited Key West. Of course we toured the Hemingway home. That was Vikram’s 9th birthday week. Being a natural reader, he couldn’t leave the premises without a book. What to buy? The novels and stories that introduced me to Hemingway — A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, the Nick Adams…
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Remarks at Indie Author Day
My new novel is the quintessential Washington, DC book. At the climax to Patchworks, hundreds of federal workers stream from their offices, urged on by the sound of a screaming alarm. They gather on a grassy knoll near the National Mall, some of them leaning on one another, some of them sobbing, others in stony,…
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Guns Don’t Kill People…
The comments section of any article about sensible gun regulation reveals the infant-like imaginary world of the pro-gun argument. The most common, perhaps, is that ‘Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.’ But when was the last time you saw a murderer swing a People against a group of people, killing them? Should we also…
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Vienna, but not Austria
Join me and these local independent authors for a conversation about writing and publishing. Kimberly G. Hargan–The Dauphin’s Lost Jewels (Sci-fi) Lisa G. Eley–Thirteen Geese in Flight (Biography) Candace Meredith–Contemplation: Imagery, Sound, and Form (Poetry) Kacy Cooney–In a Maze of Imagination (General Fiction) Kamakshi P. Murti–Lalli’s Window (Children’s Fiction) Jonathan Zeitlin–Death & Repair (Mystery) And…
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Writers Write (and it’s hard)
Great stuff! In a few simple lines our craft is cast in opposing opposing lights: it is spiritual grandness and workaday labor. We are at once inspired and guided by “the invisible hand of the soul.” Yet who can deny that “Writing a novel is drudgery”? Yes & yes. More inspiration below. Dear Sugars, My…
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Angels Walk Here
This blog opened four years ago with the following: I wish more people were reading books. Here’s what I’m reading: Heaven Is Coming Home, by David Suarez Gomez. That’s all I wrote. And I didn’t post again for months. I had a voracious appetite for reading and I was writing books, but they were years from…
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Comic Relief for Troubled Times
Taking aim at the institutions we once trusted to save us from ourselves. Out Today. AMERICA’S NEXT GUN MASSACRE IS INEVITABLE. Unless one government intern can make a miracle of his odd DC jobs. Gabriel Dunne’s internship has him tracking gun violence in America. But before he can start, boss Chloe tasks him with planning…
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The Paneless Window Washer
The air and leaves outside turn to fall. In the week ahead we’ll celebrate Rosh Hashanah, Navrathri, and the official start of Autumn. I’ll hold the first book discussion for my debut novel, 18 months old already. My Foreign Service colleagues and I will start the annual ritual of progress into new jobs, new countries,…
Ben East Books 