Ben East Books

Category: Writing

  • 33 Inches for Kerouac

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    Ben East
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    At CVS today I bought one item. One. Doesn’t matter what. When the purchase was finalized, the cashier handed me the receipt. Guess how long that sucker was. Some of this is necessary, perhaps. Now I know I was served by a person named Reina. Hi Reina. Phone number, store address, price paid plus taxes (the…

  • Murder and the Father of American Diplomacy

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    Ben East
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    We all know Ben Franklin as one of the nation’s earliest Renaissance Men: scientist, printer, writer, businessman, scholar, politician, diplomat. Fireman. In David R. Andresen’s short mystery Murder in a Blue Moon Ben takes a break from his more gentlemanly pursuits, such as chess, to solve a serial murder in Philadelphia. It’s fall of 1752, the American Experiment…

  • House of Cards, Sleight of Hand

    House of Cards, Sleight of Hand

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    Ben East
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    Think the opening credits for House of Cards is just some anodyne tour around the nation’s capital? Not so. One minute into the 90 second clip the camera pans desolate tracks. It’s night. All is still, the music foreboding. A locomotive blows through timed to a sudden guitar chord—sound and vision merged for a dramatic…

  • One Year on the Beat

    One Year on the Beat

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    Ben East
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    A year ago this week I put Jeff Mutton on the beat. Assigned to keep America’s diplomats safe in Saudi Arabia, he proved a tough match for tyrants as well as terrorists. He endured vacuous conversations during diplomatic soirees and survived quack psychiatry at the hands of State Department shrinks. He introduced us to a…

  • Jimmy Breslin

    Jimmy Breslin

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    Ben East
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    Jimmy Breslin, Carrie Fisher, Bruno Kirby—together again. ‘…It spoke to you, and that pleases me.’ Sally (Meg Ryan): “Well, let’s just say I’m not a big fan of Jimmy Breslin.” Jess (Bruno Kirby): “Well, he’s the reason I became I writer, but that’s not important.” Marie (Fisher): “Restaurants are to people in the 80s what theater…

  • Guest Post–Michael J. Sahno

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    Ben East
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    Today I turn over this space to author and book marketing consultant Michael J. Sahno. Congratulations to Michael on today’s re-launch of the novel, Miles of Files. Check back in later for a review. Marketing for Indie Authors Before I started my own publishing and consulting firm, I spent about 15 years working full time as a…

  • Foreign Service Readings

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    Ben East
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    Continuing a short list of blogs and independent websites offering an insider’s view of U.S. diplomacy steeped in experience. Not  officialdom. I previously posted this Foreign Service blog list. https://diplopundit.net Opinionated and often edgy, DiploPundit has no official connection to the U.S. Department of State. It wades into leadership issues, Foreign Service realities, international current events, and other developments in the…

  • D. W. Hitman

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    Ben East
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    Warning: the reading police, disguised as the media, have infiltrated the State Department. Based on a stroll through the Harry Truman building cafeteria, one journalist for The Atlantic pretends to understand our present condition: “As the staffer and I walked among the tables and chairs, people with badges chatted over coffee; one was reading his Kindle.” Forgive me for…

  • Brothers

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    Ben East
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  • Apostrophe

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    Ben East
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    Crank the Zappa. For reasons I’d rather not say, my first writing task of the morning: confirm that Dunkin’ Donuts uses an apostrophe at the end of its informal gerund. It does. Now, to St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast.