Tag: Books
-
World Book Day
On Earth Day I pollute. On World Book Day I watch movies. If I list my favorites, it becomes clear that most actually started out as novels—even Cool Hand Luke (Donn Pearce, ’65) and Midnight Cowboy (James Leo Herlihy, same year). Easy Rider (’69) is the exception.
-
Miles of Fun, Miles of Files
Paul Panepinto is bored at work. How could he not be? He’s a painter trapped by lapsed policies, cold chocolate in a Federal Funding mug, and long stints of muzak while on hold with Mortgage Depot. Also there are his smarmy daydreams of ‘better times’ with Suzanne Biedertyme to get him through the monotony. Panepinto…
-
Guest Post–Michael J. Sahno
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…
-
Crook v Crook v Crooked Cop
Hardboiled noir fans: Bob Truluck delivers a lot more than promised in The Big Nothing. That’s no backhanded compliment. The promise includes a vicious series of showdowns, a coterie of sadists and pervs, and a few well-intentioned rubes caught up in a game bigger than the pile they’re after. The cast of criminals and dirty…
-
I’d Rather Be Writing (or maybe talking about it)
The American Foreign Service Association filmed a few short clips featuring my reflections on Two Pumps for the Body Man, the inspiration behind the novel, and my thoughts on the writing process. It isn’t exactly Zack Galifianakis Between Two Ferns (more like Some Guy and Bamboo) but I hope viewers will enjoy it when it becomes available.…
-
Two Pumps for the Librarian
Six months back, guy walks into the library. Hands over his Foreign Service novel. “Here ya go.” “What’s this?” “It’s a book. Go ahead. Put it on the shelf.” “Not so fast, sonny. Two Pumps for the Body Man? Sounds dirty.” “You don’t want this novel for your patrons?” “We want four copies of that novel…
-
The Literary Excellence, III
My nominations for The Stephen T. Colbert Award for The Literary Excellence continue. Boy, this effort is really lifting my mood! In Preston Lang’s The Sin Tax a female baddy flashes her gun at a male ex-con baddy: “You have to jump through a lot of hoops to get a carry permit in New York. It’s insane. But once…
-
The Literary Excellence, II
My nominations for The Stephen T. Colbert Award for The Literary Excellence continue. Writers, friends, and fellow bureaucrats looking for the most eloquent way to describe their mood this past week should look no further than Sterling Johnson’s masterpiece of contemporary literature: English as a Second F*cking Language. This gem, in the shape of Strunk & White’s classic treatise…
-
B.A. East
Novelist Foreign Service Officer Returned Peace Corps Volunteer B.A. East taught English Lit and Composition in Malawi as a Peace Corps Volunteer, at Brooklyn College Academy in New York, and at the American School of Asuncion in Paraguay. Later he joined the State Department’s Foreign Service, taking assignments in Saudi Arabia, Nicaragua, Ghana, Mexico, and…
-
Oscar Keye Is Dead, Long Live Oscar Keye!
Oscar Keye is dead and I am free: I just delivered my latest manuscript to the publisher. Freedom… Fiction always begins as escape, a jailbreak, a mad dash for wild, unknown quarters. Fiction itself is freedom, turning the mundane into the extraordinary! The bones of my being are loose-jointed things hooked by springs and oiled…
Ben East Books 