Posts by David Benjamin
A portrait of the artist as a portrait of the artist
by David Benjamin “Before I start a book, I’ve usually got four hundred pages of notes. Most of them are almost incoherent. But there’s always a moment when you think you’ve got a novel started. You can more or less see how it’s going to work out. After that, it’s just a question of detail.”…
Read MoreSwimming the sea of metaphor
Fiction agnostics—readers who consume only non-fiction—tend to be unaware of how profoundly flights of imaginative fancy, have enriched their language and illuminated their lives. by David Benjamin “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by……
Read MoreThe conscience of the news
by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — My first assignment in journalism, as a college-student stringer for the Rockford (Ill.) Morning Star, was a murder. Alas, it was no mystery. A guy had been killed in a bar fight in Beloit, Wisconsin. The killer was in jail. My editor wanted me to go over to…
Read MoreThe once and future zombie apocalypse
by David Benjamin “This is the way the world ends; not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door.” ― Amanda Hocking, Hollowland PARIS — It has long been one of my items of faith that actor Stanley Tucci has never accepted a bad script. This conviction…
Read MoreTo recur or not recur
Every writer’s cast of characters is finite. The sources of those characters begin in the many facets of the writer’s own self. The astute reader can often perceive the recurrence of character from story to story and appreciate the writer’s skill in drawing variation from repetition. by David Benjamin Sometimes, a recurring character can recur……
Read MoreParis in an American
by David Benjamin “They’ll never want to see a rake or plow/ And who the deuce can parleyvous a cow?/ How ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm/ After they’ve seen Paree?” ―Sam Lewis & Joe Young PARIS — Among my grandfather Archie’s four brothers, my favorite was Uncle Harry, partly because…
Read MoreWelcome to the Middle Ages
by David Benjamin “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” ―Grover Norquist It all started when the earth-moving equipment arrived and commenced ripping up the pavement…
Read MoreThe author as expert
One of the ego boosts that an author enjoys is being deemed an “expert” on topics included in his or her stories. With most writers, who are by nature promiscuous of ideas, expertise is an illusion. (The image is my Paris-based novel, Skulduggery in the Latin Quarter. The art is by my wife, Junko Yoshida.)……
Read MoreKarma? Schadenfreude? Quel dommage?
by David Benjamin “Rodgers’ career probably is over. Few athletes come back stronger than ever from an Achilles’ rupture and, given Rodgers’ flirtations with retirement this past offseason, it’s hard to imagine him putting in 11 months of rigorous rehab just to play one more season.” ―Tom Silverstein, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel MADISON, Wis.—For the last few…
Read MoreBarefoot in the past
by David Benjamin “You can burn my house, steal my car/ Drink my liquor from an old fruit-jar/ Do anything that you want to do/ But uh-uh baby, lay off of my shoes/ Don’t you step on my blue suede shoes.” ―Carl Perkins MADISON, Wis.— One of my guilty pleasures is Emile Ardolino’s sneaky-smart…
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