Tag Archives: literature
The Blackguard – My Novel in Ten Sentences
My first published novel, The Blackguard, is about 60,000 words long. I’m going to try and explain it in ten sentences. Props to Diotima’s Ladder for this idea. The Blackguard is about oppressed minorities getting run over by the march of modernity, except here those minorities are white supremacists who practice Chinese-style foot-binding, East African-style scarification […]
Payoffs
I’m now well into year ten of my writing career. That’s almost exactly one third of my life, almost exactly as long as I’ve lived independently, almost exactly as long as I’ve had that one stupid whisker that grows into the corner of my mouth and cannot be shaved without razor burn. It has taken […]
CJ’s Nightmare, An Excerpt from The Potency.
CJ adjusted the fine, silk collar on his shirt and brushed aside a barely visible spec of fuzz on his slacks. He looked up to see Chul seated, smoking in front of an enormous wooden book case. He was sure they had not met before, but things were going well and so CJ smiled and […]
Just Add Writers
Starting a Writers’ Group in Suwon, South Korea One of the biggest disadvantages of being an overseas expat is that people are in a constant state of motion. Whether it is to another city in Korea or another country in Asia, foreigners are perpetually coming and going. While it can be interesting to meet so […]
A Decision of Immense Importance, A Choice of Incredible Significance, A Coded Reference to My Own Indecision.
Friends, I’ve got two books started and I haven’t decided which one to buckle down on next. I could, of course, really think about what makes more sense for continuity, consider marketing and ponder the milieu. However, doing so would require me to take time from valuable tasks like watching season two of Justified, stalking […]
Kindergarten
This is an excerpt from “Price Fixing,” a novel I intend to pursue soon. If you’d like me to focus on this novel next, please vote here. Kindergarten – My first real, fully formed memory concerns a game of tag. I wasn’t even playing, I don’t think – perhaps someone had just tagged me out. Regardless, […]
The New Year’s Sacrifice
This is a short story from Chinese author Lu Xun, who happens to be one of my literary heroes. While not well known in the west, he is widely considered the father of modern Chinese literature. Perusing his body of work, it is easy to tell why. New Year’s Eve of the old calendar1 seems after […]
The Fish Market
If you look over my home page, it says I’m the author of three books – The Blackguard (available in April), The Book of Joshua (available in October) and The Potency (available in July). This isn’t strictly true. There’s a fourth book called The Cult of Benedict Arnold that I began as a 19 year-old […]
Don’t Be a Wimp, Writer’s Edition
This is part two in a two part series on writing. To visit the first, please click here. When I listen to struggling writers – writers who never finish the book, never get the article published, give up after 14 pages – they always seem to mention problems with inspiration. “I just don’t have any […]
Writers’ Groups
This is part one of a two part writing series. Please click here if you’d like to see the second. I’ve taken part in two distinct types of literary community. In the first, people come together, usually at an establishment specializing in $8 variations on Folgers pre-mix, and exchange opinions on each others’ masterpieces. In […]
Ben Garrido's Author Page 