Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:29 — 1.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

Ed Benjamin, American author

Ed Benjamin

Hello, Ed Benjamin, could you begin by telling us your name, how we can reach you and where you come from, please?

1 Name: Ed Benjamin

Website: EdBenjaminBooks.com

Blog: http://edbenjaminbooks.com/my-blog/

2 Country: USA

3 Do you prefer to read a particular genre? I read mostly detective mysteries, spy fiction, political thrillers, some adventure books, etc. Occasionally, I like to re-read a classic. For example, I am currently re-reading “War and Peace.”

4 Do you write in the same genre? No, although my writing time is limited, I try to write in different genres.

If not which ones? I have two additional projects in work in the mystery detective genre. I am planning to re-write a science fiction book I self-published in 1997. Following that, I have plans to write another nonfiction book on how to prepare proposals for the federal government.

5 Have you always written and what got you started professionally? When I was a freshmen in college, a classmate and I wrote a chapbook about the painters whose paintings were displayed in the lobby of the administration building. After I retired from the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1990, I started a career as a free-lance technical writer specializing in preparing proposals for companies desiring to get business with the government. I am still pursuing this career.

I still dabble in writing in my spare time. In 1995, I won a regional writing contest for a short story I wrote. I wrote a science fiction book (black comedy) in 1997. Then, I published my nonfiction book on doing business with the government in 1999. I wrote and published my novelette, “Harry’s War,” in 2012 and then in 2018, I published two of my short stories. “Mar: A Harry Miles Redemption Story” and “Melanie: A Tale of Wonder.”

I am a busy technical writer and do not get much time to pursue my fiction more fully now and in the immediate future.

6 How many books have you published? I have published two full length books (one fiction and one nonfiction), one eBook novelette, and two eBook short stores.

7 Which one would you like to tell us about? One I like is “Melanie: A Tale of Wonder.”

8 Why did you write this book and what is it about? I originally wrote the story in 1997. I was thinking about alternative history. What if a famous worldwide singer had not died but was stricken with a mysterious malady, had faked his death, and roamed the countryside doing odd jobs. Then, a freak accident gave him his voice back for a few hours and he used the occasion to befriend a ten-year old girl whose father was dying. This story is the result.

9 Book cover and ISBN/ASIN

Melanie: A Tale of Wonder

Melanie: A Tale of Wonder – ASIN: B07BZ3RGDJ

10 What would you like your next book to be on? I am slowly but surely working on a book called “Redemption.” It features Harry Miles but focuses on the development of his character, his tragic encounter, and his dive into despair, alcohol, oblivion, metamorphosis, tragedy, and his realization life endures.

11 If you could go anywhere in the universe, where would you go and why? Antarctica – it is the only continent on this planet I have not visited.

12 Is there anything you can share about yourself or your work that not many people know? Many people ask me the source of the name of my character, Harry Miles. I never knew my paternal grandfather, Harry Miles Benjamin. When my father was around eight or nine, my grandmother died, and her family looked after him and his sister. There was a division in the family and my grandmother’s family would not allow my grandfather to see my father or his sister. They eventually adopted my father and his sister. Legend has it my grandfather was an adventurer and succeeded in obtaining a new life for himself in the wilds of Canada. I felt a calling to name my character after him.

Harry is a composite of many fighter pilots I have known and dedicated to military people of all ranks and all military occupations (aircraft maintenance technicians, cooks, motor pool technicians, security personnel, etc.) who have dedicated their lives to a cause greater than themselves.

13 What is your favorite foreign food? I fell in love with polenta while working on proposals in Italy.

Thank you for telling us a little about yourself and your work, Ed Benjamin, perhaps, you will come back after you have finished your next project: Redemption, isn’t it?

PS: You can read more about ex-USAF Ed Benjamin’s featured book: Harry’s War by clicking this link: Harry’s War