Author, Ben A. East

B.A. East studied writing at Central Connecticut State University and Education at the University of New Haven. He taught English in Malawi as a Peace Corps Volunteer, in New York at Brooklyn College Academy, and Literature 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 Washington DC.
His manuscript treating espionage and the West African coke trade was shortlisted in 2014 for two fiction prizes and his work has appeared in The Foreign Service Journal, Atticus Review, Crime Factory Magazine, and others. He’s at work on a satire of the gun control debate and a juvenile lit novel about dreams commissioned by his son.
A surfer, an Ironman finisher, a Little League coach, Ben enjoys spending time with his wife Deepa Ramesh and their two sons in Virginia.

"Bullets, Booze and Bastards"

Two Pumps for the Body Man
A Diplomatic Noir

by B.A. East,

$4.99 ebook, $14.95 paperback

Jeff Mutton walks the diplomatic beat protecting American officials in Saudi Arabia. An expert with guns, knives, grenades, and rockets, he’s survived assaults and sieges, stabbings and chokeholds, car bombs, carjackings, criminal hits, and countless other enemy threats. But instinct tells Mutton the menace he now faces dwarfs all these killers combined. The fool—his foot fetish has him in hot water again! Part soft-boiled noir, part literary satire, Two Pumps for the Body Man is an unserious look at a serious situation, a grim reminder that no matter how high the barricade, how sharp the razor wire, there is no front line to the War on Terror. And the enemy is everywhere, even within.

Quotes for Two Pumps for the Body Man

Yesterday upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today.
I wish, I wish he’d go away.

- H. Mearns

…does that Star-spangled banner yet wave
o’er the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave?

- U.S. National Anthem

Five star review on Amazon
by Canadian satiric novelist Robert Bruce Cormack

Catch-22 Meets The Acronym: Very Funny
By Robert Cormack on April 27,
2016 Format: Paperback
Ben East has created a wonderfully wacky consular bash in a place called The Kingdom, a nightmarish place straight out of Catch-22 where bureaucrats use very acronym under the sun (including OOPS, which stands for Office of Overseas Predator Strikes). While bureaucracy rules, one man, Jeff Mutton, Head of Security, tries to keep everyone safe despite the machinations of beauty Vanna Lavina, Consul General, attempting to improve diplomatic relations with disco parties. This is haywire bureaucracy at its finest and East does a great job bringing his characters out into the Middle Eastern sunshine. A good read from a writer who's obviously seen some of the nuttiness himself. Truly enjoyed this.