A few words about me

Dear Reader,

I live here in Guanajuato, Mexico, an ancient mining capital, at 7,000 feet, high desert, on the western-facing slope of the canyon, 203 steps up from the bottom.

You can find Guanajuato on the map by laying a ruler between Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara, and then extending the line eastward, until you arrive at the center of the country.

Guanajuato is a lovely old colonial city, with a good university and a very good symphony orchestra. It is a fine place to learn Spanish and other languages. It is the home of the three-week long Festival Cervantino, with performing artists from all over the world. It is a small walking city, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

You can learn more about me as a writer by going to “About My Stories” on this blog. My essay “My Friend Tonio Kröger” talks about writing and being a writer. On the sidebar, on the right, you can pull down my finalist short stories for the 2011 Flannery O’Connor Short Fiction Award.

My stories are either about Mexico or were written in Mexico, over the last thirteen years.

Mexico has a way of bringing out the writer (and the painter). I think of Gary Paul Nabhan’s book The Desert Smells Like Rain (highly recommended) as the metaphor for my own sprouting.

My goal is audience, as simple as that. Not fame, not money. I want people to read my stories, and my novels as I post them.

One of the latter is coming up. A story about a young mining engineer (based on my own grandfather) who at the age of twenty-eight and suffering from mercury poisoning, hence lacking judgment, wanders down into the Mexican Revolution in 1916 and becomes an adversary, but not enemy, of Pancho Villa, who in the end helps him out of a hopeless situation.

It is a coming of age story (Bildungsroman) and a love story: he chooses the fiery heroine-addicted widow of a Carrancista officer he has accidentally mortally wounded.

It is a passionate tale of horses and men and women, with the flavor of John Reed’s Insurgent Mexico. I think you will like it, if you like my stories.

As for what’s already posted, not everyone likes to comment publicly, and so I invite you to email me at sterlingbenn@gmail.com.

I will respond to you.

Just tell me the story or piece of writing you’re referring to and how it resonates with your writing, thinking, or life experiences.

I can respond, of course, in English, adequately in Spanish and German, and haltingly in French. No Dutch!

I am finding my way still as a blogger and writer, and it would help me tremendously if you would give me feedback.

It would also help me if you tell friends about this blog who are interested in Mexico, or have been here, or are thinking of coming here in the future.

So that’s it, let’s talk!

And don’t forget to try out the Biff story (translated into those languages, plus Dutch) on your child, grandchild, great-grandchildren, or – with permission – on young students, and tell me how it went. I wrote “Biff and the Sinking Coal Freighter” for my 5-year old grandchild.

Here’s hoping I hear from you!

Sterling

13 Comments »

13 Responses

on April 27, 2013 at 7:32 am | Reply Ol' Doyle

So glad to have discovered your many web “presents”, Sterling.

And ’tis always nice seeing you on the streets of ‘Juato. Do you agree that our dependably perfect weather keeps the brew of creativity abrewing?
on March 23, 2013 at 12:04 am | Reply Aubrey Rose

Herr Sterling, this is Aubrey Rose from your German and Foreign Lit class at Sonoma State in fall 1990 – I just saw online that Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart, has passed away – I thought of your class so I searched you online and found you here – cheers!
- on March 23, 2013 at 7:35 am | Reply sterlingbennett
  
  Hi, Aubrey! Thanks for thinking of me and Achebe at the same time. I’ve been living in Mexico for the last thirteen years, where things have been falling apart since the beginning of time. It is still a wonderful place to live. Hope you are doing well! Sterling
on February 14, 2013 at 10:53 am | Reply Brian Wizard

Hey there, Mr. Bennett,
I did a search for my hummingblade site, just to see if all things are working, and before my site came up as a listing, your page appeared because I told you of my hummingblade.com site. Did you visit it?

I have a gig in NY City on June 1st, on stage at a big cathedral in Astoria, playing as part of the NY City Saw Festival, even though I play blade, not saw, but they don’t care. It should be fun . . . especially if I learn to play the dang thing. I’ve written the instructional manual, but have yet to read it. Isn’t that they way of all manuals, even if one writes the instructions himself, he still doesn’t read it. Funny.

Meanwhile, global warming is a blessing as a two foot snow pack is easy to contend with compared to the normal four foot snow pack of before. Still as much water in the ground and the excess just runs to the sea.

I hope all is well in your world and life is great in all manners and ways.

I have new story in the works, Beamed. It’s about a guy who gets beamed away by aliens who come near earth to beam up stock for their hunting preserve far, far away. The protagonist simply gets snatched up by error. Fun.

Later, BW
on December 4, 2012 at 5:08 pm | Reply Brian Wizard

SB,
Yes, I’m still King of My Hill overlooking the world. If you have regular email I can send you a photo or two.
I think it is time to turn some of my stories into screenplays. You know how hard it is to get people to enjoy reading a story.
I’m still a mad artist with all sorts of creative endeavors over the past 21 years. This place is conducive to creativity.

Write on, read on, stay on . . . BW
on December 4, 2012 at 11:15 am | Reply Brian Wizard

SB,
So you live! Great stuff. Feel free to contact me. Visit my website: brianwizard.com for an update on my life and times. For fun, visit: hummingblade.com to see my latest creation. Funny photo of the three of me in the Me, Myself and I band.

Cheers, your neighbor from English Hill and fellow writer, BW
- on December 4, 2012 at 2:14 pm | Reply sterlingbennett
  
  Hey, Brian, what a treat to hear from you. How are you? Are you up on your mountain top still? Still writing away? Are you involved in veterans’ affairs at all? I’ll visit your website! Big hug from me…!
on June 10, 2012 at 5:04 am | Reply Monik Frossard

beau du dimanche !!!!Rnecontre de l’auteur à la chambre d’hôte de l’Aubergine
on June 10, 2012 at 4:56 am | Reply monik

merci de ce très joli conte , il me plaît beaucoup je vais l’envoyer à mes amis sur facebook
bon voyage à mes nouveaux amis (e)
votre dévouée monik
on October 7, 2011 at 1:43 am | Reply Ian Davidson

Greetings from the beautiful State of Missouri! I have enjoyed reading some of your stories this evening. You writing style reminds me of having a conversation with you. It is enjoyable!
- on October 7, 2011 at 3:44 pm | Reply sterlingbennett
  
  Ian, Glad you’re reading some of my stories. I’m flattered that you enjoy them. I think one of the tricks of storytelling is to be guided by the flow of one’s own speech. Your Granddad Earl speaks very much the way Mark Twain writes, when he’s talking about Missouri and the Bottom Land along the River. Good to hear from you. Y abrazos a tu Mamá!
on August 10, 2011 at 3:06 am | Reply staceytompkins

Hi Sterling.
I love your stories. Especially since I can see you speaking them and hear your voice so clearly. Unmistakable, your voice.
Thank you for sharing. Tell “Carolina” I say hello. Miss you all.
xoxoxo,
Stacey Tompkins
- on November 10, 2011 at 1:18 pm | Reply sterlingbennett
  
  Dear Stacey, Sorry to have taken so long to respond. You were my first comment, and a very encouraging one indeed. Thanks so much! I haven’t forgotten your story about the dog killing the goats. Or were they sheep? I believe you read that story at our house, during one of the reading evenings. Abrazos to you all!