New experience for me: an author interview!  I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Alex Beecroft for Speak Its Name, the blog devoted to gay historical fiction.  She's the author of the marvelous Age of Sail novel Captain's Surrender and the new fantasy The Witch's Boy.  She's also a thoughtful, charming, intelligent person.  I had a blast interviewing Alex, which I think comes across nicely in the interview. 

You can read our conversation here.  Enjoy!!

If I imagined a fantasy review for my work, it would be Arthur Breur's, for Rainbow Reviews.  He compares "Servant of the Seasons 1: Autumn" to the work of Ursula Leguin!  Favorably!  (And without apparent irony!)  

Among other thoughtful comments by Mr. Breur: "The story is a masterful short work about a man's struggle for survival in a post-apocalyptic future."

I am humbled and grateful.  Thank you, Arthur!

Read Arthur's review here. 

After you do, you might be moved to give "Servant of the Seasons 1: Autumn" a spin, which you can do here.

 The delectable dakotaflint helped turn around a really cruddy week for me with a kind and thoughtful review of "Master of None: The Eight of Pentacles" over at Rainbow Reviews.

Among the many lovely, insightful things Dakota said was this, which made me smile: "The phrasing was, at times, more academic than I expected, but the chosen diction added to the story without sounding pedantic."

Seems Papi just can't Dom the academic outta me!

Anyway, you should check out the review here, and then maybe buy "Master of None" here.

Thank you, Dakota!!

If I were bold enough to praise my own work, to present it to others as I intended it to be (rather than as it turned out), I could hardly have done myself a better turn than Paul G. Bens, Jr. (gwailowrite) did in his review for Uniquely Pleasurable.

I blushed and stammered my way through, and am grateful beyond measure.

Among other lovely things Paul said was this: "The result is a universality, a sense of timelessness, and a story that refuses to be boxed into any genre, yet never fights against any of them."

Thank you, Paul, for your hard work, for your elegant review, and for seeing my little tale down to its very soul!

Read the whole review here!

Buy "Master of None: The Eight of Pentacles" here.

The marvelous, mysterious B. over at Book Utopia has posted a generous and thoughtful review of "Master of None: Eight of Pentacles."

How could I be anything but delighted when she includes comments like this one?

"I really liked this story. Adiun was a wonderful protagonist, suitably flawed without feeling phony. I had little problem sinking into the fantasy world the author created, and even less difficulty following the myriad characters around. But what makes the story so good is Adiun and his sense of loss coloring his every move."

You can read the entire review here, and check out B.'s other reviews here.

And, if you're so inclined, you can spend the price of a cup of joe on "Master of None" here.

Cheers, and thanks, B.!

 

If I could write a big, fat historical novel as naturalistic, absorbing, and accessible as Ruth Sims' The Phoenix, I would. 

Instead, I take it to bed with me, and write a review.  The review is over at Uniquely Pleasurable.  

Enjoy!!

My new Arcana story was released yesterday.  I'm excited (understatement) about this one.  This tale began as a series of vignettes I wrote to amuse a dear friend while he recovered from an injury.  They were my first attempt at writing fiction.  Two years later, after some serious woodshedding, "Master of None" represents the Eight of Pentacles in Torquere's Arcana series.

"Master of None" is the story of a young man who's lost everything that matters, and who sets off into a changing world to reclaim his one true love.  Along the way, our hero, Adiún, hooks up with a troupe of street perfomers who teach him that the world is much bigger than he ever imagined. 

Read more about it, including the first section, here.

Buy it here.

Wanna read it for free?  Head over here and enter the Apprenticeship Contest.

One of the exciting things about this story is that this is the first release of mine that's had a unique cover.  Atta Vazzy has been getting a lot of buzz for her covers for this series, and I know I'm not alone among Tarot aficionadoes in my hope that the covers will someday be collected into a deck.  Here's my cover:

 The inestimable Ann Somerville, at Uniquely Pleasurable, has reviewed "Autumn," the first installment in my Chaser series, "Servant of the Seasons."  And she liked it!

Among the other lovely things she had to say was this: "Lee Benoit has succeeded not only in creating a wonderfully well-researched ‘man against nature’ story but also in establishing an intriguing world and rounded characters which should carry the reader’s interest easily through the three further planned parts to this series."

Thank you, Ann!!

The rest of the review is here.

A description and excerpt of "Servant of the Seasons 1: Autumn" is here.  Buy it here.

And, just because I love you, here's an excerpt that doesn't appear on the publisher's web site:


 

To my delight and surprise, a reader has reviewed the first installment of my new Chaser Series, "Servant of the Seasons."

Andrea gave my little post-apocalyptic sod-busting tale  and said: