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Author: Don Paul Benjamin

Donald Paul Benjamin is an American mystery novelist. He was born in Greeley, on Colorado’s eastern plains. As a teen he worked on his high school newspaper. Upon graduation in 1963, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving three years as a military journalist, including a tour in Korea. Honorably discharged, he completed a teaching degree at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC). In 1982, he earned a master’s degree in college administration at Oregon State University. From 1982-2014, he worked in Arizona higher education. In 2014, he retired to the wild Western Slope of Colorado, where he lives in the small town of Cedaredge, fishing and hiking in the surrounding wilderness. He recently married Donna Marie, his publishing collaborator, who's a graphic designer and production artist. The two now operate "Elevation Press," a company which helps self-publishing authors format their Microsoft Word documents into print-ready PDFs which can be submitted to a traditional printer or print-on-demand service such as Kindle Direct Publishing.

Print-on-Demand Publishing? KDP versus IngramSpark: One Author’s Experience

Posted on October 27, 2023February 1, 2024 by Don Paul Benjamin

I’ll preface this brief essay by saying that others may have had different experiences with these two print-on-demand giants. The following summarizes my experience in working with each platform. Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is part of Amazon.com and that association alone may cause an independent author to hesitate. Yes, Amazon is the one-hundred-pound gorilla or…

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Googly-Eyes and the Writing Life

Posted on September 21, 2023February 1, 2024 by Don Paul Benjamin

Once upon a time, I taught cartooning and storybook illustration to elementary school children. At our first class meeting, I came prepared with a variety of fruits, vegetables, and inanimate objects like a stapler, a bottle, and a cup. I lined these objects up on a raised box and invited the children to tell me…

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The Author’s Plate

Posted on August 24, 2023February 1, 2024 by Don Paul Benjamin

When an independent author takes on the task of writing a novel then adds to this challenge the goal of marketing the thing, that combined work represents a very full plate. (I would have written “a very, very full plate” except the late Mrs. Dawson, my old high school English teacher, would spin in her…

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A Writing Talent Test

Posted on July 28, 2023February 1, 2024 by Don Paul Benjamin

After high school, I enlisted in the U.S. Army for a three-year tour of duty. Never having traveled farther than a car trip from Colorado to Iowa, I took the train to basic training in Missouri. Before I completed basic, President Kennedy was assassinated, and our inexperienced platoon of raw recruits and reluctant draftees was…

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The River and the Rocks

Posted on June 23, 2023February 1, 2024 by Don Paul Benjamin

Which came first, the river or the rocks? In the case of the natural stone stairway which leads from the shore of Surface Creek to our manicured lawn, the river existed first. Think of the flowing river as the context of a written story. Think of the rocks as the story. In my accompanying photo,…

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