About Me

Summary

  • Software Architect / Software Developer
  • Author
  • Yakuza Executive Consultant (seriously – and don’t ask)

Contact Me

The Details

I’m Benjamin (“Ben”) Cohen and I’ve got a fairly extensive background. I’ve spent most of my life with and around computers. (I literally grew up crawling around computer room floors, since my mom was a Systems Engineer for IBM back when computers were larger than most modern appliances and slower than your phone from several years ago.)

Pre-History

I graduated college in 1987, from St. Peter’s College (now St. Peter’s University), completing a triple major – Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science.

Computer “Stuff”

My career with software development, systems management and administration, and software architecture spanned over three decades (starting from before I even graduated college). I’ve worked with computer systems ranging from IBM System/370 behemoths to DEC minicomputers to modern computers in various forms. My very first personal computer was an Apple ][, followed by a self-built IBM-clone PC – when the Intel 8086 was the core processor and things like the Internet weren’t around yet and hard disk drive size was measured in Megabytes (not Giga- or Tera-). I’ve worked on, and managed, software development projects in industries such as banking, finance, and telecommunications, in programming languages that started with multiple assembly languages and BASIC through more modern stuff like C, Perl, C++, Java, etc.

Transitioning to Writing – Family Memoirs

In the mid-2010s, a couple of things happened that wound up effectively ending my career in computer science. [I’m still available, however, for remote consulting or even longer-term remote situations.] With the sudden expansion of my available time, I contemplated other projects.

The first thing I devoted my time to was compiling a collection of stories of myself and my family. I had realized that, as an only child of only children, if I didn’t save those stories for my sons (I have two teenagers), there was too great a risk these stories would be lost to history. It took several years (working on and off), but then, finally, in 2022, I was sufficiently happy with the words themselves. I commissioned an artist to create a book cover and entered the world of self-publication. The book (titled “Family Anecdotes”) was created solely for my sons and a few very close friends. It is also my hope those stories will be preserved for future generations of my family.

Writing Can Be Fun!

During the process of writing “Family Anecdotes”, I discovered, much to my surprise, that I enjoyed the process of writing and, also, the results. I went in search of some “writing prompts” and wrote a couple of short stories – all of which are available here. Several friends and others, when shown some of what I’d written, complimented me on the stories.

That turned into doing more short stories, and still enjoying the process and the result. My biggest flaw (and I fully accept / understand it) is that, at times, I have troubles coming up with the “idea” of what to write. But once I’ve got the idea, I produce what I think is some pretty good stuff.

Ultimately, I came up with the idea of “The Nowhere Pub” – a series of short stories written around the central theme of a whacky, weird, and crazy pub that allowed random trope-like characters to get together and swap stories of their own over drinks. Think about it … the chance to be a fly-on-the-wall while Conan (tm – by someone, I’m sure) chatted with Luke while Indiana Jones (also tm by someone, I’m sure) joins in? Or what about Sauron and “the Emperor” chat about how annoying the adventurers they have to deal with are? The concept for “Tales From The Pub” sort of stalled out for a couple of reasons, but it’s still there and I plan, eventually, to completely resurrect it and try to turn that into a book – an anthology – of multiple Pub Tales. [If you’re interested in contributing one – contact me!!!]

Along Comes a Novel

Then, in early-to-mid-2022, I had an idea form for a complete novel. I’d had a couple of half-started ideas before that never went anywhere, but this one was a complete – start-to-finish – idea. I didn’t know all of the twists and turns that would happen in the middle, but … there it was, in my head, waiting to turn into words.

Thus was born “Rough Times in Osaka”, and, in early June 2022, I started writing … and writing … and writing. On the days I was writing (which were most of them for a good couple of weeks), I was churning out between 3K and 5K words per day. As I wasn’t working on this independently, I needed a way to show my “research assistant” what I’d written so I could get a thumbs-up/-down regarding what was there. [When you write a story about what is, fundamentally, the Japanese Mafia, making sure you don’t insult those who are in it is probably a good idea, no?]

Originally, I used my personal reddit account and then asked a friend if he could help – which turned into reusing a private domain he’d had and wasn’t using for anything. He set up a WordPress installation and suddenly it was a lot easier for me to upload scenes or whole chapters for my assistant to review.

Eventually, I joked with a couple of people that I needed to print up some business cards, adding “Yakuza Executive Consultant” as another skill-set. [I’m as serious about the title being valid as I am about the “don’t ask” part. I won’t be disclosing why it’s a valid title / skill-set to claim, but please also don’t ask for verification.] For “reasons”, it’s not the sort of thing I can exactly ask for a reference about.

As I contemplated printing cards, I realized that I wanted to have more than just a generic Gmail account there for contacting me. And, if I was planning to get serious about generating this book and even just self-publishing it, I needed to have a “real” identity / presence on the Internet.

Welcome to The Nowhere Pub

And that’s how this site came about. Initially it was to be a replacement for all of the uploaded chapters (for review), but, my goal is, eventually, to also be my personal “home” for contacting me about “Rough Times in Osaka” and, hopefully, any other creations.