Benjamin Sobieck is an American crime and thriller writer whose nonfiction has become a standard reference for fiction writers who need their weapons right. He works as an editor and product manager in publishing, with a background in outdoors and weapons titles including Gun Digest, BLADE, Living Ready, and Modern Shooter, and he started out as a government and crime reporter for several newspapers.
His best-known book is The Writer's Guide to Weapons: A Practical Reference for Using Firearms and Knives in Fiction, published by Writer's Digest Books in 2015 with a foreword by First Blood author David Morrell. The book walks fiction writers through how firearms and knives actually work, debunks the most common weapon myths in fiction, television, and film, and includes a section of first-person crime stories from working crime writers about what it is like to be shot, stabbed, or caught in a gunfight. It is now a routine recommendation in writing programs and crime-writing workshops.
His fiction includes the Maynard Soloman detective comedy series, collected as Funny Detective Stories with Maynard Soloman, Gal-Damn Detective, the noir novel The Invisible Hand from New Pulp Press, the standalone Cleansing Eden, and Glass Eye: Confessions of a Fake Psychic Detective. He has co-authored entries in the Chase Baker action-adventure series with bestselling thriller writer Vincent Zandri. His short fiction has appeared in Burning Bridges, Exiles, Black Heart Magazine's Noir issue, and Out of the Gutter.
Sobieck is a Wattpad Star whose horror short story When the Black-Eyed Children Knock was sponsored by Fox Television's adaptation of The Exorcist. He won Margaret Atwood's Angel Catbird writing contest. He blogs about weapons in fiction at CrimeFictionBook.com.
