Author Benjamin Benedict lived in Los Angeles and wrote a number of short stories in the late seventies and early eighties. These were thought lost until some manuscripts were recently found in a garage near Van Nuys. Now the audios of three of these works can be heard and downloaded from www.benbenbooks.com.

After this, it seems that he began journeying around the South American Continent though not much is known about this. In 2003, some of his 'shorthands' were sent to a UK website from an internet cafe in Mexico City. These were entitled 'Smoke in the Air' and can now be viewed on www.benjaminbenedict.com.

Through a further series of coincidental events, Mr Benedict's current 'shorthands' have recently been sent directly to us from a number of internet locations in Lima, and La Paz under the title of 'Loose Talk' . They are more 'journalistic' than what has gone before, and we shall be publishing them here both for your enjoyment and for the record.