Storytellersunplugged

I have been wondering about the mentality that leads a person to want to publish another person’s work, but that bypasses the pangs of guilt that should accompany not paying for it. No-advance anthologies proliferate, and in the end most of them end up being no-pay anthologies where the postage to send out royalties costs more than the checks cut to the authors. Yes, it’s fun to be involved in publishing. Having your own “e-zine,” or semi-pro magazine, or ... Read More

Thanks to all of the junk posts coming in as anonymous comments, I've had to disable them for the time being. Comments can still be made by registered users.Thanks,The Administration Read More

Greetings and salutations, dear readers. Coming to you live from seedy, I mean sunny, California, this is your friendly neighborhood filmmaker with this month's Storytellers Unplugged column.Instead of continuing the Parallel column I started last month, I'd like to switch gears and talk about something else very interesting that is cooking. Parallel is going very well. This month has been devoted to lawyers and signing contracts and that would make for a very dull column. Filming is planned ... Read More

I'm pretty sure that my affinity for writing horror comes largely from the fact that, for as long as I can remember, I have had chronic, hellishly bad dreams. They're usually in 70mm Cinemascope and Technicolor, with THX sound, and some of them have lingered through the years more vividly than any waking experience. In fact, as near as I can tell, my earliest living memory is of a nightmare. Yep, and I can tell you that the sheer power of these ... Read More

Someone once said that there's no such thing as an original plot idea; it's all been done before. The thing about this game is that the inventiveness and the freshness revolves around how that idea is spun. It can be as old as the hills but as long as the telling is something new, or not even new, but entertaining, then that's what makes a good book or story. King exemplifies this in the simplicity of his ideas. Let's think about some ... Read More

The past year has seen my writing transform me from mild-mannered game designer to international man of mystery, which is another way of saying I've racked up an impressive number of frequent flier miles on various video game writing assignments. This has both its good and its bad points. The good ones are obvious – seeing new and exciting places on someone else's nickel, the chance to work on exciting and interesting projects, and of course, free in-flight movie and beverages. The ... Read More

As one of the senior members of this motley crew, in years, anyway, I feel it incumbent upon me to start trouble every once in a while. That's one of the prerogatives of age and, dammit, I've earned it.If anyone has a good, juicy, troublemaking topic, feel free to send it to me. If it buzzes my mean button or my mad button, I'll put it out there on the 26th of whatever month it comes my way. For ... Read More

When my first novel, The Unwelcome Child, was finally accepted by a publishing house, I thought I could finally relax, or at least get to work on another project. However, these days I find myself busy composing queries to reviewers, magazines, and websites, creating a website of my own, not to mention writing a monthly essay for this blog. Because I’m new to this business, I’d assumed that the publisher who bought my book would handle all the P.R., the promotion, etc. ... Read More

Greetings from Bien Hoa, Vietnam!I’m writing from the living room of my in-laws, and frankly, trying to determine what I should talk about this month. But there is no shortage of things to say about this, my second visit to Vietnam – it’s more a matter of what specifically to do with all that raw material. And this reminds me of my first Storytellers Unplugged essay, having to do with the subject of writing of what you know. I’m overflowing with images ... Read More

While researching this essay about the negative buzz that rings through the Writer’s Community (I use the term Writer’s Community for lack of a better one) every time a new Harry Potter book comes along, inevitably breaking every sales record in publishing history, I came across a piece about the new Pontiff’s take on the insanely popular Boy Wizard. So, I’ve decided to widen the scope a bit. After listing the three top reasons I’ve heard other writers give for their not-so-glowing ... Read More