Storytellersunplugged

--- David Niall Wilson Throughout my life I’ve heard the term “reading between the lines” used to infer that a person has grasped some deeper, hidden secret buried in words someone else has written, or an untold story being ignored and glossed over with a less-than-truthful or fabricated façade. As an author, I’m often amazed when readers point out such things in my own writing. I used to ignore them, as a matter of fact, and tell myself they were full ... Read More

Art imitates life. Sometimes life imitates art, too, and the lines between who you are and what you do get blurry.   So it's ten PM on a Saturday night and I'm up on top of a mountain. Mount Pisgah, to be exact – a slithering hunk of rock that stretches across western North Carolina, bridled with a slice of the Blue Ridge Parkway and capped with a lone hotel ... Read More

by Janet BerlinerThe words "Ich bin Blau" in German, directly translated, mean "I am blue." But try saying that in passing to someone on the streets of Berlin and see what happens. A lot of laughter, or at the least giggling is what happens because, colloquially, "Ich bin Blau" means "I am drunk."What, you ask, does that have to do with writing?First and most significantly, it speaks to the importance of word choice. Translating scenes, emotions, plots and stories into ... Read More

Voodoo MagicThis month I have a real problem. Because I’m going through a Hellish patch of writer’s block, how can I write about writing if I can’t write? I’ve been told to either just wait it out, do something else, or force myself to sit in front of the computer until my irises are ready to melt. I have to admit, the latter remedy has produced dribs and dribbles. I’m working on a second novel, and every few days I add a ... Read More

by Jeffrey ThomasWhen it comes to brother acts, for me film-makers come to mind more readily than authors. There are Larry and Andy Wachowski (the MATRIX movies), Peter and Bobby Farrelly (DUMB AND DUMBER and the hilarious STUCK ON YOU, about conjoined brothers), the Polish Brothers (TWIN FALLS IDAHO, also about conjoined twins, and the surreally haunting NORTHFORK), the Brothers Quay (brilliant stop motion animators), Joel and Ethan Coen (BLOOD SIMPLE, FARGO), Kerry and Kevin Conran (SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF ... Read More

When Shawna, my wife, approached me in late 1998 wanting to purchase a secondhand computer so she could get online, I resisted. “The Internet is for geeks, freaks, and losers,” I said. “What the hell are we going to use the internet for?”My concept of the Internet was very narrow at that time. I saw it as a kind of global game of Dungeons & Dragons, where young men with nothing else to do (and young women no one wanted to do ... Read More

Last go-around, I spoke about different ways of promoting oneself and their work--more untraditional ways of getting into the public’s eye. As discussed, I’d taken a huge long shot in trying to land a spot on the reality TV show Survivor. I’d made a tape, filled out the lengthy application from CBS.com and sent it all in. After a month of waiting, I’d received an e-mail from an assistant to a casting director at CBS asking if I’d be interested in trying ... Read More

First day of autumn.That means, among other things, that it’s almost time to buy firewood for the winter. And I hate to do that, because it requires going back to the wood lot, and I never want to go back to the wood lot again. It’s just too scary.Many people think that Arizona is just hot and dry all the time, and they’re wrong. Arizona is a huge state containing every ecosystem you’d find traveling from Mexico to Canada. ... Read More

by Brian Keene"At the very bottom of (a writer's) motives lies a mystery. Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon…"George OrwellWrite what you know. How many times have you, as a writer, been told that, or told somebody else that? As far as advice for writers goes, ‘write what you know’ ranks alongside ‘write every day’ and ‘read ... Read More

It’s a known fact that deadlines can cause hives, hypertension, hyperventilation, hair loss, and hernias (The latter is a condition inherent to lifting heavy objects (i.e. the computer) with the express intention of tossing said heavy object out the window.) Of course these symptoms can be associated to stress, but in a writer’s life, I think stress is an altruistic term that’s used to mask the true identity of the culprit determined to weaken us. That culprit is Ms. Muse, an egotistical, ... Read More