Archive for September, 2006
Who Wrote That, Anyway, and Hey, It’s Pretty Good!
By David Niall Wilson
One of the oddest sensations I have experienced as a writer is discovering a passage in one of my novels, or a short story that’s been sitting around for a very long time, and discovering it for the first time. That seems unlikely, I know, but it’s something that happens on [...]
JAZZ
by Dick Hill
You can’t have jazz without rhythm. It may be familiar, a 32 bar, repeating sort of thing, or it may be Brubeck telling you to Take Five but do it in four, or creating a seven-sided unsquare dance, but in some form or other it’s there. Same, or so it seems [...]
Tropophobia?
When’s the last time you went into the kitchen; spent most of a day preparing an exquisite dinner, complete with salad, side dishes, a fabulous entrée, and a luscious dessert; arranged it all meticulously on your finest china; and then before serving it, threw three-quarters of it in the trash can?
Maybe the meat was overcooked. [...]
Change of Scene
(My sincere apologies to Chet and everyone. I had days mixed up in my head and was waiting all day wondering why no essay was posted…I should have had this up this morning…
DNW)
Change of Scene
by Chet Williamson
I could use one, and not just for the usual reasons, but for literary causes as well.
My lovely [...]
A Rumination on Genre
A humble confession – I used to want to be an academic. I even published a couple of papers in accredited journals, back when I was still in hot pursuit of the magical sheepskin and tassel. It was long ago and in another athletic conference, and besides that ambition is dead, but bear with me [...]
MFAQ
by Janet Berliner
Which stands for “Most Frequently asked question.”
In 1993, while working on the infamously unpublished Crichton-on-Crichton, I wrote a chapter called FAQ–Frequently Asked Questions. At the time, I thought I’d made up the acronym, but I guess I was reinventing the wheel. Today, twelve years later, with the book as yet unseen [...]
Me and Thomas Wolfe
Stan Ridgley
So I’m sitting in a Philadelphia sports bar late Saturday afternoon, and the Ohio State alums are on one side and the Penn State folks are on the other. The game is on 12 television sets, and the bar is rocking.
Well, the Ohio State side is rocking as a late game interception and [...]
Celebrity Style
by Jeffrey Thomas
(First of all, an apology for missing my turn the last several months, something I swore I’d never do. I had my July essay written but I was in Viet Nam at the time, and the eleven hour time difference and my dependence on internet cafes meant I missed the deadline anyway. I [...]
Taboo or Not Taboo?
What is a taboo?
Some folks, people who call themselves progressive writers and ground breakers, are of the opinion that a book that doesn’t attempt to push boundaries, kill a sacred cow (and serve it up as a Big Mac with fries), or break a few taboos isn’t worth the time it takes to write, or [...]
Banned Librarians Week
By
Richard Steinberg
No cute, pithy, or intriguing quote to kick off this month’s entry. Just some names and numbers.
Nelson Alberto Aguiar Ramírez, 58
Sentence: 13 years
Osvaldo Alfonso Valdés, 38
Sentence: 18 years
Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos, 55
Sentence: 25 years.
Pedro Argüelles Morán, 56
Sentence: 20 years
Antonio Augusto Villareal Acosta, age not known
Sentence: 15 years
It’s good we discuss our craft here. [...]
