Storytellersunplugged

-- A memory - first published in a very limited circulation book titled "Personal Demons" I found this doing some file cleanup, read it, and got lost in the memory all over again. Hope my buddy Randy forgives me...hope you find it of interest. ... Read More

Yes, this is Alma Alexander. Yes, I've just joined the Storytellersunplugged team. Yes, the 30th of the month is MY day, from here on, and I will presenting myself with a new blog post at that time every month. Due to a VERY pressing editorial deadline I have begged to start my official tenure on the 30th as of NEXT month, not this one. However, I've had one or two inquiries to the tune of, "your name's up there, why aren't you?" So this ... Read More

Hi everyone. It's great to be here, but as I'm suffering a little from stage fright, I've decided to hide behind a couple of my characters on this, my first post. Enjoy! She pursed arterial red lips and tapped the cleft below her nose gently with an onyx index nail. “Characterization is a chameleon act in the world of fiction. But is not merely the changing of one’s skin. It has much more in common with lycanthropy: a complete transformation of self, from man to ... Read More

Once upon a time, there was a scullery boy. I've been thinking a lot recently about genre conventions and what they do to stories. A genre convention is something, a certain type of character or a particular development of plot, that can be depended upon to show up in stories that share a genre. Loner private eyes are a convention of hard-boiled mysteries, for example. Tall dark men with sinister pasts are a convention of gothics. And scullery boys are ... Read More

Wayne Allen Sallee November 28th 2007 I've been giving a lot of interviews lately, though none really touch on anything I am promoting. Upagianstthewall (on Phil Nutman's website), and Doorways magazine. Dark Scribe ran an interview, but it was mostly about my witnessing John Wayne Gacy's execution and my correspondence with him in the early 90s. (One of my albatrosses, along with being remembered for "Rapid Transit, my first dad-blasted story). But David Bainbridge asked some ... Read More

Tonight, I am Frankenstein. Not the monster, the doctor, Victor or Frederick depending on your context and your tolerance for that sort of thing. I am bolting together slabs of prose from different drafts, different versions, different takes on a novel. I am ripping great hunks of unnecessary verbiage out and consigning them to the offal heap or the cut file, whichever is nearer. I am creating a monster, so that when all the pieces are there, all the parts assembled, I can ... Read More

A combination of physical difficulties and crazed deadlines have forced me to decide to forego writing a regular blog post, so instead, here's a fun story I wrote to rid myself of a recurring dream.--Janet Berliner      She is fifteen when the dreams invade her nights.     By the time she is not-quite forty, the dreams are like lovers she hates, but cannot live without--frightening her as much by their absence as by their presence.  She finds a new therapist, buys a new notebook, ... Read More

Sorry for the late post (and my first, too!). You’d have to be an idiot to travel on Thanksgiving weekend, right? Well, present and belatedly accounted for. I suppose that being the newest member of Storytellers Unplugged I should take this opportunity to introduce myself. But, well, *@#% that. We can have polite chitchat later, or better yet, go out for a drink sometime. But right now I’m on strike, with ... Read More

In the summer of 1995 I decided to get serious about something that had, up until that point, been not much more than an occasional hobby, one I took up every now and then to amuse my friends and myself. Every now and then I would write a short story, realize that I was probably the best writer since Stephen King, submit it to a couple of magazines, realize I sucked, then give it up for a while. This time I was serious! ... Read More

By Richard Steinberg This month’s column is dedicated to the sacrifices of Capt. Benjamin D. Tiffner, 31, of West Virginia; 5th Special Forces Group and Staff Sgt. Patrick F. Kutschbach, 25, of Pennsylvania; 10th Special Forces Group. Thank you guys, stand easy. “I've been struggling with this toast for several weeks. Should I strike a melancholy, time passes sort of tone? A humorous, light hearted thing? Maybe stentorian wisdom seasoned with a soupcon of slightly controlled emotion? But instead of such frippery, I decided on ... Read More