Storytellersunplugged

I'm working on a piece for a publisher who has a particular liking for something I wrote in the past.  He asked me specifically to try and recapture what I did in that first piece...not the story itself, or the characters, but the style - and it set me on a short quest. The older piece was my novella, written for Cemetery Dance years ago, titled "Roll Them Bones."  In that work I was asked to emulate the styles of several authors popular ... Read More

Wayne Allen Sallee I had thought about calling this month’s entry “Butcher’s Raindance.” Sounds like a good story title, right? Even though I have no idea what it might be about...yet. Is it a ritual done by a serial killer, the dance being the way he sanitizes his crime scenes? Is it a song by an emo band (or whatever kind of music genre my oldest niece listens to these days), which, now that I’ve typed that, I realize ... Read More

First, I’d like to thank James Moore for covering my ass on the 23rd of last month. As always, his contribution was excellent. It’s pretty much a given that anything with Mr. Moore’s name on the byline will be good. If you haven’ had the opportunity to read one of his novels you’re denying yourself a treat. Of course I happen to think all of the essays you’ll find here are good. Storytellers Unplugged is a cornucopia of advice ... Read More

--Justine Musk So here’s the thing. I sat down yesterday to write my essay for this site. I had a topic. I had a sense of where the piece would start, where it would end up, and how it might go in-between. But when it came game-time, I realized: I got nuthin’. Could be I’m a bit burned-out – and maybe I could have essayed about that, except Elizabeth Bear already said everything I would want to say about that point in your ... Read More

Lord Byron wrote: But I hate things all fiction...there should always be some foundation of fact for the most airy fabric - and pure invention is but the talent of a liar. Most persons would agree that adding facts to a fictional novel, especially one that includes technical matters, can improve it on several levels. Obviously, facts can make stories more realistic. To readers who enjoy learning things, facts are manna. Readers who especially cherish them are those who can directly relate to ... Read More

Face it. The first five pages (sometimes the first five sentences) are going to make or break your book. They will be the first pages that a prospective agent or editor will read. Later, once the book gets picked up, they will be the first pages that a prospective book buyer will read. So how do you make those five pages, and the rest of the beginning of the book, so good that the editor, agent, or prospective reader wants ... Read More

This is an exta post-between-posts to honor a courageous lady and her book. A lot of folks are involved in this effort...all on this particular day...and we at Storytellers Unplugged would be remiss if we didn't do what we could to join in... so, below is a short snippet and a link. I urge you to follow it, and to show your support in whatever way you can. If you feel the urge to read a book...maybe this ... Read More

I had a lot of ideas this month that I thought would make fabulous essays, but in the end, I settled on one that came to me while reading someone else's writing. It's important to be able to shift through the many hats of our craft, I think, author, editor and reader, and to grasp what is important to each. As a reader, I've come to classify genre fiction most judgmentally on one particular criterion. How real is it? I've mentioned ... Read More

-- 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

I was involved in a message board discussion the other day about how I set up a series bible. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, a series bible is a summary of all the information you need to write multiple books (or television shows or films or what-have-you) in the same setting/story world. Since I do the same thing for my stand alone novels as I do for series work, I thought I’d share that process with you ... Read More