Storytellersunplugged

(WHEN IT ABSOLUTELY CANNOT FUCKING WAIT ONE MOMENT LONGER) By John Skipp Dear class – Not to put too fine a point on it: I can’t play with you guys this month. My ace collaborator and fellow SU instructor Cody Goodfellow and I have a new book to hand in, one month from now, and it’s still got a whoooooooole lot of work left to do. So here’s your assignment for today, should you choose to accept it: 1) Take out your most pressing project: the one ... Read More

Hi all, it's been busy times at the soap factory, so I haven't had time to do up a column for this entry. So instead I thought I'd share this kid's horror story with you. Skeleton Eater By Edwin McRae Let me tell you a little fairy-tale, one that you probably haven't heard before, one that definitely hasn't been turned into a movie by Disney...yet. It's a story about Danny, a young boy from a land not very far away and a big, ... Read More

By Wayne Allen Sallee I keep wondering each time the 28th of the month rolls around exactly when I’ll be typing my piece without snow on the ground. Well, OK, its mostly hail today. The hard snow that eventually bounces into Indiana, once its banged off my huge, middle-aged nose a few times. It is spring here, there are maybe two days in a row that one can feel it, not the temperature, but the sound of early morning birds ... Read More

When Inspiration Strikes It's Best to be Prepared by David Niall Wilson Sometimes you get images that stick. It's a good idea to write them down, even if you can't currently pry yourself from life or leisure long enough to put them to proper use, or to complete them. I've been toying with the sadness of Greyhound stations, the way they seem to suck in people with no real place to go, the ... Read More

I'm a little overwhelmed, as usual, with things clutching and dragging at me, but I wanted to take a little bit of time to talk about how schedules and best-laid plans can go to Hell in a handbasket, as my step-dad was fond of saying. I've spent a very chaotic few years bouncing form personal disaster to personal disaster, writing in mad sporadic bursts and not writing in molasses-thick periods of lethargy. I have written novels that are better than ... Read More

George Guthridge One of the comments the last time I wrote regarded my having used “abstract” as a verb. Since one of the two workbook/DVD series I am writing involves grammar, I thought the comment might be an interesting springboard. First, yes, Toto, “abstract” is a verb – it’s not even a rare usage. I would say “Look it up,” but that is a poor teaching practice where parts of speech are concerned. Although “abstract” is listed ... Read More

By Richard Steinberg “The creative artist seems to be almost the only kind of man that you could never meet on neutral ground. You can only meet him as an artist. He sees nothing objectively because his own ego is always in the foreground of every picture,” Raymond Chandler It’s an interesting moment. Dark and light seem completely balanced in my life right now. Not as if I have finally got a handle on life – far from it – but rather, as if ... Read More

by Justine Musk This is not the essay I intended to write. I write this in a lodge somewhere in Iceland where I've been staying the past two days with my spouse, assorted extremely-bright accomplished people, and a famous actress. This gathering is meant to be a kind of think tank retreat/salon concerning one issue in particular. I won't say what that issue is, because I want to talk a bit about the famous actress without giving away her identity, and, like any movie star, which is why they become a ... Read More

(Quick note from the wings...Elizabeth Massie sends greetings from the land of overwhelming deadlines, down there by that Myth Pool. She'll be back next month, entertaining as ever. In the meantime, here is a special extra bite out of Brian Knight's Mind - DNW) By Brian Knight Be silent in that solitude Which is not loneliness, for then The Spirits of the dead who stood In life before thee are again In death around thee, and their will Shall overshadow thee: be still. - Edgar Allan Poe, Spirits ... Read More

By David Niall Wilson I'm currently reading one of the most recent novels by Stephen King, Lisey's Story, which is a twist on the old writer writing a story about a writer plot. The story is about the widow of a writer, and is full of insights from an odd perspective. The perspective, in this case, is that of an author, Stephen King, writing through the mind and eyes of a woman who was married to a horror writer. In other ... Read More