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Some memories of mine: 1985: I’m in a small used bookstore off of the main street in Red Bank, NJ (the bookstore is long gone.) Amidst the regular paperbacks is a larger one with a monochromatic cover and stark typeface. A white sticker is affixed to the back, with information about promotional efforts for [...] “If you were stranded on a desert island, what three things would you want to have with you?” “If you had a million dollars, how would you spend it?” “If your house was on fire and you only had time to save three things and still get out safely, what would they be?” These questions [...] As 2009 was skidding into history’s ditch, it was a stellar way to wrap up a year, with all the makings of a buddy movie. Two friends — adoptive brothers, really — trekking hundreds of winter-lashed miles to attend the wedding of a third. Both the bride and groom live in Los Angeles, as does a [...] So here’s my first STORYTELLERS UNPLUGGED column of the year. This is where I offer advice about / insight into / comments on “the writing life.” For decades at the writing workshops I’ve conducted, I’ve asked the sort of rhetorical question “Why write?” to kick things off. “Sort of” because I typically do supply an answer: “There’s [...] It’s the day after the Feast of the Epiphany and it’s snowing like a mad bastard. I have 85,000 words of The Goblin Emperor, which is due on February 1st. My word limit is 110,000 words, which means I need to write the equivalent of a novella this month. Good times. And, of course, what I’ve mostly [...] Ninety minutes ago I realized that I had a column to write that should have been posted in the wee hours of the morning (some 12 hours ago), which prompted me to begin furiously typing away. There are many excuses for the late posting in the day of this column, including: 1) I didn’t get [...] Openings Happy New Year. Welcome to the season of beginnings. New projects. Weight loss programs. Resolutions. Well, not quite beginnings. You’ve probably been around for a little bit, living your life all this time, and I’m sure you’ve got quite a way to go. You could call them crossroads, or changes. I’ve probably used those before, though, and for [...]
What, exactly, happened to those old favourites of yours? That novel or movie that you saw when you were younger that had such an incredible impact on you? Why is it when you go back to it—older, wiser(?), more jaded, perhaps—it doesn’t seem to hold quite the same level of magic [...] Question: What do Uranium, a folk song, microfilm, and 40,000 dollars have in common? Answer: They’re all MacGuffins. Alfred Hitchcock’s MacGuffins, to be exact, the likes of which I find to be particularly tasty. Hitchcock’s winning technique of using something small to drive suspense in some of the most suspenseful movies of all time [...] I have all intentions of posting an essay on the 1st. I’m just going to post a short note now. I got caught up n the holiday with my suddenly extended family, and lost track. In all the time we’ve been doing Storytellers Unplugged, this hasn’t happened more than a couple of times to me…and [...] |
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