story « Storytellers Unplugged

Endings

By Gerard Houarner, on May 4th, 2011

Inspired in part by Brian Hodge’s post last month on predictability, and in part by a quick exchange of emails with a writing buddy about readers’ reactions to story endings, I had already been thinking about this month’s topic over the past few weeks.

Then current events added a new dimension to what passes for my [...]

Auto Draft

By David Niall Wilson, on May 1st, 2011

I have become alarmed over my short period as a publisher by what seems to be a significant lack of concern on the part of my fellow authors toward their own work. Most of us are good at keeping backups of the work in progress, getting through the edits, and getting a book to print, [...]

Hammer and Nail

By Gerard Houarner, on April 4th, 2011

“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”

I haven’t the foggiest idea if Abraham Maslow had much experience with the arts, but certainly his observation works for more than therapists and their menu of interventions. (Maslow being a psychologist of [...]

Writing through it

By Bev Vincent, on March 17th, 2011

There are probably still coaches out there who tell athletes to work through the pain after they suffer an injury or come up with a charley horse. This philosophy comes complete with all sorts of pleasant little slogans. Bite the bullet, for example. Tough it out and things will be better. The philosophy is not universally [...]

Potpourri

By Bev Vincent, on January 17th, 2011

Every now and then, Jeopardy has a category called “Potpourri” that is filled with questions (or answers) that don’t fit into any other category. I think this is going to be that kind of entry. I don’t know what to call it and I don’t really know what it’s going to be about.

I’m in one [...]

Write for the audience; write for yourself

By Bev Vincent, on December 17th, 2010

Let me start this month’s essay with an anecdote.

Everyone knows Elton John, right? The Rocket Man. He rose to fame in America in the early 1970s after a successful appearance at the Troubadour Club in Los Angeles. He churned out hit album after hit album during the seventies and eighties, and continued to chart singles [...]

The train of thought

By Alma Alexander, on November 30th, 2010

When I was young, we travelled on European trains.

They were old-world trains. They had compartments (think Hogwarts train). You wandered down a corridor, peering into the glassed-in compartments, seeking space; sometimes the grey utilitarian institutional pleated curtains were drawn, blocking your eye, and those compartments you passed quietly by; other times you’d catch the eye [...]

Contests? No contest.

By Bev Vincent, on November 17th, 2010

Some of my best successes in submitting short fiction have been by winning no-fee [...]

A Grave Matter

By Alma Alexander, on October 30th, 2010

Oh, please. It’s October. There’s “gravestones” in every suburban garden. The spiderweb/ghoul/pumpkin/candy/spookycreakynoises day is almost upon us, and the dead are about to rub their eyes and wonder if it’s time to wake up, after all.

Graves are a natural, given the time of year.

We have a cemetery not too far from us – some ten [...]

When Even The Vampires Don't Want You - A Story for Halloween

By Richard Dansky, on October 27th, 2010

October is for scary stories, or so I’ve been told. Happy Halloween, folks. Enjoy.

*****

“When Even The Vampires Don’t Want You”

There comes a point in time when even the vampires don’t want you. I know. I’m there.

Now don’t you go telling me there’s no such thing as vampires. They’re real. I’ve seen them. And they’re all [...]

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