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By Gerard Houarner, on February 4th, 2012
Or…”interrupted by a person on business from Porlock” — sustaining the vision of the story you want to tell as life’s storms rage around you.
Trust me, it’ll make sense.
Quite some time ago in a LOCUS interview, Jay Lake talked about the challenges of containing the story he’s working on in his mind, or living in [...]
By Thomas Sullivan, on January 15th, 2012
If something has to be kept secret, it must be true. Secrets are self-proving. Lies are loud and wear red hats, e.g. Santa Claus. Okay, I’m being a tad glib here. I do not mean that only secrets are true or that all red hats – i.e. loud proclamations — are lies (your red hat [...]
By Thomas Sullivan, on December 15th, 2011
There have been moments — bound in some way to a place or a period of time — that have taken my compassion to another level and made me a more complete writer. Such a time and place was a bitterly cold Christmas when I was living in an old men’s hotel filled with human [...]
By Thomas Sullivan, on October 15th, 2011
As one control freak to another… Uh-oh, way to go, Sully. You’ve alienated your entire readership already. But the essential thing about being human – about being anything with a pulse and choices – is trying to control one’s living conditions to make them beneficial to one’s self, isn’t it? AKA survival. Like I was [...]
By Thomas Sullivan, on September 15th, 2011
The Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition hisself – Torquemada – has nothin’ on you guys! What a bonanza of questions and comments came in from around the globe last month in response to the Q. & A. format. Probing, intelligent, deep and even beastly stuff – and damn near Truth or Dare. You’re having [...]
By Gerard Houarner, on September 4th, 2011
In a recent BBC interview, Sir David Hare, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, playwright, and general curmudgeon, talked about writing –http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/9568401.stm
Brief and bitter-sweet in the clip, he talks about having to write, and writing being one of the most important things in life even as he acknowledges that he makes films not very many people see.
Now, of course, [...]
By Thomas Sullivan, on August 15th, 2011
Help…I have locked myself in the bathroom with a loaded pistol and I don’t know how much time I have left before I pull the trigger. I know this is where I have to be now. It’s a desperate move, but I am desperate. I saw the mosquito fly in here, and if I don’t [...]
By Bev Vincent, on July 17th, 2011
I’ve been going to writing conventions for a decade. I attended one local writers guild convention in the late 1990s (Joe R. Lansdale was a guest, which was a big draw). Then I resumed my long-fallow interest in writing and I wanted to start networking with other writers. My first big convention was the World [...]
By Thomas Sullivan, on July 15th, 2011
Hey, you want to bug out with me? You know, ditch this horrible, awful agony of trying to create characters, plots and settings? I’ll tell you a secret. When your imagination goes stale, you don’t have to put it to bed until it recovers. In fact, that may be the worst – and certainly the [...]
By Bev Vincent, on June 17th, 2011
No one can tell you when to start a short story.
People can give you all kinds of advice about how to write one, but only you can decide when you are prepared to start.
This is something I deal with all the time. I’ll have a window of opportunity where I can work on a short [...]
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