A Week in the Wayback Machine

Over the last week, I’ve been involved in an odd little project.  I suppose all authors, at some time or another, have the strange (oddly surreal, if I’m honest) experience of encountering their own early work face to face.  None of us writes the way we did when we started out; if we did it [...]

The Truth in Consequences

(I apologize for posting this late. I literally forgot Gerard sent it to me because he posted it in the body of an e-mail, and when I got to looking and didn’t see an attached file, I … well, anyway…here it is…sorry it’s late – DNW)

by Gerard Houarner

In an effort to be at say [...]

Cliche Guilt – What If I just Like To Read This Stuff?

Gerard Houarner

Early in February, a thread on the Shocklines board exploded for a few hours as the subject apparently touched a nerve among many readers: people were asked to list five storyline cliches that really irritated them. Our fellow unplugged storyteller Jim Moore started the thread in part as research for his own [...]

The Five Percent Solution

by Gerard Houarner

By a happy coincidence, this one follows up Elizabeth’s great essay from a few days ago, though takes a different track (which is scary, because you never really want to wander too far off a trail blazed by Ms Massie, but I’m brave, or perhaps a little too much like [...]