On Taboo Words in Literature, & Trains That Glimmer

August 30, 2018August 29, 2018 / Sasha A. Palmer / Leave a comment

Supper Time

What book are you reading now?

A story I’ve read recently–“The Basement Room”–made me think that it might not be long before Graham Green is added to the growing list of racist authors.

He used the N-word! More than once!

Does it matter that it’s a fictional character that uses the word? Does it matter that it’s important to the story? Does it matter that it’s a slice of history?

Apparently, it today’s world it doesn’t.

So, hurry. Read “The Basement Room” before it’s banned.

It’s a masterful, haunting story. What a great, great writer.

Have you penned a story, or two?

Glimmer Train has two contests you can still submit your work to: Very Short, & Fiction Open. Deadline’s tomorrow, August 31. HURRY!

Image: Horace Pippin. Supper Time, c. 1940. Oil on burnt-wood panel, Overall: 12 x 15 1/8 in. (30.5 x 38.4 cm). BF985. Public Domain.

On the Perks of Aging, Spec Work, & Chicken Soup

November 30, 2017November 28, 2017 / Sasha A. Palmer

“The drive to be successful while still in the first blush of youth … does not apply to the contemplative arts.” My dear fellow writers over 40, we happen to be “in the peak of condition!” as Poirot would say.

“Never work on spec.” — Bob Bly. Watch this video.

Chicken Soup for the Soul wants your stories and poems. Submit.

Inspiration in a Suitcase

June 8, 2017June 6, 2017 / Sasha A. Palmer

There might be quite a few good stories/poems here.

Why don’t you unpack them?

(Wish I knew the authorship of the artwork, so I can give credit.)

Writing vs. Science

May 4, 2017April 24, 2017 / Sasha A. Palmer

“Experts tend to fill their novels with esoteric information that gets in the way of the story, so choose your atmospheric/tech descriptions wisely…Because what the vast majority of people want is good stories. They couldn’t care less about the science. Readers want realistic characters, not realistic science.”

— author Gordon Long on “Why Scientists Shouldn’t Write Science Fiction”

“…the gulf that exists between us…”

April 20, 2017April 18, 2017 / Sasha A. Palmer

“…the gulf that exists between us as people is that when we look at each other we might see faces, skin color, gender, race, or attitudes, but we don’t see, we can’t see, the stories. And once we hear each other’s stories we realize that the things we see as dividing us are, all too often, illusions, falsehoods: that the walls between us are in truth no thicker than scenery.”

–Neil Gaiman