on writing - scott fitzgerald gray

Advice to writers from speculative fiction author Scott Fitzgerald Gray.

Most importantly - Don't stop.  Don't ever stop.  Then...

1) Have more than one project on the go.  Always, always, always have
a wide slate of projects in front of you that are in progress or ready to
jump into. Everyone has a first novel, sure. Everyone has the novel they
really want to work on right now. But none of that stops you from
digging into the second novel, or thinking about where you want an
overall series to go, or working on the short story idea that some bit of
research into your current novel inspired.

2) Watch out for the all-consuming projects. You have a novel, a
screenplay, an epic poem that is the Most Important Thing you’ve ever
conceived or will ever work on. But it’s an unfortunately short walk from
the Most Important Thing You’ll Ever Work On to the Only Thing You’ll
Ever Work On Over Fifteen Successive Drafts. And if you’re only working
on one thing, you leave yourself open to stop working on it at some point.

By Felix Girard

on writing - vladimir nabokov

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the
words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to
become visible.

- Vladimir Nabokov

By Carson Ting

the well written - ayn rand

Stand here, he thought, and count the lighted windows of a city. You
cannot do it. But behind each yellow rectangle that climbs, one over
another, to the sky - under each bulb - down to there, see that spark over
the river which is not a star? - there are people whom you will never see
and who are your masters. At the supper tables, in the drawing rooms,
in their beds and in their cellars, in their studies and in their bathrooms.
Speeding in the subways under your feet. Crawling up in elevators
through vertical cracks around you. Jolting past you in every bus. Your
masters, Gail Wynand. There is a net - longer than the cables that coil
through the walls of this city, larger than the mesh of pipes that carry
water, gas and refuse - there is another hidden net around you; it is
strapped to you, and the wires lead to every hand in the city. They jerked
the wires and you moved. You were a ruler of men. You held a leash. A
leash is only a rope with a noose at both ends.

- Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

By Allison Torneros

photo stories - halloween edition

And 11 photos to inspire more Halloween stories...
along with some well-written All Hallow's Eve-ish snippets.

There were days when no kid came out of his house without looking
around. The week after Halloween had a quality both hungover and
ominous, the light pitched, the sky smashed against the rooftops.
― Jonathan Lethem, The Fortress of Solitude

But I can think of nothing on earth so beautiful as the final haul on
Halloween night, which, for me, was ten to fifteen pounds of candy, a
riot of colored wrappers and hopeful fonts,snub-nosed chocolate bars
and Sweetarts, the seductive rattle of Juicyfruits and Good & Plenty
and lollipopsticks all akimbo, the foli ends of mini LifeSavers packs
twinkling like dimes, and a thick sugary perfume rising up from the
pillowcase.
― Steve Almond, Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America

She picked up a knife and headed toward the pumpkin.  Alex watched
miserably as she went to cut the top off.  Then a strange, awful thing
happened: As she touched the pumpkin, holding it steady with one hand,
it began to glow softly.  She lifted her hand away, looking at the pumpkin
with concern.  The glow lit her apron orange.  She lowered the knife and
it grew even brighter.  She looked, mystified, at the pumpkin.
She said to Alex, "You didn't get this at Ferguson's, did you?"
- M.T. Anderson, "Just Dessert", The Chronicles of Harris Burdick

By Malinda Fisher

By Kelley F.

illustration - halloween edition

Here are 12 Halloween illustrations that could use a body of words in
explanation.  What kind of stories would you write?

I saw thousands of pumpkins last night
come floating in on the tide,
bumping up against the rocks and
rolling up on the beaches;
it must be Halloween in the sea.
- Richard Brautigan, The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster

Suddenly the day was gone,
night came out from under each tree and spread.
- Ray Bradbury, The Halloween Tree

Dear Great Pumpkin, Halloween is now only a few days away. Children
all over the world await you coming. When you rise out of the pumpkin
patch that night, please remember I am your most loyal follower. Have
a nice trip. Don't forget to take out flight insurance.
- Charles M. Schulz, The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 6: 1961-1962

By Ania Tomicka

By Elia Fernandez

on reading - alberto manguel

One book calls to another unexpectedly, creating alliances across different
cultures and centuries..  From fire, water, the passage of time, neglectful
readers, and the hand of the censor, each of my books has escaped to tell
me its story.

- Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night

By Maruti Bitamin

a dreamer's wisdom - lao tzu

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.

- Lao Tzu

By Alison Scarpulla