Archive for 2013
Have you heard of this novel? It was published in the summer of 1969 and ostensibly written by Penelope Ashe. By October 13th of that same year, Naked Came the Stranger had already sold 90,000 copies, becoming an official bestseller. By November of that same year, when sales of the book only continued to increase, […]
Read More
He was one strange cat. I don’t always love his literature, but I love his individuality, his originality, his inexhaustible ingenuity, his arrant hatred of authoritarianism, his mad genius: Philip Kindred Dick (nom-de-guerres Richard Phillipps and Jack Dowland), philosophical novelist who bridged the science-fictional and the historical, drug-user, drug-abuser, paranoiac, self-described “acosmic panentheist,” twin brother […]
Read More
Actually, there are many reasons — many more than five — that I’ll keep reading your story, but there are also at least as many reasons I won’t. Like this seemingly infinite and jesting snore in the next room, which is most annoying to the insomniac that I am: (For example: He had nothing in […]
Read More
Best first sentence for a novel about a lovely librarian who secretly burns the books she loves because she wants no one else to read them. And the winner is — but before I announce the winner, let me say something about the selection process: Invariably when I choose a winner for the Best First […]
Read More
The definition of philosophy — judging, at least, from very nearly every philosophical dictionary on the planet — has confounded philosophers for centuries, the concept being “too large,” it is sometimes said, to properly capture in concise fashion. Yet at the same time, in all branches of philosophy, minutia is cataloged to complete weariness. This […]
Read More
[The following is a repost:] A reader writes: Dear Sir: Why do rabbits and eggs represent Easter, which also celebrates the resurrection of Christ? — Peter Dear Peter: Easter primarily represents the advent of springtime, just as Christ’s resurrection does also, symbolically. The Old-English word Eastre derives from an Anglo-Saxon Pagan goddess named Eostre, about […]
Read More
[UPDATE: CONTEST CLOSED, WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED] The Journal Pulp is offering a $100.00 cash prize for the following: Best first sentence for a novel about a lovely librarian who secretly burns the books she loves because she wants no one else to read them. Rules and guidelines: No outrageous run-ons. You can submit anonymously […]
Read More
Whiskey — or whisky, if you prefer — is a distilled spirit that’s usually made from corn, rye, barley, wheat, or, very often, a cross combination of some or all those. Whiskey is almost always aged in wooden casks which almost always consist of charred white oak. The word “whiskey” is an anglicized version of […]
Read More
My name is Kevin. I’m Kevin Mathew Haas. My last name does not rhyme with moss. It does not rhyme with floss. To say so makes me cross. Many regard me as the motherfucking boss and I do enjoy a little of the sauce. In fact, my last name — Haas — rhymes with […]
Read More
Establish your setting early on. Give The When, The Where, The Weather — the overall tone — as John Steinbeck does so well in the beautiful opening of Of Mice and Men: A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water […]
Read More
Here, in no particular order: 5. Your storyline is compelling You’ve created a sequence of events that progresses logically and purposefully and that culminates in climax. This sequence is called plot. The plot of a short story can (and probably should) involve just one single incident or main conflict. And conflict is clash. A clash […]
Read More
Best first sentence for a novel about a modern-day prophet who does not believe in God … And the winner is C-CAT: “Thank God for atheist cops,” she said with a wink to the cross-wearing parking attendant who had, quite reasonably, been persuaded to spare her. I chose this sentence first for its paradoxical nature and […]
Read More
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron — who later changed it to George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, English poet, towering personality, and leading figure in the Romantic movement — was born January 22, 1788. “A man of genius whose heart is perverted,” William Wordsworth called Lord Bryon. “The most vulgar-minded genius that ever produced […]
Read More
Of the nearly 18,000 written words in Shakespeare’s oeuvre, over 1,700 are seen for the first time in his works. This doesn’t necessarily mean he coined all those words — and in fact many of them most likely existed in other languages, like Latin, for a very long time before Shakespeare anglicized them. New words […]
Read More
UPDATE: CONTEST CLOSED — WINNER ANNOUNCED HERE The Journal Pulp is offering a $100.00 cash prize for the following: Best first sentence for a novel about a modern-day prophet who does not believe in God — who is neither left nor right, who preaches reason and the philomathic, concerning which things she’s almost psychopathic […]
Read More
(c)Ray Harvey 2011