Author Archive
Just over 300 entries (both sites combined) the vast majority of which were beautiful and brilliant. The winner: rapideyemvmt The sentence: He came there every day, before and after work, but he didn’t notice the tattoo of a single hydrogen atom on the nape of her neck until today. This elegant sentence has a hint […]
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Margaret Atwood: Hold the reader’s attention. (This is likely to work better if you can hold your own.) But you don’t know who the reader is, so it’s like shooting fish with a slingshot in the dark. What fascinates A will bore the pants off B. Writing is work. It’s also gambling. You don’t get […]
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“No man ever put more of his heart and soul into the written word than did William Faulkner.” — Eudora Welty In 1947, at the University of Mississippi, William Faulkner — an extraordinarily inconsistent and difficult writer whose work is almost invariably frustrating, and yet a writer whom you cannot ever quite dismiss (the following […]
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The United States Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by an American socialist named Francis Julius Bellamy, who was also a Baptist minister, and whose cousin Edward Bellamy is the semi-famous author of two socialist utopian novels: Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897). Francis Bellamy was born in Rome, New York, May 18, 1855. […]
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UPDATE: WINNER ANNOUNCED. READ THE WINNING ENTRY HERE: The Journal Pulp is offering a $100.00 cash prize for the following: Best first sentence for a novel about a genius waitress who discovers the secret to unlocking the power of deuterium — and the customer who loves her, but loves her discovery even more. Rules and […]
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“It was a pleasure to burn,” wrote Ray Bradbury in the beginning of Fahrenheit 451, and continued: It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his […]
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Decoration Day was originally designed to commemorate the fallen Civil War soldiers. On May 5th, 1868, General John A. Logan spoke the following: The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, […]
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Self-consciousness, as August Mclaughlin notes in a recent post, will almost invariably show through in your headshots. But there’s a way you can avoid it: Don’t try too hard. Use your imagination to drift away during the shoot. In particular, don’t think about the photos during the shoot. This may sound odd, but it helps […]
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR9kxeAcw6c&w=420&h=315] Among Robert Graves’s best and most famous poems, “Dead Cow Farm” is in essence a war poem (Robert Graves served in WWI and saw heavy fighting) wherein his gentle cow symbolizes peace and calm. It is, I think, a strange and lovely little poem. Dead Cow Farm An ancient saga tells us how […]
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There were over 300 entries, the majority of which were very well written, and I’m a one-man outfit. I apologize for taking ten days to decide. But I gave each entry multiple and thorough readings — and the winner is: Kayla Here is Kayla’s sentence: When I recognized the face staring back at me with […]
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This is a famous and often misunderstood passage from Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 5), spoken by the unforgettable Lady Macbeth, who says: The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to […]
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WINNER ANNOUNCED HERE UPDATE: CONTEST CLOSED. The Journal Pulp is offering a $200.00 cash prize for the following: Best first sentence for a novel about a famous atheist-astronomer who one star-sprent summer evening glimpses God in the bottom of his whiskey glass. Rules and guidelines: No outrageous run-ons. You can submit anonymously or under […]
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The following, composed in rather rapid fashion, is an off-the-cuff top-five list of movies that are better than the book: Number 5: The English Patient, a well-written novel by Sri Lankan-Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The movie, directed by the English auteur Anthony Minghella (RIP), with phenomenal acting performances by Juliette Binoche and the stunning and […]
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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. The Old-English word Eastre derives from an Anglo-Saxon Pagan goddess named Eostre, about whom very little is known. What we […]
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Like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favorite child. And his name is David Copperfield. Wrote Charles Dickens. Where does that phrase “heart of hearts” come from? Well, nowhere. It’s a perversion of Shakespeare’s heart of heart, which appears in Hamlet (Act 3, scene 2, 71-74): Hamlet: Give me that […]
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(c)Ray Harvey 2011