After 16 years of weekly shows, Twilight Tales is taking a much-needed break over the winter months.

The community continues to be active online through the Twilight Tales listserv.

To subscribe, send an email to: TwilightTales-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

We’ll post news there, as well as here, as our plans progress.

Until then, on behalf of all the officers, volunteers and regulars,

Good luck with your writing, publishing & reading!

-Tina Jens

chairman of the board

This week our featured readier is Sharon Shinn. Sharon started writing when she was 8, but it took a few years for her to perfect the craft, and she sold her first novel in her thirties. She has a Journalism degree from Northwestern, and her day jobs in writing for trade magazines paid the rent while she put out over a dozen books in two major series, as well as Young Adult material, novellas, short stories and some stand-alone novels as well. She is a Certified Picture Framer, and has taken the test to prove it. At the moment she works in management education, and gets to interview smart people from all over. She mostly writes on the weekends and in the evenings-but once in a while gets to see the Cardinals play some ball. She reads a lot too, and across all genres. You can find out more at her website: http://www.sharonshinn.net/HTML/index_HTML.html
Here are the answers to her interview questions.

You are a well respected author and have quite a following, does it get harder or easier to come up with ideas for your books?

Sharon: It’s not the coming up with ideas that’s the hard part, it’s the sitting down and actually writing the stories. I always say the best part of any novel-writing experience is the excitement you feel when the story really starts to come together in your head. But the writing can sometimes feel like drudgery…and THAT part never seems to get any easier, which I still find astonishing.

Does attending conventions like Capri-con give you any insight intro what the fans want or where you should your characters next?

Sharon: Mmmm, I wouldn’t say that meeting with fans gives me a clear idea of what to write next…I usually have so many ideas I’m considering at any one time that I don’t much look for input for an upcoming project. It DOES help me get a sense of what’s worked in the past and what hasn’t, which is one of the reasons I followed the same group of characters through the first four books of the Twelve Houses series. A lot of fans didn’t like the fact that different people were the stars of each of the Samaria books. So with the new series, I invented a storyline that could be stretched over multiple books and feature the same characters.
But, mostly, what meeting fans does for me is convince me I’m not alone, writing in the darkness. Someone has read the books and liked them. That’s a huge relief.

Any hints about what you’ll be reading for us? Once the word gets out that you’ll be doing a reading for us, your fans may want a preview.

Sharon: I keep trying to decide! So I’m bringing a selection and I’ll see if anyone in the audience has a preference. I’m thinking about either one long short story that’s very traditional but can be read in a little less than an hour. Or two shorter stories that have more modern settings and aren’t quite typical for me. Together they take a little over an hour to read, which might be too long. All three of those have been published in some format or another. I might also bring excerpts from upcoming novellas that have NOT been published yet…but they’re not self-contained and can’t be finished in an hour. So if anyone reading this has any strong preferences, speak up when I arrive at the tavern!

When wandering the local bookstore, what books do you find yourself being attracted to? Chain store, independent, or both?

Sharon: I’m usually wandering the sf/f aisles or the romance aisles, though sometimes I read mysteries and sometimes I read contemporary fiction. I tend to be at chain stores more often, because those are the ones in my immediate vicinity. For years I collected used-book stores…every time I was in a new city, particularly on a work trip that I didn’t want to be on, I would find a used-book store and browse. There’s just something marvelous about the smell and feel of old books. Now, since I know so many authors personally, I try to buy my books new to support them! But I’m never offended when people tell me they bought MY books used, because I’ve always enjoyed that experience so much myself.

Any advice you’ve ever been given that was so great or so wrong you’d like to share (no names necessary)?

Sharon: Ellen Kushner once gave me the best advice ever when I confessed I was really nervous about doing a reading. She said, first, imagine that when you do a reading, you’re inviting someone into your home. You want them to be comfortable and at ease…if you’re nervous, they’re nervous for you. Second, imagine that you’re — well, she specified a well-known, charismatic sf writer but I guess I won’t name names! But imagine you’re him, and every word you’ve ever written is pure gold. I must say, both of these bits of advice really worked well for me, and I pass them on whenever I get a chance.

Finally, anything else you’d like to tell us before your featured reading?

Sharon: Can’t think of anything else! Looking forward to being there next week.

We hope you’ll join us on Monday February 16th at Mystic Celt (3443 N. Southport) to hear Sharon’s fiction and perhaps more discussion!

Monday 3 November is our 15th anniversary party. In honor of this, we cornered our once and future volunteer Eric Cherry (who served as our CEO in between) to share some of his thoughts at having been involved with Twilight Tales through many of our changes.
Following are his answers to our interview questions.

1. This week we celebrate Twilight Tale’s fifteenth anniversary. In your own words tell us how Twilight Tales has grown and changed while you have been involved.

Eric: I walked into Twilight Tales for the first time in April 2002, just as the organization was hosting the World Horror Convention. I threw in as a convention volunteer, then starting coming early every Monday for the show. What’s changed? We were at the Red Lion for most of the years that I’ve been aboard, but now we’re at the Mystic Celt. We were a greater or lesser part of many conventions and bookfairs, we published anthologies and short story collections, and our website took on more dynamic properties.
We’ve been an unofficial, all-volunteer operation. We’ve incorporated, earned not-for-profit status, and we’ve continued thriving due to the efforts of our volunteers. The core crew has changed over time. When I walked in the door, Larry Santoro handled staging, Lisa Rogers-Lowrance did things with books and inventory, Andrea Dubnick managed scheduling and emceeing, and Tina Jens worked with everybody on all manner of things. Tina is on the Board of Directors, and the rest of the core crew is wholly different.

2. What is the biggest accomplishment the group has made?

Eric: There’s no secret that I’m focused on writing production. The biggest accomplishment we’ve made is the standing network of authors who are forever working their butts off to turn out better fiction. How many of the writers who started off writing in a closet are now out and published? More than a couple. How many once thought that a novel was an impossible dream, and are now novelists? I can think of at least four who’ve recently finished their first drafts.

3. What one thing in the group’s history makes you proud or pleased to have been a part of?

Eric: I’m going to side with my above answer: I’m most proud of our authors’ successes. They did all the hard work, certainly, but Twilight Tales — embodied in its regulars — has been a part of their path. There is no higher achievement, in my not-quite-humble opinion.

4. What changes have you seen that make you confident the group will continue to be successful over the years to come?

Eric: It’s the passing of the baton that makes me most confident. I named some of the core crew from back when I first walked in, but that was by no means the end of the crew list. When an all-volunteer meeting came together, twenty people would show up. We’d draw in an easy dozen now, and a goodly number of those weren’t on the roll call in 2002. And how many of the regulars from 2003 or 2004, how many of that volunteer crew, came and went in that time? Plenty.
Yet the show has gone on weekly for all this time. We incorporated, and the show went on. We increased and decreased our convention involvement, our publishing schedules, and even experimented with a suburban presence. And whatever else went on, every Monday night there was a show (unless some #@$%^! holiday got in the way, of course).
There’s a vibrant and active crew now, and they do an amazing job. And when the time comes for a crew shift, they’ll hand the baton along. That’s how it’s always been, and I’m never in doubt it’ll continue.

5. What direction do you hope Twilight Tales takes in the years to come?

Eric: One of my favorite answers to that now is: “That’s not my job.” I’ve been a hanger-on, a volunteer from the fringe to the core, a member of the Board, and CEO. Now, I’m merely a fringe volunteer: I emcee.
What I hope is that the core crew of volunteers does what the core crew has always done: exactly what it thinks would be fun. History suggests the weekly show will continue to be fun, but even the content and shape of that show is mutable.

6. Finally, what one event or incident sticks out in your mind as something everyone should know about Twilight Tales and why its a great place for authors and reader to gather and exchange ideas?

Eric: The open mic is one event that everyone should know about Twilight Tales, and it’s why we’re a great place for authors and readers to gather.
Yes, it’s not one event, unless there’s a cosmic sort of open mic (not unlike Terry Pratchett’s L-Space, but with more noise and alcohol, and fewer bananas). But it’s what I call the front lines of fiction. It’s where the best of what we have and do comes out.

We hope you’ll join us on Monday November 3rd at Mystic Celt (3443 N. Southport) for our 15th anniversary party…with free appetizers, the usual cash bar, and plenty more discussion!

October at Twilight Tales has always been something special. This year we’re trying something exciting: a featured reader paired with a themed open mic for each week from now until Halloween!
Jay Bonansinga is a local author who has read and presented at Twilight Tales numerous times in the past. His novels include The Sleep Police, The Killer’s Game, and the Ulysses Grove series of thrillers (Frozen, Twisted, and Disturbed) among others. Jay also wrote The Sinking Of The Eastland: America’s Forgotten Tragedy, a nonfiction narrative accounting of the capsizing (into the Chicago River) of the S.S. Eastland in 1915. Several of Jay’s books are under option at major Hollywood studios, and he has more than one screenplay currently in studio development.

Following are Jay’s answers to our interview questions.

Let’s start with the basics, what’s your story called? If you can, please tell us briefly about it.
Jay: “STEAGAL’S BARBER SHOP AND SMOKE EMPORIUM,” which is an anti-war tale I wrote a couple years ago in the tradition of Rod Serling and Paddy Chayevski, first published in the February 2005 issue of AMAZING STORIES. I am so jacked up about what the current regime has done to our country, I cannot resist reading this again (I think I might have read it in public a couple of times).
Go Obama!!!

What inspired your story, or what inspires you to write?
Jay: I have always been attracted to the “socio-political fantasy” of Harlan Ellison, Rod Serling, George Clayton Johnson, Ambrose Bierce, Richard Matheson, and H.G. Wells. I have always attempted to tell surreal, weird, funny horror stories that have a deep and angry subtext about something real and relevant. I hope this story has that to some degree.

Each week in October features a specific genre, tell us what draws you to the genre featured your particular week (Oct. 20; Ghosts, Goblins, and Dead Guys).
Jay: Ghosts stories are all — to some extent — about one thing: GUILT. They were invented in the Victorian era when everybody was riddled with guilt. I — being a lapsed Catholic — understand guilt. I guess that’s why I LOVE ghost stories.

What sorts of books do you find yourself seeking out when walking the aisles of bookstores and libraries?
Jay: Since the horror genre is all but dead — no pun intended — I currently seek out dark and comedic stuff. I guess this is due to the fact that our world is currently a dark and comedic place.

Any advice you’ve been given as a writer that’s either very good, or very out there that you would like to share with us?
Jay: Don’t use adverbs or adjectives. This is one of the great myths among geeks who have bought that old Hemingway crapola about all great writing being lean and minimal and…yawn…boring. I say give me extra mayo on that sandwich, and while you’re at it, throw some brown mustard on it, and then deep fry it in seasoned batter!!!!

Anything else you’d like to share about your writing or upcoming publications/events?
Jay: Please, everyone, go out and order or purchase my new book, PERFECT VICTIM (Pinnacle 2008), which comes out in December, so that my children can get their dental work and text books and medicine. And also so we can put a gallon of gas in the tank.

We hope you’ll join us on Monday October 20th at Mystic Celt (3443 N. Southport) to hear Jay’s fiction (along with open mic offerings in a Ghosts, Goblins, and Dead Guys theme), and perhaps more discussion!

October at Twilight Tales has always been something special. This year we’re trying something exciting: a featured reader paired with a themed open mic for each week from now until Halloween!
Richard Chwedyk is a lifelong resident of the Chicago area whose short stories and poems have appeared in several anthologies, as well as in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. His short story “Bronte’s Egg” received the Nebula award in 2004 in addition to picking up both Hugo and Sturgeon nominations that year. Richard has been a guest of Twilight Tales several times over the years, and always manages to at least delight us if not flat-out amaze.

Following are Richard’s answers to our interview questions.

Let’s start with the basics, what’s your story called? If you can, please tell us briefly about it.
Richard: I’m frantically working to complete a piece called “The Man Who Put the Bomp.” It is a saur story. I don’t know what it’s “about,” a good story always being about the “something else” that the story contains. What happens in the story is that the saurs meet their “maker” — a man who contributed the significant pieces of the genetic sequence that made the saurs possible. And Axel’s first question to him when he arrives, not knowing who he is or what he’s done, is, “Are you a bad guy or a good guy?”

What inspired your story, or what inspires you to write?
Richard: What inspires me at this moment is raw panic and desperation to meet the deadline — and an overwhelming desire not to disappoint the audience.

Each week in October features a specific genre, tell us what draws you to the genre featured your particular week (Oct. 13, Science Fiction and Fantasy).
Richard: Fantasy stories affect me most when characters discover the world as something greater than they first conceived — when they find the door that leads to another world, or look at the street and for the first time see that there’s a whole other world hiding within the quotidian. There are more parts than the sum of the whole. I think that’s what drives my interest in any literature: anything and anyone that suggests that there’s more to the picture than the picture.
For science fiction, I tend to look for the stories that focus not upon what “the future” will bring, but how we will live with it. Perhaps all literature takes on the topic, directly or indirectly, of what makes us human, but recent science fiction takes a unique approach of posing that question by expanding our technology, our territory and our knowledge, seeing if we can still recognize human beings in the milieu. If one can summarize (at great risk) the work of a Samuel Beckett by saying that he keeps taking things away from humanity to see what remains recognizably human there, science fiction has been adding things to a character while looking for what humanity persists. And of course I’m fascinated by the questions of what makes us human as reflected by beings other than humans.

What sorts of books do you find yourself seeking out when walking the aisles of bookstores and libraries?
Richard: All sorts of books — new and used. Right now I’m waiting for 7 Stories Press to finally (finally!) get out their reprint of two Nelson Algren books in one: “Who Lost an American?” and “Notes From a Sea Diary.” I’ve been an eclectic reader since before I knew how to spell eclectic. It’s very difficult for me to pin down what I’m looking for. I’m looking for the books that reveal the secret threads that hold the universe together. One book brings me to another, which leads to another, and another.

Any advice you’ve been given as a writer that’s either very good, or very out there that you would like to share with us?
Richard: 1. (from me) Never work for a newspaper. 2. (from City News Bureau) Never do a bad job well. 3. (from Ray Bradbury) Don’t think — write. 4. (from Jeff Ford) Just tell the f—ing story! 5. (from me) Trust the story. Stories are smarter than their authors — listen and follow.

Anything else you’d like to share about your writing or upcoming publications/events?
Richard: I’ve been frustratingly unproductive of recent. So much to write and the time shrinks away. Keep poking me with sticks and keep sending that guy with scythe over to knock on my door and I’ll finish some of this stuff. Recent stories are listed on my Web page http://www.sfwa.org/members/chwedyk/” I hope to be updating it soon.

We hope you’ll join us on Monday October 13th at Mystic Celt (3443 N. Southport) to hear Richard’s fiction (along with open mic fiction in a Science Fiction and Fantasy theme), and perhaps more discussion!

October at Twilight Tales has always been something special. This year we’re trying something exciting: a featured reader paired with a themed open mic for each week from now until Halloween!
John Everson first came to Twilight Tales as a reader and a staff member, and even co-edited the anthology Spooks with Tina Jens before moving on to form his own imprint, Dark Arts Books. His short story collections include Cage of Bones & Other Deadly Obsessions, Needles and Sins, and Vigilantes of Love; and his work has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. His first novel, Covenant, received the Bram Stoker award for best first novel in 2005, and it has just become available in paperback.

Following are John’s answers to our interview questions.

Let’s start with the basics, what’s your story called? If you can, please tell us briefly about it.
John: Covenant is about a reporter who “runs away” to a small coastal town to escape his dark past… and gets embroiled in the dark past of the small town, where a series of suicides have been occuring from the cliff outside of town. Nobody wants to talk to the reporter about the deaths, and as he digs deeper, he finds that there has been a death from the cliff on the same date every year for one hundred years…

What inspired your story, or what inspires you to write?
John: Covenant was inspired by a newspaper clipping that someone once handed me that talked about a bar at the top of a cliff in England. Apparently, this was the biggest suicide spot in the country: people would go to the bar, have a last drink and then walk a few yards away and jump.
As for what inspires me to write — inspiration sparks from anywhere. I’ve always written stories and poems and lyrics and I love the way words can take you to a place in a heartbeat that is so far from where you sit now… just by opening a door in your imagination. Writers opened those doors for me as a reader and I want to do the same for others…

Each week in October features a specific genre, tell us what draws you to the genre featured your particular week (Oct. 6, Horror and the Dark Arts).
John: I love the sense of the “unexplored” and “unexplained” and “otherworldly” in horror and dark fantasy; there’s a sort of “anything can happen” feeling that I relish. As a reader, I picked up books because I always wanted to escape into another world — to be transported into a place that was unfamiliar. So growing up, I read a lot about alien worlds because they were exotic and offered wild opportunity and often featured characters with powers and experiences very different from anything we could ever come in contact with. I loved the sense of wonder that those wildly imaginative novels brought. That’s why I don’t have any particular interest in writing horror that deals with real-world problems like a psychological study of a serial killer. I can see that in the newspapers and as a reader I want to escape the troubled realities of this world, not explore them deeper. So virtually all of my horror truly has a dark fantasy element to it - something about my fictional worlds is generally outside the realm of our existence, unless you fully believe in ghosts, or erotic creatures who can suck away memory, or taxidermists who embalm people in a way that immobilizes them yet keeps them conscious forever or boys who perform the unspeakable and in doing so create an all-consuming pumpkin queen.

What sorts of books do you find yourself seeking out when walking the aisles of bookstores and libraries?
John: Fun, fast, can’t-put-’em-down ones. At least, I used to. I haven’t “sought” a book in a store or library in years at this point. I run a small press, Dark Arts Books (www.darkartsbooks.com) and proof books for other small presses (Necro Publications and Cemetery Dance). So manuscripts are always turning up on my door — I don’t go looking for them because I have no free time to read beyond what is already sent to me!

Any advice you’ve been given as a writer that’s either very good, or very out there that you would like to share with us?
John: Getting up at the mic at Twilight Tales is a very useful way to test your fiction — it allows you to listen with fresh ears to what you’ve written in a way that you’ll never be able to repeat sitting at your computer at home. By watching the audience’s reaction, and hearing how easy or difficult the phrases are to read out loud, you’ll know where the “soft” spots are in your prose, and conversely, where to “tight” bits are that should be left alone when you go back to edit.

Anything else you’d like to share about your writing or upcoming publications/events?
John: Covenant is, of course, out now and for the next few weeks I’m dedicating all my free time to a book tour to promote it. Sacrifice, the sequel, will be out from Leisure in June of 2009. This summer I finished a new unrelated novel called The 13th, which I’ll be turning in to Leisure this month (I’m doing some final proofing and edits now). That will be out in 2010, I would imagine. I’ve also got some short fiction due out any day — I just finished co-writing a Halloween tale for Doorways Magazine with Gary Braunbeck and JF Gonzalez, which will be out in October. My novelette “In Memoryum” should be out in the next few weeks in the Dark Hart anthology Fearful Symmetry, Deadly Beauty. And another novelette, “Fish Bait,” which [I] wrote after a visit to some of my old CyberPsycho’s Magazine friends in Denver a couple years ago, will be out soon in Cutting Block Press’s Horror Library Vol. 3 anthology.
Anyone who wants to check in about my projects, read some free fiction or check out some of my horror-related art and music can visit www.johneverson.com where you can also read my blog and signup for my monthly e-newsletter. Thanks for interviewing me about my “Dark Arts”!

We hope you’ll join us on Monday October 6th at Mystic Celt (3443 N. Southport) to hear John’s fiction (along with open mic fiction in a Horror and Dark Arts theme), and perhaps more discussion!

This week Twilight Tales brings you two strong voices in genre fiction. Both are award winning authors who have special ties to Twilight Tales.
Tina Jens founded Twilight Tales almost fifteen years ago. She saw it grow from a local reading and writing group into an organization with a national reputation. Her time and dedication have brought many respected authors to Twilight Tales’ microphone. After Tina stepped down as President and CEO of the group, she took on the task of guiding young writers to find their own voices while teaching at Columbia university in Chicago. We are pleased that she has found the time to fit a featured reading into her busy schedule.
Jody Lynn Nye has published a number of books featuring fantasy, mythology, and cats. Her last book co-authored with Robert Asprin debuted in March of this year. Jody has a large following of readers who not only enjoy her books, but cats as well. Jody has appeared a number of times at Twilight Tales, always with wonderful stories full of fun and mischief, and occasionally cats.
Let’s see what this week’s authors have in store for us…

Starting with the basics, what is your story called and can you tell us about it briefly?

Tina: I’m thinking about dusting off one or two of my shorties, stories that just beg to be performed and pair that with an excerpt from my novel in progress. But that’s just today’s plan. The show’s a whole week and a half away. I could change my mind six times between now and then!
I’ve got several novels in progress. One on the front burner, a couple-three on the back burner. I may go with one of those. It’s easier for an audience to enjoy a novel excerpt that either starts on page 1, or is a self-explanatory, stand-alone scene. The Twilight Tales (Ir)regulars have heard several segments of my primary novel-in-progress (THE PROPHECY WAR) at the open mics, and I’m not sure the section I’ve just polished stands alone, so I may go with the beginning of THE LEGEND THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN (the sequel to THE BLUES AIN’T NOTHIN’), INTERNATIONAL OHIO (starring a sleuthing waitress who works in a truck stop), or SEIZE LOVE (about a hitwoman who has seizures at really inopportune times and who has a crush on her newest assignment).

Jody: My story is “And So, Ad Infinitum.” It originally appeared in an anthology entitled Familiars Fantastic (DAW Books). It gives new definition to what constitutes a familiar and who can have them. (I was hoping to have my vampire orthodontist story finished, but life conspired against me, so I hope people don’t mind an old story.)

What inspired this story?

Tina: THE PROPHECY WAR sprung from a novella I wrote when Bob Weinberg & Marty Greenberg invited me to choose a Nostradamus prophecy and write a story based on it for THE SECRET PROPHECIES OF NOSTRADAMUS anthology.
The idea for INTERNATIONAL OHIO came while I was doing a bit of research for THE PROPHECY WAR. I needed a state with a town named “Memphis” but wondered if there were other options than Tennessee. That led me to look at a map of Ohio and I noticed that they have an Athens, Dublin, Liverpool, Gahanna, Lebanon, Lima, Macedonia, Madeira, the list just goes on and on.
SEIZE LOVE was an act of desperation. I was at the Borderlands Books Novel Writing Boot camp, and we were required to come up with a brand new, fully-developed novel idea and write the opening chapter in less than 12 hours (that included sleep-time). I didn’t come up with anything I liked until about 2 hours before the next session. But it turned out quite well, and I will continue developing it.
THE LEGEND THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN picks up a few months after the first blues book leaves off. Mustang, Ratman & Old George have struck out as itinerant blues musicians, hoping to raise enough money to rebuild the club. Mustang falls for a bad man, who happens to be possessed by Ratman’s long-dead rival. Bad, bad things happen. It’ll be a darker book than the first one.

Jody: No one will be surprised to learn that it has a cat in it. I enjoy having cats in my literature when it is suitable. I am inspired by two things: putting food on the table, and writing up the ideas that come to me. The fact that I can do one by doing the other works pretty well.

You have both been doing readings for some time, has anything interesting or odd ever happened at a reading that you would like to tell us about?

Tina: EVERY night at Twilight Tales is interesting & odd, and I say that after fourteen years of weekly attendance!
The weirdest thing that’s happened to me was at a book signing. It was at a Borders Books in a mall in Burlington, Iowa, near my hometown. They had me set up at a table out in the mall in front of the store, hoping the mall zombies might notice me. A short woman, probably in her sixties, with calloused hands and weather-worn wrinkles that suggested a lifetime of hard physical work, approached the table, stopping about ten feet away. She crossed her arms and glared at me.
In a voice more timid than I’d intended I said, “Can I help you?”
She said, “I just wanted to see what an author looks like.”
A shaky laugh I hadn’t meant to let out escaped and finally I said, “We look just like anyone else.” (Alright, granted, I was in a three-piece black suit that had subtle beading on the knee-length walking jacket - not exactly everyday fashion in small town Iowa.
She stared at me some more then said, “You’re not so much,” and stalked off.
My dad was with me. He gave me a sympathetic one-armed hug then went off to get me a drink from the Orange Julius stand. Thank goodness for dads!

Jody: At a DucKon (local SF con) once, I was reading a story using about fourteen
voices. Afterwards, Fred Pohl, whom I had not noticed in the audience, came
up to compliment me. I floated around all day after that.

When wandering book stores, what sorts of books attract your attention?

Tina: I love all kinds of category fiction from paranormal romance to police procedurals, from dragon tales to British humor, from zany road trips to the mysterious blood rites of Haitian voodoo. I have a great fondness for genre fiction that includes humor; things you’d never find shelved in the humor aisle. Folks like Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Janet Evanovich, Kinky Friedman, Tim Dorsey, and Carl Hiaasen. While they say you can’t judge a book by it’s cover, books with humor are almost always packaged in garish colors, so as I browse the shelves, I keep an eye out for books that are lime green, Sunkist Orange and lemon yellow with the odd splash of goober purple thrown in.

Jody: Since I was just in The Strand bookstore in New York, I can tell you what I did. I went straight for the cookbook section. I’m an avid cook and baker. Then I browsed the early literature, history, then mysteries. When I’m writing SF or fantasy, I never read them, so I go through a lot of
mysteries.

Writers are always looking for advice, has any one ever given you great, or really out there advice you can share with us?

Tina: Bob Weinberg gave me the best piece of advice: Never stop writing at the end of a scene or anyplace that gives you a sense of closure. He said he often stops in the middle of a sentence. If you end your writing session at a natural break, you’ll feel all fuzzy and satisfied inside and won’t feel a sense of urgency to get back to it. If you stop writing in the middle of things, you’ll feel unsettled until you resolve the scene. Then of course, you launch halfway into the next one so you never feel complacent.

Jody: Learn your craft. Spelling and grammar count. Learn to write dialogue in different voices than yours. Don’t wait for permission from anyone to write what you want; it is always your privilege to use your talent. A dear friend whom I just lost said, “Never air your education.” What he meant was that no more than ten percent of what you studied to write that story should appear in the story itself. You should write FROM your knowledge, not of it.

Finally, is there anything exciting on your horizon, or anything else you’d like to share with us?

Tina: I’m really enjoying my retirement from the administrative side of Twilight Tales. I’ve got more time for writing, more time for teaching, and more time to play around with other creative projects.
Along with the novels outlined above, I’m adapting two short stories and a novella for radio-theater performances, polishing up a novella I co-wrote with Bob Weinberg that will be released as a signed limited edition hardcover, working on a poetry collection of American Haiku, and doing a ton of research on New Orleans - both for a novel and a new college course I’m hoping to teach at Columbia College - Chicago in January. And, in my spare time, I’m revising my curriculum and reading list for the next semester of the Fantasy Writing Workshop at Columbia. And hitting the blues clubs, of course.

Jody: New books coming up in November: Myth-Fortunes (Wildside Press), January:
Myth-Chief (Ace mass-market paperback), April: A Forthcoming Wizard (TOR
Books, second half of An Unexpected Apprentice).

We hope you’ll join us on Monday September 29th at Mystic Celt (3443 N. Southport) to hear Tina’s and Jody’s fiction, and perhaps more discussion!

This coming Monday, we have two featured readers from the Chicago area.
Jude Walter Mire is the other half of the killer-works.com dynamic duo: we met the (or rather, his) “better” half of the duo—his fiancé Jill Cooper–last month. A Twilight Tales “regular,” he’s also currently serving as our CEO.
Russell Working is a staff reporter for the Chicago Tribune and the author of the short story collections Resurrectionists and The Irish Martyr.
Following are their answers to our interview questions.
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This week Twilight Tales features a returning favorite and a new voice to our mic for your listening enjoyment.
First up is new voice Zally Adams. Zally read us a wonderful piece of fantasy fiction when she first appeared with Tina Jens’ writing class back in April. Considering her sense of humor and story telling ability, we are sure to be pleased with what she’ll read for us this time: either the continuation of the tale she began that night, or whatever else her happily warped mind constructs in her next alternate reality. Whichever case, we are confident Zally will continue to make us laugh and amaze us with stories for quite some time to come.
C.T. Thieme is a returning favorite. He tells fabulous ghost stories, both real and imagined. One of his recent publications was in the new anthology Hell in the Heartland (Annihilation press, Roger Trexler and Martel Sardina eds.). The story Moon Creek Road is an eerie tale of Streator, Illinois and its environs. C.T. always manages to make us think and surprises us with the unique turns his stories take. We can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
Following are their answers to our interview questions.

What’s your story called, and what is it about?

Zally: The piece I will be reading is from a selection of origin stories I have been working on about the creation of 20th century gods.

C.T.: I was afraid that was going to come up eventually. It doesn’t have a title yet. Not because of lack of effort, but because it just hasn’t come to me yet. Right now, I’m calling it “Mo and Jesse” so I have something to save the file as. It is a conversation between two, well, people, depending on your point of view. They are definitely people from my point of view. Kind of like “My Dinner with Andre” except Andre Gregory once claimed he was god, Wallace Shawn attempts to kill him, and Satan is their waiter. They meet and talk in a recreated Garden of Eden in the middle of the Sahara. Ghosts, nuns and Al-Qaeda all make cameos in the cast of players.

What inspired the story, or what inspires you to write?

Zally: For the past few years I always wondered how ideas of gods were created and what kind of gods would be created in the 20th century. Sure there would be gods of things like electricity, computers, and cars but there are also very 20th century concepts that get swept under the rug, which is what this story deals with.
As for things that inspire me (I’ve never been asked this so it is a little odd to answer) I have to say it deals with a few things. Music, orchestral and cello solos are the biggest contender in my writing. I’m not sure why cello exactly but it always seems to play apart in my creative process. I also am a documentary buff and love nothing more than the History channel on a rainy afternoon (or National Geographic with the all their shows about serial killers and taboo subjects like that. Its nice fuel for the fire you know.) Besides that I love to research. I will spend hours with dusty old books looking up mental disorders, historical events, names, gods and even flower meanings until I find something that stirs me into writing.
More than anything else however is just observation from daily life. I enjoy studying human behavior everywhere I end up. Every scenario allows me to look for a different emotion, a different stance, facial expression that can be used in my writing. As of right now I have been hanging out at the Art Institute since it is the only museum in the city where people go with the mindset that they are going to judge everything around them. Its very fascinating indeed.

C.T.: This story is a good example of my general source of inspiration. I have always read and looked for old myths and stories, local, national and international. I’ve also always had a strong draw towards new interpretations of old mythological themes. Jungian archetypes with the overlay of various eras. When I was in high school, I was really drawn to the tales of Morocco and the Berber tribes of the Atlas mountains which eventually led to a trip there when I graduated. There was a tale I read, at the Peru, IL library of all places, regarding a very simple but special place in the desert where two great men met and talked. That image stuck with me until, twenty years later, it developed into this story.

You have both had some significant changes in your lives. Zally, you graduated from college and have begun to work seriously on your writing and C.T we understand you just welcomed an new addition to your family (congratulations!) This is a significant, positive change in both of your lives. Has it affected your writing in a good way?

Zally: Oh Gods! Don’t remind me I don’t have school in the fall, the concept of not being in a classroom is still beyond my mind to comprehend.
Even though I don’t have school to look forward to this has been the first summer that I have been able to devote to nothing more than my writing since, well, ever. The time has given me a chance to really explore my craft and play with developing concepts and ideas that I had to put on hold for far too long.
I have also been looking into becoming an editor in the future to immerse myself even deeper into the art form I love so much. But this idea is currently on hold along with the majority of my writing for I am apply for graduate school as we speak and that has been taking up the majority of my time.

C.T.: It would be easy to be melodramatic about this. Suffice to say, time becomes a very precious thing, and a balance has to be struck. The family is growing and needs time and attention. Still, to give it all one way or another is to betray both. In the first weeks of Byron’s life, I could see my father’s face in his. There is a legacy to consider.

What sorts of stories interest you as a reader, and what types of fiction do you wish there was more of out there to read?

Zally: If there is a book put in front of me I will probably attempt to read it. I can’t choose just one type of story when there is so much out there!
I love books that use symbolism and I try to bring that to my own writing. Every plant, color and name I use is there for a reason and I love to watch my reader’s faces as it all clicks in their mind. Foreshadowing is a delicate art and I respect any author who can use it well. With foreshadowing comes great description, a book or story holds me if I can see the world it is taking place in, which is why I love fantasy and horror. Description is so important to both genres that I just gravitate towards them.
I also like disturbing books like my all time favorite ‘A Clockwork Orange.’ The fact that the acts committed in such books are so horrible yet the narrator is so strong makes me love them. It’s the ability to get inside the mind of a psychopath in your own home without worrying that your going to end up garbage bags at the end of the story.
Right now however my reading list has been taken over by steampunk novels and short stories for their interesting take on history and technology. Oh and the brass, I love the description of the sparkling metal.
As for fiction I would like to see more of. Hmm, I think there isn’t a specific type of fiction I would like to see more of than I would like to see interesting new ways to explore genre. I would like to see more aspects of fantasy combined like in ‘Scar Night,’ by Alan Campbell who mixed steampunk technology and angel lore together beautifully.

C.T.: In the 1980’s, NPR put a significant amount of effort and funding into supporting radio or audio drama. They aired mostly modern and some well written older series. ZBS Media (zbs.org) produced some extremely well written tales that were long enough to take the time necessary to develop not just characters and settings, but also the mood or sense of the story. I love a good piece of flash fiction, but I do miss the well told tales where action was not necessarily immediate and you got to know the place and the characters before you went on the adventure. Darren Callahan is one writer that springs to mind as someone who has actually accomplished great work with this neglected and valuable format.

Have you gotten any advice as a writer that you would like to share with us?

Zally: I met Neil Gaiman a few years ago at an NPR taping and was able to meet him. I brought my journal that at the time had ‘publish or perish’ written on the cover and Mr. Gaiman asked me if I wrote and what the story I was working on was about. I started to tell him and he hushed me telling me he didn’t want to be spoiled and wanted to be able to read it one day. I almost died on the spot. I still have the journal up on my bookcase with the simple word ‘Publish’ written by him in the cover.
Besides that it’s not the advice that I have gotten it’s the obstacles I have faced that push me to want to write. Being told that what I do can be nothing more than a hobby and not an art fuels my desire to prove myself. I know it is not what you expected for advice but I think that being able to take the negative and turn it into something positive to fuel your desire is just as important as hearing praise.

C.T.: There has been good and bad advice. Then some advice that is what you make of it. What has really made the difference is the encouragement, especially from writers I’ve met through Twilight Tales. Encouragement or not, I’d be writing. I don’t seem to have the choice. But to share that writing is another thing entirely. Whether it was Marty Mundt taking the time to help me work up a story into a stronger piece or Eric Cherry asking, “so, when are you reading next?”, the willingness of the T.T. community to let me read a story and to have that constructive feedback from writers I don’t quite feel in the same league with has been something I’ll never be able to adequately say thank you for. What Tina Jens and Twilight Tales has allowed for is more valuable than any piece of sage advice I’ve ever received.

Is there anything you’d like to add to let our reader’s know more about who you are as an author?

Zally: Even though I write fairly depressing or gore filled fiction I’m really a nice girl! Well that is if you excuse the decapitated body under the floor. I swear that was a one time thing and I would never do that to another person who said my work was mediocre…I promise.

C.T.: Stop on by heathens-haven.com. Originally collected Chicago ghost tales, short stories, novel excerpts and memories all floating in the digital ether.

We hope you’ll join us on Monday August 11th at Mystic Celt (3443 N. Southport) to hear Zally’s and C.T.’s fiction, and perhaps more discussion!

This week Twilight Tales and Killer-works.com bring you a special event: Beach Blanket Blood Bath! It’s not just an excuse to show off your dark side: it’s also a contest (cash prizes), a raffle, and whole lot of bloody fun. So we asked Jill Cooper, the Killer-works Headmistress of Horror, her thoughts about the event coming up on Monday, July 28. We got back some interesting replies. Have a look and a laugh, fire up that PC or pen, and join us on the blood spattered sands of summer.

Let’s start with the basics… Tell us a little about Killer-works.com.

Jill: Killer-works is an online review/recommendation site for all things dark and disturbing. This includes but is not exclusively horror. One of the things that differentiates us from similar sites is that we are constantly looking for disturbing content in all areas - be it books, films, art, artifacts, events…There is definite overlap with the traditional horror genre, but we aren’t restricted by labels. Basically if there is something to disturb the masses and it’s well executed, we’re interested in it! Our goal is to become the destination to find “…the best dark and disturbing things for your mind.” (our tagline) and to be able to actually buy everything we recommend from our site. …There are more origin details in the “about killer-works” section of the site.

What first drew you to horror?

Jill: Vast quantities of Dr. Seuss and night-time monsters in my closet - age 3.

What kinds of things do you hope will be featured or killed at the up > coming Beach Blanket Blood Bath and contest?

Jill: Men in Speedos (or not in Speedos…I’m not picky).

You’ve turned the evening into a contest with cash prizes, publication on the Killer-works.com web site, and possibly in an anthology. Is this a new kind of venture of Killer-works.com?

Jill: This contest is definitely a new venture for Killer-works and we’re looking forward to hearing lots of beach-y gore! Publication on our website is a relatively new venture, we have been posting a monthly Flash Fiction piece since April of this year. We coined Flash Fiction to be under 1000 words (you can find submission details online as well) So far the entries have been fantastic and we’ve actually published some Twilight Tales peeps. At the end of a full year of online publications (i.e. April 2009) we will be publishing a print anthology with all of the submissions plus any extras we decide on. The contest winners from Beach Blanket BB will be part of this anthology as well as being featured online at Killer-works. We decided to give writers a bit more word play than the Flash Fic - 3000 words max - as well as a bit more cash. We want to see lots of bloodshed!

We hear there’s going to be a raffle as well, how many rolls of pennies should the attendees bring along with them so they can score some killer swag?

Jill: Well, Killer-swag (a very cool item with our logo on it) will be free for writing your email on our signup sheet to get our free weekly newsletter. Our snazzy blood bath beach gear will be raffled off at 2$ a ticket. You don’t want to miss out - some very unique stuff! (We’ve contacted a mortuary novelty shop…I shall say no more.) Proceeds to go to Twilight Tales - the lovely NPO that it is!

Other than sign up for Killer-works.com, is there anything else you’d like to tell us about the contest or Killer-works.com in general?

Jill: Yes, besides looking for entries for our monthly Flash Fiction, we’re now open to guest writers for our weekly articles. We’re looking for our writers to develop a “voice” of their own for readers to get to know and relate to (and I always add my two cents!) You can find all the writer’s guidelines here: http://www.killer-works.com/write_guidelines.asp.
We are also currently running a short horror film contest! We’ve only just started promoting this one (we’ll be extending the current Labor Day deadline) and will be featuring it (as well as Flash Fiction) at the up and coming Festival of Fear (part of Fan Expo Canada) in Toronto the end of August. Killer-works will have a wee booth - we’re very excited! If you plan on being in Toronto from Aug 22-24, you should come visit me there…
Thanks! Jill

Come one out and meet Jill and her merry minions of mayhem this Monday July 28th at 7:30 pm at the Mystic Celt 3443 Southport in Chicago.