Host Your Own Old Time Radio Drama
Drama for the dinner table
IDEAS Where do ideas come from? Everyone wants to know the answer to this. Many writers resent the question and answer with a joke and a knowing wink. They might respond with something like, “Ideas may be found growing on the eastern slope of the world’s tallest ice shelf, but… they can only be plucked […]
The Cthulhu Mythos of H.P Lovecraft was inspired by numerous writers and expanded by numerous collaborators in his lifetime. Admired by H.P Lovecraft, the moonlit road was an influential ghost story about a husband who had unknowingly murdered his wife. The casual despair of the work is typical of Bierce. The Moonlit Road Ambrose Bierce(in […]
The Cthulhu Mythos of H.P Lovecraft was inspired by numerous writers and expanded by numerous collaborators in his lifetime. This story, translated by Richard F. Burton from the Arabian Nights, was the inspiration for the inclusion of the City of Pillars in the Cthulhu Mythos. Enjoy. The City of Many-Columned Iram and Abdullah Son of […]
The Cthulhu Mythos of H.P Lovecraft was inspired by numerous writers and expanded by numerous collaborators in his lifetime. This story, by Ambrose Bierce, was the inspiration for the inclusion of Hastur in the Cthulhu Mythos. Enjoy. Haïta the Shepherd Ambrose Bierce(in Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, New York: Lovell, Coryell, 1891) Public Domain License […]
The Cthulhu Mythos of H.P Lovecraft was inspired by numerous writers and expanded by numerous collaborators in his lifetime. This story, by Ambrose Bierce, was the inspiration for the inclusion of Carcosa (and the King in Yellow) in the Cthulhu Mythos. Enjoy. An Inhabitant of Carcosa by Ambrose Bierce(in Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, New […]
The Cthulhu Mythos of H.P Lovecraft was inspired by numerous writers and expanded by numerous collaborators in his lifetime. This story, by Algernon Blackwood, popularised the Native American legend in literature and was the inspiration for its inclusion in the Cthulhu Mythos. Enjoy. The Wendigo By Algernon Blackwood(in The Lost Valley, London: Eveleigh Nash, 1910) […]
GOODBYE If in the end humanity passes into the nightBelieving itselfUnloved, Unmissed, and Unmourned,The architect of its own destruction,Seized by selfishness,Then I wonder what the last cryAs the lights go downOn human history will be?Perhaps “More grace! Just a little more grace!”And perhaps a voice in the darkness will reply“Let there be light”. GOODBYE This […]
PLAGUE Don’t pity the plague carriers,The shy and ugly ones who,Un-noticed,Lock out the world andWonder Why The doorbell never rings. Keep the secret.Don’t point and stare.Hide the children awaySo that the truth can’t get out. Drop hints that it’sTHEIR OWN FAULT.After all, they grew old– No-one did it for them.Genes are the user’s responsibility.The accident […]
Have you ever been in “the zone”? You know, that experience where everything just flows and you write with uninterrupted joy and it all just comes together naturally and pours out onto the page? That’s what writing is supposed to be like, right? Well, maybe. But more often than not, the stuff I produce in […]
As a person who has a hearing loss (deaf in one ear) I always feel a little awkward sharing thoughts on sound. After all, there are whole bands of sound-frequencies that I can’t detect that are available to everyone else, so who am I to express an opinion? However, my inability to detect certain pitches, […]
In previous essays, I’ve mentioned that I’ve had to learn that unnecessary backstory should be dispensed with in the interests of getting to the story-proper as quickly as possible. I’ve also talked about the need to judiciously seed the backstory throughout my plays (at the moments when they become most relevant). Flashbacks This week I’ve […]
I seem to be getting rather confessional lately. In part, it’s because I realize, as a school-teacher, that my screw-ups are often more helpful to students than my successes. In my early days of writing (and as I hit a patch later on where I started to get a little over wordy) I was inclined […]
