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70 Soluciones para los errores comunes de un escritor

El libro del autor Bob Mayer, "70 solutions for a writer's common mistakes" es una buena lectura, particularmente cuando se es principiante en la practica de la escritura. Como un "servicio a la comunidad", me he propuesto traducir el texto y agregar ejercicios para aquellas personas que se interesen en mejorar sus tecnicas.

Error No. 1: No Comenzar a Escribir.



Por que esto es un error: si no comienzas, nunca terminaras. Completar cualquier proyecto literario, en particular las novelas, es un prospecto desalentador. Mucha gente se congela ante ello. Otros siguen esperando a que sea "el momento adecuado". Algunos esperan a que la chispa de la inspiracion aparezca. Aun los escritores experimentados encuentran que es mas facil hacer cualquier otra cosa que sentarse a escribir.

Mucha gente dice, "Yo siempre he querido escribir una novela o un libro de como hacer las cosas, o un libro de ficcion historica, o un articulo de revista". Estas personas se llaman wannabes (fanfarronas). No seas una de ellas.

¿La solucion? Comienza donde sea. Mientras que la primer pagina, la primera linea sigue siendo critica en cualquier texto, recuerda que siempre puedes cambiarlo una vez que has hecho la segunda revision. Asi que una vez que te hayas acomodado correctamente, elige el mejor punto de inicio posible en ese momento y solo hazlo. El tiempo correcto es aqui y ahora. Este minuto. El tiempo correcto puede ser cuando estes sentado en el aeropuerto esperando a que llegue tu vuelo, que es justo donde yo estoy escribiendo esto.

Tienes no solo la chispa de inspiracion, sino el combustible para sostender esa chispa. 
No puedes esperar mas para iniciar esto. 
Nadie mas hara que te pongas a escribir. 

Si estudiamos a todos esos escritores exitosos, encontraremos que muchos comenzaron a escribir en tiempos donde casualmente algo bastante desafortunado esta ocurriendo en sus vidas -- no cuando todas las estrellas se alinearon y las cosas eran perfectas. Este pudiera ser justamente el mejor tiempo para ponerse a escribir. Si estas esperando al tiempo perfecto, nunca llegara. Pongamoslo de otra manera: has comenzado a leer un libro acerca de errores al escribir. Si siempre has querido escribir pero nunca has escrito lo que quieres, has hecho el primer error y esto es facil de corregir. Abre un documento de Word en blanco; toma un papel en blanco y un lapiz (no todos somos perfectos); abrete una vena y empieza a sangrar en esa pagina.
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La Pasion de la Prosa

Por Donald Maas
(Tradd. y coloquialismo por Yuvia Chairez)

¿Que hay en las novelas que nos transporta? Para ponerlo en otra forma, cuando nos transportamos mientras leemos obras de ficcion, ¿que hay en esa pagina que produce ese efecto?
 
Muchas cosas pueden contribuir a esto: una premisa intrigante, protagonistas con los cuales nos identificamos y por lo tanto nos preocupamos por lo que hacen, antagonistas tri-dimensionales, escenas inquietantes, un mundo rico y bien desarrollado, una voz singular, alta credibilidad, microtension en cada pagina... pero sobretodo existe un sentimiento de que esta historia importa --- mucho. Queremos experimentarla. Tenemos que leerla. ¿Como ocurre eso? ¿Que causa que tengamos que sentirnos todos aguaditos de esa manera conforme va avanzando cada pagina?


En una sola palabra, creo que se trata de pasion.


La pasion es una palabra sobreusada. Es un mundo cultural como sobrevivir, soluciones, soporte e intriga Suena evocativa e importante, pero ¿que quiere decir?


Como agente literario, me disgusta en particular la forma en que la palabra se usa en el juego de la escritura. "¡Escribe acerca de lo que te apasiona!" ¿Con que frecuencia has escuchado este consejo? "¡Pos a mi me apasiona MI libro!" Pos claro... No hay vuelta de hoja en ese aspecto. Es como decir... "¡Demonios! ¡Me encanta respirar aire!"

Cada autor cree que tiene pasion cuando en realidad lo que quiere decir es que tiene DEDICACION. Eso es maravilloso, pero no es lo mismo que la pasion que se sale en cada pagina que lees. Esa pasion es algo que se hereda dentro de la historia en si. En cierta manera, el autor ha creado gente imaginariay les ha dado eventos con urgencia e importancia. Esas cualidades no estan en la superficie; se meten en las palabras impresas y cuando manejo esta diferencia, la mayoria de los autores me responden con rapidez con la clasica, "¡Ah! ¡Pero mis paginas SI tienen rete-harta pasion! Mi libro es acerca de los hechos recientes, de lo que realmente importa en este condenado mundo. He vivido estos eventos yo mismo..." (o si no, me vienen con la de "He hecho mucho investigacion al respecto..."). Si esto es cierto, entonces ¿por que muchos manuscritos e inclusive novelas publicadas no tienen el exito de meterme dentro de su historia?

¿Alguna vez has sentido como que una novela que estabas leyendo era, en verdad, la muerte innecesaria de un arbol? ¿Alguna vez te has visto leyendo una novela y a media lectura te preguntas si realmente vale la penja el tiempo que has estado perdiendo? si la respuesta a ambas preguntas ha sido un "si" entonces sabes perfectamente a lo que me refiero cuando hablo de una falta de pasion en las palabras de un autor. La chispa que inicio esa escritura se puede perder con facilidad en el largo proceso de terminar el manuscrito.

ES FACIL PERDER EL ENFOQUE

Bueno, pongamonos a pensar: ¿cual es ese factor X que nos estamos perdiendo? ¿como logras que esa pasion necesaria llegue a tus paginas -- y que de cierta forma se sumerja en el corazon de los editores, los agentes que lo han visto todo y (ultimadamente) en los lectores? ¿Como invocas esa pasion en cada sesion de escritura, sin importar los meses y cantidades obsenas de hojas que te toma escribir los primeros bosquejos de tu historia?

Lo primero de lo que te tienes que dar cuenta es de que cada momento de tu historia que quieras escribir importa. Cada escena no solo representa un cambio pero tiene oculto en ella la razon de que el cambio es importante. Una de tus responsabilidades como escritor es que tienes que identificar (groseramente, si me permites) esa importancia.

El siguiente principio es que nada en una historia es significativo hasta que es significativo para el personaje. Si invitas a tus lectores a intuir (por si mismos) el significado de lo que esta ocurriendo, entonces eres un flojo bueno-para-nada que no hace su trabajo; manejas en la oscuridad con tus luces de autor apagadas.

Con esto no quiero decir que estoy a favor de darles a los lectores todo en charola de plata. Pero la angustia y el escribir todo desde el punto de vista del personaje es algo que cansa hasta al mas santo de los santos. Aun asi, el impacto de lo que ocurre en una historia puede ser sopesado y medido por aquellos que lo experimentan de primera mano: tus personajes.

¿Como hacer eso sin dar a conocer todo el preambulo de la historia? Una tecnica es no incluir lo que un plot en particular significa en la gran vision de las cosas, pero en vez decirlo desde el punto de vista de tu personaje. En otras palabras, ilumina para ese personaje no lo que ha cambiado a su alrededor,  sino lo que ese personaje ha cambiado.


Tambien esta aquello de que algunos autores tienen miedo de dar a conocer todo el mito de la historia en un chaz-chaz. ¡Eso no puede hacerse atando la conciencia moral hasta el final de la historia! El significado debe diluirse durante el transcurso del manuscrito y para eso debes descubrir cada dia el significado que tiene esta historia en particular para ti. No es tan dificil. Todo lo que tienes que hacer es preguntarte al inicio de cada sesion de escritura el por que te importa lo que ocurre en determinada escena. ¿Que es lo que te enfurece? Cuando ves lo que pasa, ¿que es lo que te pone triste, ironico, estupido, sublime, real o enamoradizo? Transportando tus propios sentimientos (tan poderosos como son), tus opiniones, alegrias y tristezas a tus personajes, cada dia es una forma de instilar en tus paginas el conocimiento que vive dentro de tu novela --- y dentro de tu alma.

Haz esto diariamente y vas a convertir a la PASION en una herramienta practica.
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History of Halloween

Halloween, celebrated each year on October 31, is a mix of ancient Celtic practices, Catholic and Roman religious rituals and European folk traditions that blended together over time to create the holiday we know today. Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity and life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. Halloween has long been thought of as a day when the dead can return to the earth, and ancient Celts would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off these roaming ghosts. The Celtic holiday of Samhain, the Catholic Hallowmas period of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day and the Roman festival of Feralia all influenced the modern holiday of Halloween. In the 19th century, Halloween began to lose its religious connotation, becoming a more secular community-based children's holiday. Although the superstitions and beliefs surrounding Halloween may have evolved over the years, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people can still look forward to parades, costumes and sweet treats to usher in the winter season.

Ancient Origins of Halloween

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter. To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.


Halloween Comes to America

As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited there. It was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween
festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft.

At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween,
making it the country's second largest commercial holiday

Today's Traditions

The American Halloween tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

Superstitions

Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-ofsummer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world.

Today's Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into cats. We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred; it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe. And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.

But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today's trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead. In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday--with luck, by next Halloween!--be married.

In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it. In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl's future husband. (In some versions of this legend, confusingly, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.) Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night, she would dream about her future husband. Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands' initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water; and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands' faces.

Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a
chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry; at others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle. Of course, whether we're asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the good will of the very same "spirits" whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly. Ours is not such a different holiday after all!



source
historychannel.com
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The Top 20 Greatest Horror Writers of All-time

Who are the Masters of the Macabre?

By Tim Janson     February 20, 2009


 
When I recently wrote the list of the 15 Greatest Sci-Fi Writers of All-time, I definitely had my sights set on tackling horror with the next list…and I had no idea just how difficult that would be. With Sci-Fi, you have a starting point that most people can agree on, namely the publication of Amazing Stories in 1926, the first magazine devoted to science fiction. On the other hand, horror’s legacy is far older. One can trace the telling of ghost and monster tales back thousands of years to ancient times. For example, almost every culture has their own tales of vampires, dating back to Mesopotamia. Some scholars will point to the rise of the gothic novel in the 18th and early 19th centuries as the roots of modern horror.
 
While not considered horror writers, some of the most renowned Early American writers like Washington Irving (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) and Nathaniel Hawthorne (The House of the Seven Gables), plied their hand at horror stories and created early classics. While neither of these men is on the list, it shows just how rich the lineage of horror literature has become. With that in mind, my list presents a mix of the modern and the classic…of subtle ghost story and blood-drenched splatter tales. 
 
The criteria were also more difficult to settle on. While Sci-Fi has had awards like the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus that have been around for several decades, the top horror honor, the Bram Stoker Award, has only been around since 1987, and the International Horror Guild Awards were only started in 1994. So while the awards might have some influence, it isn’t nearly as much as in the Sci-Fi category. The other things I’ve taken into consideration are body of work, the longevity of the work, and the influence of the work on popular culture. Also, it was important that the writer’s work have been predominantly in the horror field. Dan Simmons, for example, has written a couple of outstanding horror novels but I would not consider him a horror writer. 
 
I began my list with close to 60 names and whittled it down to the final 20, and once again that last spot was the one that was the most difficult to fill. There were many names I came close to including and I will note those in the honorable mentions. There were also names I excluded for various reasons that I will also note. The emphasis is on HORROR…not dark fantasy…not romantic vampires and werewolves trying to disguise themselves as horror (Sorry Anne Rice fans!). These are the writers who will truly give you sleepless nights!
 
20.  Graham Masterton
 
 Masterton has written over 40 horror novels and dozens of short stories but he still seems to be a guy unknown to a lot of people. His first novel, The Manitou was adapted into a film in fairly major 1978, starring Tony Curtis, Burgess Meredith, and Susan Strasberg. My first Masterton read was the gruesome Charnel House with its tale of an evil force living within an old house. Masterton is still going strong with a new book due out this year. His early books are fairly quick reads and while they are long out of print, they’d make a good quest for used book stores.
 
 
19. Richard Laymon
 
 Laymon died all too young in 2001 at the age of 54 but he left behind an incredible legacy of horror. He was nominated three times for The Stoker Award for best Novel, winning once in 2001 for The Traveling Vampire Show. One of his earliest (and best books) The Woods are Dark was just released last year in an uncut version with fifty pages of material not in the books original release in 1981. Laymon often worked in more visceral sub-genre’s of horror such as splatterpunk, but his 1991 novel Darkness, Tell Us is a fantastic supernatural story. Funland is another classic…who doesn’t love a horror tale involving a carnival funhouse!
 
 
18. F. Paul Wilson
 
 Wilson’s first novel The Keep (1981) is a classic that was adapted into a film by the same name. It tells the story of Nazi soldiers in 1941 who are being killed off within the confines of a mysterious castle in Romania. This would be the first of Wilson’s “Adversary Cycle”, a series of six books so far. The second book in the series, The Tomb, would introduce Wilson’s popular anti-hero, Repairman Jack. The Repairman Jack novels (a dozen in all) have tied in with the Adversary Cycle works to create a lush mythos of classic supernatural and modern horror. Outside of these series’, Wilson’s Midnight Mass is a superlative vampire novel.
 
 
17. Robert McCammon
 
 McCammon could have been ranked much higher on this list and perhaps will some day. During the 1980s, McCammon could easily be mentioned in the same breath as Stephen King and Dean Koontz. His early novels, now out of print are classics: Baal, Bethany’s Sin, They Thirst, Swan Song, Stinger, and The Wolf’s Hour. McCammon won the Bram Stoker award for best novel three years in a row from 1989 – 1991, a feat no other writer has duplicated. But then McCammon took over a decade off from writing, some people even thought that he had passed away. He returned in 2002 with the first in his “Matthew Corbett” series of historical mysteries set in early colonial America that border the horror genre and are fantastic. They show that McCammon lost none of his skill during his ten year sabbatical. Hopefully he will return to some straight horror but even if he doesn’t, he has earned his spot on the list. 
 
 
16. Ambrose Bierce
 
 Bierce may be the most colorful writer on the list. Bierce was a novelist, journalist, and adventurer. Bierce was a Civil War veteran who joined up with Pancho Villa’s army as an observer in 1913 and was never heard from again. Bierce wrote one of the most famous horror stories of the 1800s, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, about a Confederate sympathizer who is about to be hanged when the rope breaks and he falls into the creek, escaping to return to his wife and children…only to find it was all an illusion as he feels a sharp pain in his neck and all goes black as he dies at the end of the rope. This story was adapted into an episode of The Twilight Zone. This story has influenced countless films and TV episodes over the years. His story An inhabitant in Carcosa would later be an influence on Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. His story, The Damned Thing, Was recently adapted into an episode of Showtime’s “Masters of Horror”.
 
 
15. Algernon Blackwood
 
 Blackwood is one of the legends of early horror. This English writer was called one of the “Masters” by no less than H.P. Lovecraft. In fact, Lovecraft considered Blackwood’s tale The Willows to be the finest weird tale ever written. If you read Blackwood’s stories such as The Man Who Found Out and Ancient Sorceries would heavily influence the Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Long before modern day supernatural detectives came along, Blackwood created his Supernatural hunting Psychic, John Silence. The Complete John Silence stories are readily available as our many collections of Blackwood’s work. If you’ve never read Blackwood, he’s certainly worth checking out. Even though many of the stories are over one hundred years old, they are still powerful and relevant. 
 
 
14. John Saul –
 
 John Saul is one of the finest horror writers in the classic tradition of old style supernatural fare. His subtle prose has sometimes kept him under the radar of modern horror fans, even though most of his books have made the New York Times Best Seller List. His first novel, Suffer the Children (1977) remains a potent and disturbing read. Hellfire is a quintessential New England horror about a haunted mill where children died in a tragic fire decades earlier. His serialized novel, The Blackstone Chronicles dealt with the effects than an old asylum had on the residents of a nearby town. Saul has been criticized for writing the same type of story over and over but he really is the master at what he does. These are the kinds of books you read on a dark and stormy night. Pure horror in the classic vein!
 
 
13.  Jack Ketchum
 
 Jack Ketchum aka Dallas Mayr isn’t your traditional horror writer. He doesn’t write about demons, vampires, vengeful spirits, or ax-wielding maniacs…his monsters are much more mundane and terrifying because they are us, man…everyday people. His stories are among the most unsettling to read because of this. The Girl Next Door is a terrifying tale about everyday suburban kids who brutally torture the nieces of an alcoholic woman, often with her encouragement. It’s as depressing a story as I have ever read. Ketchum’s first book Off Season about a clan of cannibals preying on vacationers in rural Maine created somewhat of a stir when it was released in 1980. The original story was edited, and later pulled from shelves by the publisher because of its explicit content. An unedited version was release in 1999. Ketchum has been nominated for seven Bram Stoker awards, winning three times, including his long fiction story, Closing Time.
 
 
12.  Dean Koontz
 
 I’ve always like Dean Koontz. Koontz effectively blends elements of science fiction and horror to be wholly unique among modern horror writers. His novels often contain threats which are technological or biological in scope but they never lose that pervasive sense of terror. Koontz’ breakthrough novel was Whispers about a psychotic man who is killing women he believes are possessed by the spirit of his abusive mother. Koontz wrote a number of very good books prior to Whispers under various pen names including The Funhouse, later adapted into a film of the same name. In Phantoms (good book, bad film) the residents of a small ski resort village are being devoured by an amorphous creature which can create life-like phantoms that go out and hunt for food. Other Koontz works adapted into film or TV include Hideaway, Demon Seed, Watchers (including sequels, Intensity, and The Servants of Twilight. In 2003 Koontz wrote the first of six planned novels about his creation “Odd Thomas”, a short-order cook who is able to see and communicate with the dead. Koontz has received three Stoker Award nominations for best novel.
 
 
11. Brian Lumley
 
 Perhaps no modern horror writer has done more to keep the spirit of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos stories alive than Brian Lumley. His Titus Crow character has appeared in over a dozen novels and short stories. The difference with Lumley’s stories is that Crow and his allies don’t drop dead or go insane when confronted by the creatures of the Mythos. They actually strive to defeat them and so there is a far more heroic tinge to Lumley’s take on the Mythos. Lumley’s other famous creation is the long-running Necroscope series, now up to over a dozen novels. Harry Keough is the Necroscope, able to communicate with the dead and use their knowledge and abilities in battling the Wamphyri, evil, vampire-like creatures. The prolific Lumley has also had numerous collections of his short fiction published as well. 
 
 
10. Joe R. Lansdale
 
 Good ol’ Texas boy Joe Lansdale is one of the most diversely talented writers in the business. Novels, short stories, screenplays, comic books…you name it and Lansdale has done it. How can you not love a guy who can write the raucously satirical Bubba Ho-Tep, and then can turn around and write the blood-soaked zombie classic, On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks. The Drive in is another classic about a group of friends who go to an all-night drive-in theater to watch a horror film marathon, and find they are trapped inside, along with the rest of the movie-goers, by a malignant force. His story Incident On and Off a Mountain Road was the adapted as the first episode of Showtime’s “Masters of Horror” series. Lansdale has been nominated for an incredible 16 Stoker Awards, winning seven times, most recently in 2006 for his anthology, Retro Pulp Tales. True to his tough guy image, Lansdale operates his own martial arts school in Texas. 
 
 
9.     Peter Straub
 
 Were it not for the looming shadow of Stephen King, Peter Straub might be the most well-known American horror writer of the past thirty years. Ironically the two would become friends and collaborators on two best-selling novels. Straub’s first big hit was the chilling Ghost Story in 1979, and later adapted into a lackluster film. The novel that made me a Straub fan was his next one from 1980, Shadowland. This is an enthralling story about two prep school buddies who spend the Summer at the creepy estate of one of the boy’s uncle, a magician whose magic may not be just parlor tricks. He and King wrote Talisman in 1984, and then got together again for the sequel Black House in 2001. Straub has won four Stoker Awards for Best Novel (The Throat, Mr. X, Lost Boy Lost Girl, and In the Night Room), two Stokers for Best Collection, and another for Best Long Fiction. The thing that might work against Straub is that he has had numerous gaps in his writing career where he has gone several years at a time without publishing anything new. 
 
 
 
8.     M.R. James
 
 The UK has an incredibly rich tradition when it comes to horror literature. Some of the great writers of English literature like Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson took their turn at writing horror tales. Particularly popular in the UK were themes involving ghosts and the supernatural and there is no finer writer of ghost stories than Montague Rhodes James. James was a well-respected mediaeval scholar who wrote numerous book on historical subjects but it was his ghost stories that he became famous for around the world. His most famous books are Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and More Ghost Stories. “Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad” is a truly chilling story of a man who finds an ancient whistle buried in the sand of a beach, and what is summoned when the whistle is blown. “The Ash Tree” was adapted into a 1975 UK produced film. Several other James stories were adapted for British television on the BBC. When you sit down as a kid to tell ghost stories, these are the kind of stories you want to tell. They exude atmosphere and even after a hundred years they are still terrifying. Many of James’ stories are now in public domain so they can be read for free. Just Google his name.
 
 
7.     Ramsey Campbell
 
 How good is Ramsey Campbell? S.T. Joshi, one of the most respected historians of weird and horror fiction, considers him “…every bit the equal of Lovecraft or Blackwood." High praise from a man noted for being highly critical of modern horror writers. Campbell burst onto the scene in the 1960s with a volume of Lovecraft-inspired tales The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants. Campbell isequally adept at short fiction as he is with novels, perhaps even more so…Collections such as Alone with the Horrors (1993), Demons by Daylight (1973), and Told by the Dead (2003) are classic short-story collections. His 2008 novel The Grin of the Dark was one of the best horror novels of the year. Campbell has won two Stoker Awards, Nine British Fantasy Awards, and an International Horror Guild Award. I can see Campbell one day cracking the top five…he is THAT good!
 
 
6.     Robert Bloch
 
 As a mere teenager, Robert Bloch became a regular contributor to the pulp magazine “Weird Tales”. He became a letter-writing pal of H.P. Lovecraft and soon was writing his own tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. However in 1959, Robert Bloch wrote a story that took the horror world by storm and eventually went on to influence literally hundreds of horror films, Psycho! Without crazed Norman Bates and his motel of horrors, would we ever have a Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, or any of the other modern horror icons? Bloch wrote a sequel in 1982 called Psycho II that is completely different than the film of the same name. he completed his trilogy with Psycho House in 1990. Bloch won a Hugo for his 1959 horror tale The Hell-Bound Train. While Psycho is one of the most important horror novels ever written, Bloch truly shined as a writer of shorter fiction. If you read one Bloch collection, it must be The Early Fears, a collection of forty stories. This was released as a limited edition and is hard to find and hopefully it will be re-printed one day but this book gives a fantastic overview of Bloch’s work.
 
 
5.     Clive Barker
 
 I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the most significant event in horror fiction in the last 25 years was the publication of Barker’s Books of Blood series in the mid-1980s. These books changed horror fiction as we knew it then, ushering in a raw power that Stephen King hailed as “the future of horror”. The six books feature thirty stories in all, several of which have been adapted into feature films including The Forbidden (Candyman 1992), The Last Illusion (Lord of Illusions 1995), and Midnight Meat Train (2008). The Books of Blood should be required reading for any horror fan. Barker’s story The Hellbound Heart would introduce the Cenobites and become the basis for the Hellraiser film series. His novella Cabal, would be adapted into the 1990 film, Nightbreed. In recent years, Barker has been devoting more time to his career as a painter and writing far less than he did twenty years ago. In fact he’s written only ten books in the last two decades. Fans can only hope Barker returns to horror soon.
 
 
4. Edgar Allan Poe
 
 Like a lot of great horror writers, Poe died very young and you can’t help but wonder what works he would have produced had he lived a full life. Poe’s work cannot be described as anything else but macabre. He was infatuated with death and themes of premature burial and torture. Poe’s stories read like the Hall of Fame of horror tales: The Black Cat, The Cask of Amontillado, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Premature Burial, and Ligeia. All of these stories have been adapted for film or TV, some multiple times. Legendary horror actor, Vincent Price, made a career out of starring in roles based on Poe’s stories. Even his Poetry has been adapted to film including The Raven, The Conqueror Worm, and The Haunted Palace. As recently as the second season of Showtime’s “Masters of Horror” we saw an adaptation of The Black Cat, showing how relevant his work still is over 150 years later.
 
 
3.     Richard Matheson
 
 Richard Matheson may very well be the greatest horror writer NOT to be influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. His accomplishments in the horror field are staggering! His 1954 novel I am Legend is one of the top ten greatest horror novels ever written. Hollywood has failed to do the story justice in three attempts so if you haven’t read the book you DON’T know the story. Matheson wrote one of the most famous episodes of the original Twilight Zone TV series, Nightmare at 20,000 feet in which a traveler on an airplane (played by William Shatner) sees a monster on the wing of the plane. So many of Matheson’s stories have been turned into feature films or TV episodes or movies including The Incredible Shrinking Man, Stir of Echoes, and Hell House (The Legend of Hell House). The made-for-TV movie Trilogy of Terror, was based on three of Matheson’s tales including the one about the Zuni warrior doll that comes to life and tries to kill a woman in her apartment. His story, Duel, about a motorist stalked by a trucker along a remote highway is regarded as one of the great TV films of all time and was the first film directed by Steven Spielberg. His novels The Night Stalker & The Night Strangler would both be adapted into TV films and introduce the character of monster-hunting newspaper reporter, Carl Kolchak. The character would later get his own series that unfortunately only lasted one season. 
 
 
2.     Stephen King
 
 Love him or hate him, one cannot deny King’s overwhelming credentials. There simply is no more important person in horror literature in the past 40 years than Stephen King. His books have sold over 300 million copies. King has won 6 Stoker awards, 6 Horror Guild awards, 5 Locus Awards, 3 World Fantasy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004). He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 by the Horror Writers' Association. It all began with Carrie in 1974 and thus began an unparalleled string of best-selling novels. Salem’s Lot (1975), perhaps the only vampire novel that may be better than Matheson’s I am Legend; The Shining (1977); The Stand (1978); Cujo (1981); Christine (1983); Pet Sematary (1983); The Talisman W/ Peter Straub (1984); It (1986); Misery (1987); The Dark Half (1989); Needful Things (1990); Gerald’s Game (1992); Then there are the collections: Night Shift (1978); Skeleton Crew (1985); Nightmares and Dreamscapes (1993); and Everything’s Eventual (2002).
 
 No need to talk about adaptations as there are too many to list, suffice to say that nearly every novel and numerous short stories have been adapted for film or TV. King has shown a remarkable ability to regionalize his work into his quaint New England settings while still being able to reinvent himself with new takes on old plots. Snobbish critics have often lambasted King’s writing style but such is the price of fame when everything you write becomes an instant best seller. Jealousy knows no bounds! After all, it’s idiot snobs who gave us Chariots of Fire over Raiders of the Lost Ark and Annie Hall over Star Wars as Oscar Winners for Best Picture. 
 
 
1.     H.P. Lovecraft
 
 It’s fitting that the #1 writer on the list have probably the greatest name a horror writer could ever have. Lovecraft’s influence has not waned, even more than 70 years after his death. Any writer who mentions “old Gods”, “Elder Gods” or beings of cosmic origin owes a debt of gratitude to Lovecraft. Like so many other horror writers, he died before he could see the fruits of his labors flourish. His works have been adapted into film, TV, comic books, video games, and role-playing games. The conception of the Cthulhu Mythos, and its pantheon of terrifying deities and monstrosities remains the most important creation in horror during the 20th century. Lovecraft show incredible foresight by opening up the Mythos for writers to create their own characters and stories. This early group consisted of writers who would all become legends in their own right including: Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, Frank Belknap Long, August Derleth, and Henry Kuttner. 
 
Lovecraft’s most famous Mythos stories include The Unnamable, The Call of Cthulhu, The Colour out of Space, The Dunwich Horror, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, Dreams in the Witch House, The Shadow out of Time, and The Haunter in the Dark. Lovecraft’s stories were frequently set in his beloved New England and often in the fictional town of Arkham, MA. Miskatonic University, located in Arkham played a role in many Lovecraft tales including the ghoulish Herbert West-Re-animator, later adapted into a cult horror film that spawned several low-budget sequels. Lovecraft’s stories have often failed when being adapted to film and TV, largely because of poor directing and adaptations and the fact that his suggested and psychological horror just doesn’t translate well to live action. Still, one of the better recent adaptations was a “Masters of Horror” episode featuring a faithful version of Dreams in the Witch House. 
 
Lovecraft by no means took full credit for the development of the Cthulhu Mythos. He pointed to many writers as inspiration including Robert W. Chambers, Lord Dunsay, Ambrose Bierce, Poe, and Arthur Machen. But his genius was taking various ideas and concepts and molding them into a coherent, shared landscape that still has many active writers today. There can be little doubt that Lovecraft is the clear choice for #1 horror writer of all-time.

Honorable Mentions
 
John Skipp – Skipp is regarded as the Godfather of splatterpunk horror and currently two of his novels are in film development. If he gets a bit more work under his belt, He’s a guy who could be on the list in a decade or so.
 
Ed Lee – Lee’s situation is similar to Skipp. Much of his work has been done for small press publishers but he’s certainly a talented writer.
 
Frank Belknap Long – Long was very close to making the list. He was one of the early group of writers who contributed stories to the Cthulhu Mythos and he wrote hundreds of short stories. It was a very difficult decision to leave him out and it came down to the fact that while he was undoubtedly a great horror writer, he didn’t have the scope of influence that other writers did.
 
Robert E. Howard – The creator of Conan, King Kull, Solomon Kane and other fantasy characters was also very gifted as a horror writer. He was another original Cthulhu Mythos contributor and produced many of his own original horror stories, often set in the deep south such as “Pigeons from Hell” one of the great stories dealing with voodoo and zombies.
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In the Middle of the Night

I don't know what happened... I woke up this morning, on the floor. Apparently, I fell off the bed during the night and didn't notice until I found the floor hard.. cold...and I laughed myself silly. A cramp began in my leg and I couldn't get up. This made me laugh even more. What the heck?! I can't remember what I was dreaming, but it must have been something weird, I mean, knowing myself.

I fell off my bed... what kind of psycho-somatic dream must I have?






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Taller Literario, 24 de Octubre 2010. Sesion 2

La sesion se inicio en punto de las 10 de la mañana con la presencia de nuestros nuevos talleristas, Nadia, Antonio e Itzel. Suky, David y Francisco, Contamos hoy con textos narrativos y un poema -- esperamos tener mas miembros conforme vaya avanzando el taller. Los textos a revisar son:

El Paraiso de mi princesa (novelilla) de Itzel. una chavita de 14 que viene con todas las ganas del mundo a entrar, aunque su experiencia, segun nos dijo, era ya recorrida. Tiene algunas participaciones en España con novelas cortas que hablan de Ciudad Juarez.

El Indiferente, Cap. 1 (novela) Un texto que ya David habia traido anteriormente y que hoy regresa con mejorias.

¿Que escuchas? (poesia) De Franscisco, con un lenguaje poetico que fue el primer texto en ser tallereado por los miembros del taller.

Chole y Prue que son cuentos cortos traidos por Sukiina, mismos que son referencias a sueños que la autora ha tenido. 

Recibimos muchos correos y comentarios en Facebook, de gente que queria integrarse a la 3era sesion, mismos que fueron atendidos y esperamos mas afluencia de gente. Reconocemos que apenas vamos iniciando y que probablemente mas de nosotros se van uniendo conforme el taller sigue trabajando. El objetivo sigue en pie. A pesar de las flechas que pudieramos recibir por parte de nuestros criticos.
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Sweet Dreams, Lazer Cats, and Bert and Ernie

I shall start this post, by saying that this was just a dream... If this had been an actual event... well, let's just say it would make heck of headlines ... if you or anyone you know is portrayed in this dream, all I have to say is... sorry.

So the dream begins with me, being Angie's helper. She is working at a newspaper, apparently, as a photographer and reporter, and I am like the achichincle, carrying her stuff, driving her everywhere... So we have to do this story on a scientist who lives on the far-side of town (jajajaja! I was gonna type "fat side of town"!) with his wife, who is this blond Farrah-Fawcett look-a-like... with longer hair. The house is like this big igloo type of house and the terrain is big, with trees and sunflowers. So, we get to the house (white walls and a purple top) and the guy welcomes us, and gives us coffee and starts talking about his latest inventions and all. Then the guy's wife walks into the kitchen, telling us that she is going to prepare some cupcakes, when Angie turns to me and says "oh my god! do you know who this guy is?" and I go, "well, yeah... he just told us, he's an inventor" "No, you stupid monkey!" and then she pulls out this photo of Bert and Ernie (from Sesame Street) and there is the picture of two other guys there with them. "this guy KNOWS this!" she says. What the heck does he know?

Well, turns out that the guy there knows who the REAL Bert and Ernie are, and that those two guys in the picture with Bert and Ernie are actually KGB spies who had been shot dead by this guy here. Well, the guy finds out that we're on to  him, right? and he starts telling us that we're now going to be persecuted by the government because we know who he is and who Bert and Ernie are... and then, the CIA breaks into the house and starts shooting at everyone... The wife of the guy gets blown in the face while me and Angie are trying to get away. So, Angie goes for the car while I am dodging bullets and using my left hand like a ping-pong tablet and returning the bullets! Yeah, datz right! I have this superpower -- apparently I can dodge bullets very a-la-matrix AND bounce them off my hands like ping pong balls! It only reminded me of that comic book, Wanted.. yeah, coz next thing I know, I am taking a rifle and start shooting at people and NOT missing... and not reloading, which is f--ed up to begin with. So, we get the scientist guy, his wife, me and angie into the car, and we are driving away as fast as we can, I'm hanging from the window, shooting people up and down the place, and angie is driving backwards! We want to get the scientist guy's wife to a doctor, but we're pretty sure that any doctor we take her in we're done for.... so we decided to take her to this place that is close to my aunt Gaby's house.. it's a private practice office...

So, inside, everything is as regular as always. Outside, it's me, and the bullet rain. We get there and it's like a scene from mission impossible to get the woman inside... but once we're in, I transform into my avatar form-me-shape from Rock Band... and sit next to the front desk. While they're tending to the woman, I look at the door and here comes the Clown Possee... yeah, that disturbin rock group with clown faces? And i get mah rifle... and the nurse goes all " do you know these people?" And I say "yeah... they're my sworn enemies!!" and start shooting at them. So, I kill the clowns and go outside. The CIA is still after me and angie because we know too much. So we need emo. "Everything would be so damn easier if we had lazer cats!" Angie says and I go thinking... "well, I think Guille is a lazer cat, her momma had the gene..." so off to Suky's house we go to CAT-NAP Guille. But on the way there, I wonder tha tmaybe one of Guille's cat-friends might be able to substitute guille... and on the way we find Mr Fluffy Boots, a black cat who is so fluffy it's unbelivable. so, Mr fluffy Boots is caught and as soon as Angie sets him out to be Lazer cat, stupid cat dies. I go all mad, "you're suppose to tug his tail, not his NECK!" and we're in the car, wondering how in the heck are we gonna nap Guille... so, we decided to kidnap Guille's spawn, Prue.

We grab Prue and tie her up. While I am doing this, Angie is writing a RANSOM note... "How the fuck are you writing a ransom note TO A CAT?!" I yell. she looks at me and says, "DHU!! It's not like I'm writing it in ENGLISH, Stupid!! I Know how to write CAT!!" and continues writing the thing... in CAT. so, we take Prue and tie her up to a string and hope that Guille knows how to read cat.. oh! but first we test Prue to see if SHE is a lazer cat.. she's not. Then, Angie tells me she's going to go to the store to get some doritos and I am waiting there, when all of a sudden, here comes Guille, looking all The Good the Bad and the Ugly, with a dorito bag in her mouth, which she spits to one side, looking at me like "you DARE take MY kid --- BIATCH?!" and I know for a fact that Angie has been turn to toast because Guille IS a Lazer cat...

.... and then I woke up....
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Bases de Concurso "TWITTERELATOS" (Chile)

Bases Concurso 

   Twitter se ha transformado en un poderoso medio de comunicación, en la síntesis perfecta para dar a conocer una idea, un estado o una opinión a cientos e incluso miles de personas al mismo tiempo. Cada vez  hay más adeptos y por lo mismo, son muchas las iniciativas que en los más diversos ámbitos se han desarrollado a partir de este recurso. 
    Considerando lo anterior, el Programa de Fomento Lector y Escritor de la Biblioteca de Santiago lanza hoy el primer concurso TwitteRelatos, donde usuarios de cualquier lugar del mundo podrán mandar su historia a @BibliotecadStgo para formar la primera biblioteca de cuentos en formato twitter.
    Destacados twitteros nacionales y extranjeros, forman parte del jurado que seleccionará los 16 mejores cuentos, éstos serán ilustrados por talentosos artistas chilenos, pudiendo descargarlos de nuestra página, facebook y twitter. 
    El concurso se abrirá el día 27 de octubre de 9:00 a 18:00 hrs. (hora chilena), los interesados deberán seguir en twitter a la biblioteca @BibliotecadStgo y enviar solo un cuento durante el horario establecido. Para más información, revisa las bases en el icono TwitteRelatos. 


BASES


Primero.- Los participantes presentarán un solo micro cuento en idioma español desde su cuenta personal de twitter, a través de un mensaje público remitido a @BibliotecadStgo. Se considerará como participante exclusivamente al dueño de la cuenta desde la cual se remite el cuento.
 
 

Segundo.- Podrán participar todas/os los chilenas/os y extranjeras/os, que nos sigan en @BibliotecadStgo, a excepción de las/os funcionarias/os de la Biblioteca de Santiago y de la Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos y sus familiares directos hasta el segundo grado de filiación.  
 
Tercero.-  El concurso estará abierto el día 27 de octubre de 2010 de 9:00 a 18:00 hrs. (hora chilena), por lo que se considerarán como textos participantes solo los microcuentos o tweets que sean enviados dentro de este periodo. El autor que envíe más de un cuento quedará descalificado, sin embargo durante las horas de recepción podrá borrarlo y reemplazarlo, tomándose el último tweet como  el definitivo.
 
Cuarto.- El jurado estará integrado por destacados twitteros de Argentina, Chile, México y Venezuela: 
Carolina Urrejola, Hermes el Sabio, Roger Michelena, Andrea Palet, Marco Antonio Coloma, El que no aporta, Natalia Porta., Ximena Jara, Francisca Solar, Cafeleería, Lilián Bañuelo.
El jurado se reserva el derecho de declarar desierto uno o todos los premios si así  lo estima conveniente, sin que por ello se deba retribuir o indemnizar a los participantes.
 
Quinto.- Los 16 cuentos  ganadores serán ilustrados por talentosos artistas chilenos: 
Maria Jose Puyol, Katerina Nicolau, Verónica Rodríguez, Raquel Echenique, Inés Figueroa, Felipe MENA, M. Paz Silva, Fabiola Solano, Jazmín Espinoza, Amparo Phillips, Cristina Azócar, Soledad Céspedes, Sol Díaz, Hernán Kirsten, Loly Bernardilla, Maya Hanisch.
Éstos podrán descargarse directamente de la página web,  Twitter y Facebook de la Biblioteca de Santiago.
 
Sexto.- La premiación de los micro cuentos ganadores se realizará el día 17 de diciembre dentro del marco de las “Charlas Múltiples Lecturas, Múltiples Formatos”.
 
Séptimo.- La sola participación en el concurso implicará la aceptación de estas bases y otorga el derecho de los organizadores a editar, publicar, distribuir y reproducir en cualquier medio la totalidad o parte de las obras participantes. Los trabajos no serán devueltos, quedando a disposición de la Biblioteca de Santiago, organismo al que se le autoriza su uso para fines culturales. 


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El Snuggie Dilemma

¿Quien no conoce al diablo mejor conocido como SNUGGIE? Es una mantita de franela, suave y tierna, que te da calorcito, te protege, te mima... casi casi con el cariño de mama... PERO tambien es enemigo letal... al menos mio, porque nomas es cuestion de que me lo ponga y ya como por arte de magia, me traslada a mimi land... El Snuggie fue la causa de muchas guerras... casi estoy segura de que si Troya hubiera tenido un snuggie a la mano, hubieran derrotado a los griegos hace muuucho tiempo.

No hay mejor manera de escribir que sentirse apapachado. Con eso estoy de acuerdo. El confort siempre ha acompañado a los escritores, si no, diganme en donde se ponen a escribir... a-ha, datz right, en el lugar mas comodo de la casa. Tal vez para usted sea comodo escribir en el sofa; para otros, es mas comodo escribir tirado sobre la cama. Sea cual sea la forma, le aseguro con un 99.99% de posibilidad de que estoy en lo cierto, que si usted le agrega un snuggie a la formula, no nadamas no va a escribir una palabra, sino que ademas babeara la hoja/teclado en donde escribe, llegara tarde a cualquier cita que tenga programada y comenzara a hablarle a su snuggie en terminos de nombres propios... El mio se llama Derek.

Asi que, venga a todos aquellos escritores que tienen su snuggie y no tienen miedo a usarlo! yo tengo elmio, desgraciadamente Derek se ha impuesto el objetivo de hacerme dormir cuando no quiero y hacerme perder el hilo de la musa que tanto batallo pa que llegue a mis dedidos.

Damn you, Derek! Eres tan peludito, suave y asdzsdasjfashlzlblkzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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De la Locura a la medianoche

No se como comenzar a escribir el relato... Como escritores siempre tememos a esa primera hoja... la hoja en blanco, la hoja nostra que casi casi podemos escucharla reirse a carcajada limpia de nuestra inhabilidad de escribir algo decente como un primer renglon. Decididos a que "no va a ocurrir esta noche", apagamos la luz, apagamos la maquina (quien escribe en procesador, los que escribimos a pluma y papel guardamos los utencilios) decimos buenas noches y a dormir.

Pero resulta y resalta que la condenada musa que nos evadio durante semanas decide presentarse justo cuando nos echamos a dormir, y el cansancio es tal que apenas podemos mantener los ojos abiertos. ¿Que hacemos? ¿Nos dejamos llevar y dejamos que haga lo que sea con nuestro haber? Por lo regular primero maldecimos porque, ¿que horas son estas de andar picandole la cresta al gallo? Luego, como que nos agarra el coraje y decidimos mandar a la fregada a la musa... sin embargo tenemos conciencia de que hacer esto es equivalente a mandar a la fregada al acto mismo de vivir, asi que, a regañadientes y toda la cosa, nos levantamos, encendemos la vela y --- ¡nada!

Creo que el bloqueo mental de esa primer hoja ha de ser algo universal. Muchos escritores contaran de como hacen para escribir, pero ninguno admitira de viva voz el terror y panico que nos invade cuando vemos esa hoja en blanco, lista para ser esculpida como el mejor de los escultores. Porque admitir este terror/panico es como admitir que no somos perfectos y eso, para un escritor, es como admitir que su trabajo no siempre es el mejor y que usualmente ese primer efecto viene luego de dias y dias de andar rebuscando de aqui a alla --- cuando lo que queremos es hacer parecer que es algo tan facil como decir "a la una... a las dos..." (y eso que nos olvidamos los años que nos tomo decir esas palabritas tan comunes).

Me gustaria decir que tengo la formula perfecta para sentarse a escribir en una hoja en blanco, la formula que no falla, que te hace un escritor instantaneo (como añadir agua a la sopa maruchan para hacer rica sopita instantanea) pero no. Escribir es casi tan natural para mi como respirar, ver, sentir, etc., pero todavia no encuentro la ecuacion perfecta para combatir el bloqueo mental de la primera hoja, asi como todavia no encuentro la formula perfecta para frenar los dedos una vez que hayas arrancado. Tal vez algun dia inventen una pastilla que te haga escribir las cosas con mayor facilidad.

... o tal vez el terror de la primera pagina existe para separar a aquellos que anhelan escribir algo y nunca se atreven a contarlo de aquellos que sentimos la necesidad de escribirlo y no podemos vivir sin soltar la sopa.

--- Ja ne!
Yuvia
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Taller Literario 2010 en Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua

Con el afan de combatir la ola de violencia que aqueja a nuestra querida ciudad Juarez, varios miembros del gremio de las letras decidimos formar un taller literario al cual abrimos la invitacion a todos ustedes. Aunque presencial, podemos manejarlo de una manera cibernetica, dando tips y criticas constructivas respecto de los trabajos de cada quien. El objetivo? Sanar las heridas de la ciudad por medio de la literatura, asi como contribuir con libros y antologias salidas del taller.

Reproduzco la nota periodistica que salio al respecto. Comentarios y sugerencias son bienvenidos.

Saludos!

Llevarán poesía y cuentos a colonias con más violencia
Redaccion
2010-10-17
04:17:12

Un nuevo taller literario abrió sus puertas a personas mayores de 18 años de edad que tengan los deseos de formase en los rubros de poesía, novela, guión, narrativa y novela gráfica.
Este grupo, coordinado por Yuvia Cháirez y Antonio Flores Schroeder, no tiene fines de lucro, por lo que es totalmente gratis y se reúne cada dos semanas para analizar sus textos en las instalaciones de la Universidad Regional del Norte, los domingos por la mañana.
"Queremos poner nuestro granito de arena para mejorar la situación social en Juárez por medio de la creación literaria, lo hacemos por amor al arte, nadie nos paga y trataremos de que se mantenga así, de manera independiente", dijo la especialista en nanoficción Yuvia Cháirez.
Agregó que en Juárez hay muchos jóvenes que escriben poesía y otros géneros literarios, a los cuales envía una invitación para formar parte del taller literario.
"Nuestra primer sesión fue el domingo pasado (10 de octubre), nos reunimos cada quince días por las ocupaciones que cada uno de nosotros tenemos y para que los miembros del taller tengan tiempo para trabajar sus textos", indicó la también profesora de idiomas.
Los textos trabajados serán publicados el año próximo en una antología del taller.
De acuerdo con Antonio Flores, el taller a diferencia de otros que ya existen en la ciudad, contará con un programa social para llevar lecturas a las colonias donde existen altos índices de violencia e inseguridad.
"Cuando se tengan algunos trabajos listos, se organizarán varias lecturas en colonias con graves problemas sociales, ya hemos identificado algunos sitios para finales de este año", aseguró.
Flores manifestó que el taller todavía no tiene nombre porque eso piensan dejarlo como tarea para los miembros una vez que esté completamente conformado.
Cháirez y Flores fueron miembros en el año 2000 del taller literario Laesta del INBA–Ichicult, coordinado por el doctor José Manuel García García, y también han dirigido talleres de escritura dirigidos principalmente a jóvenes.
Su trabajo ha sido publicado en diversos medios nacionales e internacionales y ambos tienen en proceso de publicación un par de novelas.
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Requisitos
–Presentarse en la URN el domingo 24 de octubre a las 10:00 a.m. (Camino Viejo a San José 10051, colonia Partido Senecú)
–Llevar un texto en cualquiera de los géneros mencionados con ocho copias
–Abierto al público en general mayor de 18 años de edad
–Los coordinadores del taller están disponibles en Facebook (Yuvia Cháirez y Antonio Flores Schroeder)
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