E. Christopher Clark - Author and All-Around Geek
Monday, July 7, 2008
Making the Book #003: Two Weirdoes, a Shovel, and Lots of Open Land (Video)
Making the Book is a Web video series where I read and discuss my written work. Each week, I look back at how the stories I’ve published came to be and offer advice based on my experience as an adjunct English instructor and a lifelong writer. This week, I’m reading and discussing “Two Weirdoes, a Shovel, and Lots of Open Land,” a short story first published in The Bradford ReView and later collected in Those Little Bastads.
“Two Weirdoes” was written as a reaction to the pretentious workshop commentary provided by a particular subset of my Introduction to Fiction class at Bradford College (circa 1996). The message of the story was “let’s all stop taking ourselves so seriously,” and, while most of that class found little humor in the jokes being made at their expense, the story went on to find an audience with people who, while they didn’t necessarily understand every in-joke, found great humor in the absurdity of a thirsty suburbanite pow-wowing with two Beckett-quoting weirdoes in the middle of an open field. They may not have known that the inscription on the story’s gun was a nod to Joyce Carol Oates, but it turned out that not knowing that didn’t matter.
If you’ve read Those Little Bastads and would like to suggest which story I discuss next, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Monday, July 7, 2008
Ira Glass on Sucking as a Storyteller (Video)
I listen to the podcast version of This American Life every week (and you, if you’re a storyteller of any kind, should be listening too). So, I found it extremely comforting that the host of that show, Ira Glass, was willing to admit, in the video embedded above, that he once sucked as a storyteller, too. His advice to those of us who know that we can be good, but who feel like we are not yet there: keep at it.
Thanks to Merlin Mann at 43 Folders for linking this up.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
An Interview With Bryan Ballinger
This interview originally appeared on The Intersection, a Weblog that E. Christopher Clark published from 2007 through early 2008. The Intersection was dedicated to the discussion of the intersection of the creative life, the work life, and the family life.
Bryan Ballinger graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1990 with a degree in Illustration. He also has a master’s degree in Writing for Children from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After moving to Seattle in 1991 and doing freelance work for companies such as Nintendo Power magazine, he started working at Microsoft as an illustrator. He was lead illustrator for the first version of the award-winning Encarta CD-ROM encyclopedia as well as the Explorapedia children’s encyclopedia series. Bryan was the 3D Design Lead for 5 years at Big Idea Productions, the producers of the VeggieTales children’s videos. Bryan is also a professor of Digital Media Arts at Huntington University in Indiana. Bryan does illustration for children’s books, websites, games, videos, ads, etc. He is also the co-author of The Great Cheese Squeeze, a children’s book he did with his buddy Keith Lango. He is also a husband and a father.
And we haven’t even gotten to the slew of websites he runs, from Breadwig.com to Suxco.com and everything in between.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Making the Book - One Week Hiatus
I’m taking a week off from Making the Book to catch up on some other work, and to get back on track with my current writing project. In the meantime, why not check out the first episode of “You’ve Got to Read This”, a video series I did for my old Website, The Intersection.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Making the Book #002: Revelation (Video)
Making the Book is a Web video series where I read and discuss my written work. Each week, I look back at how the stories I’ve published came to be and offer advice based on my experience as an adjunct English instructor and a lifelong writer. This week, I’m reading and discussing “Revelation,” a short story first published as “Christbearer” in The Bradford ReView and later collected under its current title in Those Little Bastads.
“Revelation” is a story about what happens when a Jesus Christ is cloned from a blood sample found on the Shroud of Turin. Originally told from the point of view of an angry young atheist, it has since been revised so that it is now seen through the eyes of a devout Christian woman. In this week’s episode of Making the Book, I talk a little about why our choice of point-of-view characters is so important.
If you’ve read Those Little Bastads and would like to suggest which story I discuss next, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).