This Week on Friday Live: Jeanette Topar, Jakob Drud, and Brenda Carre

A Step in the Write Direction

Inspiration for this week’s post came in an act of bibliomancy: To foretell these words, I turned to the hip and helpful The Writer’s Boon Companion by Pulp Lit’s very own Mel Anastasiou. Opened at random, the pages parted at “May I propose that you state the gist of the story in a single word?”

So, to follow divination wherever it leads, I sum up today’s theme: ‘toddle’. 

The road to toddlerhood is laden with missteps, with fumbles and tumbles, with trips and hard landings. To this journey, I am certain, many writers relate. Wobbly first attempts, furious tears (both weeping and ripping), cautious replottings, and a few blocks (be they wooden or writer’s) smackdab in the middle of the path. 

But with a nearby hand to grab, and after an encouraging word or comforting smile, those teetering toddles become confident strides. Soon that moppet — or manuscript — is ready to run and jump and leap right out the door. 

To help you find your fiction footing, the Pulp Lit team is hard at work on some new (but still top-secret) projects and platforms. Writerly guidance, encouragement, and block removal included! For updates and offers, stay tuned to the blog or subscribe to our newsletter. 

In the meantime, for inspiration and community, pick up a copy of The Writer’s Boon Companion or participate in our online writing workshops. Meet your muse on Twitter or spend some time with Pulp literati in our Friday Live reading series.

Yes, a manuscript of ten thousand words does indeed begin with one step. So toddle on, dear writer. We’ve got you.

Friday’s live line-up

Every Friday, from 10:00-10:30am Pacific, we are livestreaming readings featuring three authors who will read their work and answer questions from the audience. This week on Friday Live, we bring you Jeanette Topar, Jakob Drud, and Brenda Carre.

Jeanette Topar

Jeanette Topar is a New York City-based writer whose short stories have been published in many prestigious literary journals. Her work was shortlisted for the 2018 Editors’ Prize by Meridian Journal (University of Virginia). Winner of the 2017 Hummingbird Flash Fiction Prize, her short story ‘Just Down the Hall’ appeared in Issue 17. She enjoys writing 100-word stories, and you can read one of her favorite efforts here, or read more on her blog.

Jakob Drud

Jakob Drud lives in Aarhus, Denmark, with his two children. He’s been writing for the last twenty years and has a passion for fiction that surprises, brings new insights, and makes him laugh. The fantastic genres are all that and more, so many of his stories are science fiction, fantasy, or something in between. His short story ‘Culinary Subjugation’ appeared in Issue 27. Links to his stories can be found at jakobdrud.com, and you can find him on twitter as @jakobdrud, if tweets about writing and life are your thing.

Brenda Carre

Brenda’s writing is largely inspired by the supernatural power of the Pacific West Coast. Sometimes her stories are set on Vancouver Island and sometimes they bridge time and imagination into alternate universes. Her short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Fiction River Anthologies, Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, and Heart’s Kiss magazine. She is also a co-author in several faerie-themed and mythic-themed anthologies with Blackbird Press. We were delighted to publish ‘Gret’, the first chapter of her forthcoming novel of the same name, in Issue 15. More about Brenda’s recent titles and her world can be found at brendacarre.com or on Goodreads.

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