This Week on Friday Live: Oak Morse, Christian Walter, and Graham J Darling

Quotes for the Quarantine Quandary

For writers, inspiration and perseverance are a lot like hand sanitizer and toilet paper — life is manageable without one, but inconceivable without the other. The muse brings the vision, and the daily word count gets it down on paper. You can’t edit a blank page, so even when the inspiration pump runs dry, writing something is always better than writing nothing.

In these quarantine days, perhaps you’ve been deluged with words that burble and churn and flow along. Or perhaps you’ve faced nothing but drought and dread on the pandemic plains. If so, we offer you the words of Pulp Literati, all of whom have stared into the abyss of the blank page, and all of whom have come out the other side, publishing contract in hand. 

I’m a bricklayer. I write sentences and hope they turn into some kind of wall. JJ Lee, Issue 2

Wisdom about writing? Oh boy’s’a’dear. Keep it a reflex. Never let anything interesting go by without putting a word on it to bring it back to life on a page. George McWhirter, Issue 9

I get a sense of satisfaction with simply writing for the sake of writing. Reminiscent of that odd feeling I’d get as a young boy lighting matches with nothing to burn. Sometimes I’d do it for the smoke, or to make a stink, out of boredom, but what’s better than that brief moment of illumination a flaring match can bring to the darkest place? Bob Thurber, Issue 12

I start with a character in the character’s normal situation, then I hand them a problem and see how they deal with it. One thing always leads to another, and eventually a story takes shape. Matthew Hughes, Issue 26

(I)t all looked quite dark to the discourageable kid that I was then. The good thing was that I wasn’t totally discourageable. I went on trying, the stories got better … But it did look very dark before I got to that point. Robert Silverberg, Issue 22

What keeps me going? The story. Every story of mine begins with an impression of an interesting character in a difficult situation. Once I get that vision, I have to go ferret out the story behind it. That is a truly addictive pleasure. Carol Berg, Issue 10

First drafts always have to be written by hand. I’m not fussy about paper, usually it’s the blank side of a stack of bills, student poems, and correspondence that would otherwise go into recycling … Material tools aren’t so important, but silence and solitude are. Evelyn Lau, Issue 21

The best writers and artists are those who can perfectly bridge the gap between themselves and their viewer/reader with the creation itself, which perfectly expresses the understanding on both sides, both viewer and creator. Hard to do but always simple and clear to behold. Brenda Carre, Issue 15

I’m a big believer in creation through discovery. Following a plot can become too mechanical, and the story becomes a map of plot waypoints. A surprised writer makes for a surprised reader, I say. JJ Lee, Issue 17

I’ve always written what I want to write the way I want to write it. Matthew Hughes, Issue 13

I operate on the basis that we all want to be taken somewhere dark and foul smelling to witness good battling evil. Then look up and make ourselves a cup of tea (or pour a fine malt). Reading should be both escapism and exorcism, I think. CC Humphreys, Issue 14

Never listen to that voice in your head that tells you you are no good. Krista Wallace, Issue 6

And for some real-time inspiration, tune in to hear three Pulp authors — Oak Morse, Christian Walter, and Graham J Darling — share their writerly ways this week on Friday Live.

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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 Oak Morse, Christian Walter, and Graham J Darling.

Oak Morse

Poet and theatre instructor Oak Morse was born and raised in Georgia. He was the winner of the 2017 Magpie Award for Poetry, appearing in appearing in Issue 16 with his poem ‘Garbage Disposal’ and is a Semi-Finalist for the 2020 Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry for ‘Sashay’.  Awarded the 2017 Hambidge Residency, Oak’s work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Indianapolis Review, Star 82 Review, Menacing Hedge, Nonconformist Mag, Gone Lawn, and elsewhere.  Oak has a B.A. in Journalism from Georgia State University and he currently lives in Houston, Texas where he teaches creative writing and performance and leads a youth poetry troop, The Phoenix Fire-Spitters.

Christian Walter

Christian Walter is a German author, working across multiple genres. He lives in Switzerland but has also spent time in the United States and Mexico. He is a graduate of Viable Paradise and Taos Toolbox. His powerful story ‘Wolf, Dog, Sun’ appeared in Issue 23.

Graham J Darling

Graham J Darling breeds singular hybrids of diamond-hard science fiction, mythopoeiaic fantasy, and unearthly horror, such as for Sword & Mythos, Great Jones Street, No Greater Love: Martyrs of Earth and Elsewhere, and the N3F Short Story Contest, for which he won fourth prize. His story ‘A Pleasant Walk, A Pleasant Talk’ appeared in Issue 21. He also creates molecules such as the universe has never seen, and demonstrates mediaeval science and technology to passers-by. Visit him at grahamjdarling.com.

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