The Playwright Unit

Read "The Salvation Shark" and more short fiction, scripts, and very little poetry at Laugh at Yourself First.
pauljuser.blogspot.com

If you're here with me in Binghamton, I'd like to tell you about the Playwright Unit workshop. Started by Theatricks by Starlight in 2004, the Playwright Unit brought 19 new plays from Broome County writers from the page to the stage. We've hopped around in locations, but have held workshops twice a month since that time, giving new writers the opportunities to hear their stories aloud, and offered critique for revision. For a year now, the Playwright Unit has met at the Art Mission Theater. To show our appreciation, the Playwright Unit is changing its name to 'The Art Mission Playwright Group."

Meetings include exercises, group writing, and reading and discussion of submitted work. The Playwright Unit has always focused not on writing, but revising, and all submitted material is considered incomplete. Hearing a story read by accustomed actors allows writers to experience their work from a fresh angle, and discover cumbersome passages and awkward grammar as a new reader would. If you are a writer in the Southern Tier more interested in art than glamor, craft than cash, I believe you will enjoy our meetings. For more information, contact me at TbStarlight@gmail.com. Thanks for reading.

-Paul
printisbetter.blogspot.com

Laugh at Yourself First: The Salvation Shark

Read "The Salvation Shark," and more short fiction, scripts, and very little poetry at Laugh at Yourself First.
pauljuser.blogspot.com

It's September, and that's when the Day Job makes me start paying back for all that free time I get to write books and pretend I'm Ted Nugent. I'll try to keep PiB weekly for the next months, though don't expect any regular schedule. If I forget to mail it (like last week), visit the blog for fun and informative links to enhance your reading experience. The Salvation Shark is set to post two chapters a week until December, when I have another long-term story to begin running alongside.

If you're here with me in Binghamton, I hope you were one of the good guys outside city hall Monday morning letting our legislature know we don't want to see New York State become a wasteland. Can anyone tell me if I made CNN? The bad guys down the street got the big picture in the paper, but Party-Mayor Matt Ryan woke up still drunk in an alley nearby and stumbled to our side instead. Who can blame him? The bad guys were waving signs and cranky from being ejected from McDonald's in favor of the morning crowd that purchased more than a senior coffee. With our Oil Derrick of Death and Mother Earth cradling the globe, we looked like much more fun. I got my picture taken with Frackinstein. Unfortunately, stupidity always seems to triumph in the end. When all the wells have been dug, the ground water has been ruined, and the forests have been cleared once more, we will say, "We told you so." The Frackers will count every last penny and say, "We never cared in the first place." Thanks for reading.

-Paul
printisbetter.blogspot.com

Read "The Witch King's Sword," and more short fiction, scripts, and very little poetry at Laugh at Yourself First.
pauljuser.blogspot.com

I'm breaking away from the Salvation Shark this week for a new episode of the Witch King's Sword. Grent and Corthd first appeared in a story I wrote in the 11th grade called, "Blasphemer's Bluff." Many of the characters to wander through Witch King were culled from this and a series of stories I wrote about Grent in the following years. Most never made it past the handwriting stage, and have been lost to this cleaning or that move, but I recently found a surviving copy of Blasphemer's Bluff. While clearly the work of a high school junior, I'm still proud of the story. One more episode of Witch King remains for this year. Salvation Shark comes back Friday the 1oth.

If you're here with me in Binghamton, you were almost certainly not at First Friday this week. I think I saw less people since the monthly event began five years ago. I can't blame anyone for staying home either. With the exception of some creepy stuff in Jungle Science, the most interesting art was graffiti in a back alley. Inbreeding a local art scene creates stagnation very quickly. An artist should never close their borders. What I saw this week didn't even belong on the wall of a dentist office. While working on his award winning short film, "A Thankless Job," my close friend, Sean Kimber gave me the best direction I've ever recieved. "Try not to suck." He one the $1,000 prize, and I got my face in the newspaper preparing to hacksaw a body into pieces, so I guess Sean's advice worked. Try not to suck.