A quick round-up of Halloween-related pop-culture worthy of attention …
I recently finished reading Nicholas Rogers’ Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night–a slim, well-written text that still manages to cover a wide range of topics and provide tons of interesting facts and figures. For example, Halloween is actively celebrated by 65% of adults who spend [...]

“Please get out of the habit of saying that you’ve got an idea for a short story. Art does not come from ideas. … Art comes from the place where you dream … your unconscious … the white-hot center of you.” (13)
A while ago, I read Robert Olen Butler’s From Where You Dream. [...]

I’ve been reading 2012 and just came across a passage that struck me as particularly helpful in thinking about how and why fiction works. The author, Daniel Pinchbeck, is quoting F. David Peat and discussing the concept of synchronicity, that phenomenon that is usually brushed off as “just a weird coincidence.” Peat says:
It [...]