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1 week ago | 
chuckpalahniuk.substack.com | Chuck Palahniuk
For the first thirty pages. Captivating and fresh and snarky and uber-clever. Beyond that I was swamped. This book needs a smarter reader than stupid me. A little like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, but far more surreal and meta. Free shipping within the continental United States. First Comment gets it. This is why I prefer short stories when I read a new author (new to me). A story is less of an investment of time.
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1 week ago | 
chuckpalahniuk.substack.com | Chuck Palahniuk
Trying to Get The Dog to LookThat was the first dog, “Imp.”
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1 month ago | 
chuckpalahniuk.substack.com | Chuck Palahniuk
For example these stone masks. Twenty-five years ago I interviewed the owner of a Portland Antique store reputed to be haunted. This man, Michael, used to sneak out after midnight to a ruined fountain in a downtown park and dodge police patrols as he smeared the carved stonework with latex molding compound. Just before dawn he’d sneak back, in time to strip off the hardened latex. Thus he’d make a mold and could cast these huge gruesome “green man” plaques.
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1 month ago | 
chuckpalahniuk.substack.com | Chuck Palahniuk
Besides the reams of legal waivers to sign, you needed to bring a doctor’s certificate in order to participate in the Six-Day Seminar. It was also recommended that you run on a regular basis for several months before the event. The program was renown for a race held every morning, called “Running the Mountain.” Before breakfast everyone would assemble at the starting line, then sprint for one mile up a steep paved road to the summit. Six hundred people.
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1 month ago | 
chuckpalahniuk.substack.com | Chuck Palahniuk
Ninety-nine percent of the good any workshop does is that it simply keeps people writing. In Slush Pile we’re tweaking the workshop model. Writers will get a chance to read their work to an audience and feel how it lands. If listeners want to offer suggestions or praise, they’ll do so during the breaks for socializing. My guess is that such comments won’t be needed because the raw genuine response of an audience will suffice. Bear in mind, this isn’t open-mic comedy. Clowning isn’t encouraged.
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1 month ago | 
chuckpalahniuk.substack.com | Chuck Palahniuk
We were bussed into San Francisco and told to wander the streets accosting strangers. Each of us seminar goers was tasked with making requests that would generate a “no” response. For example, catching someone at a red light and asking, “Will you marry me?” Or, “Do you have a million dollars to spare?” And none of us would be allowed to return to the seminar until we’d racked up at least thirty solid no’s. The point was to make us less afraid of rejection.
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1 month ago | 
chuckpalahniuk.substack.com | Chuck Palahniuk
In August 1989, we each had to share cabins with three or four strangers. Men in some, women in others, each cabin with one bathroom. No locks on any doors. Roommates had little or no privacy, and hardy room to swing a cat between the narrow beds. For six days days we’d be graded on how clean and orderly we kept our respective hovels.
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2 months ago | 
chuckpalahniuk.substack.com | Chuck Palahniuk
So Monica Drake — an alumna of Spanbauer’s workshop, author of Clown Girl and The Folly of Loving Life and The Stud Book — is hosting a writers meet-up at Salon Rouge. It’s a semi-secret clubhouse in SE Portland, a few blocks south of the Academy Theater. Rub elbows with writers, network, maybe you can present some work. This will be a regularly weekly mixer, at least until the weather improves. Doors open at 1:00 this afternoon. Sadly I’ll not be attending today.
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2 months ago | 
chuckpalahniuk.substack.com | Chuck Palahniuk
Paid $1600 and filled out multiple legal waiver forms and passed a physical exam to spend a week camping on a mountain top with six hundred strangers in a complex of little cabins grouped around a huge auditorium and a smaller chow hall, originally built for vacationing children from San Fransisco and used until recently by a shipping line in order to train entire crews to cook and clean and serve passengers in general aboard cruise ships, yes, six hundred would-be cabin stewards and waiters...
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2 months ago | 
chuckpalahniuk.substack.com | Chuck Palahniuk
And a woman with a dog on a leash comes toward you. The dog strains, pulling the leash tight, almost walking on its hind legs. A smaller dog, it wears a harness the color of a uniform. The harness isn’t badged as a Service Dog, and the owner clearly isn’t blind as she pulls back, a half-smile on her face. Her lips grin, but her eyes scrunch with upset. Ears-back, nose-first, the dog comes toward you sniffing. Fast, short sniffs lead it straight to your shoe.