Zzzzpssttbewbewzapzap-HUM! Dear sacks of carbon. We interrupt this regularly scheduled program of THE GUTTERS to bring you this commercial message! FXXK WRITING: A GUIDE FOR FRUSTRATED ARTISTS is here! Yes, after nearly two years of shaking fists and pounding the keys, Jay Ridler has compiled the best bits from year one of this column […]
The Gutters return! The Gutters are spaces between brag-worthy milestones and achievements, the space where we spend most of our lives. In this case, the short seventeen-year sojourn between first published short story (2000) and securing my first traditional book deal (2017) for The Brimstone Files (and pre-order HEX-RATED now! I need money for gas!). […]
Last month I noted the key milestone moments that convinced yours truly that he was stupid, how this belief rolled through my brain like a mixtape with auto-reverse, and how punk rock gave me the attitude to say “Fuck you, I’m going to learn how to write.” Now, if this was a TED talk that’s […]
Flash Fiction Online 2016 Anthology Volume III: HORROR $2.99 Purchase I was a child of horror movies, not books. Shameful, I know. But my family was never really into books unless it was THE book. The good book with all the life lessons. My mother was the preacher in the family, so when she […]
Note: an early and incomplete version of this column was presented at Nomadic Press’s GET LIT event in Oakland, CA, March 21st. Please support their mission of being a venue for the marginalized. Many thanks to Christine No and Paul Corman-Roberts for allowing me to share a piece of this action. The tone here is […]
This is a short return to the Gutters, the space between successes that dominate our lives and work. Not sure when the rest will return, so, a mild refresher of where we left off. By 2005, I had a couple of okay sales, one nice payday, but for six years of trying it didn’t seem […]
I know some writers are having a tough time finding the enthusiasm to write in the face of Trump’s administration taking power and committing itself to the most heinous of its election promises (currently walls on the US/Mexican border and travel bans from non-profitable “Muslim” countries). I’ve tried to gather some ideas about writing and […]
By the time you read this, I will have personally killed 2016 in a Latvian Death Match before a packed studio audience within the nomadic and fabulous Forbidden City of Wrestling. You’re welcome. No coins, please. 2016 was an awful year, just see my last post for how to punch the worst of it in […]
It feels trite jumping back into THE GUTTERS of my salad days as a writer. The GUTTERS of today are far too real, horrific, and sad. The country elected a racist, xenophobic, homophobic, misogynist demagogue. Hard to get in the time machine and go back into the world of publishing’s zaniness of 2005 with any […]
LAST column, I told the tale of why you should always get paid and why a lot of micro-presses are horrible. The “sale” of my second story was a pyrrhic victory, and not really a sale, so there I was with two pathetic credits on my cover letters. How long would it be until I […]
