“L’Histoire de France Jouée par les Enfants” (The History of France Played by Children) was a “loto historique” that promised “Grands Faits — Petits Résumés” (Great Actions — Short Descriptions”). The one I have is the second part, which covers 1800 (Napoleon crossing the Alps) to 1919 (Foch, Joffre, and Pétain). It was published by […]

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The Doug Skinner Dossier is now available from Black Scat Books! This blessed compendium features articles, short stories, verses, columns, literary essays, alphabets, metrical translations, monologues, talks, cartoons, rounds, lipogrammatic smut, a puppet show, a ventriloquism routine, and a one-act play.  248 pages of pure, unadulterated Skinner. Holy cow! (Posted by Doug Skinner)

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101 Plots Used and Abused, a 1946 writer’s manual by James N. Young, is one of my favorite books. Young, an editor at Collier’s, collected all of the tritest plots he knew, so that short story writers could avoid them. In this revised edition, there are actually 126 of them. They’re all here: the prisoner […]

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