My Interview with Wolfman Mac

An Interview With Wolfman Mac of Wolfman Mac’s Nightmare Sinema

Imagine a day when movies were not at your fingertips. A time when you couldn’t easily rent something, or find it on cable. Remember a time when you had to find the movies that would help to form the person you were to become. I want to take you back to a time when the airwaves were filled with horror hosts – local people with a passion for horror and science fiction films and a knack for showmanship. This was a time when these personalities would, portraying any number of spooky personalities, would present old movies to both the young and old with skits and jokes thrown in to add a touch of humor to what could be considered some terrible films.

The era of the horror host has long been thought dead, and with television channels turning to re-runs or infomercials to fill their late night slots, you would believe the form IS dead, I am here to tell you that the horror host is alive and well and, at least in Detroit, Michigan, is in very good hands.

Wolfman Mac’s Nightmare Sinema is the home of the titular Wolfman Mac, a friendly sort of werewolf that takes up residence in a spooky old drive in with his sidekick Boney Bob and a variety of friends and guests and each Saturday he shows another sci-fi or horror film that is often so bad it is good. Movies that may have been forgotten, but they haven’t been forgiven. Nightmare Sinema is all about paying homage to the spook shows and horror hosts of old and to provide a safe haven for families and fans to appreciate these genres anew with tongues firmly in cheek. With inspiration from Wolfman Jack, the Ghoul, and Sir Graves Ghastly, Mac Kelly and his fiends have created a unique throwback to a time when families could sit together and watch creepy films together without fear of the overt sex and violence of today’s film. With skits, cartoons, and personalized commercial breaks that are tailored to the advertiser, Nightmare Sinema has been strictly local for Detroit for the past two years but is on the verge of becoming something far bigger and more special.

At a recent convention in Flint, Michigan, I was able to sit down and interview the wolfman himself, Mac Kelly.

When did you get first involved in broadcasting?

I had my first radio job at 19. So, that was, gosh, ’85.

When did you first become interested in old horror and sci-fi movies?

Watching Sir Graves as a kid. I sent Sir Graves a picture when I was 11, the best I could draw, of Lon Chaney Jr., and he put it on television.

How did you first get started doing Wolfman Mac’s Nightmare Sinema?

Um, well, in late 2006, I had already been working for a few years as a radio DJ in Saginaw, I had been staying a few nights in Bay City, and on one of the channels a guy was showing old scary movies and I called him, Glen Kirkland, and I congratulated him on showing all those great movies and told him he needed a host. He told me that if I wanted to do it then I could but it wouldn’t pay so I went down, just me, in my radio

t-shirt, and we started hosting horror movies. One night after my radio shift I started thinking that I needed I could really do this and I needed a character, so I was at a big boy and started scribbling out ideas.

Nightmare Sinema got its start on public access airwaves – how did you move from there to broadcast television?

We started in July of 07 on public access. We did ten episodes for it.

I started shopping it around, I went to all of the stations actually, and I discovered the hard way that all of the stations charge you for the air time but Channel 20 {in Detroit} offered me a more reasonable rate and figured I could sell the advertising to make up for it and said lets do it.

What is the difference?

The difference is credibility, for one, which is not to say public access is bad but I think that when you are won real broadcast TV there is a certain expectation you have to rise to.

Did you have any inspiration to make you want to become a horror host?

{Detroit’s horror host from the seventies and eighties} Sir Graves Ghastly, and watching the Ghoul {from Ohio} and Mystery Science Theater 3000.

What does a typical shoot entail for Nightmare Sinema

Well, we have a writers meeting where we discuss the upcoming movie, and script ideas and then jut prior to shoot day we have a read through with the cast where we all sit around a table and read our lines and do blocking. And the day of the shoot we have people come in and do our set, and lighting. It takes about an hour and ten minutes to get my makeup done, and about fifteen to get it off. We start taping around seven and are done by one in the morning typically.

What is the perfect movie for Nightmare Sinema?

It has to have a mixture of spook show, and be terribly cheesy.

What’s it like meeting the fans and doing public appearances?

It is the absolutely best part of this. We all thrive on it and it’s the one thing I will say motivates us.

It s the greatest part of what we do. We’re very grateful for that.

What makes it special to be a horror host in Detroit?

Because there is as certain sort of… there’s something different in there air in Michigan, where there are people that just love scary movies and drive-ins and local television. People are just craving for local TV. And there are so many memories of Sir Graves and the Ghoul and Soupy Sales and Bozo the Clown; people are hungry to see someone bring this back.

Recently you had another host, Ormon Grimsbey from Raleigh, North Carolina, on the show, any other guests planned for appearance? Are there plans for you to visit other hosts and their programs?

I would love to have other horror hosts from other parts of the country on. I have been thinking of having them send me tapes introducing themselves and what they do so people can see that the horror host is alive and well out there.

How many people are involved in making Nightmare Sinema come together for each episode?

We have 35 cast and crew. All volunteers

What sorts of movies does Wolfman Mac show? How do you obtain them?

They are all public domain so no one owns them and we just get DVDs of them, and since there are no fees to pay, or concern over legality issues, it helps keep overhead down. We intend to break away a little bit in time but that is for the future.

How many characters are involved in the Nightmare Sinema?

About twelve characters, as well as our own version of Frankenstein’s monster

Do you have a preference for types of horror and science fiction films? Any era that you prefer?

No, because I love them all.

Any hopes that Nightmare Sinema will be picked up in areas outside of Detroit?

We are working on that right now. We are working on syndication on several different fronts.

I heard that you do commercials a little differently on Nightmare Sinema, care to elaborate on that?

Our commercials are a real throwback to how TV used to be where the characters would begin pitching a product in the middle of their skit. We build skits around someone’s product for them. So it isn’t the typical static commercial, we add something interesting to it. And we keep our prices affordable to help keep those mom and pop shops open.

The Nightmare Sinema is set in a drive-in, what do you miss about the fading drive-in culture?

Just the memories I have of going with my parents in a big station wagon – putting the back down, running back and forth to the concession stand, playing on the playground, and being in the warm night air and just watching these movies. There is an innocence there that is lost.

How did you meet the people who are involved with the show and appear as characters?

When I first started this I put out an ad on Craigslist and I said- I have an idea for a TV show but I have no equipment, I can’t pay, and have no place to film and said who is in – and I was flooded with emails. And I was introduced to people along the way, and so on and so on. And in a matter of three or four weeks I had an entire crew.

If someone had aspirations of becoming a horror host, what advice would you give them?

Be different.

Having seen a taping of your show, and how you interact with children, what do you hope kids who might watch Nightmare Sinema will get out of the show?

One of the reasons we keep the show family friendly is I don’t want the horror host genre to die with this generation. I want the generation that grew up with Sir Graves and the Ghoul to feel comfortable watching this with their kids. I know it is a lot more difficult to do something original than to copy from someone. It’s about bringing back the innocence of how things were back in the day.

How has the internet changed how you reach an audience? Do you feel it’s made the show more interactive?

Everything from our website to My Space and FaceBook and Linkd In that Sir Graves and the Ghoul never had access to. People can track me down and let me know if they loved or hated it, and it’s instant feedback.

What is your dream for Wolfman Mac and Nightmare Sinema?

I’d like to have the show in as many cities around the country as possible and I hope to be around ten to fifteen years from now, still being a wolfman.

What do you hope your legacy in broadcasting and as Wolfman Mac is?

I want people to say that I was a part of local television history

Anything else you’d like the good ghouls and boils to know about Wolfman Mac and the Nightmare Sinema?

Coming up on Nightmare Sinema – one Saturday per month we’re gonna be showcasing local horror filmmakers,’ cause no one is doing it and they are forced to show their movies to barely anyone and we will get them exposure to far more people on one night. Maybe someone will hit, you never know. There is a lot of good stuff out there. There are some limitations, but they can contact me through my emails for more information.

For much more info, and how to contact Wolfman Mac and the rest, you can head to http://www.nightmaresinema.com and get all the info you can use.

Bawooooooo

UPDATE

Wolfman Mac and  his gang can be found on RTV, the Retro Television Network that is syndicated nationwide.  The name of Mac’s show has also changed to Chiller Drive In though it is as wacky and wonderful as always.

The Con Game (OR How Not to Fix Comic and Culture Conventions by Bitching)

Now, far be it from me to have an opinion on something like, oh, doing conventions, but I have done a few now – close to ten, I forget how many, to be honest, but closer to ten and since 1994, with some years of not doing them in between – but, well, I have some opinions.

I recently had the pleasure of doing another convention – second of the year, both small, both more fun than profitable but both genuinely fun – but the convention, as they all do,  brought up a lot of points that I figured it’d be good to make. For me, doing conventions is, more than anything, a chance to meet the people I hope to sell to. Generally I want to break through to the main stream, as that’s the way  you make a living at your passion, but cons are fun to do to make contact with people in person, to meet artists, and to just be around creative people. As much fun as they are though, they can always be better. Always.

But here is the thing, a thing I have seen a lot of lately from one of the guests – there is critique, there is suggestion, then there is being an asshole. Me, I choose to give suggestions and critiques. I don’t figure I know it all, and I don’t figure that any con is perfect, but I know what I see, I know what I feel, and I figure it never hurts to relay that. As a vendor, I see things the creators don’t, and have my own point of view since I am a writer, and have done all manner of cons and bazaars and what not. And I know creative people, so that helps. Ah, but then there are people who find it better to yell, and shout, and complain to get their point across. Sure, their points might be salient but it gets lost in the bluster. Cripes, I know I can get endlessly frustrated at cons but I never try to take it out on the people running them becaxuse I don’t know how hard it is to do them. Shit, they want a successful con more than I do, I’d wager, so there isn’t a need to treat them like kids. Or assholes. I hate that, more than anything. People who figure that, if they yell – even in a blog – that they’ll get their point across. And I guess I figure we’re all at least pretending to be professionals so it makes more sense to keep your more pointed comments between you and the intended person so you can keep it, you know, professional.

Ah, but these cons. I am still, after all these years, trying to figure the perfect way to do them. I mean, it’s clear that comic conventions are not the place to try to sell fiction. That doesn’t mean I won’t keep trying but seriously, comic cons are weird things. People come to see the celebs more than the artists and creators, and that’s cool as hell as that was why I always went, so you just have to get past that and push on. After the celebs though, you have all these comic creators who either look like carnies or aloof ARTISTEs, either pushing too hard to hawk their goods or seeming too disinterested to really engage you. For me, I never looked at stuff because I never could afford more than what I came for, so I always avoided artist alley. The older I get, and more aritsts I meet, the more I want to check the stuff but, it’s still awkward. I know, like they do, that you are there to sell, they are there to sell, and it makes me feel bad that I can’t buy. Again though, for me, I love people taking interest in what I am doing. It is cool to try to talk to people about WHAT I am doing. Now, I am awful at that part of it, for real. I just, I dunno how to tell people without feeling I am preaching or selling. But it’s fun to get that connection. If I had a suggestion, it would be to keep pros (as if I am some schlub that doesn’t take it seriously ’cause it isn’t my sole income, god do I hate that distinction) and amateurs and semi pro people together, mixed together, so that we all get the same exposure. And, really, let’s try to showcase more of the ‘nobodies’. You have to cater to the established people ’cause, well, they are your bread and butter, but, hell, if you don’t try to help the indie people grow then who the hell will?

Ah, and there is the rub, for me – who WILL help we, the creators? Each other, that’s who. I am tired of the attitude, from high to low, that we are in it alone and have to fight to make the dollar. Really? Really? The fact that there is so much division among the creative community is one of the big damn problems. I love going to these conventions and seeing how many people never bother to walk the hell around. Hell, I am there to work, we all are, but if you are too big, busy, or stupid, to realize that we’re all in this together. A big part of the appeal to do these things is to meet other passionate people who are trying to do the same thing that I am doing. And dammit WE know what would make these cons work better and if we have ideas we should share them. And if we will help one another, then the cons will be more successfur for everyone. Go fig.

Ah, celebrities. I love them. I love conventions because you get a chance to see some funky celebs, past and present, and it’s a great chance to interact and meet them. I have some awesome memories of interacting with people whose work I admired. Ah, those times have changed. Too many of these supposed celebs are in it for the money, and it shows. And I can appreciate that these people travel, take time from their lives, and don’t take jobs so they can do these cons, so yeah, they should try to make a buck but it bothers me when it’s solely for the money. I have been to too many cons where the celebs are treated better than the rest of us, charge outrageous amounts of money, and make it so it’s all a cattle call – step up, pay, what’s your name, get a pic, and please move on. Uh, great. So why the hell are you here? Shit, more than me, these are the people there because of the fans, so, uh, why not give something back? Drop your damn prices, and be available to connect with. Good grief!

Different, that to me is what makes a con special, is being different. Now, this doesn’t mean that you change the formula that works but that you add to it, you make it unique and make it special. Shit, one of the rad things at World Horror Con was that, as far as I saw, anyone could book a room to present in. How rad is that? It is risky, sure, in that you want to make sure the person has something interesting to show, or say, but damn, why not more of that? Let the talent sell themselves. I am tired of the tales of the business that they always have. I am tired of the anecdotes. Tell me something different. Tell me something real. That would be something. So would having this be an event. Not just a show, but an event. Make it so full of stuff that people can’t see or do it all. THAT would be something too.

I could sincerely go on and on with my ideas and thoughts on conventions because I am so passionate about what they CAN be. I have been to really good ones, and a couple lame ones and the lame ones were the really big shows that have been around so long the people behind them are lazy. This is something rare and special and should be treated as such. Sure, we may seem the same people at them all but that’s why you give the show more going on. The best thing that happens at these shows is the moment when a creator or a fan gets the revelation of – oh my god. And that OMG can be about selling something, meeting someone, touching a life, or just realizing that this is what you want to do with your life. It’s about connecting. I have done these things for a long damned time, and even I forget how long, and the one thing I get tired of are the people who go as guests who whine about things but rarely work to change them. We should spend more time supporting and encouraging one another and less bitching about shit we can’t change. A convention should never make or break you, it should add to what you are already doing. And shit, if we can make these things fun again and the people will start coming back. It’s not about economy, it is about fun factor. Have that and you have the people.

And you will have me, for sure.

…c…

Absence – a story

I had the distinct honor of working with a local photographer named Brian Morrissey for an arts event called VOICES. I was to write a story based on a picture he had taken. Brian gave me several images to pick from and I had the crazy notion that I could make something using all of the pictures.
It’s not the same without the images but, here is the story.

Absence

It was absence.

It was the feeling of the world falling away and there being nothing beneath.

I looked to the sky, to the trees, to the fields and felt nothing.

It was as if a soft breeze had blown, softly, slowly, over years, over decades, and had, bit by bit, wiped away my face and my identity, until there was nothing left.

I was a shadow.

A shade.

A phantom, unconnected to anything but the emptiness.

The sky turned gray.

The trees turned black.

And I, I was the blinding light of nothingness, all features, all distinction, all personality lost in the glare of absence.

Because it was absence that I felt.

The absence of me.

I had heard all my life that I had to worship at an altar, at a mirror, at a desk, at the feet of another and I did it, I did it all but never once worshipped that which was me. I focused so much on others, or on the image of myself that the heart of me was lost. The core of me. The me of me.

I lost my reflection while looking at the image of others.

And it was absence.

It was nothingness.

It was the loneliness of the dead.

And I let it take me, the darkness, hoping to drown in it and be done with the burning pain of the cold.

And like revelation, like epiphany, like damnation itself the cold intensified until I could stand it no longer, then was gone.

Gone.

Gone.

Gone like self, like hope, like everything else I had lost to the mill of a person grown angry and hard and desperate to rage at that which they could not join or control.

And in that emptiness was calm, a peace I had never felt before.

In that peace I saw a man who said love and I did, I saw a goddess who said dream and I did, I saw a man who laughed and I laughed with him, and last I saw a girl who said hope, and I did.

Then a million things at once –

The cold was replaced by heat that poured out from within.

The darkness was filled with a light that grew with each of my heartbeats.

And I opened to the world like a flower, spreading wide petals that had been closed and feeding on the light of a world I had forgotten could be so beautiful.

The world flooded in on me and exploded in beauty that made me weep.

And the world was beautiful,

And those within the world were beautiful.

And I was beautiful.

I smiled into the sunshine and greeted the sky, the trees, and the fields as old friends that had not been lost but misplaced.

I smiled to those who had thought me undead, a zombie with nothing left to offer and wanting only to take.

And I smiled to myself, to my self, not lost but forgotten and revived by losing me completely. And it was only through its loss did I find its value and only through the loss of my self that I learned to love myself again.

And it was completion, and it was divine.

…c…

Open Psyche

Can I tell you how hard it is for me to do open mic events?

Seriously.

What makes it funny though is that I read a story at the World Horror Con in NYC in front of strangers, peers, and famous writer-folk and managed not to faint but I STILL get all discombobulated when I have to read to people. What is funnier is that I don’t mind speaking before crowds. The trouble comes when I am reading a story or poem. It’s too personal. Too intimate. I can handle people disliking me, the person, but me the writer has a bit thinner skin.

Each time I am set to read something somewhere, too, I have this plan of what I am going to say, how I will say it, how I will read my piece/s and even the silly banter. I always have a plan and I rarely follow it. I dunno what happens but I get up in front of people and just get hyper-aware of myself, of my work, and psych myself out. I hate it. Reading stories is a good way to get people to dig on my work, and, hope-hope, to buy some, but I can never get past the awkwardness.

Grr.

It’s like, I love to read to people who are interested, but hate reading at mixed events because I feel like I stick out. Like people will be disappointed that I am not reading a poem, or that my stuff is the way it is.

Here, friends, is the open mind and heart of the writer. HAHA.

I need to get over this. Yes. Just like I need to find those socks that have been stalking me for the past three years. Last night I read Messy and the Meep Sheep, my kid’s story, and a story I never thought I’d read aloud, and it was fun. The hell of it was that I kept finding inaccuracies with some story points that I think I fixed this morning. Not sure. It’s such a long story to try to read though, ack, it was rough. Fun, but rough.

It’s a good thing I’m not established ’cause, brother, I’d be a mess if I had to read all the time.

…c…

The Secrets of Agents, Man…

Take the title as a bit of a lie, because it is.

Brother, if I had some rune stone that told the secrets of agents, well, this would be a much more popular blog and I wouldn’t be wearing various cheeses as hats. For real.

No, what prompts this blog is the utter ridiculousness of query letters in the writing field. You see, unless you are someone with a ‘name’, or with a hell of a good pitch, it is as so much sand on a beach, your query. Oh, I am not saying it’s a waste of time, or that it doesn’t work but that so much of what you read and here is, well, bullshit.

If you’re like me, you have seen and heard over and over again – follow the tips you are given from editors and agents and it will make you a better writer. That may well be good advice, heck, in the least it makes sense to hear someone else’s opinion on your work but, well, it’s hard to really GET any damned advice. I have been writing since I was eighteen, and this is writing seriously, because I was writing well before that, if you want the truth, but seriously since I was a late teen. I have been submitting things to publishers since my very early twenties and I have RARELY, if ever gotten feedback from a publisher, editor, or agent. I HAVE gotten dozens and dozens and dozens of letters with not what we are looking for or good luck or don’t take this as a reflection on your writing or a bunch of other ‘It’s me, not you’ sorta rejections and not one of them taught me a damned thing. Not one.

Hell, what IS there to learn from that sort of feedback?

It’s as if I/we are doing my/our job/s and I/we are not getting the same consideration. I mean, hell, I can dig that these are busy people but, in kind, so the hell am I. It’s as if these people have jobs they don’t want. I mean, hell, if they are that busy, then they should be doing well, right, so why not hire more people? Ah, but there lies the rub – the industry may NOT being doing that well, and, like every other damned job now, one person may be doing the work of three but, shit, I/we still deserve the same effort and time we put into submitting to these people.

I don’t wanna hear about how many submissions they get, and how little time they have, and how many crummy letters and works they are sent. Fuck that. As it was my job in the retail world to deal with the occasional kook, so is it theirs to deal with the weirdos and less talented writers out there. It is what it is, a job, and that is theirs. What seems to happen though is that a lot of submission letters get dumped into the laps of interns and assistants who have no real investment in you just as you have none in them. They look for keywords, for something to pop out at them and if it doesn’t, oh, sorry, uh, no.

The best example I have of the lack of professionalism out there came to me in the mail today. I had recently sent out a batch of submissions to agents in the hopes that an agent might help get my novel published. The novel, something I love dearly, is an odd work that is as much comedy as it is horror and is as much religion as it is philosophy. I have lived with it for years now and STILL can’t explain what it is all the time. Shit, I remember being at the World Horror Con in NYC in ’05 and had to distill my novel down to the bare essentials for two pitch sessions with publishing houses. Naturally, neither place really heard much of what I had to say, too focused on telling ME what THEY did. Anyway, so I sent out this batch of letters recently in the blind hope that someone might take an interest in the novel. I believe in it so someone else will too. So today I get this self addressed and stamped letter in the mail – it isn’t sealed, and inside of the envelope is my query letter with the hastily scribbled words just not for us on it. That was it. That was their sage advice.

Wow, glad I spent the time and money on that one. The thing is, I wish that was the exception but it’s the norm. Laziness seems to fill this industry to overflowing and I can’t express without lighter fluid and puppets how frustrating all of this is. If you are not given the time and honest effort to see if you might have something to say, well, fuck, then what hope is there for any of us?

Do we want a world of in the vein of-s? Do we want a world where everyone is copying everyone else? That is what things are falling towards. Hell, it isn’t even about publication as much as it is someone taking the time to see what you have to say. I mean,  the works I am submitting may NOT fit what these people are looking for but WHY? What is it lacking? What don’t you see? If no one is willing to tell you that you have crap on your forehead then how it your fault that you’re a shit head?

All laughs aside, it’s a sad statement that so much is made of this industry, so much mystery surrounds it and yet so many lazy, small minded people run it. It’s embarassing that so much crap gets published knowing there are writers out there worth a chance but how will any of us get it if the world is one big slush pile of submissions?

…c…

Riding the Hobby Writer Horse

For some reason lately I have felt sorta lonely, as a writer, and have wanted to feel more connected to that community. Specifically the horror writing community, seeing as I like to write creepy stories and all.

Now, I won’t necessarily say I am a ‘horror’ writer but being that it sounds sorta silly to say I am a ‘dark fictition’ writer, even if it IS true, well, horror it is. And besides, I kinda dig those folks.

Mostly.

While zooming around the couple bulletin boards I troll and pop off in once in a while, the pessimism and condescension I have been reading has been bothering me. This is bigger than the ‘well, YOU are an idiot, my good fellow’ sort that is always found in the BBS world, no, this is more of status as a writer. I have read, more than a few times (hell, I have all but used it, in a round about way) the term ‘hobby writer’ in regards to some writers, and this is rarely used as a complement, or simple descriptor.

The idea seems to be that, if write, but don’t publish often, then you are a hobby writer, and are a different breed than other writers, something that deeply bothers me. It bothers me because the implication seems to be that there is something cute, and quaint about people who write but don’t find themselves regularly published, as if they are someoe’s cute uncle who likes to write the occasional story about flying cats. It bothers me because there is already too much pigeon-holing and categorizing with writers. Everyone has to fall into a simple classification or else it throws off the system. I hate the idea that, if you are not always actively pursuing publication that youd are not as serious about writing as someone who spends their days shipping dozens of stories off. Hell, I know some very talented writes that have yet to see print but who I am sure want that some day. All of this bothers me because this is yet another wall in already labrynthine world of writing.

I know that personally, my life is pretty full, and with my other interests in the arts, and reviewing, and blogging, and living life, that it is hard to find time to sit down and get things ready and out to publishers. It isn’t a lack of interest, it’s a limitation on time. I am guessing I am not the only one that has this problem. Where the term hobby writer may be right though is that we that do want to publish but who are not publishing, need to FIND time to get the work out there. If I believe in it so damned much then why am I not pushing harder to get it out? Sure, there are limitations on time but it is also hard to want to push that little bit more when you keep getting rejections.

What this reminds me of is the way that people who self publish are looked at by writers, and that is as frauds and wanna-bes. The thing is that that is an out-moded notion. A few years ago it was self-indulgent to have your own book printed up but the times have changed. With the ease of getting something published yourself, and the attainable costs, it makes a bit of sense, especially when rejection is the default when you are a new writer. The thing is that self publishers need to really work hard, twice as hard as any other writer, to get the book out therem, to publicize it, to sell it, and to get the word out. It’s a daunting task to take on I’d wager and one I’d never do beyond the chapbooks I make up.

By casting away hobby writers so cavalierly, as if they are just people who think it’s swell to write, it ignores that these are stills storytellers and writers who are just going about it in their own way. Hell, a lot of people will never try to publish, and many shouldn’t try to as they are not writing effective stories, but, damn, to act as if these are your younger siblings. Maybe it is who I am reading, maybe it is where I was reading, or maybe it is that I worry myself that I don’t take writing seriously enough, but the time for casting shadows and stones is past us. For writers, all writers, it is time to work together to make sure our art is not lost or forgotten with the passing of ages. The time is changing, and the days when people could get published are growing dim. It will only get harder so we need to find alternate paths to tells stories, to promote books, and to make sure that none of us becomes disenchanted and loses the spark that drives us.

We are writers, and that is as good a term as we need to define the lot of us.

…c…