John Baker’s Blog

We were at the Manchester Royal Exchange yesterday to watch George and Martha strip each other of the individual and collective illusions embedded in the long night of their twenty-three-year-old marriage.
We knew it was a good play, but this production also has a great cast. Barbara Marten is wonderful as Martha, swinging wildly, like a [...]

Albee’s first job was writing continuity dialogue for a radio station. After leaving home to settle in Greenwich Village he held a variety of jobs - including three years as a Western Union messenger. The jobs supplemented a trust from his grandmother and were chosen because they were dead ends and would [...]

The Other Mouths site asked the question: What should fiction do? The following is only part of one of the answers:
. . . the narratives generated and sustained by the American political system, entertainment industry, and academic trade have taught us over the last half century how not to think for ourselves. Essentially, those narratives [...]

Omit All Useless Words.
Take chances. Don’t be lazy. Tell the whole truth. Always remember: there is nothing to be afraid of. It is not easy to write about emotion and keep it cliché-free; write down whatever comes into your head. Double-check typing mistakes to see if you can usefully leave them in. Your sub-conscious sometimes [...]