Items published from 05.22.23–05.28.23 —

Note: Due to time constraints imposed upon me by the necessities of life, I will no longer be updating my Story Origins list; however, fear not: I will be adding notes at the ends of at least some of the future poems, stories, and essays to indicate the inspirations for them as I add them. Asked once too many times where he got the ideas for his stories, Stephen King joked that he purchased them in a little out-of-the-way shop in the city. Which city? I forget. Maybe it was Bangor, Maine, where he lived before moving to the Florida Keys. …

Why conflict in fiction is king — Copyright by Gary Lee Pullman In their book Understanding Fiction, Professor Cleanth Brooks and author Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Robert Penn Warren proclaim, “no conflict, no story.” Traditional Classifications of Conflict Conflict, an essential element of both narratives and dramas, sets two individuals, the protagonist and the antagonist, at odds with one another as they…

Due to a computer crash, I recently lost what I was calling my “Reading List,” which compiled every poem, short story, and article I have written for Medium to date. I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to repeat the feat of replacing it. Finally, I decided that…

A Review Copyright by Gary Lee Pullman In her addictive 1988 book The Women’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, Barbara G. Walker offers many insights and much information of an inspiring nature. Writers can mine her work for ideas for many stories, whether of the horror genre or another…

Poem — Copyright by Gary Lee Pullman The train’s wheels on the track went clickety-clack as they turned round and round, fast-driven by the thrusting lever, and the engine and the coal car, the boxcars and the freight cars were a long snake made of metal instead of scales; it entered a tunnel, and when it emerged, the pines and…

Poems — On Loan Copyright by Gary Lee Pullman The meadows dressed in gold, and every emerald blade of grass wore jewels. There was a symphony of songbirds so sweet and beautiful we heard the music not with our ears but with our hearts. We went everywhere at the speed of thought, and adventures were countless…

Poems — Copyright by Gary Lee Pullman STARKEST, DARKEST FEAR The cool days have come and gone; we are faced with warm nights upon which to spend ourselves down at the beach, after the sun has gone over the horizon and the sky bleeds its fading colors into rainbows that burst over our dreams, our visions, and our starkest, darkest fears…

Swamps — Copyright by Gary Lee Pullman This essay is a companion piece to “Building Fear,” which explains how and why “the architecture common to horror stories, whether novels, short stories, or movies, is conducive to the evocation of fear,” and to “The Landscape of Fear: Part 1,” in which I write…