StoryTellerZine

   Featured Writer Calvin Beam by J. Smith Kirkland Calvin Beam was born in Philadelphia and received his bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri. He survived a 30-plus year newspaper career during which he worked as a sportswriter at a number of newspapers, some of which no longer exist (he points out that is not his fault). Calvin has been a major participant and leader in writer groups, including The Chattanooga Writers Guild, The CWG Fiction in Hixson group, and an online morning writing habit. He has also been a consistent contributor to each of the Crazy Buffet Club annual collections since 2018. Calvin's Fantasy short works bring to mind the writings of Robert Asprin and Terry Pratchett, with their pun filled quick wit. From wizards to gnomes to quantum mechanics (the kind that fix your vehicle), his characters are believable and likable, even the very flawed ones. You can find Calvin's stories in Crazy Buffet Club collections, Cha...

   Interview STZ: How did you become interested in writing fiction? CB: Most of the writers I meet say they started telling stories before they were able to walk. My path was a little different because I grew up in an area where I had access to great sports writers from the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Philadelphia Daily News and the Washington Post. It was a daily master class in how to tell stories, describe characters and turn a phrase. I also discovered that writing isn’t easy, but it does beat lifting heavy boxes for a living. STZ: Do you enjoy writing in any specific genre more than the others? CB: I am primarily a fantasy writer, because that’s what I most enjoy reading. Plus, unlike science fiction and detective stories, nobody says, “You’re wrong. That’s not how it works.” I can’t write horror – it scares me. Same for romance. STZ: Where do you get inspiration for your stories? CB: A lot of ideas come from reading. Not the details of a...

Interview STZ : Do you have a favorite genre to write? A favorite story you have written? Elijah David : I enjoy writing anything that sparks wonder and touches on the fantastic. "Grandmother Moon" is probably my favorite short story I've written. STZ : Where do you get inspiration for your stories? ED : Everywhere -- from the people I pass on the street, to my personal experiences, to the stories I read and watch -- it all gets ground together in my mind so it can percolate into the proper story. STZ : Who are some of your favorite writers? ED : C.S. Lewis, Ray Bradbury, J.K. Rowling, Diana Wynne Jones, Susan Cooper, Madeleine L'Engle, Frank Peretti, Charles Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien STZ : Can you tell us anything about a story you have in the works? ED : I'm working on a sequel to my fairy tale novella, Paper and Thorns , and a companion novel to my short story collection, The Path of Lucius Park. STZ :Your were raised on the panhandle, rig...

  Interview STZ: In this issue, we are including a couple of works from your book Haunting My Own House. Do you have any favorite poems in the book? DNB: This book contains a couple of dozen poems out of 600 I’ve more or less finished, so I guess they are my favorites. To narrow it down more…perhaps "A Word Alone Is Not A Word" and I like "Shoe Size" and "Shalom." STZ: Where do you get inspiration for your poetry? DNB: When something bothers me (good or bad), I write to try to untangle the puzzle or just express more clearly what’s happening. It’s really my therapy. I guess you could say if the something is good, you can call it "inspiration." I do usually feel "inspirited" during or after writing which is usually a few hours of searching out the ideas and then the words to try to carry those ideas. STZ: Who are some of your favorite poets or writers that have influenced your work? DNB: I came to poetry late, s...

  Interview STZ: How/When did you start sharing your skills as a storyteller? MG: I suppose that would be traceable to early childhood. One of my earliest memories is my family sharing how I would simply make up the words to familiar songs with seemingly no knowledge I was doing so. Take the old gospel song Bringing in the Sheaves, since I did not know what a sheave was I replaced it with Sheep, made sense to me… Looking back I am reminded that as a child I often used stories in explaining my thoughts to others, validating through example. STZ: Where do you get inspiration for your stories? MG: Inspiration is all around. It’s the woman in the checkout line at the grocery, the older man with the Vietnam Vet cap, but by far it is the oral histories of Appalachian or “mountain” people relating what their life was like. Growing up I was surrounded by adults who told stories, my father’s side of the family were farmers and horse traders from eastern TN going bac...

  Jerry Harwood STZ: You have written books in multiple genres. Do you enjoy writing in any specific genre more than the others? JH: My favorite genre is probably young adult fantasy but a close second is horror. Those may not sound connected and I suppose they aren’t really. However, as a middle school and high school student that’s what I read. Fafnir and the Grey Mouser, Dune, Deanne Koontz, and Tales from the Crypt. I suppose now my joy is to write books young males would enjoy like I did. Since those two genres opened up the world of reading to myself I gravitate there more often than not. STZ: Where do you get inspiration for your stories? JH: I think my big picture ideas come from mash-ups of stories I’ve read. My recent young adult fantasy derived from reading a nonfiction work on King Arthur and Timeline by Michael (Jurassic park guy). Internally, my characters are all too often people I know in real life.  STZ: Who are some of your favorite w...