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The Ploughshares Round-Down: Creativity Is Neither Magic Nor Madness

The Ploughshares Round-Down: Creativity Is Neither Magic Nor Madness

At the end of 2009, I was hunched in the passenger seat of a van, weeping down a midwest interstate. We’d just recorded an album with a Grammy-winning producer, paying for it with months of fan-funding hype. And we were touring to promote it, planning to release it ASAP, when seven years of full-time music-ing…

Figures for an Apocalypse

Figures for an Apocalypse

This review was contributed by Nathan McNamara. Figures for an ApocalypseEdward MullanyPublishing Genius Press, August 2013198 pages$14.95 Edward Mullany, author of Figures for an Apocalypse, describes himself as a writer who creates short things that sometimes have “story” in them and sometimes don’t. His prose pieces—running from a few words to a few pages long—rarely…

The Ploughshares Round-Down: Why Your First Few Pages Mean Everything

The Ploughshares Round-Down: Why Your First Few Pages Mean Everything

Because I love transparency and being generally helpful to writers, or because I am a masochist, I let writers query me by Twitter. It says in my bio that if you can squeeze your pitch into three tweets I’ll respond. I’ll admit I have a few stock responses, but on probably every tenth pitch, I…