Author News: Who Killed All the Radio Stars?

This was originally posted on the Transmundane Press blog for the anthology “After the Happily Ever After”, published December 2016

We’ve been reading a lot about the curse of 2016. As writers, we’re in the causality business. Those of us who write horror are wise to exploit superstition in all its forms. Just how solid is our grasp of cause and effect, and is it all we need to succeed?

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Author News: A Grace Given in Sorrow – Stories as Soulcraft with Edward Cooke

This was originally posted on the Transmundane Press blog for the anthology “After the Happily Ever After”, published December 2016

Bruno Bettelheim has had a bad press. He’s been pilloried for extending the influence of nurture much further than we’re comfortable with. He was even so unfashionable as to believe we could all be nurtured by exposure to stories. In The Uses of Enchantment he puts it like this:

“Explaining to a child why a fairy tale is so captivating… destroys… the story’s enchantment. Adult interpretations rob the child of the opportunity… through repeated hearing and ruminating about the story, to cope successfully with a difficult situation. We grow, we find meaning in life and security in ourselves, by having understood and solved personal problems on our own, not by having them explained to us by others.”

In Grief and Hope: Surprised by Hope by N. T. Wright

“Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting? …But thank God who gives us the victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord” 1 Cor 15:55

This is the passage which I chose to read for my dad’s funeral, because it explains in a few words why Easter matters so much to me. I mean, when you face losing someone important to you, you need a pretty clear vision of what is worth dying for, and I suspect I’m not the only one who doesn’t find the idea of sitting on a cloud plucking a harp for eternity or heaven as an endless worship service particularly compelling.