Contents: 45 brief stories. None are deep. None are wise. Some are funny.. Some just thing they are funny. The only thing the stories have in common is that they were inspired by the titles to 45 books by Joyce Carol Oates. The stories are not inspired by the books. They just took her titles and did their own thing. You will like these stories. You will not like these stories. You will read this description and wonder why anyone would waste their time with this book. Or you can buy this bo...

The universe is a woolly place.The universe is made of felt.The Big Bang was a soft though consistent annoyance.Dogs chase after runaway planets.When planets collide, it is okay because everything is felt.Neptunians are always cold and really just want to wear something cozy.And that's the thing. We want to be cozy.This issue of The Ekphrasis Take-Out is a cohesive collection of felt and the universe.This zine will be made of ...

Cyborg 2087 was a 1966 movie with Miichael Rennie.It is not the most well known of science fiction movies.That does not mean it isn't good, just that it isn't recognized.One of the things it is known for is its similarity to the plot of Terminator 2.David has decided to write this short book in 72 hours. He will watch Cyborg 2087 and express what it is about.He will dive into issues of plagariesm and the act of borrowing someone else's ideas....

How do I become a prolific writer?Simple. You write.But writing is hard. It is intimidating. I need more details.Okay. Here it is. We are about to give away the entire book.Write 200 words a day. That's it. Just write 200 words. It will take you under ten minutes to do that. You do that every day. You will be prolific. You will be writing and you will have a blast.So do I need to buy this book now?Not if you don't want to. But it goes into gr...

You are a writer?That's awesome. I'm not a writer, but I have a great idea for a book. You should take my idea and write it and we can split the insane amount of sales this book will no doubt produce, in half.Here is my idea. I know, I should not share it with you because you might just run off and do it by yourself and leave me with nothing, though the idea is mine and we all know the idea is So much more important than the actual writing of the book. You better not run of...

People weep at the movies. If an old guy goes to a movie by himself, there is a chance he will be crying by the end. No matter what kind of movie it is, he will be crying.David Macpherson is that old guy crying at everything.In this personal essay, he attempts to understand the joy and art of crying at the movies.What movies do you cry at?Should men hide their tears away, because crying at a movie is a such a girl thing to do?Or is it universal?...

There was a website about monsters. It was all about monsters.Sounds fun. But don't bother looking for it. It's gone.The internet is like that.The website is gone but we have the FAQ page. And in honor of anyone who remembers that there used to be a monster website that didn't completely suck, we are publishing this relic of an older internet.The FAQ is a strange thing. Does it really answer the questions everyone asks, or is it more random than that?

A few weeks ago, I received a zine by the prolific self-publisher, Marc Fischer, called the Self Initiated Hotel Artist Residency. It talked about using a cheap hotel room for several days as a kind of studio. This is not a new idea, but it was nice to see that notion explored so well by a talented writer.He asked for those of us who have used a hotel as an artists' retreat to write him and send him a line. And that is what this is.This open letter addressed to Marc sketche...

Where is Fancy Bread?There was a seminar on how to write the best book copy and one of the main rules is to get the potential reader's attention by a quick and pertinent question. Ask a question. Grab them. Drag them along to the rest of the ad copy.And this question is the best one yet. Where is Fancy Bread? Not only is it the title of the book, it is everything in the book. Every chapter is another time where Fancy Bread is visiting some location. He is also dressed to th...

When you finish writing a book project, you have to ask the important question, "Did I learn anything from this?" It's not to fix the book you just finished. It is asked to get ready for the next book and the book after that.David Macpherson writes very short books. His books are 50 to 80 pages. That gives him a lot of chances to think about what he could learn. This book includes the book projects from 2024. There are nearly 25 small books that he wrote.What did he learn? ...

How do you write every day?For David Macpherson, he has not missed a day of writing in five years. Every day in those years, he has written at least 200 words a day. It is not a lot of words, but when looked at for an entire year, it becomes a good amount of writing.David goes through his small journey into being a more prolific and consistent writer. He offers some advice, but also shows his story and beliefs about writing that helped him.This is a swift look at ho...

Who do you call a criminal?It can't be Martha and Emily. They help the criminals, but does that make them crooks as well?The Sisters are just trying to make a living. They will bring illicit materials to mob bosses. They will copyedit notes announcing that this is a bank robbery. They will teach others how to distribute counterfeit money. They will also drug and transport people. They will not do terrible things to them, just transport them.Does that make them bad?