Author: Phil Slattery

Publisher, Rural Fiction Magazine; publisher, The Chamber Magazine; founder, the Farmington Writers Circle. I have written short stories and poetry for many years. In my careers as a Naval officer and in the federal government, I have written thousands of documents of many types. I am currently working on a second edition for my poetry collection and a few novels.

Mark Taylor’s ‘A Night at the Dream Theater’ Review

I hadn’t really pinpointed the thing that most frightens me when I started this book. Sure, had you asked, I could rattle off a list of the usual that have been known to make my blood pressure go u…

Source: Mark Taylor’s ‘A Night at the Dream Theater’ Review

Seven of the Best Modernist Short Stories Everyone Should Read

The best modernist stories A number of modernist novels are praised as among the greatest novels of the twentieth century: James Joyce’s Ulysses, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, and Joseph Conrad’s …

Source: Seven of the Best Modernist Short Stories Everyone Should Read

A Summary and Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Oval Portrait’

A reading of Poe’s classic short story ‘The Oval Portrait’ (1842) is one of the shortest tales Edgar Allan Poe ever wrote. In just a few pages, he offers a powerful story about the relationship bet…

Source: A Summary and Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Oval Portrait’

The Farmington Writers Circle Meets Again on March 9

zola_leandreThe Farmington Writers Circle meets again on Thursday, March 9, in the Entertainmart (formerly Hardback) Café at 7:00 pm.  The topic of the night will  be how to grow a twitter presence using hashtags and by following other twitter users.

Everyone is invited.  There is no charge and no membership requirements.

Preceding the meeting, starting at 6:30 pm, one of our members will be reading from his/her works.  The reader and his/her works will be announced once finalized.

The Farmington Writers Circle is a group of local writers who are interested in exploring and developing new means of marketing and publicizing their works.

For more information, contact Phil Slattery at phil@philslattery.com or via @philslattery201 or via this website.

A Conversation between the Spice Trader’s Daughter and her Lover, a Fortnight after She Burned at the Stake

by Sophie van Llewyn In the courtroom, the sound of what they wanted to hear was blinding. But not for me — I saw the inquisitors for what they were, children with shiny scalps, overgrown beards an…

Source: A Conversation between the Spice Trader’s Daughter and her Lover, a Fortnight after She Burned at the Stake

Today is the Deadline for Issue #2 of “The Chamber”

The deadline for submissions for issue #2 passes today.  However, please feel free to submit for issue #3, which will be published on July 1.  The deadline for submissions for Issue #3 will be May 31st.

Send submissions for Issue #3 per the Submissions and Announcements guidelines.

Why call it “The Chamber”?  The word chamber has numerous sinister and macabre connotations: a chamber of horrors, a torture chamber, one chambers a round into a rifle, etc.  A chamber can also be where a sorcerer, an alchemist, or a member of the Inquisition stores his library.  It is with this last connotation in mind that I am developing my Chamber for the storage of my selection of sinister and macabre works from the best up and coming authors that seek to contribute to my blog.

So, start editing your best, most powerful material and see where this new venture takes us!  I want powerful, hard-hitting material that leaves its readers gasping and awe-struck at the end.

Read Robert Louis Stevenson’s weird fable “The Yellow Paint”

“The Yellow Paint” by Robert Louis Stevenson In a certain city there lived a physician who sold yellow paint. This was of so singular a virtue that whoso was bedaubed with it from head …

Source: Read Robert Louis Stevenson’s weird fable “The Yellow Paint”