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SF AUTHOR HARLAN ELLISON & X-FILES CREATOR CHRIS CARTER TO CO-AUTHOR
SHORT STORY LIVE AT "DANGEROUS VISIONS BOOKSTORE," May 16 @ 1pm PT
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Many authors consider short stories to be the most difficult form of creative writing. The writer has but a few pages to tell a complete story.
But notated fantasist Harlan Ellison, who has created more than 1700 short stories, essays and articles, tries to make it even harder. He is the only author in the world who writes short stories in front of a live audience! To make matters even more complicated, he bases these stories on an idea given to him on the spot by a celebrity, ensuring that he has had no time to pre-plan the story. Past "idea doners" have included Robin Williams and Tom Brokaw.
Ellison has engaged in this unusual form of "performance art" nearly 30 times and on Saturday, May 16th at 1PM he will be at it again. He will sit in the window of Dangerous Visions Bookstore in Sherman Oaks, California and use his manual typewriter to write a short story from scratch. Ellison, who refuses to write on a computer, types with two fingers at the incredible rate of 120 words per minute.
The idea for the story will come from none other than "X-Files" creator Chris Carter, who will appear in person with a sealed envelope that Ellison has never seen before. Ellison will then spend the rest of the afternoon writing the story, and pages will be placed in the store window as they are completed.
"I do it for two reasons," says Ellison. "I do it because this is what I do. I write. And people never get to see a writer at work. And I do it because I can, damn it, and no one else can."
Dangerous Visions is located at:
13563 Ventura Blvd Sherman Oaks, CA (1 1/2 blocks east of Woodman)
Don't miss this opportunity to see a master storyteller at work! Sci-Fi Channel will have a film crew in attendence to film this literary feat in conjunction for our Masters of Fantasy: Harlan Ellison special, scheduled to air on our US feed this June.
AND HERE'S ANOTHER BIT ON THE SAME SUBJECT...
On Saturday, May 16th, at precisely 1PM, world-famous fantasist HARLAN
ELLISON will once again -- for the 28th time in the history of the world
-- sit down in a bookstore window, and create a brand new short story,
absolutely from scratch, no notes, no preconceptions, both hands in full
view at all times as he types 120 words a minute, in full-view of an
awestruck audience. To prove it's all happening fresh and unscheduled,
the impetus for the story -- a title, a character, a snippet of a
beginning, a milieu, some small item -- will be presented in a sealed
envelope to the _tabula rasa_ Ellison by an absolutely incorruptible
celebrity. In this instance, it will be the creator of the
"X-Files"...the amazing Chris Carter. SEE the trained writer sweat as
The Great Carter approaches! SEE the intellect behind television's most
absorbing drama present the mysterious sealed envelope! SHUDDER as
Ellison rips it open! And MARVEL as the winner of more awards for
imaginative literature than any other living writer READS what Carter
hath wrought...lifts his gnarled paws above the typewriter
keyboard...and BOOGIES A NEW STORY IN FULL VIEW OF GODS AND MEN, and
completes it in five hours, as the story is posted, page-by-page, on the
front window of the Dangerous Visions Bookstore, for aficionados and
passing winos alike to read and saver. Do you DARE to CONFRONT
GREATNESS? It's Saturday. Be there, or be square.
Dangerous Visions Bookstore
13563 Ventura Blvd
Sherman Oaks, CA
(1 1/2 blocks east of Woodman)