Category Archives: Uncategorized

A blank page or screen can be scary, but a blank map…inspirational! Join me for a presentation about storytelling as world building — in 20 slides at 20 seconds each slide. Here’s more information on the event.

WHEN MY FIRST NOVEL for young readers, The Last Mall Rat, was published in 2003, a pretty famous Vermont author told me that I should promote the hell out of it as fast as I could because, in a few … Continue reading →

Contact: outsidegroovenovel@gmail.com Find The Outside Groove on Facebook: “The Outside Groove” FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Auto Racing–themed YA Novel Now Available as E-book BURLINGTON, VERMONT — Author Erik Esckilsen is pleased to announce the recent release of The Outside Groove (Houghton … Continue reading →

The following describes the structure of a pep talk given recently by the director of a nonprofit center. The occasion: an impending deadline The audience: most of the 50 or so employees working on a project of particular importance to … Continue reading →

I finally digitized this recording of a long-ago conversation with my traveling companions on the trans-Siberian express in winter 1991. Listen to an audio version with the image at left posted in the “Cowbird” storytelling community. Here’s the same audio … Continue reading →

I’d been sitting on a story for 20 years — the story of my life’s greatest adventure so far (outside of getting married and having kids, of course) — when I finally had a good opportunity to tell it. It’s … Continue reading →

Thanks to a good friend for sending this amazing video of Japanese women covering a post-punk song from a British group named for corrupt Chinese revolutionaries.

Collected: November 15, 2009, 9:50 a.m. Setting: Golf course Narrator: Male, 45, Caucasian Audience: One Caucasian male, 45 Topic: The name of one’s cat Transition: NA Opening Strategy: The storyteller proclaims the topic of the story with an arresting statement to the effect of “Here’s what I had to … Continue reading →