We've made it!  Chuck's last round of feedback on an entire year of top selections.  Below, you'll find the last set of semi-finalists for Anthology Volume 1.  Congratulations to all included!  In the weeks ahead, we'll find out which stories make the final cut for our print anthology.

For the protection of the work, the stories below are made available to Workshop Members only. If you're a member, you may click inside and read these at your leisure. You'll find loads of great lessons on the writer's craft within. So read on.

The last set of semi-finalists include:

Tiger, Tiger - B.H. Ebert

Carousels - Austin James

Engines, O-Rings, and Astronauts - Jason M. Fylan

Little Toy Soldiers - Dan Lobo

Phantom Pain - Tony Liebhard

Revenge - Davey Watts

If you'd like to participate in our ground-breaking workshop, read exclusive How-To craft essays from Chuck and maybe have your shot at Anthology Volume 2...

Join Our Writer's Workshop

Recently, Chuck told me about a new memoir being released called The Chronology of Water. The memoir was written by a friend and fellow workshop member of Chuck's named Lidia Yuknavitch.  Being that Chelsea Cain (Heartsick) and Monica Drake (Clown Girl) are two other fellow workshoppers that also came recommended from Chuck, I quickly perked up my ears.

It seems Lidia is hitting the road to promote this new memoir, and may also be touring with Chuck for his Damned tour later on in the year. Here's a blurb from Chuck about The Chronology of Water and then below are the tour dates.

"I'm not a fan of memoir -- most autobiography contains more untruth than fiction --but Lidia's a terrific writer and she demonstrates how bold good storytelling can be." - Chuck Palahniuk

The book was released by Hawthorne Press on April 1st.

Order 'The Chronology of Water'

Here are Lidia's tour dates:
(apologies, as I'm posting this a few days late) read more »

You know the drill, folks.  Every month a new book is selected and a new moderator steps up to lead the discussion.  This month, we will be reading and discussing Victoria by Knut Hamsun.  Purchase 'Victoria' here!

From the back cover:

When it first appeared in 1898, this fourth novel by celebrated Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun captured instant acclaim for its poetic, psychologically intense portrayal of love’s predicament in a class-bound society. Set in a coastal village of late nineteenth- century Norway, Victoria follows two doomed lovers through their thwarted lifelong romance. Johannes, the son of a miller, finds inspiration for his writing in his passionate devotion to Victoria, an impoverished aristocrat constrained by family loyalty. Separated by class barriers and social pressure, the fated pair parts ways, only to realize—too late—the grave misfortune of their lost opportunity. Elegantly rendered in this brand-new translation by Sverre Lyngstad, Victoria’s haunting lyricism and emotional depth remain as timeless as ever.

Check Out Our Book Club

For three years, Chuck Palahniuk contributed to our ground breaking online Writers Workshop (which he also helped conceive, btw) with 36 writing essays.  These are lessons from a best-selling author on how to improve your craft as a writer... the types of lessons they teach in $20,000+ MFA writing programs.  

To look back and celebrate these exclusive essays, each month we are "unlocking" one and offering it for free on the site.  Normally you would need a Workshop Membership to view these essays, but until you're ready to make that important commitment, we'll offer you one of these a month. 

For April, we have Nuts and Bolts: Hiding a Gun, an essential skill to the writer's arsenal that university writing courses almost never touch upon. Learn to identify and use multiple forms, including the Big Question, the Physical Process, and the Clock.

Read 'Nuts & Bolts: Hiding a Gun'

Somehow I missed this one. I guess I shouldn't beat myself up since Fight Club continues to become one of the most spoofed and homaged films of the past 15 years. This spoof comes by way of The Girls on Film.  Here's their bio from their YouTube channel:

The Girls on Film is the earth-shattering, mind-blowing trio of professional actors Ashleigh Harrington, Cat McCormick and Jeff Hammond.

We're recreating awesome movie scenes between men, with women playing their parts. Its our innovative way of sharing our passion for storytelling and injecting our own personal cocktail of fun and friskiness throughout the galaxy.

We are in the process of remaking all of our favourite guy-on-guy movie scenes for your viewing pleasure. Please share with us your favourite male scenes so our fabulous team can make them too.

For more information, join us at our blog: http://www.thegirlsonfilm.com

Our favorite affiliates and friends, St. Helens Book Shop are having a very awesome and unique promotion.  They have recently acquired a number of foreign language books, signed by Chuck, and they are now offering them up for sale!  They are new/unread books, but have been sitting in storage at Chuck's place for several years, so they vary in condition.

The books have been graded them into 4 price categories of $5, $10, $15, and $20, based on quality and condition, and they are grouped by language within the price category.They  have cover images for many of them, but not all, so if you have any questions about the details of a particular book, feel free to email their Orders Manager at order at sthelensbookshop dot com.

So what are you waiting for?  Get over to St. Helens today!  The cut-off for this promotion is April 10th!

Order Signed Foreign Language Books Here!

St. Helen's has also launched their promo on signed pre-orders of Chuck's upcoming novel Damned!  Damned will not be out until October 18th, but Chuck will sign and personally inscribe (you have this option on the St. Helen's site) your pre-order for you and when it ships, it will be signed to you, with your personal inscription included!

Pre-Order 'Damned' Signed & Personally Inscribed Here!

Check out this awesome book cover for Invisible Monsters designed by Elyse Boutall.  This was part of an art project where Elyse had to read the book and then create a book cover illustration for it.  See a high res version of Elyse' design here.  And check out more of her work on her official site.

I have a soft spot for fan submitted artwork.  In the early days of The Cult, the largest section we hosted on the site was the Fan Submissions section.  It was loaded to the core with banners, portraits, wallpapers, and my favorite... book covers & dust jackets.  

Check out some of them in our Fan Submission Gallery.

And as always, if you have a Book Cover you designed that you'd like to submit, send it to submissions @ chuckpalahniuk. net.

Georgie's Big Break is a short film directed by Andy Mingo, based on a story by Monica Drake (Clown Girl).  And guess who's in it?  I'll give you a hint: his name is this website.  Yep, Chuck, along with a host of other local writers (Chelsea Caine, Lidi Yuknavitch) play themselves in the film.

Here's the IMDB summary for Georgie's Big Break:

Featuring Northwest literary stars Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club), New York Times bestselling author, Chelsea Cain (Heartsick), and Willy Vluatin (The Motel Life), Georgie's Big Break is about the high hopes of a single mother, a woman living the life of the body as she raises her infant. She makes a fresh foray back to the world of ideas through Portland's largest literary festival. With a mix of comedy and genuine emotion, this film offers a showcase of some of Portland's hottest talent. Based on a story written by Monica Drake (author of Clown Girl) and adapted and directed by Andy Mingo.

Andy is gearing up for the festival circuit, but the film is still listing as 'In Post Production' so I'm not sure yet where it's playing or where you can see it.  I was curious to get some words from Chuck himself on it though.  Here's what he had to say: read more »

For several years now, there has been an underground movement to get Invisible Monsters released in hardcover.  Believe it or not, this beloved book of Chuck's is the only novel of his that was never released in this format.  At the time, this was Chuck's specific wish. Invisible Monsters (originally titled Manifesto) was written before Fight Club but was never originally allowed to see the light of day because his publishers rejected it, due to its disturbing content.  Rather than let this news set him back, Chuck did the opposite of what everyone expected and amped things up even further with Fight Club, which then ironically got published and become his "first" novel.  

Three years later in 1999, the same year Chuck published Survivor, he got to finally see the release of Invisible Monsters, as a slightly revised edition.  He then insisted that this novel only be released in paperback, as he hated the idea of charging his fans too much for it.  

Little did Chuck know that this would turn out to be, perhaps, his most universally loved novel. So it will come as no surprise that a few years later, in the early days of this website, a movement began to get Invisible Monsters re-released in hardcover.  The fans were demanding it.  We even started an online petition. read more »

In keeping with our trend of profiling some of Chuck's international book covers, this week we look at Poland.  You decide: are these covers ugly, or works of art?  Click each image to be brought to its Gallery page, then rate them and leave your comments.

To see the rest of our Book Covers, check out our Gallery.  And if you have some that are not represented there, send them to submissions@ chuckpalahniuk. net.

Props to MrMarv for sending thse along.