We're so close to the big wrap-up on on Chuck's reviews of our top workshop stories! I've got his incisive and helpful December feedback for you below, and only one more month to go before we shift gears completely to the next phase and put this anthology into print. Congratulations to all the finalists. For the protection of their work, these stories 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 finalists include:

Love in Standard Definition - Fred Venturini

Overboard - Peter Bentzen

Tatterdemalion Peregrination - Adam Daniel Joseph

Chasing Ghosts (revision) - Richard Thomas

All In - Kasey Carpenter

Things Falling Apart - Blake Gentry

If you'd like to participate in our ground-breaking workshop, read exclusive How-To craft essays from Chuck and just network and meet other writers,

Join Our Writer's Workshop

Dayuuuuuuum, Brazil ain't got NOTHING on the Czech Republic.  These are some of the coolest international Palahniuk covers I've seen in a while.

Props to 'Petra' for these ones.  Check out more of these in our Book Covers Gallery, and if you have some that you don't see represented on our site, send them to us at submissions @ chuckpalahniuk. net.

I don't know about you, but that's one of the most different Invisible Monsters covers I've seen yet.  Props to 'Odio' for sending these along.

Check out more of these in our Book Covers Gallery.  And as always, if you have a great international book cover for one of Chuck's books that you don't see on our site already, send them our way at Submissions @ chuckpalahniuk.net.

For the past few Tshirts we've offered on this site (Fight Club and Invisible Monsters) you might have noticed we've featured images of people modeling them.  Usually this was close friends of mine (see above).  None of them were professional models but they all had a blast being photographed.  It helped that they were big fans; I let them keep the shirts; and then bought them all lunch after.

We also worked with Masuimi Max, a professional model who normally specializes in fetish pictorials.  I think this sort of photoshoot was a first for her, but being that she too, is a huge Chuck Palahniuk fan, she jumped at the opportunity.

For our Rant shirts, we want to try something different.  We want to photograph YOU! read more »

UPDATE: Earlier this week I posted a News update about Fabien Martorell, the man who currently has the film option to adapt Snuff.  He informed me that Daryl Hannah, Thora Birch and Tom Sizemore were on board.

The next day, SlashFilm, a respected and very popular movie site that I frequent, posted this story: 

http://www.slashfilm.com/anticasting-update-scar/?utm_source=feedburner&...

Here was the portion of the story that concerned this bit of casting news Fabien told me:

But Jeff Snieder from Variety was quick to call out the casting as premature via Twitter. (“Absolutely NO TRUTH to THORA BIRCH doing SNUFF. Hasn’t even read a script. Got a vehement denial. THIS IS WHY YOU CHECK IT WHEN TALENT TALKS.”) And Deadline chimed in with an equally vehement denial for Daryl Hannah, relaying that her reps say she’s never heard of the project. Furthermore, given that she speaks out against sex trafficking, she is ‘embarrassed’ by the association. (Now, I haven’t read Snuff, and the plot sounds rather horrifying, but it also sounds like something that would actually make the sex industry in general and porn specifically look pretty bad and damaging. Perhaps I’m wrong.) So: for now, not happening.

Upon seeing this news, I immediatley emailed Fabien to get him to comment on the development.  Today his rep contacted me with this official statement:

Daryl Hannah and Thora Birch's Agent sent us LOIs (Letter of Intent) with his signature to express their interest in Snuff. After mutual consideration, we have decided not to follow up our collaboration. Tom Sizemore is, of course, still on-board.

At this point, Fabien is moving on with other casting, but he assured me again today, that Tom Sizemore is still on board.

Somehow, this video got past us.  It's a one hour speech Chuck gave at Grub Street's writer's conference last May of 2010. This was a non-public event that actually kicked off Chuck's Tell-All tour that year.

Props to our own Mark Vanderpool for finding this one on Vimeo.

For more information about Grub Street and the conference, check them out here.

This character creation was done by Ned Coker and posted on our Facebook wall.  But the MMORPG game EVE Online has such a big following, I thought it only fitting to share it here too.

To see some more celebrities (including Conan O'Brien) designed, using this same character creation tool, check out:

http://kotaku.com/5744897/celebrity-impersonators-invade-the-virtual-spaceways

For three years, Chuck Palahniuk contributed to our ground breaking online Writers Workshop (which he also helped build, btw) with 36 writing essays.  These were 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 on the site to view these essays, but until you're ready to make that important commitment, we'll offer you one of these a month. 

For February, we have Submerging the I, a favorite essay among Chuck's writing fans, which helps you discover the secret for making a first-person narrator less obtrusive.  Enjoy!

Read "Submerging the 'I'"

Check out this short film for the short story Product Placement. This story was featured in Chuck Palahniuk's 2006 novel Haunted.

Link here: http://vimeo.com/17851904

The short was directed and shot by Cailin Yatsko and stars Stewart Kenneth Moore.

The cover for Chuck Palahniuk's next novel Damned has just surfaced on Amazon.com. 

The books release date was pushed back to October 18, 2011.  More here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385533020/officchuckpalaha/

Thoughts?