Within a few hours the village had disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. The houses and whatall were so carefully collected, while the discarded shoes that had anchored some of the “snow” cloth were left behind.
This seems to suggest our village is still merrily glowing, but for a private audience. Perhaps in a homeless encampment.
Thank you to Cassandra and Daniel for singing the Whoville song!
👏🤩
How were the stories last night?
The stories were spot-on. Krissy had the #1 slot, but that meant shouting down two drunks. A tough one. But by the end of her story she had everyone tuned in. The last storyteller warned us her story was "only in my head" which is a red flag for makeshift disaster, but she was fast and terrific.
All in all, the two-page limit and the shared premise of Letters to Santa spelled success. No one went too long, and everyone had a good time. That, and we got through 20+ readers in under three hours -- with a half-hour intermission.
Nice simple structure
I got a job....as a manager.....not even lying.....gonna send you snail mail with more details.......
I’m mad at myself for not finding this Substack before now.
but you are here now for all the fun. 👍😀
I hope you will forgive yourself. Chuck saves mostly everything here so you can go back when you have time.
BTW, I only "discovered" Brandi Carlile 2 years ago and still feel like an idiot about it. But Brandi wouldn't want me to :)
*frantically searches for Brandi Carlile
Beautiful!
Core memory creation right here. The Grinch will never be the same for me again.
Or em-dashes for that matter will never be the same either.
Do NOT die on that hill.
Okay------- I'll think about it. I'm just messing with you. As a person with only a high school English education all that stuff makes my eyes glaze over anyways. I just think it's a tell for all the journalist and English teachers to secret handshake with each other on the page.
I wonder where it is now?! I’m imagining a tent (or tents), lit from within with the imagination and joy of your collective endeavors; bewilderment shining in the eyes of all those who pass the ethereal glow. Shock induction pooling like sleepy syrup around the indentations of an impression. Crystallizing it. A moment.
You are so positive in your assessment of the disappearance of the pop up Christmas village.
I personally wonder about the errie glow the village gives in an alien starship or flavor the cheap plastics and glue imparts on the opioids smoked out of the various buildings.
If anything it is a good writing prompt and I hope it does bring joy to whatever ended up happening to it.
Living in SF, I most certainly had other thoughts. Many, actually. Lol But that was the strongest, so I went with it. Had an especially pleasant run-in the other day at an encampment in which I was complemented on some gold-glitter reindeer antlers I was wearing. Was a genuine compliment, which gave me warm fuzzies and broke my heart all at once. I think this may have arisen from that. I’m picturing that woman hoarding this village in her tent.
Complimented*
I was wondering how it went, thanks for sharing! The psychedelic trees and warm glowing houses were better than I imagined. Merry Christmas 🎄
This is soo beautifulll! Thank you so much for sharing this with us people who weren’t lucky enough to be there with you!! Happy Holiday my wonderful creators. Thank you so much Chuck for making life magic for us. You’re a true gift.
Perhaps the tiny homes were carefully deconstructed and fashioned into a slightly larger tiny home, hopefully even more enchanting than the sum of its parts…
Ooooh... as if someone had to break everything to make something better? Sounds like a Palahniuk holiday to me!
Ah, the destruction of beautiful things continues. 🥹🎄
Was hoping to "like" this comment but I'm blocked from doing so?
Man what a cool idea. Someone should hide a camera on this with a live feed. Like what you see on the news! (Haha I’m sure that wouldn’t cost a pretty penny...) I hope you guys do more shit like this!!
Well I watched the video before reading the post lol. Dang. I swear whoever took it had to have made a tiktok to brag (dumb!). Anyone with that mindset couldn’t pass up the opportunity, right???
The mystery continues...
What fun!!
Obviously commented on the video! Maybe it was fleeting but sounds like a good time had by all.
Wah? I'd only commented that I didn't need to clear up the stuff. Nothing iffy deleted. A glitch.
All it needs is Godzilla.
Magic shots. Watch this video over and over again.
Merry Christmas!
Lovely. Warm and fuzzy. Feels like Christmas. Except no one is throwing plates across the kitchen.
Beautiful. Great effort.
Exactly what I hoped it would be. You guys are great.
Great video! Loved how the village turned out. The houses and tress have a nice glow!
Just hit my two years here on the stack today and I signed up for more! I found the stack after seeing a Chuck Palahniuk book in the writer reference section at the book store. I hit a major speed bump in TTRPGs where the industry hired me for a freelance gig, bought my work, but never published it. I felt pretty devastated for a day and then I decided to start learning more about writing and story telling. I ended up in the one part of the bookstore I never go to. The writer's reference section. I always thought the writer's reference section was where they sold all the dictionaries and thesauruses, but when I asked the Barnes and Noble employee where I would find books on writing, they took me to the shelf at the vary end of the book store. It was next to the last chance sale items and all the post cards and stationary. As I looked through all the books there, I saw Chuck Palahniuk on a row of book spines. I had been reading Chuck's work since I was in high school and thought someone stuck a bunch of his hardcovers in the dictionary section as joke. Chuck is one of the few fiction writers I continued reading when I moved into a major non-fiction reading phase of my life, so I cracked the book open. It ended up being a copy of Consider This. A book on writing. Some of the books on the topic I had read up to this point were not the most exciting reads, but Consider This was a real page turner for me. I felt like it was back to back gems of great info. IT helped pull me out of a really bad writer's slump. After the industry gig thing I felt like I sucked and couldn't write well enough. I was worried about anyone seeing my work because it wasn't meeting the mark. I didn't write a full TTRPG adventure for a long time after that gig. I pretty much designed everything TTRPG, but adventures. Consider This and the stack pulled me out of a rut of "I can't do this". That book came out right when I needed it. If I had been published, would I have ever ended up in the writer's reference section. Would I have seen it? I normally track books coming out by my favorite authors by diligently going to the book stores and checking all of my favorite sections. This is probably the same reason why I never heard about the book tours and such. I enjoy the surprise of finding new releases when shopping for books and DVDs. Kind of the manual approach to following new releases. (I think I do this because my grandpop and I used to go the store every Tuesday on new movie release day and would see what sci-fi movies came out. We did this for a long time. I kind of kept up the tradition after he passed on. I was really close to my grandparents.) In hindsight, I am really glad they decided not to publish my work. It kicked me into high gear to try to get better, and I found this really cool space!
Thank you for all the work you put into the stack! The book and movie recs are helping me out of the sheltered cave I dwell in. I really like all the cool findings pointed out in movies and stories. It has been fun to discover things that totally went over my head the first go around. Now I start noticing things in media. It really adds to the experience and enjoyment of other people's art. It has also helped me upgrade my notebook scribblings. Hoping to start turning some of it into stories! Thanks for helping us learn the ropes! I feel like I can do this. I know I have a lot of the literary tools to learn still, but I feel like it is achievable by going through the stack and workshops. Still can't believe I am getting writing tips from one of my favorite authors. Thank you!
P.S. Workshop has also been awesome!!!
What has workshop been like for you?
It has been really good experience. You get a chance to read your work, which is a little terrifying lol. I feel like a doodler with a color crayon reading my work to professional writers. We have all gotten really great in depth feedback. I picked up good advice from hearing feedback for others as well as feedback on my own work. I know I struggled with the through object thing and how to effectively use them during a lesson and Chuck explained it until it clicked for me. I think it is great Chuck and Chelsea take the time out of their busy schedules to host workshops to help writers. Monday is our last day and there are already quite a few things I want to change in previous pieces I have written. I also have new steps I add to working my writing once I have it out on paper. I HIGHLY recommend workshop. I know I would do it again after I have had time to practice working with the tools I learned this time around.
Lovely!
Sorry I missed it!
Homeless no more.
Love this! Excellent little village, too.
I’ll have to take a trip to Portland sometime.
What's everyone want for Christmas?
Love! Thanks for sharing the video.
I wish I lived closer so that I could participate in all the shenanigans! This is so beautiful
The legend has it that the last of them is still there in front of the closed door wearing a black shirt, a black pair of trousers, some worn out boots and exactly five hundred dollars in one of his shoes. With a tiny Phillips-head screwdriver in one hand and a vile smirk on his face, he is waiting… but he ain’t going to tell you anything about the Christmas village because the first rule of PM is … 😁😏
<four slow claps>
Love this. Love this Substack so much!
...and the entire village disappeared, and all that remained was the word, "CROATOAN," carved into a tree.
Brilliant
Fantastic! 🤩
So Colorful! By far the most festive tiny town I've seen. Kinda beats the pants off the usual "early New England lobster town at Christmas" and "Dickensian Village".
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0zseVpRWC3/?igsh=MTdlMjRlYjZlMQ== saw this and thought of you guys and gals with your village.
Great video! It's nice to see Portland lit up with a happy little town and not burning down from protesters. You are making this world a beautiful place Chuck.😁