Showing results by narrator "Paige McKinney" in All Categories

McSweeney's is a literary journal based in San Francisco. In this piece by Henry Bean, a hard-hearted Hollywood agent finds her power slipping away.

Jane Dunne has a future in Hollywood. After years of striving, she’s finally landed a juicy part on Valentine Valley, the highest-rated soap on daytime TV. Fame will be hers, no matter whom she has to hurt to get it. But fate, it seems, has other plans. As Jane readies for her first close-up, a stage light falls from above, breaking Jane’s neck on her first day of work. The tragedy shocks the set, and terrifies Valentine Valley star Serena McCormack, who fears the deadly blow was meant for her.

Anything can happen on Valentine Valley. People recover from amnesia, awake from comas, and rise from the dead - all to the delight of the daytime soap’s millions of fans. But while Valentine Valley may be glamorous onscreen, behind the camera the soap’s grueling production schedule punishes actors, directors, and writers in the name of ratings. Soap star Jennifer Connolly is near her breaking point, and a murderer is about to push her over the edge. As Jennifer struggles to care for her ill mother, a serial killer stalks the lot, committing a gory string of murders inspired by classic Hitchcock films.

The tale of the lven's struggle against their kindred foes, the vampiric alben, continues... Eliani and Turisan, mindspeakers separated by duty the day after their handfasting, yearn to be reunited as they aid in the fight to hold onto Fireshore. The capital city of that realm has been captured by the alben leader, Shalr, and along with it, Fireshore's governor and Eliani's beloved cousin! Shalr now has her eye on Woodrun, the center of Fireshore's darkwood production.

What does time mean to you? Is it robbing, killing, or controlling you? Is it saving you? Or are you the master of your time? Regardless of your response to these questions, whether we acknowledge time as a precious commodity is irrelevant because time is a gift, bar none. We cannot stop time, but we can control our time to maximize its value—becoming a wise time manager is within our reach.

At some point in our lives, most of us have been affected by caring adults whose advice, guidance, and example made a difference. In The Person Who Changed My Life, individuals who have distinguished themselves in their fields write about the men and women who served as their mentors.