Speaking / Storytelling

Cropsey

A campfire legend about an escaped mental patient who haunts Staten Island, hunting children with a hook for a hand — and the real, disturbing history behind it. A piece (~11 min) about how urban legends and true crime can tangle together until you can’t tell which came first.

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An 1867 Brooklyn dare, a haunted corner near an old Revolutionary War fort, and a friend who never explained what he saw.

A dark New Jersey road in 1896, a decorated Civil War veteran, and the strangest first in American newspaper history.

A walk through how we got to SNL — and the irony that its once ground-breaking variety show format is the only one left standing.

Related essaysthe written companion

Notes on a Play – fred chong rutherford

I think this is the last time I’ll post an essay to Facebook. During a period of my life where I was convinced I wasn’t writing, it turned out I’d poured hundreds of thousands of words here and on reddit. All of it practice, all of it scales, all of it worth it. Getting feedback […]

I wrote a short-short story yesterday. As I understand it, flash fiction is a short story of less than 800 words, and a short-short is a story of about 800-2000 words. When I learned that, I realized I spent a good chunk of my teens and twenties writing both kinds. They often end with some […]

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