Mystic Ink, Publisher of Spiritual, Shamanic, Transcendent Works, and Phantastic Fiction

Hal Kanter started out writing variety shows and revues for television in the early 1950s. He turned to screenwriting in the mid-1950s, specializing in comedies (he wrote for  Bob Hope  and Martin & Lewis) but also turning out dramas such as The Rose Tattoo and Let's Make Love. He directed a few movies, and although they met with success and acclaim, he returned to television. In the...

Charles Schulz the creator of Peanuts and all the unforgettable characters he created was a regular at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and was known to everyone by his nickname "Sparky". He loved writers, writing, and the creative process, and spent the whole week at the conference for many years. Aside from showing support for all the regular talent, a big part of Sparky's attendance was in...

PICAFLOR is the sequel to the award winning SPIRIT MATTERS that chronicles the two decades since of Matthew (Mateo) J. Pallamary’s adventures throughout the mountains, deserts, and jungles of North, Central, and South America pursuing his studies of shamanism. PICAFLOR begins in the jungle where Spirit Matters ended which is the same place where SPIRIT MATTERS began. Here is a taste of that timele...

Here is an inspiring talk at the 1985 Santa Barbara Writers Conference by Nicholas Meyer, known for his best-selling novel  The Seven-Per-Cent Solution , and for directing the films  Time After Time , two of the  Star Trek  feature films, the 1983 television film  The Day After , and the 1999  HBO  original film  Vendetta . Meyer was nominated for an  A...

As a bookend to the fictional account of first time Ayahuasca drinkers based on over two decades of observed experience from the Award-Winning n0thing , this excerpt gives an account of their integration the morning after their ceremony. In this sequel to DreamLand , science, technology, psychology, neurochemistry, and cutting edge brain research combine with shamanism, mythology, visionary experi...

The beloved Santa Barbara Writers Conference which is responsible for fostering many best selling writers will celebrate its 50TH birthday in June of 2022 and it would not exist at all if not for the inimitable Barnaby Conrad, artist, best selling author, nightclub proprietor, bullfighter, boxer, and American Vice Consul to Seville, Málaga, and Barcelona from 1943-46. Whil...

This is a fictional account of first time Ayahuasca drinkers based on over two decades of observed experience and is an excerpt from the Award-Winning n0thing , titled after Jordan (n0thing) Gilbert, a top tier international eSports champion along with another real life co-star, renowned psychologist Dr. Stanley Krippner. In this sequel to DreamLand , science, technology, psychology, neurochemistr...

A regular at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, Santa Barbara resident Sue Grafton  was the author of the "alphabet series" ( "A" Is for Alibi , etc.) featuring private investigator  Kinsey Millhone  in the fictional city of  Santa Teresa, California which was modeled after Santa Barbara. The daughter of detective novelist  C. W. Grafton , she said the strongest influen...

 In the 21st century we find ourselves living in a paradoxical technological age where we are all connected with near instantaneous text and video communication as well as access to a vast storehouse of information both good and bad that spans the globe. In spite of this abundance of data, many of us spend our time alone on social media watching cat videos or some oth...

LOST IN TRANSLATION Many indigenous cultures worldwide, particularly the Apache of North America and the aborigines in Australia, which are the least technological of human cultures, we find the most intimate relationship between land and human language. In this context language is inseparable from song and story and songs and stories in turn, are inseparable from the shapes and features of the la...

Ashleigh Brilliant  is an author and syndicated cartoonist born in London, UK, and living in Santa Barbara, California. He is best known for his  Pot-Shots , single-panel illustrations with one-line humorous remarks, which began syndication in the United States of America in 1975. Brilliant became a naturalized American citizen in 1969. During the "Summer of Love...

THE ANSWER IS BLOWING IN THE WIND Elemental spirits are universally revered in shamanistic cultures and one of the most respected among them is the Wind, an invisible force that can be harnessed as well as storm out of control, leaving death and destruction in its wake. The fact that it is capable of delivering so much power, yet has no substance, defines it as not only a direct link to spirit, bu...

Harlan Ellison  (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was remembered for his prolific and influential work in  New Wave   speculative fiction , and for his outspoken, combative personality.  Robert Bloch , the author of  Psycho , described Ellison as "the only living organism I know whose natural habitat is hot water". His published works include more than 1,700 sh...

The people in our lives mirror our different aspects and sub-personalities, providing us with reflections of our inner world and the outer world is a reflection of the inner, much of which is shadow, good and bad. Some of the reflections can be beautiful, but many are undesirable and denied. This circular diagram from Robert McKee’s Story provides an excellent map of the zones and levels of person...

In this keynote talk from the 1984 Santa Barbara Writers Conference , workshop leader Cork Millner interviews legendary actress Anne Francis  who was known for her role in the science fiction film  Forbidden Planet  and for starring in the television series  Honey West  from 1965–1966, which was the first TV series with a female detective character's name in the...

Elmore (Dutch) Leonard was a talented novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were  Westerns , but he went on to specialize in  crime fiction  and  suspense thrillers , many of which were adapted into motion pictures. Among his best-known works are  Get Shorty ,  Out of Sight ,  Swag ,  Hombre ,  Mr....

Legendary comic Jonathan Winters was a welcome regular at the annual Santa Barbara Writers Conference and in spite of his massive success as an actor and a comic, Jonathan was a serious writer. He sat in on the humor workshop formerly run by Ian Bernard of Laugh In fame, now run by Ernie Witham and he attended Poetry Workshops with the utmost seriousness. He also published a well-written short sto...

Based in the near future, n0thing is the long awaited sequel to  DreamLand , written by Pallamary and the late legendary DJ Ken Reeth. In  DreamLand , the creators of computer generated dreaming hoped to conquer the stigma of death so people could die in vivid, pre-programmed dreams until the dream of DreamLand was shattered by the profit-seeking backer who made the miracle of programmed...

Dennis Lynds was a generous, thoughtful, and prolific by every sense of the word writer that most writers only dream about becoming and was a mainstay at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference for many years along with Ray Bradbury, Charles M. (Sparky) Schulz, and many other artistic and literary lights. Dennis was so prolific, he wrote under multiple pseudonyms. Michael Collins is his best-known ps...

The Stranger was singer-songwriter Billy Joel's fifth studio album, and it remains his best-selling non-compilation album, ranked number 70 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In the opening lines of the title track of the same name Joel tells us that, "We all have a face that we hide away forever and we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone, some are...

Prior to his massive success with Roots Alex Haley was another unknown struggling writer until the Santa Barbara Writers Conference founder Barnaby Conrad connected him with the right people and became responsible for getting Alex published. Barnaby was a bestseller at the age of twenty nine for his novel Matador and he bought a bar in San Francisco that he named The Matador after his book and his...

In The Psychology of the Transference Jung articulated a shamanic perspective where he describes therapist and patient as sharing a single soul between them that has the quality of a deceptive guide that embodies the native American archetype of coyote the trickster. Jung called this guide that shares virtually identical qualities with Mother Ayahuasca in Amazonian cultures Mercurius, a Hermes-lik...

Legendary science fiction writer Ray Bradbury inspired thousands of writers with his opening keynote speeches at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference which he kicked off from its humble beginnings in 1972 for 37 years until his passing. This talk is from 1983 which was the 11th year of the conference. Ray was a pillar of the conference and I was blessed to be mentored by him. I was asked to contri...

Forty Dissolution I spent the next two months assimilating all the new information that flooded into me after my psychospiritual death and rebirth. The knowledge gained in my spiral through Hell left me humbled, with a deep respect for the power of the plants and their ability to catalyze profound transformation. After my night of darkness I steered clear of visionary experiences and wen...

As discussed earlier, by paying attention we can cultivate witness consciousness and discover the meaning of the expression, "Where your attention goes, there your energy goes," which comes from our self-created focal point that is responsible for our thoughts and actions. Hear it here - https://bit.ly/centerpallamary Learn more from the author at https://bit.ly/mattpallamary Visit Mystic Ink Publ...