Columns

9 Dates From Literary Hell

February 14th, 2023

Flame image via icon0 Swooning over fictional characters is one of the perks of being a bookworm. They’re dashing and charismatic, romantic and audacious. But there’s also the characters we’d never want to run into in real life. Sometimes they’re the villains, sometimes they’re the unlikeable protagonists, and sometimes they’re side characters whose toxic traits take up the entire page.

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Eat Your Heart Out: A 5-Course Meal of Horror-Romance-ish Reads For Valentine's Day

February 13th, 2023

Valentine’s Day. Roses. Chocolates. Cutesy stuffed animals and fancy dinners. A baby with a bow. February is a month for lovers, but even with so much sweetness in the air, there’s still plenty to enjoy for those whose tastes run a little darker. 

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Fostering Inclusivity: Sensitivity Readings and Content Warnings

February 10th, 2023

Image via Fernando Arcos Today I want to talk about two ways you can make your writing more inclusive. They're things you might not even think about, but your readers will definitely notice and appreciate when done well. Both can be summed up in this quote from Alan Baxter:

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Horrormance Titles for A Macabre Valentine's Day

February 9th, 2023

Horror and romance have more in common than one may initially think. Both genres often have to overcome stigmas that they're just one thing or the other, when in reality, there are so many works of popular romance and horror that hold a lot of depth. I'd argue romance and horror are the most honest genres. What's more vulnerable to us than what we love or what we fear? The stakes are always high with both, whether we're fighting for someone's affection or fighting to stay alive.

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Get The Most Out Of A Small Book Promo Budget

February 8th, 2023

Original image via Pixabay Let’s say you’ve got a book coming out, and let’s say you’ve set aside a modest promo budget of $250 dollars. Yes, I know, calling $250 bucks “modest” makes me sound like The Monopoly Man. But when it comes to book promo, you’ll eat through $250 pretty fast. If you’re looking at a budget like that, let me give you some hard-won advice on some good and bad ways to spend it.

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Book vs. Film: "The Cabin at the End of the World" Vs. "Knock at the Cabin"

February 7th, 2023

What happens when a novel of unabashed and beautiful ambiguity gets in the hands of a decidedly unsubtle — at times even blunt — filmmaker? Knock at the Cabin happens, an adaptation of Paul Tremblay’s 2018 novel, The Cabin at the End of the World, written and directed by the one and only M. Night Shyamalan.

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6 Books with Warped Timelines to Celebrate Groundhog Day, Bill-Murray-style

February 2nd, 2023

Not being American, I have to admit that Groundhog Day registers as Time Travel Day for me, purely out of association with the Bill Murray film. What better opportunity, then, to look for books that play with non-linear narratives, re-organized chronology or jumping through time? Bonus points if you begin the search grumpy as hell, then unexpectedly become an increasingly wholesome and honest person, to mirror the movie's arc. 

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Smash or Pass: Monster Porn Edition

February 1st, 2023

It's love month. And monsters need love, too. Let's take a quick tour of some monster porn titles and play a game of Smash or Pass.

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On "The Fabelmans" and "Armageddon Time" or Should You Prefer, the Birth of the Artist

January 31st, 2023

When I was a kid my father told me a story about the father of one of my friends who he was friends with. This other kid’s father had wanted to be an artist when he was a child and one day as he and his father were out for a walk in the Bronx or Brooklyn or wherever in New York City they lived, this friend’s father told his father that he wanted to be an artist. The father’s father, a poor immigrant Jew from Russia replied: “You want to be an artist?” He then did a pirouette and said, “and maybe I’ll become a dancer.”

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Grad School Residency Part III: I Learn That I Matter

January 30th, 2023

Header image via Fauxels When my train trundled into the station in Montpelier, Vermont, on Jan. 10, 2023, I felt a deep and abiding sense of relief: I had made it to residency. For nearly a week before the third residency of my grad school career, I refused to leave my house or interact with anyone but my roommate for fear of getting sick and having to miss this thing I’d looked forward to for six months.

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