Columns

The Other California: A Don Winslow Primer

June 15th, 2015

Author photo by Jerry Bauer When you think crime fiction and California, the first city to jump to mind is Los Angeles. L.A. is a staple: Chandler, McDonald, Wambaugh, Connelly, Ellroy, and Parker are among just a few to base their greatest creations out of the City Of Angels. And who can really blame them? Los Angeles is grit and grime. L.A. is glitz and sleaze; it’s the best (or worst, depending on your point of view) example of American excess blended with its rabid poverty. More or less, it’s the ideal city to place a crime story.

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Exposure is Not Payment: Why You Should Start Respecting Yourself as a Writer

June 15th, 2015

For-the-Love markets are magazines and anthologies that publish writers without paying them. Often, these publishers don’t even provide contributor copies. Some writers submit to these places because they love to write and don’t care if they get paid. This train-of-thought can be toxic, not just for the writers submitting to these places, but also to the writers trying to pay their bills.

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Voices From the Red-Light District: 10 Books About Prostitutes

June 12th, 2015

Courtesan, soiled dove, escort, demimondaine; there are many labels for a practitioner of the world’s oldest profession. Easily one of the most socially marginalized groups in human history, prostitutes have also served as muses for a number of highly complex characters. Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Stephen Crane, Bernard Shaw, and many other authors drew inspiration from the complicated and often extremely difficult lives of the women (and men) from the red-light district.

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Advice From A Literary Character: Dean Moriarty

June 11th, 2015

When it comes to life’s big questions, we rely on many different people for advice: family, friends, mentors, loved ones, and sometimes even strangers. How would our favorite literary characters answer these same questions? How would their words compare to the words of those we trust the most? Let’s find out! For LitReactor’s first round of Advice From A Literary Character, Dean Moriarty from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road is here to answer your questions.

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10 Highly Anticipated YA Novels for the Second Half of 2015

June 11th, 2015

Believe it or not, half the year has already passed us by and we are well on our way, racing to the finish. It’s been six months since we’ve talked about highly anticipated young adult releases, but never fear! There is so much to look forward to in this second half of 2015. From much hyped additions to beloved series, to debut novels from new authors, there’s a little something for everyone. Here are ten new releases to add to your TBR.

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Dinosaurs, Billionaires, and Butts: The Top 10 Erotic Stories by Chuck Tingle

June 10th, 2015

It's been a minute since I dipped my toe in the muddy waters of the eBook erotica scene, and in that time a lot has transpired.

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Path to Publication: 'New Yorked' Is Here, So This Is Where I Leave You

June 9th, 2015

The Death of the Author is an essay published in 1967 by French literary critic Roland Barthes. It argues that an author's life and intent should not be considered in literary analysis—the work should stand by itself.  The French title of the essay, La morte de l'auteur, is a play on Le Morte d'Arthur, a 15th-century compilation of Arthurian legends, written by anonymous authors and reinterpreted by Sir Thomas Malory, rendering it immune to contextual analysis.

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Brown Bag Your Writing: Using Your Lunch Break To Write

June 5th, 2015

Every week starts the same. "This week, for real, for sure, for serious, I'm going to get some writing done during my lunch break." Every week ends the same. "Wow. I for sure, for serious, got approximately NONE writing done during my lunch breaks this week." It's not a huge loss. Until you do the math on about 5 hours of work time per week. Multiplied by weeks in a year. I'm no numbertician, but I know enough to see how all of that time maths up to a whole hell of a lot of missed opportunity.

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Literary Parody Accounts

June 5th, 2015

Last summer I posted a Facebook status about Walt Whitman and social media which evolved into a lengthy discussion on how deceased authors would utilize social media today; I eventually uploaded the Facebook exchange to Tumblr and, to my surprise, the post got some attention. The post resurges every month or so and people continue to add their own social media author headcanons, much to my delight.

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Long Story Short: 10 Tips for Trimming an Overly Long Novel Down to Size

June 4th, 2015

Big books are increasingly a thing. Some people love them. Some people hate them. As an editor, I say, if you've written an epic novel that requires 110,000+ words to tell its epic story, go on with your bad self. But before you send that beast out for consideration, make sure you haven't just included 30,000+ extra words. 

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