Columns

LitReactor Staff Picks: The Best Books of 2018 - Part II

December 10th, 2018

Another year has come and gone. You know what that means, don't you? Time for a bunch of strangers to tell you what was good! And why should you care what the LitReactor staff thinks are the best books of the year? Trick question! You shouldn't. But what they have to say might interest you nonetheless, because they are good-looking and knowledgeable and they read like the wind. So for those who care, we submit for your approval/derision some of LitReactor's favorite reads of 2018 (part II).

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LitReactor Staff Picks: The Best Books of 2018 - Part I

December 7th, 2018

Another year has come and gone. You know what that means, don't you? Time for a bunch of strangers to tell you what was good! And why should you care what the LitReactor staff thinks are the best books of the year? Trick question! You shouldn't. But what they have to say might interest you nonetheless, because they are good-looking and knowledgeable and they read like the wind. So for those who care, we submit for your approval/derision some of LitReactor's favorite reads of 2018 (part 1).

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Story Tech: Arthur Morgan's Journal in Red Dead Redemption 2

December 6th, 2018

Red Dead Redemption 2 has been out for over a month now, and is quickly on its way to becoming the biggest thing ever. It has become a central pillar of the pop cultural discussion in a way that seldom happens anymore, not just for video games, but all art. Movies, TV shows and even books that everybody is consuming at the same time are increasingly rare. There are fewer guaranteed conversation starters around the water-coolers of the world—it’s increasingly unlikely that co-workers and acquaintances are binging the same entertainment as you.

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Clarity vs. Experimentation: A Letter To Myself

December 4th, 2018

A guy cracked his head on a bathtub and couldn’t keep his memories straight. He remembered everything, but not in order. That’s the basic premise of a story I wrote in college. The first drafts of this story, all the scenes were told out of order. At the time, I would have said the goal was to replicate the experience of the character in the reader. Now, I would say I was being fancy and artsy. Fartsy, if you will.

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Feedback Loop: Revisiting Autobiographical Fiction

December 3rd, 2018

Autobiographical Fiction: Using Your Real Life to Craft Great Fiction posted on Leap Day in 2012 (2/29/12) and in the almost 7 years since then, I have

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6 Reasons We Still Love L.M. Montgomery's "Anne of the Green Gables" 110 Years Later

November 30th, 2018

With seven television, film, and miniseries adaptations in English alone — amongst numerous adaptations in other languages, like the Japanese anime series — it couldn’t be clearer: since its publication 110 years ago in 1908, Lucy Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables is here to stay.

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Storyville: Finding Hope in Dark Fiction

November 29th, 2018

(There will be spoilers about some of my stories below.)

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Why You Shouldn't Ignore Religion in Your Fiction

November 27th, 2018

"Three-quarters of U.S. adults say religion is at least 'somewhat' important in their lives, with more than half (53%) saying it is 'very' important. Approximately one-in-five say religion is “not too” (11%) or “not at all” important in their lives (11%)."

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The 7 Very Best Scenes from C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia

November 26th, 2018

In the immortal words of Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell, we love the Chronic — what! — cles of Narnia. Ever since its fateful beginning as a present to Lewis’s goddaughter Lucy (yes, he named the youngest Pevensie after her — can you say “adorable”?), the series has been capturing the hearts of children and adults alike.

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LitReactor's 2018 Black Friday For Readers And Writers

November 23rd, 2018

Chuck Palahniuk famously wrote “It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.” Which is why we’ve got this Black Friday column going. See, in order to follow this advice, you have to lose some stuff. Before you can lose some stuff, you have to OWN some stuff. Is it an accomplishment to be a so-called “minimalist” if you never had any stuff to begin with? Will you ever appreciate how free you are without your stuff if you never had any stuff to begin with?

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