Columns

Nitpicking 17 Great Horror Comedies

October 3rd, 2018

Horror and comedy go together like Leatherface and chainsaws. Like Candyman and mirrors. Like candy corn and the garbage can. But even the best horror comedies have lousy moments, tiny little things that change the tone or take a person out of the story. It’s these things that keep me up at night. Not the Kruegers or the Vorheeses. It’s these tiny, nitpicky things.

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Library Love: The Future is Open

October 2nd, 2018

Everyone who has attended a college or university has had a moment where they discovered the cornucopia of digital resources available from their library. Or they could have had it if they were library-inclined. Not everyone is in love with libraries as much as yours truly, but there does come a time when Google isn't going to cut it for that final paper. It turns out there are many extremely helpful article databases one can only access when connected with an institution of higher education. The fancier your institution, the more access you typically get.

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150 Years Later, ‘Little Women’ Is Still The Biggest Of Deals

September 28th, 2018

Header image via Wikipedia Commons Louisa May Alcott published the first volume of Little Women on September 30, 1868 – one hundred and fifty years ago on Sunday.

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It Took Me 10 Years to Publish My Poetry Collection

September 27th, 2018

I create music because I have to. I might get paid for it one day, but that isn't why I’ll spend hours by myself in a basement toiling away with a bass/guitar and a microphone. There is something calming and euphoric about this ritual, something centering. 

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Books vs. Miniseries: 'The Stand'

September 24th, 2018

The Stand is one of Stephen King's most enduring and popular works. This is due, in part, to the fact the book formally introduces one of the author's most formidable baddies, Randall Flagg, as well as the fact it's an effectively modern interpretation of the epic good versus evil narrative (King took inspiration for The Stand from The Lord Of The Rings series).

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Stephen King's 10 Best - Yes, Best! - Endings

September 21st, 2018

Original Author photo by Shane Leonard via stephenking.com Today is Stephen King’s birthday, and for his birthday, I’d like to grant him a gift that I believe most readers and critics deny him: the acknowledgement that the man can write a really great ending. The horror author is often criticized for his endings, and while it’s true that some of his best books go off the rails in the last fifty or so pages, he’s also put together some of the most imaginative and poetic endings in fiction.

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Inspiration from the Brooklyn Book Fest

September 21st, 2018

Last week I outran a hurricane to make it to the Brooklyn Book Festival. Florence was bearing down on the Carolinas, and I wanted to stay to help my husband, because mandatory evacuation, but he made me leave on a train, two days early, so I wouldn't miss my chance to get up to New York for the free gathering of literary luminaries. (Luckily, Florence brought nothing more to our neck of the woods than a few downed twigs. We will rebuild!)

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Is Crosstalk Killing Your Feedback?

September 20th, 2018

We’ve all been in a workshop where that one wretched member had us conspiring to “dissolve” the workshop and then re-form without telling them. We’ve all done the thing where we allow and disallow booze. We’ve all had the rules about length and continuing stories, all of which are violated in a fashion usually reserved for exploitation horror movies. There are lots of great ways to ruin a workshop.

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A Guide to the Literary And Cinematic References in 'Castle Rock'

September 18th, 2018

Warning: SPOILERS run freer than the waters of Castle River below.

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8 Reasons We Should Listen To Book Banners

September 17th, 2018

It’s September, which means it’s Banned Books Month. Lots of us, especially in the book selling/lending worlds, get pretty excited about this. We wear our Read Banned Books t-shirts and fasten I Read Banned Books pins to our cool jackets (or cardigans). We create massive displays and really stick it to the man. I’ve done it too. I’ve been there. Big display and “Fuck you, book banners!” attitude.

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