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How to Hide Exposition Through Action
February 23rd, 2018
I was reading a draft of a friend's novel, and in one of the chapters, it was critical for a character in the chapter to explain something. Ah, the dreaded telling. The thing every teacher you've had from middle school on has told you to avoid. But the fact is, telling is a necessary device for progressing a story. If telling was not allowed, we'd all be writing plays and screenplays. The trick is using it infrequently and hiding it.
Read Column →Zoraida Cordova Writes Fantasy She Can See Herself In
February 21st, 2018
Zoraida Cordova writes fantasy about witches and magical beings because her childhood was sheltered. She grew up in a quiet neighborhood and didn’t have much freedom to wander around with her friends. So the stories she writes are a form of escapism.
Read Column →The Hack-Dad Chronicles: Friends Are Better With Drugs
February 20th, 2018
I’m on the floor of my office pouring sweat. I’m grinding my teeth, my lower back twists with cramps. I’m shivering. I want to wrap myself in a blanket, but from experience, I know the minute I drape it over my shoulders, I’ll be burning hot again. I remind myself this is only temporary, it will pass like a queasy wave of ammonia and white-hot irrational anger. All of this feels way too familiar. It feels like I’ve been subjecting myself to this thing called the end of the line. This thing called quitting.
Read Column →6 Tips On How To Be Prolific
February 19th, 2018
I get a lot of teasing or gentle (and not-so-gentle) ribbing about my prolific output from other authors. I started writing novels in 2009 and I just released my 20th book. Along the way I’ve written around one hundred short stories, two TV pilots, several articles—and that’s not mentioning the five novels that remain unpublished (at least one for good reason). A question I get a lot is how I do it with a full time day job, two kids, a podcast, a sideline designing book covers and that elusive commodity: sleep.
Read Column →6 Royal Books for the Blue in Your Veins
February 16th, 2018
Thank you Netflix for reminding me that no, my obsession with all things fancy and British was not just a thing of my childhood. It's a thing forever. Season two of The Crown - so good - is now very much in my past because I binge watched it in like two (maybe three) days, and now the world is grey and boring. What to do? The librarian in me demands that I run to the stacks. Thankfully, there's no shortage of British drama to be found there.
Read Column →The Two Lukes: Comparing and Contrasting 'Dark Empire' and 'The Last Jedi'
February 15th, 2018
Released more than 25 years ago, the comic book mini-series Star Wars: Dark Empire by writer Tom Veitch and artist Cam Kennedy is notable for many reasons. It marked the start of a 20-year-long relationship between Dark Horse Comics and Lucasfilm that would result in thousands of issues and countless storylines expanding on the galaxy far, far away.
Read Column →Single And Loving It: A Reading List
February 14th, 2018
When you say "There are some great things about single life," people look at you like you're saying, "There are some great things about having oral surgery." They figure you're a person so deluded you'll try and find the upside of bleeding from the mouth for a few days.
Read Column →10 African American Authors to Read This Month
February 13th, 2018
Header via thirteen.org February is African American History month and the month when we celebrate Women in Horror. I have strong, mixed feelings about both of these because I think women and black authors should be part of your reading all year long.
Read Column →Forget the Love Poems This Valentine's Day, But Fall in Love With Poetry
February 12th, 2018
Valentine's Day is upon us, and with it—for those of us with kids, at least—comes the inundation of Valentines to our children and from our children, with ridiculous Hallmark poetry about roses and candies and choo, choo, choosing you.
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