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Celebrating Dallas Mayr: The Wisdom of Jack Ketchum (1946–2018)
January 25th, 2018
I learnt this morning that Dallas Mayr, known to readers around the world as Jack Ketchum, passed away after a long battle with cancer. I stared at my computer screen, fighting back the tears, and searching for the right words. But the tears came and the words didn’t. I’m numb, as many of us are. Ketchum’s short story ‘Returns’ was written after he had his cat put down. In the story notes Ketchum writes:
Read Column →What It's Like to Be Young and Writing for Young Adults
January 24th, 2018
When the news broke last year about Tomi Adeyemi’s debut YA book deal, I found myself green with disgusting envy. Not because she got a huge book deal (she did) or a movie deal (she did) or because I’ve yet to find an agent; it was because she was my age. If Tomi had been 30, or 37, or 48, rather than 23, I would have been able to curb my jealousy. I would have applauded her for fighting for her dream and seeing it come true. I would have happily read all the think pieces about how success doesn’t have an age limit.
Read Column →Writing the Crime Scene: Winter Forensics
January 23rd, 2018
Lots of great crime novels are set during winter. Jo Nesbo’s The Snowman features Norwegian detective Harry Hole tracking his country’s first serial killer in the dead of winter. William Kent Kruger’s Iron Lake has an Ojibwe detective combing the snowdrifts of Northern Minnesota for clues to solve a murder.
Read Column →Embracing the Missteps
January 23rd, 2018
Show of hands – anyone here get their first novel published? Like, the first one. The first one you ever wrote. That one that you shove underneath old tax forms or stick in a folder on your computer marked Vacation Pics so that no one, on the off chance they break in and decide to, you know, start lurking through your hard drive for old literary attempts, ever finds it. That book.
Read Column →What Do Superheroes Read?
January 22nd, 2018
You've read the comics and seen the movies, so at some point you've probably wondered about the stack of books on your favorite superheroes' nightstand. I know I have, so I called up a few and, despite their busy schedules, most of them answered their phones and talked to me about their reading habits. Here's what I learned.
Read Column →Choosing Your Words: To Swear or Not To Swear
January 22nd, 2018
The US edition of Swearing is Good For You has a beautiful cover. Silver grey with an enticing yellow pill on the front, which is incised with the words F*UCK YEAH. That asterisk is called a grawlix, and it’s the only one in the book. Every other swear word is written in full. It would have felt disingenuous to me to do otherwise, but I knew it was potentially controversial.
Read Column →The 10 Best Places to Find Quality Short Fiction
January 19th, 2018
While many sources have been heralding the decline of literary reading and short stories as a medium, the strange truth is that there have never been as many great places to find quality short fiction. College-based reviews continue to thrive, in some part due to their prestige and institutional funding.
Read Column →The Hack-Dad Chronicles: All Work and No Play
January 18th, 2018
Didn’t notice I was gone, did you? That’s okay, I didn’t miss any of you, either. I kid, of course. Kind of. For those of you who weren’t aware of it, I took a six-month hiatus from good old LitReactor. I mean, shit, after seven years and 120 some odd columns, I figured I needed a little time to myself. And by time to myself, I mean time to write about stuff other than books being written by other people. I had to wrap up a few of my own books and do a little bit of ghostwriting on top of that.
Read Column →Hack The MFA
January 17th, 2018
Maybe you applied to a university’s creative writing MFA program and didn’t get in. Maybe you have a life that would never allow for you to take classes. Maybe you already have an MFA and need something new to kickstart your writing. Maybe you can’t afford an MFA. Actually, scratch that one. NOBODY can afford an MFA, even though lots of people DO afford it.
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