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Six Lessons I Learned Co-Writing A Novella With James Patterson
October 3rd, 2017
Last year James Patterson announced a new publishing venture: BookShots. Shorter, novella-sized stories. The tag line was: Under 150 pages. Under $5. Impossible to put down. I was very excited when BookShots got a splashy announcement in the New York Times—because it meant I could finally share some news I had been sitting on for months: I was writing one.
Read Column →LitReactor Remembers Kirk Clawes
October 2nd, 2017
AWP 2016, Los Angeles: Pictured left to right, top to bottom: Rob Hart, Bree Ogden, Joshua Chaplinsky, Renee Asher Pickup, Taylor Houston, Kirk Clawes, Dennis Widmyer LitReactor suffered a huge blow a few days ago when we learned our co-founder and technical lead, Kirk Clawes, had passed away in his sleep. It truly was a shock, because Kirk was only 38 and so full of life.
Read Column →Tom Perrotta is My Favorite Existential Uncle
September 25th, 2017
Photo y Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 3.0 Many families have that uncle who gets invited over for Thanksgiving and doesn't quite fit in. The black sheep, who doesn’t understand the concept of polite conversation or hold any of the same values as your family. He’s outspoken and crosses the line before the turkey even hits the table, sharing something completely inappropriate but interesting enough that the family wants to hear what comes next.
Read Column →Breaking Worse? The 'Ozark' Pilot Treads Dark Territory
September 22nd, 2017
Heavy spoiler warning!!! Ozark eschews the traditional "slow burn" that has defined (and sometimes plagued) television drama recently with a pilot episode designed to surprise you with gut punches—all to prepare you for the uppercuts yet to come.
Read Column →Road Trip Horror: 'A Good Man is Hard to Find' and 'Nocturnal Animals'
September 20th, 2017
Nocturnal Animals, released in 2016, took a classic horror movie trope and added prestige to it. That is, the idea that traveling on rural highways, especially at night, will result in an encounter with lunatics and death. This has existed at least as far back as 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, with its band of five teens picking up a hitchhiker which turns out to be a catalyst for a night of brutal violence and madness. Then there’s 1986’s The Hitcher, in which C.
Read Column →The Worst Required Reading
September 19th, 2017
It’s back to school time. According to the aisles of stores. Man, I hated that as a kid. It’s like, I KNOW we have to go back to school. You don’t have to put up a big banner about it. That’s like having a huge, enthusiastic banner at a funeral: “You’re Dead!” In fact, the more I think about it, the more I like that comparison. Those back to school banners do signify a death: The death of summer. The death of fun. The death of reading whatever the hell you want.
Read Column →The Little Genre That Could: Why Now is the Time to Read Bizarro
September 18th, 2017
For some strange reason, there are more articles about the origins and definition of bizarro than about what this genre is doing now. While the history of the genre is great, and defining it is as entertaining as anything else when it comes to debating literary definitions, the fact that bizarro has grown exponentially in the last few years is what I think we should be focusing on. Once an almost underground movement, bizarro is now everywhere, and the authors currently working under its banner are among some of the best contemporary purveyors of fiction across all genres.
Read Column →What Writers Can Learn From the Films of Darren Aronofsky
September 15th, 2017
Image I'm so stoked for Darren Aronofsky's new film, Mother! Ever since I saw Pi I've been a super-fan. I've watched all of his movies multiple times and have used them as background atmosphere while I worked on certain projects. Going through all of his films can be as helpful and inspiring as any craft book. One of my goals is to try to do what Aronofsky does with his films in my own writing.
Read Column →The Defenders: Defeated by Dull Writing
September 14th, 2017
The Defenders, Marvel’s epic crossover between its (mostly) beloved Netflix series, finally landed on the internet to a mixed response. While many fans greatly enjoyed watching their favorite heroes interact with each other (much like they did in The Avengers five years ago), others found their fun tempered by serious flaws in the storytelling. The show gets off to a promising start, but by the end it has squandered its potential by making all of the same mistakes as its predecessors, all while adding a slew of new ones.
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