Columns

On the Trail of a Murder: Helene Stapinski on Research and Memoir

July 24th, 2017

Helene Stapinksi grew up hearing about a murder. A family murder, no less, a story her mother passed down about her great-great-grandmother Vita in order to scare young Stapinski into life on the straight and narrow. Her family was based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and was one of “swindlers, bookies, embezzlers, and mobster-wannabes,” according to a page on her website, although her own mother managed to extricate herself from the crime life.

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A Head Full of Tropes: Finding New Life in Dead Ideas

July 24th, 2017

Image via General Mills Vampires, zombies, Satan and werewolves. These are a few of my favorite tropes.

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Why Do So Many Indie Presses Fail?

July 21st, 2017

I've been aware of indie presses shutting down for a long time, but really started paying attention to it in the last three years. Besides being an indie author myself, I have many friends whose outstanding work is published by indie presses and a few friends who are publishers. Every time an indie press shuts down, authors are left scrambling to find new homes for their books, artists lose work opportunities, editors have one less available gig, and readers are left with less options.

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99 Cents Is Too Cheap For Your Book

July 21st, 2017

It’s been a little while since I tried the persuasive essay, the sort of thing we did in school, but I’m giving it a shot here. My recollection is that you’re supposed to outline your premise, go through all the points, then remind everyone what the premise was one last time. Y’know, for the morons. Or the teachers, who almost certainly would have to be drunk to grade 30 essays on whether or not it’s acceptable to wear hats in school.

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6 Reasons Aspiring Writers Should Act More Like Musicians

July 20th, 2017

Writers are the worst. Actually, aspiring writers are the worst. Aspiring musicians, on the other hand, act like aspiring writers should. They have better attitudes, work ethics, and are even more fun to be around and interact with on Social Media. I have been a part of both worlds.

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Find A Buddy: 6 Reasons You Should Co-Write Your Stuff

July 20th, 2017

I grew up in Oklahoma. When I turned 27, I decided to move to Oregon. The scenery here is fantastic. The deepest greens I’ve ever seen, fucking big ass trees, strange fish people…it was a far cry from the flat sun-scorched beauty of my hometown. I took all of my emotional baggage and moved away from my friends, family, and routine. Oregon became a self-imposed isolation, in a sense.

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Storyville: Young Protagonists—MG vs. YA vs. Adult

July 19th, 2017

When it comes to your writing, a young protagonist can be part of the teen landscape or an adult novel. How do you tell the difference? How can you as an author write to either or both with authority? Here are some tips.

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Inspiration vs. Influence: Using What We Know

July 18th, 2017

There’s no right or wrong way to be inspired, but there might be a wrong way to be influenced. When I was 17, I worked as a bag boy at a grocery store. My friend Zack Buckingham worked with me. We would stand around judging the customers—pointing out the pretty women, ugly women, the weird shaped men, the decrepit and how they moved. Once a boy about our age entered the place and I said, “I bet his favorite band is Weezer.” I guess it was meant as an insult. Zack said, “Yeah, but you can’t help what you like.”

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Books at These Speeds: Sped-Up Audiobooks

July 17th, 2017

Let me take you back to the days when I was part of a book club on television. Yes, I used to travel every month or so to a TV studio where I’d sit with a bunch of other folks and talk about a book. Our hour-long chat would be clipped down to about 2 minutes and used to fill a slot on a slow news day. Depicted here is my entire contribution to this endeavor after attending about half a dozen tapings:

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Brace Yourselves: A Breakdown of the Game of Thrones Pilot, "Winter is Coming"

July 14th, 2017

Game of Thrones is coming for your social media feeds this weekend, and what better way to prepare for the latest season of the series than to revisit where it all began, the pilot episode, "Winter is Coming"? That's right—brace yourselves, it's time to break down the Game of Thrones pilot.

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