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Using The *Big* Words: Five Tips On Making Jargon And Tech Work For Your Writing, Rather Than Against It
September 12th, 2017
I love work.
Read Column →A Gothic Literature Primer: Suggested Reading
September 11th, 2017
Header: A Picture of Dorian Gray, by Ulisse Albiati CC 2011 Aside from pure horror, the genre I get asked about most often is gothic fiction. Despite its rich history and cult following, most people still don’t really understand it. And since I’ve accidentally DIY scholar-ed the genre thanks to an unnatural passion, it’s a question I welcome. I could easily write a full-length book on the topic, but today I thought I’d give a sort of primer for the curious.
Read Column →The Life and Death of Richard Bachman
September 8th, 2017
Photo via Pinguino For a period of eight years in the late ’70s and early ’80s, a writer named Richard Bachman existed. His novels, the first four published exclusively in paperback, did not find themselves placed at the top of any bestseller lists. Steadily, Bachman managed to attract a small fanbase. Rumors of a conspiracy didn’t take long to surface.
Read Column →The Inauthenticity of a Fuckless World
September 7th, 2017
Original image: Arthouse Studio via Pexels I can still remember the first time I dropped an F-bomb. My friends and I had tied a giant log to a rope hanging from a swing set, and we were spinning it around. I got too close to that spinning, wooden devil, and it blasted me in the face, knocking out my front teeth. In that moment, I used a word I had been very familiar with but had yet to ever utter. Fuck.
Read Column →Ten Reasons I Hate Remakes...And They're Not What You Think
September 6th, 2017
Header image by mahdi chaghari On one hand, I try not to discuss movies with people online because most folks have very strong opinions about everyone else's opinions, and because trying to escape my ultraviolent past is hard to do when someone mansplains a film to me or tries to explain why I didn't "get" a movie. However, from time to time, I engage in movie talk with friends, and one of the most touchy subjects is remakes.
Read Column →The Sex Scene In Stephen King's 'IT'
September 5th, 2017
When I pitched the idea for this column, I was told it was cool so long as I kept it classy. After I found my monocle, which had fallen out of my eye due to my wide-eyed, shocked expression (“ME?! How could I be NOT classy?!”), I started thinking about how to tackle the topic. With IT coming to theaters, readers and non-readers alike are becoming aware of a piece missing from the movie. I’m talking, of course, about the sex scene. The one that’s (not incorrectly) referred to as a “child orgy in the sewer.”
Read Column →The 7 Deadly Sins of Struggling Writers
September 4th, 2017
Original image via Pexels I am a working writer, and I’ve been guilty at some point or another of all seven of these sins. I still struggle, but I make an effort to not do the stupid shit listed below. Some of these are rookie mistakes; others are self-destructive and toxic to the literary community. Stopping even one of these behaviors will help an aspiring writer become the writer they are supposed to be.
Read Column →"American Girls" Taught Me That Diversity Is The Most Beautiful Thing
September 1st, 2017
The American Girls franchise was radical and so instrumental to my education as a child. I grew up during the good ole days of the OG squad of eight (okay, technically, Kaya wasn’t added until after I was introduced to the gang, but she was my second-favorite, so I count her).
Read Column →13 Tips on Plowing Through "IT" (or any long book) In A Few Days
August 31st, 2017
Stephen King's IT is a big-ass book. Something like 440,000 words. That's like 75% the length of Atlas Shrugged (561,000 words) or War and Peace (587,000 words). When you’ve read IT, you’ve read almost all of a couple books famous for being ridiculously long. I’m dumb, which is why I decided to read Stephen King’s It for a book club. And because it was a book club book, I had about a week to read it. Okay, I had a month, but I'm not perfect.
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