Columns
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Three Things That Will Tank The Dark Tower Movie For Fans Of The Books
June 22nd, 2017
The man in Black fled across the Desert, and the Gunslinger followed.
Read Column →Tommy Wiseau, Charles Hinton, and the Non-Existance of Ironic Joy
June 22nd, 2017
Most of you are probably familiar with Tommy Wiseau, auteur behind The Room. The Room is a fascinating piece of work. It’s become the defining version of the “so bad it’s good” type of thing. Loads of people come out to midnight showings, throw spoons at the screen, and engage in the sort of shenanigans normally reserved for screenings of Rocky Horror.
Read Column →The Lost Art of the Graphic Novel Introduction
June 21st, 2017
There was a time when comic book trade paperbacks we’re not that common. The Dark Knight Returns, for instance, and Watchmen were notable for being collected and released in book stores. That was in 1986, and in the years that followed it was so rare of an occurrence that a trade paperback release was treated as a special event. From Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman to Kevin Smith’s monumental run on Daredevil that put the character back on the map, trade paperbacks were treated with prestige.
Read Column →How to Start an Author Website
June 21st, 2017
Spurred on by the One Story Per Week Writing Challenge, I recently decided to set up a personal website. A platform to showcase my writing, podcasting, and editing. Here are some of the lessons I learned and steps you can take to set up your own. Pages Before buying a domain name, choosing a content management system and setting up an email list, you should decide on the pages you’d like your website to include and then write copy for each.
Read Column →Wide Open: 10 Classic (and perhaps not so classic) Road Trip Books
June 20th, 2017
Header: Pixabay It could be argued that every great story is built around a journey. More often than not, they are of a more spiritual nature, as characters grow and change, seeking out their fortunes and coming to terms with their circumstances. Struggling to find themselves and their place in the world.
Read Column →Storyville: Avoiding Purple Prose in Your Fiction
June 20th, 2017
So, I’m either the perfect person to write this column, or exactly the wrong person to do it, because quite often in the past my own writing has been called “purple.” I disagree with that assessment, at least in regards to my current work, the last couple of years. But there you have it. Let’s dig in deeper, shall we, and see what this is all about? WHAT IS PURPLE PROSE? I’ll pull this directly from Wikipedia, because I think it’s a pretty good definition:
Read Column →Why Would An Adult Read Books For Teenagers?
June 19th, 2017
Image via B&N I read for countless reasons. I read for learning, for empathy, for experience. I read to expand my horizons, to travel the universe, to meet new friends and fall in love and have my heart broken exquisitely. I read to escape the crushing weight of reality or to experience it more vividly and through another’s eyes. I read for fun, for work, and sometimes just to be able to check off that I've read a book.
Read Column →The Top 10 Transgressive Novels of All Time
June 16th, 2017
What is transgressive fiction? Well, if you find yourself saying "damn, that's fucked up" more than three times but keep on reading, there's a pretty good chance the book in front of you is a work of transgressive literature. But that's a pretty wide net. So for the purpose of this list, we will not be including hardcore horror or splatter punk (otherwise Ed Lee and Wrath James White would make an appearance) or Bizarro (like Carlton Mellick's Haunted Vagina or Matthew Stoke's Cow).
Read Column →5 Bad-Ass Women Writing the West
June 15th, 2017
Once upon a time, the literature of the West was the Western—the story of a lone dude, likely nursing some sort of psychic wound, who blows into town on his trusty steed, saves the populace from a local menace, and then rides off into the sunset. In this story, this (white) guy is always the hero—women and people of color, if present at all, play a supporting role.
Read Column →Library Love: Unemployment Edition
June 15th, 2017
Unemployment. Underemployment. Unenjoyable employment. We've all been there or are there or will be there. We don't live in the age of the all-caring parent company that employs one for life. (Unless you work in government. But wait! Even non-partisan government jobs can be terminated over the television these days. Nothing is safe.) Did that age really ever exist? Maybe for some of our parents, but overwhelmingly, we all have to hustle at certain points in our lives.
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