Columns

Writing the Crime Scene: Arson

January 25th, 2017

Imagine your detective racing to stop a pyromaniac from terrorizing the city with a series of deadly infernos during a heatwave. Or a fire investigator struggling to prove an 'accidental' condominium fire was actually torched to cover-up a triple homicide. Pyromania is one of the three behavioural characteristics in the McDonald Triad for sociopaths and serial killers. Yet arson remains an underrated and underused method of murder in crime novels.

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6 Unorthodox Fundraisers For Your Self-Publishing Venture

January 24th, 2017

You need money for your self-publishing project. You need it bad. I know what you're thinking. Isn't that what Kickstarter is for? Yeah, maybe. But it's also for people who are raising money to build a $50,000 potato salad.

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Why People Shouldn't Fear Academic Essay Collections

January 24th, 2017

Whether covering great moments in Greek architecture or the films of Tim Burton, academic essay collections tend to be released in slim paperbacks and consumed by a niche audience. That audience probably includes the authors’ peers and the college students that are either assigned readings or seek them out as sources for their writing. But it could be so much more.

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9 Gothic Novels Less than 40 Years Old

January 23rd, 2017

When people think of the gothic novel, they think old. (Here’s a great starter list by LitReactor’s Meredith Borders of some of the gothic classics.) It’s a genre born of and steeped in tradition, but that doesn’t mean it’s dead. There are plenty of excellent contemporary gothic novels – some of the old tradition and some modernized, but all fantastically atmospheric and juicy.

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Top Ten Novels about Cold Weather

January 20th, 2017

Okay, so maybe the title of his article is a tad clickbaity. These novels are not necessarily about the weather, but weather plays a major role in them. If you care about writing, you've probably read Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing. The first one? "Never open a book with weather." That being said, we all know rules are made to be broken. Weather can be a crucial part of your setting or even the main element of it. It can also affect plot and characters in many ways.

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7 Highly Anticipated Book Adaptations of 2017

January 20th, 2017

There are many book adaptations coming out this year, and not all of them look very good. Here are seven that I will definitely check out.

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The 2017 One Story Per Week Writing Challenge

January 19th, 2017

Image It started in September whilst I was conducting an interview with Jessica McHugh on the This Is Horror Podcast. Jessica told me of her own one story per week challenge back in 2014, an idea that was spawned by a Ray Bradbury quote:

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Elizabeth Bennet: The Original Manic Pixie Dream Girl?

January 19th, 2017

Oh, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Hollywood's go-to female character. Some would argue it's time for the phrase to go away (and in fact, the man who coined the term has argued exactly that). That it's a tired old trope of tired modern films, and we'd do well to move as far away from it as possible.

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Tech and Product Round-up: Janurary Edition

January 18th, 2017

Welcome all to the first Tech Round-Up of 2017. This month, it's beginning to feel a lot like the future, with self-driven cars and even air taxis on the horizon. But while car and tech companies drive us further into The Fifth Element or Back to the Future Part II territory, one handy browser extension bolsters a service from the "past," making it easier to locate the books you want to read at your local library. Finally, another company merges past and present with a paper notebook digitization service that just might actually work.

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Dystropia: A Family Moves Into THEIR WORST NIGHTMARE!!!

January 17th, 2017

Somewhere situated between Easter Island and Papua New Guinea, perfectly pinned on a straight line between the Great Pyramid and the Nazca Lines lies the Isle of Dystropia, the place where every cliché and worn-out convention sticks out like rubble in the sand. Pawing through the debris, you'll find the trope that may just make or break your story. Each installment, we'll explore a different literary platitude, examining it for its various strengths and weaknesses. Set sail for Dystropia, where you might just learn something about your writing and yourself.

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