Columns

Hot Summer Reading: 7 Climate Fiction Titles for a Warming World

May 27th, 2016

Summer reading lists tend to figure heavily on formulaic thrillers and "breezy beach reads." But there's no need to turn off your brain when you bake beneath the sun in the months to come—slathered, presumably, in high-SPF sunscreen, which itself may or may not give you cancer.   In fact, as the mercury hits its latest all-time high, hurricane season rocks the Atlantic seaboard, and wildfire darkens the skies out West, you may find that during the dog days of Late Capitalism, only a fine work of climate fiction will do. 

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6 Game Development Lessons For Writers

May 26th, 2016

When I read Spelunky by Derek Yu, the book about Yu's development of the game by the same name, I expected to be entertained, elated, and maybe a little lost at times. After all, I'm not a video game programmer. I tried to program Tetris into a calculator in junior high, and those wasted hours and pages of printed code represent the extent of my programming knowledge. What I didn't expect was that the book would have so much good advice for writers. 

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5 Writing Sheds That You'll Want To Build For Yourself

May 26th, 2016

Have you ever wanted a writing space that was completely your own, segmented away from all others parts of your life? Maybe it would be purposefully disconnected from any Internet service, or far enough away from your normal stressors that they could begin to feel distant. These authors created exactly that; a small, private hut or cabin that reflected both their words and personalities in a physical space.  

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Modifier Makeovers: Go From Basic to Belle-of-The-Ball with These Simple Tricks

May 25th, 2016

Modifiers are the accessories of writing: they serve to enhance your basic sentence. Just as your basic outfit should include—at minimum—pants and a shirt, your basic sentence must include a clear subject and verb.

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Book vs. Film: 'Psycho'

May 25th, 2016

In the world of adaptations, there are rigorously faithful screen versions of novels (Rosemary's Baby, though one integral scene from Ira Levin's book was cut) and then there are films that depart so radically from the source material, they're adaptations in name only (World War Z).

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Fast Draft Hell: 7 Lessons I Learned (Almost) Writing a Novel in 14 Days

May 24th, 2016

Early on this year I was perusing the Internet for possible writing workshops that might kick my butt into gear, and I stumbled upon a gem taught by editor and author extraordinaire Candace Havens. The class is called The Book in a Month Club, and it promises to help writers write a book in fourteen days, followed by two weeks of revisions. 20 pages a day for 14 days. Quick revisions. Bam. A finished book. In a month. Where do I sign up?

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Gerard Way, 'The Children's Crusade' and the Death Rattle of Vertigo Comics

May 24th, 2016

DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint was once the shining jewel of mainstream comic books. Launched in 1993, it was presupposed by Alan Moore’s dark and complex Saga of the Swamp Thing in 1984, and that continued with the “British Invasion” of Jamie Delano’s Hellblazer, Grant Morrison’s Animal Man, and especially Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. Today these comics are canonical examples of comics growing up.

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CLIFFHANGERS: How 'Game of Thrones' Got It Right and 'The Walking Dead' Didn’t

May 23rd, 2016

BEWARE OF SPOILERS (Obviously)

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Exploring The Pomodoro Technique and Timers to Improve Productivity and Write More

May 23rd, 2016

I’m a productivity junkie. For a long-time now I’ve been obsessed with squeezing the most out of the day and optimising the way I work. In a world full of distractions and technology maintaining focus can be difficult, but for many of us it’s absolutely necessary. I’m a writer, editor, podcaster, publisher and teacher. Without a system in place for getting the work done I’d crumble—losing my job and whatever dignity I still have.

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12 Superman Stories You And Zack Snyder Should Read

May 20th, 2016

I saw Man Of Steel. I saw Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice. I've seen what Zack Snyder has made of Superman. The fanboy side of me was frustrated. And when I say fanboy, I don't mean that to evoke a guy screaming into his computer in all caps about how this or that character would never do this or that thing. I mean a fanboy who collected action figures deep into his teens. And by "collected," I mean played with.

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