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'City of Rose' Book Tour Diary: Seattle
February 22nd, 2016
My second day in Seattle, I went to a laundromat because I am bad at packing and was out of clean socks and would soon be out of other forms of clothing. After that I got a really awesome burrito at Rancho Bravo and found a few copies of my books at Elliott Bay Book Company—which was pretty awesome—and signed their stock. Then I got some ice cream at Molly Moon’s, because I am a sucker for fancypants ice cream.
Read Column →LURID: Fear The Preacher — In Fiction and Beyond
February 22nd, 2016
LURID: vivid in shocking detail; sensational, horrible in savagery or violence, or, a guide to the merits of the kind of Bad Books you never want your co-workers to know you're reading.
Read Column →The Architecture of Fantasy: How Authors Use Real Places To Build Imaginary Ones
February 19th, 2016
Last month, J.K. Rowling announced that the North American school for witchcraft and wizardry is named Ilvermorny. It's apparently one of 11 major wizarding schools across the globe, with others located in Brazil, Japan, and Africa.
Read Column →Kindling Love: 9 of the Strangest Erotic Stories on Kindle
February 19th, 2016
Love takes a lot of different forms. There’s the love between a man and a woman, as exemplified by Adam and Eve. There’s love between two men, as exemplified by this Adam and Steve couple I’ve heard so much about lately. There’s love between women, Eve and Evie (they both used to go by “Eve”, but it’s too weird to date someone with the exact same name, so Evie made the switch). There’s love between like eight dudes named Chris, Jim, uh, Alvin, Simon, Theodore, Chip, Dale, and probably some other guy that was less memorable.
Read Column →6 Coloring Books You Won’t Be Sharing With the Kids
February 18th, 2016
Coloring—it's not just for kids any more! You no longer need to raid the kid’s stash if you’re looking to unwind with a little art therapy. From crafty pages celebrating all things literary, to ones dedicated to creative swearing, adult coloring books are all the rage. Get your crayon on with these six adult coloring books.
Read Column →'City of Rose' Book Tour Diary: Portland
February 18th, 2016
Sitting in my hotel room in Portland on Monday, waiting to leave for my signing at Powell’s, I was a bundle of nerves. I always get like that before any book or reading event. Light-headed and pukey. This was worse than usual: It was my first solo event outside New York City. It was at a bookstore chain that I’ve loved for a very long time. And Chuck Palahniuk was going to be there.
Read Column →5 Lessons the Short Fiction of Jorge Luis Borges Can Teach Writers
February 17th, 2016
Every fan of the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges remembers when they discovered his work. William Gibson describes it this way: I…remember the sensation, both complex and eerily simple, induced by my first reading of "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius".…
Read Column →6 Mainstream Comic Book Characters as Written by Non-Comic Book Authors
February 16th, 2016
There’s a reason why Will Eisner championed the terms “graphic novel” and “sequential art” as replacements for comic book: they are by their very natural a visual medium. That, and he was hoping to achieve a degree of respectability. That comes, for better or for worse, when mainstream comic books jump to the big screen, gaining validity in the eyes of some. But while the cinema allows for a fluid translation considering comic books function like storyboards, there have been other attempts over the years at transitioning into more virtuous channels.
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