Columns

5 Lessons On How To Avoid Getting Fucked By A Publisher

September 7th, 2022

What I want to do here is explain how my new collection, Everything Will Be All Right In The End: Apocalypse Songs, was accepted at one house, only for me to walk away from the contract and wind up at Cemetery Gates Media, who published the book on September 6, 2022.   

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Turning My Sons into Readers

September 2nd, 2022

I quit teaching back in early 2013 to pursue the more noble profession of writing dirty zombie stories. I had taught every academic subject at one point or another, including reading to fourth and fifth graders, as well as English and literature to middle school kids.

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The Penguin Merger: Court Is Now In Session

September 1st, 2022

If you’re anything like me, you heard about Penguin Random House buying Simon & Schuster for a million billion dollars, shrugged, and went back to deciding whether your book sales for the entire last quarter could buy you one of those stupid margaritas with a beer upside down in it.

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5 Must-Read Frankenstein Retellings

August 26th, 2022

Header image by Andy Mabbett Mary Shelley, nee Wollstonecraft Godwin, was born on August 30, 1797. When she was nineteen, she had a dream about a hideous man, stretched out and brought to life, that sparked a story that changed literature. Now, over two hundred years later, Frankenstein is so embedded in our modern psyche, that even people who haven’t read the novel know the general premise and recognize the creature that walks amongst its pages.

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Storyville: Hate From Love—Complex Emotions in Characterization

August 25th, 2022

Here’s something you may not have thought about before. In order to hate, you must first love. If you want to write complex characters, then you need to have a range of emotions on display. And when I think back to my own personal belief system, my “religion”—it’s based on kindness, honesty, and respect. Out of THAT comes love. And the only way to truly get to hatred is to care about something, to love it first. You must build it up before you tear it down. Let’s explore this concept a bit, in greater detail.

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What I Learned at Residency — How to Believe In Myself Again

August 23rd, 2022

In July, I trekked up north to Montpelier, Vermont, where I spent 10 days on the campus of the Vermont College of Fine Arts for their Writing for Children and Young Adults residency. It was my second residency, but the first I attended in-person, and something about those 10 days lit up a spark in my soul I didn’t realize I still had. There are so many things I loved about this residency that I’m almost at a loss for where to start talking about it! Almost, but not quite.

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How Creatives Can Get Along With Business Types

August 22nd, 2022

When you write for you, you can write whatever the fuck you want, however the fuck you want, and whenever the fuck you want. When you publish, or when you apply to an MFA program, you apply for a residency, or you take on a writing gig for hire, or you work to adapt a book for the screen—with all that stuff, you have to do your thing, and you have to get along with business types while you do it. It doesn’t have to be a horrible, painful experience, though. It can be rewarding, and it can work out to everyone’s benefit.

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10 Authors You Should Be Reading Right Now

August 18th, 2022

Here are ten authors you should be reading right now. (I’ll link to stories when I can.) I could have made a list of 100, but these are ten that have stayed with me and influenced my writing, and continue to hold my attention story after story, novel after novel, year after year. Who would you add to the list?

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A Nonfiction Roundup Both Wondrous and Beautiful

August 17th, 2022

Look, I have things to say about my experience consuming four nonfiction books this last month: The Great Indoorsman by Andrew Farkas, Dear Damage by Ashley Marie Farmer, XO by Sara Rauch and Dream Pop Origami by Jackson Bliss. And I will start by saying this:

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Story Development for Pantsers

August 16th, 2022

Original image by Hamed darzi via Unsplash You’re either a pantser or a plotter. You have to pick one, according to the conventional wisdom of modern writing. The term "pantser" comes from the idea of “flying by the seat of your pants.” It describes a writer who starts with minimal story or character detail—no formal outline, nothing written down—who just makes things up as they go. A plotter is the opposite.

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