Columns

Anatomy of an Action Scene: The Advantages of Present Tense

February 4th, 2016

Action is hard to write. What works so well on the screen, with the full visceral impact of celluloid, can appear rote and stagnant on the page. Imagine a sword fight in prose. Do you describe every parry and thrust? And if so, at what point does it devolve into the equivalent of a VCR user manual? One sure-fire way to inject adrenaline into your words is to write in the present tense. This is a method that is rare in the literary world, as it’s offputting in its immediacy and begs the question: if this is happening right now then how is the story being told?

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Making A Murderer: How Good Storytelling Made It So Damn Compelling

February 3rd, 2016

If you haven't seen Making A Murderer yet, I'm sorry. This must be a confusing and annoying time to be online. If you have, then you know it's a wild tale, or maybe even a wild tale INSIDE OF a wilder tale, all inside another wild tale. It's a Russian nesting doll of wild tales, but instead of a tiny little doll in the center, there's a white hot ball of outrage. What is it about this story? Why has this, amongst so many others, caught so much attention? Why have so many of us stayed up so late to see its end?

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LitReactor Community Spotlight: February 2016

February 2nd, 2016

Have you visited the Writer's Workshop lately? It had been a while for me. As I've mentioned before, LitReactor is a pretty cosmopolitan place, as far as level of experience goes. While we have some real heavyweights hanging around, we also have people like me who, I admit, have not yet been published.

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One Month of Reading Stephen Graham Jones: A Primer

February 1st, 2016

Author photo via University of Colorado, Boulder Usually in ‘One Month of Reading…’ I’ll provide you with a rundown of who the author is and highlight the books I’ve read in the preceding month. This month I’m mixing things up as I turn my attention to Stephen Graham Jones, an author whose story The Elvis Room I was fortunate enough to publish back in March, 2014. As part of this column I spoke with Stephen to glean further insight into his work.

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UPDATED WITH WINNER - LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown: Maps Edition

January 29th, 2016

Flash fiction: A style of fictional literature marked by extreme brevity Welcome to LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown, a monthly bout of writing prowess. How It Works We give you inspiration in the form of a picture, poem, video, or prompt. You write a flash fiction piece using the inspiration we gave you. Put your entry in the comments section. One winner will be picked and awarded a prize.

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Five Literary Sex Scenes You Wish You'd Written

January 29th, 2016

My professional writing career began as a book reviewer for Time Warner Publications. To qualify for the job I had to review a pot boiler about sleeping your way to the top in Hollywood. I know, right? It had lines like, “Please Tom. I can’t wait any more,” and “His swollen thickness was drawing pleasures out of her she had never imagined existed.” Every sex scene was more or less the same, a kind of caricature of itself. Cue “swollen thickness.” I, um, had a ball with the review and it got me the job and it made me think about sex scenes.

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The Best Book Covers of 2015

January 28th, 2016

It was a good year for books. Let's take a look at what I consider the best, most original book covers of 2015.  This is most definitely a subjective selection, but I tried to pick books that represent different styles, genres, publishers and artists/designers. Props to Lazy Fascist Press for pushing the envelope, Matthew Revert who I had to limit to one entry, and that really great The Visible Filth cover. It was a close call for #1. And probably #2. Here goes.

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Screw Your Resolution: 10 Dystopian Beauty Narratives

January 28th, 2016

The winter months following the holiday season are a time for stoic contemplation and self-improvement for many. Eat more salad, develop a regular workout routine, drop five pounds; these are common resolutions made by thousands every January first. But why do we make these same resolutions, year after year? Whether fully dystopian or just disillusioned, these books will give you the perfect excuse to cancel that gym membership you'll only use for a month anyway.  

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Patton Oswalt's Night Café, 'The Great Gatsby' and How Guided Reading Can Reinvigorate a Classic

January 27th, 2016

Not all love is at first sight. Sometimes it takes a little bit of convincing to blossom. That can be said of the love between people, as well as the love of art.

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Three Books About... Beginnings

January 26th, 2016

January is the month for beginnings; a time for ignoring the obvious fact that nothing much ever changes and forging regardless into a new year, full of optimism. We start life full of optimism too — unblemished by experience or disappointment. This might be why so many writers eventually turn to memoir. The beginning of life represents the foundation on which we are built and the subject of we proves irresistible to most of us, writers not excluded. Some writers turn to the subject of their beginnings as a postscript to an otherwise successful career in fiction.

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