Columns

Fiction Shmiction: The Complex Question of Writing as Activism

September 29th, 2015

Over a year ago, I explored a topic that is central to the way I think about stories and the role of writers. In short, I believe that stories create the world we live in by shaping the beliefs and assumptions we hold about the "way things work," and that this in turn changes our behavior in dramatic ways.

Read Column →

12 Productive Ways to be Unproductive

September 28th, 2015

At a bookstore event several years ago, I briefly met Norton Juster, author of The Phantom Tollbooth. He read some of his work aloud, then took questions from the audience. When asked how he made time to write the book, he replied that he didn't. The entire thing, he told us, had been part of an elaborate attempt to procrastinate on completing work assigned to him by his day job. Ever since hearing that, I've had a soft spot for procrastination.

Read Column →

Ten Movie/TV Tie-In Cookbooks

September 25th, 2015

Movies and TV shows often have all manner of merchandise attached to their "brand," from toys, games and costumes to posters, novelizations, and tie-in novels (including graphic novel adaptations). But perhaps one of the more esoteric and sometimes strange merch categories is the tie-in cookbook, which appears far more often than you might think, and for properties you might not expect (Portlandia, anyone?).

Read Column →

5 Old School Writing Rules That Need To Retire

September 25th, 2015

I think the title (and header image) says it all, so let's get right to it.

Read Column →

5 Things 'The Martian' Film Needs to Live Up to the Book

September 25th, 2015

On October 2,  Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Andy Weir’s The Martian will hit the big screen. The book was wildly successful, but will the movie follow suit? It depends in large part on how the movie chooses to adapt the source material. As a sort of scorecard, I present the following list of things the movie will need to truly do the book justice.

Read Column →

7 YA Novels Featuring Lesbian and Bisexual Girls

September 24th, 2015

Although the number of young adult novels featuring LGBT characters has risen overall, lesbians and bisexual women continue to be marginalized and erased in the media. Luckily, the times are changing, and with increased exposure and reader’s desire to see themselves in the pages of the books they read, there are more and more young adult novels that explore the lesbian and bisexual experience. Here are seven unique YA novels that feature a lesbian or bisexual woman as the protagonist.

Read Column →

5 Explosive Gothic Bonfires

September 24th, 2015

I’ve been noticing a trend in my favorite gothic tales— there are a lot of house fires. Is there an underlying reason for this theme, or do old mansions just make really good tinder for marshmallow roasting?

Read Column →

How To Scare Your Reader: 11 Tips From 11 Horror Writers

September 23rd, 2015

How do you scare your reader? Perhaps the ultimate question for the horror writer, and a question that has intrigued me for a long time. The dictionary definition of ‘scare’ is [to] ‘cause great fear or nervousness’. Fear is an evolutionary survival tactic that originates from our fight or flight response. Fear induces a biochemical physical reaction that can include sweating, heart palpitations, and a surge of adrenaline.

Read Column →

Patton Oswalt's Night Café and the Script that Changed Joss Whedon Forever

September 23rd, 2015

In Patton Oswalt's 2015 memoir Silver Screen Fiend, the stand-up comedian and actor describes a movie addiction that lasted from May 1995 to May 1999. He uses this framing device to explore other tangents of his life, and then weaves them together in a deconstruction of the purpose of art and its role. This is brought to life with a treatise on Vincent van Gogh and The Night Café, something he gives great symbolic meaning to and then applies to his own life.

Read Column →

Scandinavian Crime Fiction Primer: Sweden

September 22nd, 2015

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. There, we got it out of the way. Scandinavian crime fiction: What else is there? Well, there's plenty, but which ones should you read? Beside Stieg Larsson, you're probably looking at Henning Mankell, Håkan Nesser, Camilla Lackberg and Liza Marklund. I'm not a fan of the last two, so I won't talk about them here, but you can always check them out on Amazon. But let's talk about what I do like.

Read Column →