Columns

5 Grammar Rules That Make No Effing Sense

July 30th, 2015

I love grammar. I love rules. I like to debate punctuation with total strangers and inanimate objects. But that doesn't mean I agree with all the grammar rules that are out there. I have been teaching a grammar class for 3 years now, and one of the most common complaints I get is that the rules people have learned have no context or are based on antiquated practices.

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The GRE Literature Subject Test: What You Need to Know

July 29th, 2015

You’ve decided to go to graduate school for English, welcome to the club!  Unfortunately, the GRE general test is required in order to apply to the vast majority of English departments in the United States, and the Literature in English test is required by 41.5% of those departments. But why do departments require the subject test? What’s on the exam? How do you study for a test like that? Well, I’m currently studying for said dreaded exam and I am here to help, or at least illuminate a bit.

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Why The F*ck Aren’t You Reading Pascal Garnier?

July 28th, 2015

Image via the Guardian Why The F*ck Aren't You Reading? is a feature where the columnist spotlights a writer who has a dedicated following and is well known within the writing community, but hasn't achieved the elephant-in-the-room style success of a Stephen King or Gillian Flynn—But they deserve to, dammit! Hopefully the column will help gain the author featured a few more well deserved readers. The French know noir.

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Six of the Best Alternate Universes in Comics

July 28th, 2015

Comic books have long been on the bleeding edge of science, no doubt because they can make things up without the need for all those pesky facts and evidence. One of the most popular concepts, which is being adopted by more mainstream fictions with increasing frequency, is the idea that our universe is merely one destination in a vast multiverse of endless possibilities.

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Horror and Comedy: Unlikely Bedfellows

July 27th, 2015

Horror and comedy have been unlikely bedfellows ever since we started telling stories. Take Shakespeare and the way he carefully juxtaposes the comic and tragic throughout his plays. Of course, with the exception of erotica (and that’s a post for another day), horror and comedy are the only two genres that demand a physical reaction from the reader. And there’s a thin line between generating a laugh and fear, hence the old adage “if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry”. In horror comedy the modus operandi is to elicit both.

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How Not to Get Sued When Writing about Real People

July 27th, 2015

Let’s say your childhood friend has become a blazingly successful drug dealer who specializes in crystal meth. Let’s say he made a dumb business decision — he ripped off Randolph “Sweet Randy” Hobermeister, his supplier. Let’s say that Sweet Randy wasn’t pleased. No, he was not pleased at all. And let’s say that your friend (we’ll call him Ed) came to you for help, and you provided the help — letting Ed hide out at your place for a month while he sorted out his difficulties with Sweet Randy.

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Can Good Writing Save Spider-Man?

July 24th, 2015

Hey web-heads. Smilin’ Stan here. Okay, not really. I’m Pete. But I really care about Spider-Man. To the point that I’ve ALWAYS wanted to write a comic, put an asterisk next to a word balloon, and then write something down below like, “See ish #3314 for the first appearance of the Outer Space Wolf From Outer Space –Smilin’ Stan.” That’s a dream of mine. Let’s just establish that you’re dealing with that kind of arach-nerd here.

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10 Books About Revolution

July 24th, 2015

July is a month loaded down with historical revolutions and declarations of independence. There's the big, obvious American one, of course—a holiday known as the Fourth of July. Venezuela also expatriated themselves from Spain one day and thirty-five years later. We had the Young Turk Revolution of July, 1908. The Spanish Civil War began in July of 1936. Fidel Castro and his men attacked army barracks in Santiago on July 26th, 1953, an act that, while a failure at the time, eventually led to the Cuban Revolution and Castro's seizing of power.

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The Art of the Pitch and Synopsis

July 23rd, 2015

Every author I've met hates writing the elevator pitch. They hate the synopsis they have to write for their novel even more. There's something soul sucking about condensing the entirety of your book into a couple of sentences, or a page's worth litany of events. It's like pulling teeth. But you have to do it. So let's get to it.

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6 Women Who Punched the Prize Gap in the Face

July 22nd, 2015

Literary prizes have always been messy affairs. Kurt Vonnegut liked to blame his failure to win a Nobel Prize on his poor performance as a Saab salesman. “Swedes have short dicks but long memories,” he quoted mournfully from an old Norwegian proverb.

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