Columns

Gotcha! Six Epic Pranks Found in Literature

April 1st, 2015

April Fool’s Day: The one time of year when whoopee cushions and shocking buzzers become acceptable. The celebration is known in many countries for its pranks, practical jokes, and hoaxes. Personally I try to stay indoors come this holiday for fear I might become an April Fool myself. That said, there are plenty of other places I can go to fulfill my need for tomfoolery—one of them being within the pages of a book.

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UPDATED WITH WINNERS: LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown: March Edition

March 31st, 2015

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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Why The F*ck Aren't You Reading Eric Beetner?

March 31st, 2015

Image via Vince Keenan When I first started publishing stories almost ten years ago (Yeah, fuck, it’s almost been a decade. Time sure flies.) it was a pretty exciting time to be part of the crime fiction community. Not that it still isn’t, but you know how it is when you’re new to something. Everything seems like there’s so much potential to be had, and to be blunt, ten years ago it really felt that way.

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Giving Up the Ghost: How to Bury Dead Writing

March 27th, 2015

Way back in 2008, author Mary Patrick Kavanaugh came to a horrible realization. Her novel, which she had loved dearly and nourished through good times and bad, was dead. Whether it passed away quietly in its sleep or went Thelma and Louise style over a cliff, I’m not sure. But what happened next is of particular interest. Instead of fighting nature, Kavanaugh accepted what happened as a necessary part of life and held a lovely funeral service.

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8 Undateable Male Characters

March 27th, 2015

We know that quite often the fantasy is better than the reality in most things. When it comes to stories, the ones that enthrall me follow characters that I could read about constantly, but would not necessarily want in my life. Some characters skip over intriguing and exciting and fall right into the category of "absolutely not" for dating material. A real life version of any of them would be a waking nightmare!

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LURID: My Man Ludwig Van - The Tortured Genius of Beethoven

March 26th, 2015

"Beethoven" by Joseph Karl Stieler What I shit is better than anything you have ever thought — Ludwig Van Beethoven

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LitReactor Community Spotlight: March 2015

March 25th, 2015

March has been a big month in the world of literary news. We mourned the loss of Sir Terry Pratchett, welcomed the announcement of a new Gaiman baby (slightly NSFW, because Amanda Palmer), and got another kinda-sorta announcement that the famously slow-cooking George R.R.

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In Defense Of Indie (It's Not What You Think)

March 25th, 2015

I’m going to use one of those sly literary tricks that I always find just a tad bit annoying in stories and novels: I’m going to start this column at the end and then go back to the beginning. Because, hey, why not. So here we go: The question I think we need to ask ourselves as writers is this: Does indie publishing really need to be defended? Short answer: No, not really. Now for the long answer:

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Product Review: 80 Days

March 24th, 2015

Have you ever read a classic novel and wished you could actively control the narrative's direction like a Choose Your Own Adventure book? The creative minds at inkle, a mobile gaming and software company, must have felt this desire, because they've created a game that gives you control over a hallmark work of science fiction: Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days.

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Girls on Film: Marvel vs. DC

March 23rd, 2015

It’s tough being a female superhero. You catch bad guys and save lives just as well—if not better—than your male peers, and you’re expected do it all while wearing heels and trying not to pop out of your ludicrously scant costume every time you throw a punch. Regardless of how much good you do, you still get marginalized by society in the exact same way as your non-powered, but no less heroic, sisters.

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