Columns

The Footprint of Eraserhead Press

July 19th, 2022

Original image via Valeria Boltneva Young Rose O’Keefe remembers riding in a carpool with five of her kindergarten friends. The other children had already learned how to read, and their power to decipher signs and billboards amazed her. She became jealous of their ability, and memorized the signs so she could play along, but this wasn’t reading. She would look at the pictures in the Dick and Jane books during recess, still unable to understand the words.

Read Column →

7 Great Nonfiction Books Written by Women

July 15th, 2022

Last month, author Elizabeth Day shared a list of the top 10 bestselling paperback nonfiction titles in the UK on Twitter, noting that it was entirely male. The discussion that followed (all perfectly civil, so don’t get excited for drama) was fairly typical for Twitter, in that no definitive conclusion was reached.

Read Column →

How This Pantser Became a Plotter — For Now

July 13th, 2022

Original image by M. Burrows I was so proud of my pantser self. I used to look at all the plotters around me and scoff — they weren’t as cool as I am, with my winging it and my 17 revisions of one book because I didn’t figure out the narrative until draft eight. I thought that was the way to write a book; because it was mine, and I loved it. And then I started grad school.

Read Column →

Here’s to Alcohol: A Ranking of Literary Cocktails

July 8th, 2022

Header image via Pixabay Literary cocktail books have mutated into their own subgenre, or so it seems. At some point in the haze of past birthdays, I was gifted a copy of Tequila Mockingbird by Tim Federle. Before this article, I had not made one drink from it in about five years. Not out of any animosity towards Mr. Federle, you understand. It's just that the last time I tried to make a cocktail, I sliced the top of my left thumb off while cutting a blood orange and the emergency room attendants kept trying to make the injury into a pun.

Read Column →

Where Is The Guy Fieri Of Books?

July 7th, 2022

Guy Fieri wasn’t my favorite person on Earth, and then he dumped a garbage can full of nachos out onto a table on a morning show, and…I had to recalibrate. I like food a lot. But I’m not particular. Or maybe the better word is “fussy.” I’m not fussy about the kind of food I like.  With food, there’s a place for fancy schmancy, and there’s a place for the churro, the hot dog, whatever fever dream flavor can be (just barely) legally put into a Doritos bag.

Read Column →

Unrealistic Word Count Goals Are Like Yo-Yo Diets

July 6th, 2022

I’ve discovered a writing secret: word count goals can be unhealthy.  At least for me. There’s this idea I used to find myself tied to. I must write X number of words every single day. It was like a yo-yo diet. I’d think: I didn’t make my word count goal yesterday, so today I’ve got to catch up. Too many calories the other day means too few today. It’s a cycle of artistic binging and starvation. Would you write more if you didn’t have the guilt? The answer for me is yes. I do.

Read Column →

On Hermann Hesse and "The Glass Bead Game"

July 1st, 2022

Author photo via Wikipedia Hermann Hesse, born July 2, 1877, might be best known today as that European author who wrote a lot about Buddhism. And that’s true. His most famous novel, Siddhartha, is about the search for enlightenment set in the time of the Buddha, and has been widely read by anyone in the west who’s curious about eastern religions. 

Read Column →

LURID: True Hollywood Stories

June 29th, 2022

Hollywood loves silvery stories about itself, carefully scripted rags-to-riches sagas about the birth of stars, or fables about the triumph of artists over accountants. These stories provide a steady supply of the fresh meat the industry needs, enticing innocents out of the beanfields and boondocks and onto a Los Angeles bound bus.The newcomers are only vaguely aware that while a celebrated few might swim, most will sink without trace. And drowning is never easy.

Read Column →

12 YA Novels I Can't Wait For: July-Dec 2022

June 24th, 2022

Well, we’re officially (almost) halfway through 2022! That feels like a lie, but time is fake, and who am I to quibble with the calendar? Regardless, this is a milestone worth celebrating, because it means it’s finally time for me to make a list of 12 YA novels I’m highly anticipating in the second half of the year! Without further ado, let’s dive on in.

Read Column →

The Bookish Hugeness Of Fall 2022

June 23rd, 2022

Summer sucks for readers. And I don’t care what you all say, summer sucks, in general. It’s hot, everyone smells. It turns out that powdering your crotch to keep the sweat at bay kills you, and yet, some days, given the choice between whiffing the odor when I take my pants off or being dead, the grave doesn’t sound so bad. At least it’s cool under the dirt. The best thing about the summer is that it ends. And with summer’s end, especially THIS summer’s end, comes some truly huge book releases.

Read Column →