Columns

Elegy For A Dead World: The Poetry Game

April 9th, 2015

A video game about writing? Sounds awful. If that doesn’t give you an idea about my stellar attitude going into a playthrough of Elegy For A Dead World, let’s talk a little history. Before today, there were only two video games I played that could possibly be categorized as writing-related.

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5 Reasons Why We Love Lannisters (and Other Morally Gray Characters)

April 3rd, 2015

***SPOILER WARNING: This entire article will contain spoilers for the Game of Thrones TV show up through season four and the books up through the early portions of A Feast for Crows. If you're caught up, read on. Otherwise, get to binge-watching and binge-reading! I heartily recommend both.***

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What Writers Can Learn from Gardening

April 2nd, 2015

Most writers have an alternate means (or six) of making a living to support their literary ambitions. One of mine happens to be as co-manager of a small gardening and landscaping company. Like any job, it comes with its share of pain. The lack of air conditioning or electric heat can make for some unpleasant days out in the elements, but I’ve spent enough time digging in the dirt to notice a few unexpected perks as well. Although he wasn’t speaking of the physical act of gardening, George R.R.

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Leonard Nimoy: The Literary Life

April 2nd, 2015

We know him as an actor, primarily for the role of Spock on the original Star Trek television show, as well as the long-running series of feature films. If you're a science fiction fan, then you're probably familiar with his work in the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the canceled-too-early Fox series Fringe. But Leonard Nimoy, who passed away this past February from pulmonary disease, was also a prolific author and a promoter of literacy and the bookish arts.

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How To Do AWP 2015

April 1st, 2015

Another year, another AWP conference—this one taking place April 8th thru the 11th at the Minneapolis Convention Center & Hilton Minneapolis Hotel. If you’ve attended AWP before then you already know what to expect. For those of you that haven’t, let this be your beginner’s guide. You can almost think of it like ComicCon, except for publishing-centric folk. AWP touts over 2,000 presenters, and their book fair plays host to over 700 presses, journals, and literary organizations.

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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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