Columns

Let's Talk Literature: 6 Books That Are Great Conversation Starters

August 25th, 2014

I was seventeen and reading The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson at a café near my New Jersey home, expecting a quiet afternoon to myself. Instead, I was interrupted mid-chapter. A fellow leaned over and asked me how I liked the book so far. We began talking about it, and pretty soon we were talking about other books we liked, films we liked, and soon, just about our lives in general. I didn’t finish the book that day as I had planned, but I did engage in a really surprising, delightful conversation.

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On Tom Cruise and Time Travel Stories

August 22nd, 2014

Thing is, this is all Tom Cruise’s fault. His last two movies were science fiction and so I kinda had to see them. To be fair, I saw Edge of Tomorrow first. Based on the Japanese light novel, All You Need is Kill, the movie took the central conceit of Groundhog Day (the endless time loop) and grafted it onto the backdrop of Starship Troopers. It was good — funny, smart, entertaining. 

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What Ever Happened To The Oscar-Nominated Horror Film?

August 22nd, 2014

Let me get this column started by stating I don't actually put much stock into the Academy Awards as a true barometer of cinematic quality, at least in terms of the big winners every year. More often than not, the "losers" of the evening are far better than the winners. But it is an honor to be acknowledged for your efforts, no matter who's doing the acknowledging, and the Oscars continue to be a big deal.

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So You Want to Write A Book: Part 0 — Ready, Set, Don't Go Yet

August 21st, 2014

So, you want to write a book, eh? Did I hear that right? I bet I did. After all, you did click the link to this article.

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5 More Quick, Easy Ways to Promote Yourself in Your Underwear

August 20th, 2014

In June, we talked about some Tips, Tricks and Tweaks you can use to promote yourself on the interweb.The title's been changed from promoting a book to promoting yourself, because all writers, and even that sub-species of writers—people—can use the methods listed below to help establish a solid web presence. This includes everything from announcing your latest blog posts and upcoming events to networking with other movers and shakers in the field.

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How Technology Affects the Way We Write

August 20th, 2014

Photo: Original manuscript for Dickens' Tale of Two Cities, typewritten manuscript for Ellison' s The Invisible Man and the foreward to A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition by Ernest Hemingway [Scribner] Technology has done a lot for us, from improving the way we live to lengthening our lives to making communication across the world instantaneous. Every moment of our day is affected by developments from the last few hundred years.

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Punctuation Pairs: How To Combine Punctuation

August 19th, 2014

As if the rules of punctuation weren’t confusing enough, what do you do when you have more than one punctuation mark to contend with? Though our proverbial stodgy old English professors might beg to differ, the rules of punctuation are flexible. They depend mostly on context and intended meaning. This is especially true when combining punctuation marks. This article will cover some of the more common punctuation pairs and how to use them.

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The Machine With a Soul: Typewriters In the Past, Present, and Future

August 18th, 2014

“There was a young man who came into the shop,” one of the associates at an antique store in Gloucester recalls. Afternoon light from across the harbor falls on rows of tweed coats, polished wing tip shoes, and an Underwood or two. In the best possible way, it looks like where Daniel Radcliffe found his clothes for Kill Your Darlings. “He was just out of the Coast Guard, and he was a little...lost. He only knew he wanted to do something that involved writing.”

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Reconsidering 'True Detective'

August 18th, 2014

This article's very existence is a testament to the argument that originality doesn't necessarily count for much.

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Prose & Conversation: Death of the Short Story

August 15th, 2014

Over the months of running Bookshots, I’ve gotten a feeling for the kind of books that the LitReactor reviewers enjoy. Everyone has their preferences and that’s fine by me, but I was a little startled to discover that Brian McGackin, poet and LitReactor columnist, would not touch a short story collection with a ten-foot greased bargepole.

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