Columns

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 →

Things I Never Want To Read In An Opening Sentence So Please Stop

June 16th, 2022

If you’re on the search for an impossible writing task, here’s one for you: Write an intro to a column about intros. THAT’S pressure. A bit back I was on the hunt for some books with great openings. I found a few good ones, but, damn, a lot of books have crappy openings. Even modern books are making the same mistakes we should've trashed a long time ago. Here are some of the worst ways to open your book. Please, just…don’t.

Read Column →

The Vital Role of Libraries in Wartime

June 14th, 2022

Image header is public domain On February 15, 1944, Allied bombers reduced a huge portion of the 6th century Italian abbey of Monte Cassino to rubble. The attack killed 230 Italian civilians who were seeking shelter in the abbey, which had been left unoccupied by German troops. It was a costly military blunder based on misinformation.

Read Column →

Storyville: The Intersection Between Plotting and Pantsing

June 13th, 2022

Some of you may write your stories (or novels) plotting out every detail, with extensive outlines, knowing exactly where everything is going. You, are plotters. The rest of you may have a broad idea of what you are going to write—based perhaps on a genre, theme, concept, or emotion—and write from a place of discovery, unsure about the specific details, but aware of the feeling you want. You, are pantsers. I do both.

Read Column →

From My Book Club: 12 Months of Books

June 10th, 2022

Are you ever curious to know what other people’s private book clubs are reading? I sure am, with the kind of shameless curiosity that compels you to steal a glance into a stranger's apartment on your nightly walks — recognizing what they’ve hung on the walls, whether they have plants around, what the table they have their breakfast on looks like. Whether you share my indiscreet curiosity or not, you’re very welcome to peek behind the curtains of my own book club, a monthly group that completes its first year this month.

Read Column →

Out of the Pandemic, A Writing Renaissance

June 9th, 2022

Michael O’Connell of Jacksonville, Florida retired in his 60s. He had started his writing journey years before, but doesn't feel he took it seriously until 2020. Due to the realities of the pandemic and an awareness of his own age, he started thinking about how precious time was. He got serious, hired a writing coach, and started writing short stories as he worked to rewrite the draft of a first novel.

Read Column →

The Thrilling Impact of Gone Girl Ten Years Later

June 7th, 2022

It’s been ten years since Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn took the world by storm. By skillfully subverting genre tropes and brazenly embracing, not just unlikeable characters, but creating one of the most diabolical villains in Amy Dunne, Flynn mastered a formula that skyrocketed the book to success. She was able to take familiar expectations and twist them in unexpected ways. And the result was addictive.

Read Column →

Five Poetry Collections to Read This Summer

June 6th, 2022

Summer is on the horizon and there’s something about this time of year that just makes me want to read poetry. I like nothing more than curling up on my porch and diving into a new collection from Button Poetry or perhaps sitting outside during a storm and picking up a favorite from Black Ocean.

Read Column →

It’s Thomas Hardy’s Birthday (Do We Care?)

June 3rd, 2022

Author photo via Wikipedia The short and lukewarm answer is that we should probably care, and not just because he had such an intimidating mustache.

Read Column →

Selling Books on Truth Social

June 2nd, 2022

Truth Social is taking social media by storm. What? There are pathetic storms that don’t really have lasting impact, right?  Either way, is it possible that Truth Social, Donald Trump's new social media platform/spite project, is a fertile ground for book selling? Let's find out. The Ground Floor Social media platforms always start slow. Twitter used to be home of the inane micro-blog, shit like, “Had lunch, yum!”

Read Column →