Columns

5 Lessons from Ramona Quimby, on the Anniversary of Beverly Cleary’s Birth

April 12th, 2022

Header illustration: Louis Darling I’m not sure how my mother got hold of Beverly Cleary’s books when I was little, but I know we couldn’t find a copy in Greek. Lacking that, she read the original, translating each page aloud on the go, an ability that left me in awe — and something I’m sure Ramona Quimby would find pretty cool herself.

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Does Anyone Really Know What Makes a Story Good?

April 12th, 2022

Header images via Andrea Piacquadio & Mike van Schoonderwalt Obviously, my premise here is that it is harder to pinpoint what really makes a story good than many might think. I believe the extremes of the spectrum are easy to identify. A really great story or a really terrible story probably both have elements that lead to shared conclusions about their quality. But even in those cases, the consensus is likely not universal.

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Is Bizarro Dead?

April 11th, 2022

If you’ve ever filled out a proof of life document, I’m sorry, you’ve had a rough life. For everyone else: a proof of life document is something you fill out because it’s likely you’ll be abducted and held hostage. What you do is write some questions, call it four, and then write the answers. Seal them up, put them somewhere that a confidant can get to them, and then, when that ransom call comes in, the people trying to get you back can confirm you’re still alive.

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10 Dark Recommendations for National Poetry Month 2022

April 6th, 2022

Dark poetry came along and welcomed me into the world of lyrical prose. Previously, I felt shut out of poetry. It wasn't accessible to me as a reader. I didn't feel like I was the audience for it because whenever I tried to read it, I couldn't make sense of what the author was saying. At the same time, I didn't feel like the author cared if I understood. Poetry can be so intimately written; so personal, its meaning isn't easy to relate to—at least that was my experience.

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Why 2021 Was America's Worst Reading Year

April 5th, 2022

Why did you fuck-ups stop reading last year? A Gallup poll told us that Americans read fewer books in 2021 than they had…maybe ever. What the hell happened? The decrease in average number of books read per adult last year wasn’t so much about people going from reading one or two books a year to reading nothing. It’s mostly due to people who normally read a shitload slacking off in 2021.

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Celebrating Kidlit this International Children's Book Day

April 1st, 2022

Image: ibby.org In honor of International Children’s Book Day (April 2, 2022), I’d like to take some time to rant and rave about children’s literature. I’ve been deeply immersed in the world of kidlit, mostly through my love of reading and writing YA, for at least six or seven years now. Which means I didn’t really start thinking critically or engaging with kidlit until I was…literally in my 20s, and not a kid anymore.

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Book Marketing Like a Rock Star

March 31st, 2022

Header art by Matthew Revert Look, straight up, for roughly the past 4 years I’ve royally sucked at promoting my own writing. I’ve half-assed the marketing of my books. I'm not sure why, but I haven't given it much of an effort.

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Friday the 13th: Even Better Than the Real Thing

March 30th, 2022

Sometimes you just wanna play with someone’s else’s toys, especially when you don’t have their permission.  I recently published a bootleg comic book called Friday the 13th Part IX : The Last Mask. It’s a bloody, loving tribute to Jason Voorhees, one of pop culture’s most enduring boogeymen. I don’t own the rights to the character of Jason, or to the title Friday the 13th, but I wrote and drew the comic anyways.  Why?

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March is the Perfect Month to Give up on Your Goals for the Year—But Hold on!

March 29th, 2022

Header image via Andrea Piacquadio March is the best month for giving up on New Year’s resolutions. Some of us quit sooner, but this is the month most people drop the pretense of meeting goals made in the heady days between Christmas and New Year’s.

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Transactional Networking is Trash Networking

March 25th, 2022

What is transactional networking? Transactional, by definition, is a term for something related to the exchange of goods or services; buying and selling. "Quid pro quo," as Hannibal Lecter would say. Networking is the organic process of interacting with others in a social construct to share ideas and information, developing professional relationships.

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