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LitRock: 9 Odd Stories Behind Book-Inspired Music
October 24th, 2013
Much like peanut butter and chocolate, or cats and tiny hoodies, music and books are pretty special on their own but downright magical when combined. Today, we’re going to look at—and listen to—a few of these literary musical gems.
Read Column →Better Off Dead: 10 Posthumous Novels That Should Have Never Been Published
October 23rd, 2013
Last month I wrote about 12 Unpublished Novels We (the royal we) Wish We Could Read. But one (the royal one) must be careful what one wishes for, because certain unpublished novels might be unpublished for a reason. This got me to thinkin'—pontificatin' if you will—about novels that might have been better off had they never seen the dark innards of a printing press. I'm not talking about books I dislike, per se; no one really wants to read a list of my least favorite books.
Read Column →The Uncanny Factor: Why Little Girls Scare the Shit Out of Us
October 23rd, 2013
Many of the common human fears have reasonable explanations. Snakes and spiders have venom we'd do better to avoid, heights can lead to the accidental (and temporary) ability to fly, killers tend to kill people, and so on. But of all our dread fascinations in recent years, one common trope seems especially peculiar: The creepy little girl. Why is it that little girls scare the shit out of us? It boils down to the uncanny factor.
Read Column →Ask the Grammarian: Missing Semi-colons, Distinguishing Dashes, and Punctuating Quotations
October 23rd, 2013
Thank you to everyone that submitted questions. Let’s get started: Is the Semi-colon Semi-Retired? Tom asks: What happened to the semicolon? Has it been replaced by the comma? The semi-colon, indeed, still exists, though I assume that many writers avoid using it because they don’t know how to use it. Let’s quickly refresh our memories.
Read Column →Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark: A Case for Scaring the Crap Out of Your Kids
October 22nd, 2013
Header image art by Stephen Gammell October is a month that I have always held dear to my heart. Two of my favorite days fall in October: the day of my birth and Halloween. Growing up in North Texas, October always signaled the turn of the seasons from “Satan’s steam room” to “something below 80 degrees.” The leaves change color, tons of people won’t shut up about pumpkin spice whatever, and the weather becomes more suitable for dark beer. But for now, let’s get back to Halloween.
Read Column →The Monster Mash-up: Horror Hybrids
October 21st, 2013
It's October, Halloween month, and this is a good time to talk about horror. Horror, of course, is a solid genre in its own right, but it's also versatile in that it mixes well with other genres. With the possible exception of fantasy, no other genre is quite as adaptable. What follows is a brief look at some of these genre mash-ups, keeping the focus, front and center, on horror.
Read Column →Storyville: Supernatural and Speculative Fiction—Getting Weird Without Losing Your Audience
October 18th, 2013
To be honest, I often get bored writing straight literary fiction. Don’t get me wrong, I think it's a challenge, and there are some fantastic journals and magazines out there, but many of them will just not take a story if you do anything outside the realm of the realistic. In order to make your writing more marketable, and to stretch yourself creatively—to keep from getting bored—let’s get weird, shall we?
Read Column →The Dark Stories Dark Writers Tell in the Dark
October 17th, 2013
As Halloween approaches, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about what scares people. Ghosts line the yards of my little street in Suburbia. Witches, too. And zombies and goblins and vampires and spiders and any other creepy-crawlies you can imagine. My five-year-old thinks she has it all figured out. “I’m going to be a zombie-clown for Halloween this year,” she said to me. “That’ll really freak you out.” She might be right.
Read Column →LURID: Victorian Psycho - The Picture Of Dorian Gray
October 16th, 2013
LURID: vivid in shocking detail; sensational, horrible in savagery or violence, or, a guide to the merits of the kind of Bad Books you never want your co-workers to know you're reading. "Après un certain âge tout homme est responsable de son visage." — Albert Camus, The Fall
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