Columns

Guardians of the Galaxy: A Primer

February 24th, 2014

By now you have no doubt seen and reveled in the irrefutably awesome Guardians of the Galaxy trailer. If not, go watch it now. I’ll wait.

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Ask the Grammarian: How "snuck" sneaked in...

February 24th, 2014

Well, it appears you all don't need more grammar advice, so this will be the last Ask the Grammarian column. Thank you to all who asked questions and who read these columns. They were fun, and I learned a lot from researching the answers to your great inquiries. I do have one last question to attend to though, so let's get to it. Emily J Chaney writes: I cannot stand the word 'sneaked'. How evil is it if I use the word snuck? Never mind. Once I typed it I saw the ugliness of the word.

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It's Made Of SCIENCE: Guns And Bullet Ballistics

February 21st, 2014

You know what a gun is, right? Sure you do. You've probably seen at least one on television within the last 24 hours, or used one in a video game to kill a bad guy (or, as a friend pointed out, a good guy). Guns are everywhere in the media, and even someone who has never actually fired one in real life can probably point to the dangerous end with adequate proficiency.

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Prose & Conversation: 'The Girl Next Door' by Jack Ketchum

February 21st, 2014

There's no other way to put it. This month, Richard Thomas and I read one of the most brutal, most violent, most disturbing books I've ever experienced. It was tough. The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum gave me nightmares and made me cling to the life I live, the life I love, with more determination than I've felt in a long time. Below you'll see what we both think of this vile, this contemptible, this utterly remarkable novel...and why we both think, despite everything, it's worth a read. 

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Onscreen vs. Physical Keyboards

February 20th, 2014

Despite the widespread availability of Bluetooth keyboards and keyboard cases, we sometimes inevitably find ourselves using the built-in, onscreen keyboard of our various tablet devices. Perhaps you need to type out a quick email, or jot down an idea for a story that randomly popped into your head at three o’clock in the morning, or you simply can’t be bothered to fire up an external keyboard. Whatever the scenario, your onscreen keyboard handles the task just fine, thank you very much.

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Why Being Creative Is A Lot Less Difficult Than You Think

February 19th, 2014

There’s more shit talked about creativity than any other field of human endeavour, and in recent years I have watched with dismay as a whole industry has sprung up dedicated to enhancing and promoting this particular ability. I can't be alone in thinking that as a society we have reached some kind of nadir when job seekers are obliged to take creativity tests, seemingly with the rationale that the more uses you can think of for a brick, the better a lawyer you will make.

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‘Good Sex, Great Prayers’: A Journey in Publication (Part 6: Pre-order and Print Copies)

February 19th, 2014

Click HERE for Part 5

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5 Reasons I'll Never Buy A Kindle: Lamentations of a Book-Loving Luddite

February 18th, 2014

Image via Slash Gear Book--(noun) a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers (Oxford English Dictionary) Irony--(noun) writing a column for an online mag about how you hate reading books online.

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The Path To Publication 2.0: This Thing Is Actually Happening

February 18th, 2014

Back in January 2012 I started a column for this site called "The Path to Publication." I was nearing completion of a novel, and planned to document the process of querying, getting an agent, and everything that came after. The column lasted for four installments before I realized three things: 

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Punkpunk: A Compendium of Literary Punk Genres

February 17th, 2014

“Punk” is one of those words that’s used in so many ways to describe so many things that it has lost all meaning. People have been kicking over garbage cans for millennia, so to speak, and Punky Brewster was more Brewster than punk. To complicate matters further, we use the word to describe various subgenres of science fiction, and things have gotten completely out of hand.

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