Columns

Choose Your New Adventure: The Resurgence of Interactive Storytelling

July 12th, 2013

True story: About ten years ago, a friend and I were talking about how to get out of a job we both hated (we were destined for great things and we knew it!) and one of us said we should launch a series of Choose Your Own Adventure type books, but for adults. We discussed how awesome and amazing we were to have thought of this. But we were lazy, so we laughed and went back to our menial tasks. What fools we were! We could have been on the cutting edge of what has become a Choose Your Own Adventure-like revolution.

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Keeping Up with Sandman Slim: A Recap

July 11th, 2013

Later this month, Kill City Blues, the fifth book in the Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey, will be released. For those unfamiliar with the books, they follow the exploits of one James Stark, also known as Sandman Slim, amateur magician and supernatural warrior. For those people familiar with The Dresden Files, the series has some surface similarities, but it’s as if someone took Harry Dresden, dipped him in booze and cigarette smoke, dropped him down to Hell, kicked him round the dirt some, then dragged him back up with a bad attitude.

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Library Love: MOOCs – An Ivy League Education For The Masses

July 11th, 2013

Fast, radical change is pretty rare in higher education. If you attended a traditional brick-and-mortar college or university, chances are, current students are sitting in the same classrooms, eating in the same cafeterias, and living in the same dorms as you did. Those dorms still suck. The format for college instruction is largely unchanged as well: the professor lectures at the front of the classroom, and students pretend to listen while doing something else, like updating Facebook.

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4 Ways to Keep Up With Online Lit Mags on Your Smartphone and Tablet

July 10th, 2013

The tablet and smartphone boom of the last few years has opened significant doors for both small and large lit mags, the former better able to gain a following through online promotion and availability, the latter to gain further readership by the same means. We, the audience, also benefit from this expanded availability, having the resources to discover new works and rediscover classics. There's a wealth of awesome fiction out there awaiting our eager fingertips.

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Five Literary Magazines That Restore My Faith in Publishing

July 8th, 2013

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I read fiction submissions for a literary magazine. It sounded like fun at the time—help choose (from hundreds of hopefuls) the next batch of published authors? I was drunk with power! But then, as I slogged through the many terrible and trite stories, trying to find anything that was worthy of print, I began to despair. The stories were either formulaic to the point of soap opera antics or so obscure I had no idea what the story was even about.

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Marlowe and Me: The Road Curved, and I Didn't

July 8th, 2013

My son has done a lot of things to me, some that open my mind and some that draw blood. He’s shown me how to slow down, how to see things anew, how to enjoy the simple pleasures of shoveling sand from his sandbox onto my grill. He’s also given me a black eye, left numerous teeth marks on my legs or arms and, on my first day of class last year, as I’m already running late in my newly-ironed clothes (and honestly, the only time they were ironed that semester) he grabbed ahold of his diaper and flung it, spraying a rooster-tail of toddler crap across me and the room.

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Book vs. Film: World War Z

July 5th, 2013

I’ll be honest: this is a tricky one. About two months ago, Max Brooks, author of World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, publicly dissed the Hollywood adaptation now raking in the bucks at the box office, warning viewers that the film and his book had one thing in common: the title. If fans were expecting a faithful page-to-screen translation, Brooks said, they would be disappointed.

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Stop Trying To Make Me Read Game of Thrones (And Yes, I Know That's Not What They're Called)

July 5th, 2013

Above: Daenerys by Phil Noto I am a Game of Thrones superfan.

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7 Things Dungeons & Dragons Taught Me About Storytelling

July 3rd, 2013

Once upon a time (in high school), a classmate bashed on what was then my preferred hobby: Dungeons and Dragons. His main argument was that, while not harmful, playing D&D was ultimately a waste of time. He challenged me to tell him how I benefited in any practical way, and the best response I could make was that enjoyment was an end of its own.

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Storyville: What is Neo-Noir Fiction?

July 2nd, 2013

NOTE: While many of these definitions may be accepted by the writing, publishing, and literary communities, much of how I see these genres and sub-genres is strictly my opinion. So it’s subjective, and not exhaustive. I don’t consider myself an expert on much of anything, but I’d like to think that based on my writing history, the authors I’ve studied under, my MFA, and my current work as a writer, editor, teacher, and publisher that I've learned a lot about these various flavors of writing.

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