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10 Works That Blur the Line Between Mythology and Science Fiction
November 7th, 2013
This week, Marvel's latest movie, Thor: The Dark World, releases in theaters in the U.S. That got me thinking about the character and his rather unusual status in the early Marvel Universe. At the time Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were on a tear of creating heroes based largely around science. From Spider-Man to Ant-Man to Captain America and the Hulk, most of these characters relied on some scientific basis (no matter how far-fetched or impossible) to explain their origins. And then there was Thor, the actual God of Thunder, fighting alongside the Avengers.
Read Column →Remember To Wear Pants: Tips for Surviving NaNoWriMo with Your Dignity Intact
November 6th, 2013
NaNoWriMo (short for National Novel Writing Month) can be a lot of fun. That’s why thousands of aspiring writers participate in it every November. In addition to being a great opportunity to meet new people at the write-ins and kick-off parties, it’s also a fantastic excuse to brew gallons of coffee and spend all day in your pajamas chipping away at a story.
Read Column →Storyville: 10 Hot, Emerging, and Underappreciated Genres
November 5th, 2013
These days, quite often I find myself writing similar stories, with the same old protagonists and situations. So I’m always looking for a new way to build worlds, to fray emotions, to explore the darker sides of humanity. If you are also in a rut and want to try out something new, here are ten genres that are heating up—why not give them a whirl? Sure, in the end, you may end up sending them to the same fantasy, science fiction, horror, and literary publications, but why not try something new, see where it takes you?
Read Column →Book vs. Film: "The Long Goodbye" vs. "The Big Lebowski"
November 1st, 2013
Much has already been written about the influence of Raymond Chandler’s work on the Coen Brothers’ 1998 masterpiece The Big Lebowski, a movie identified by the filmmakers as intentionally Chandler-esque. In an interview with IndieWire, when asked how much The Big Sleep (the first Phillip Marlowe novel) informed their film, the brothers said:
Read Column →Dystropia: How The Damsel in Distress Has Evolved
October 31st, 2013
Somewhere situated between Easter Island and Papua New Guinea, perfectly pinned on a straight line between the Great Pyramid and the Nazca Lines lies the Isle of Dystropia, the place where every cliché and worn-out convention sticks out like rubble in the sand. Pawing through the debris, you'll find the trope that may just make or break your story. Each installment, we'll explore a different literary platitude, examining it for its various strengths and weaknesses. Set sail for Dystropia, where you might just learn something about your writing and yourself.
Read Column →UPDATED WITH WINNER: LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown: October Edition
October 31st, 2013
Flash Fiction: A style of fictional literature marked by extreme brevity How It Works We give you inspiration in the form of a picture, poem, video, or similar. You write a flash fiction piece, using the inspiration we gave you. Put your entry in the comments section. One winner will be picked and awarded a prize.
Read Column →Did Ender's Game Rip Off The Dueling Machine?
October 31st, 2013
At one of my weekly writer’s group meetings, a friend gave me an old first edition of a science fiction novel called The Dueling Machine, by Ben Bova. This isn’t unusual; we pass books back and forth quite often. But this time, my friend leaned in close, and in a conspiratorial voice he said, “I have it on good authority that Orson Scott Card ripped off the ideas in this book when he wrote Ender’s Game.”
Read Column →Why The F*ck Aren't You Reading Ken Bruen?
October 30th, 2013
Image via Magnet Magazine Why The F*ck Aren't You Reading? is a feature where the columnist spotlights a writer who has a dedicated following and is well known within the writing community, but hasn't achieved the elephant-in-the-room style success of a Stephen King or Gillian Flynn—But they deserve to, dammit! Hopefully the column will help gain the author featured a few more well deserved readers.
Read Column →Symbolism: Storytelling and the Invisible Hand
October 30th, 2013
Freud believed that dreams disguise our unconscious thoughts by translating them into a language of symbols. We do this, he hypothesized, to prevent our conscious minds from censoring content we find too disturbing. Hence, Freud thought that by interpreting our dreams we could decode our unconscious, and doing so could help us discover repressed wishes or resolve some inner conflict.
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