Columns

The Devil That You Know: Literature's Evil Archetype

October 9th, 2013

Can you guess his name? Satan, Lucifer, Beelzlebub, The Boogey Man, Old Nick, Krampus, King of Hell. The Devil has more working aliases than J.K. Rowling. In turns revolting, terrifying, charismatic, tragic, and a bit of a drama queen, the Devil is a difficult character to pin down. From Goethe's Faust to Bulgakov's 20th century satiric masterpiece, he is without a doubt one of the most versatile and enduring literary archetypes of all time.       

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Metamucil Martinis: Why Batman and James Bond Should Be Allowed to Retire

October 8th, 2013

Batman image by ArtOfWei, Roger Moore image via The Daily Mail My dad used to watch those 25 Days of Bond marathons they had on basic cable in the early 90s and I, having no other knowledge of the crime or mystery genre, thought that all spies were like James Bond. He was magnetic and suave and everything that spy should be, as anyone who has breathed knows.

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After All These Years: The Unexpected Sequel

October 7th, 2013

The idea for this column came about a few months ago as the hype for Doctor Sleep, Stephen King’s sequel to The Shining, was growing. Just around the same time I read that Chuck Palahniuk was working on a graphic novel sequel to Fight Club. Both of these sequels come years, decades even, after the preceding books—39 years for King, and at least 18 years for Palahniuk.

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Storyville: 10 of the Scariest Books I've Ever Read

October 4th, 2013

So obviously this is a personal list, not any sort of final say on what the “best” scary books are. Unfortunately, even though I’ve read a LOT of books, there are still some classic horror novels, and contemporary masterpieces, that I haven’t gotten to.

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Four Things 'Breaking Bad' Taught Me about Writing

October 4th, 2013

“I liked it… And I was really—I was alive.” - Walter White, “Felina”, Breaking Bad Walter White’s explanation for what was arguably, the most epic mid-life crisis ever, pretty much sums up the way I felt while watching nearly every episode of Breaking Bad. While the series was both superbly acted and shot, for me, it was the writing that made this show a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

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Don’t Write That, Write This! How To Be An Awesome Blogger

October 3rd, 2013

If the causes of the Big Bang remain a mystery, the expansion of the Blogoverse can be traced back to the day a writer first discovered Wordpress. With the exponential growth of the form since, The Onion will soon run a story on how scientists have determined that in less than a year the sheer mass of writing blogs will rupture virtual reality and send us all hurtling into hyperspace doom.

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8 Ways to Support the Writers in Your Life

October 2nd, 2013

Beyond my personal experiences as a writer, I've also been close friends with more writers than I can count. (That may just be because I'm bad at math, though.) I have relatives who write, I have friends who write, I've dated people who write ... I've seen the relationship from many different angles and figured out a few of the best ways to support the writers I'm close to. While it's important to remember that there's no "one size fits all" option, these eight tips provide a solid starting point for supporting the writers in your life.

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Books on Writing: What Authors, Agents and Editors Read

October 1st, 2013

About a decade ago, the shelves at your local Borders (RIP) housed a reasonable selection of books about writing for those hungry to learn and improve their craft. Today, despite the doomsday reports that print books will soon be obsolete, those shelves—let's move to Barnes and Noble—practically groan under the weight of all those who have their own take on crafting prose and an inspired creative life in general.

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Culling The Classics: Anna Karenina

September 30th, 2013

I hate Russian authors. Every time I've ever tried to read a book by a Russian author, I've failed miserably. Crime and Punishment? I hadn't committed any crime, but it sure felt like Dostoevsky was punishing me. Dr. Zhivago? Boris Pasternak should've changed his name to Boring Pasternak. Lolita? Vladimir Nabokov was writing in English about a French guy driving around the United States, and it was still too Russian for me.

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Updated With Winners: LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown: September Edition (...and another chance to win Chuck Palahniuk's new book!)

September 30th, 2013

Flash Fiction: A style of fictional literature marked by extreme brevity UPDATE: Since it's only a few days in and we already have 76 (and counting) entries--we've scrounged up two more copies of Chuck  Palahniuk's new book for a total of THREE books to give away to the best three entries! So keep 'em coming! 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.

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