Columns

Overcoming “Voice Anxiety”

August 15th, 2012

One area of reoccurring obsession for writers — and the source of a lot of accompanying anxiety— is the issue of voice. A quick Google search shows it’s one of the most discussed craft-related topics on the Web, with a deluge of self-help articles and online workshops promising  (“in ten easy steps!”) to help writers develop their own unique style and tone.

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10 Children's Books That Are (still) Frightening To Adults

August 15th, 2012

The thing about kids? They're much more resilient than we think. Adults that fret over fiction that is too frightening for young children are neglecting one irrefutable truth: kids like to be scared. They're made of pretty strong stuff, and they enjoy the kind of cozy, insulated adrenaline rush that comes in the form of a scary book or movie, ghost stories or Halloween. When I was young, I used to actually lie in bed and try to scare myself ("That shadow...is a witch!

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Don't Write Comics: How To Write Comics Part 3

August 14th, 2012

Don't Write Comics is a multi-part essay about writing comics, understanding what your options are, finding the right artist, and everything you need to do to get a strong comic book pitch package together. So, you've made it this far. Good for you! Or something! Now comes the hard part. Because now you have to find someone way more talented than yourself to invest emotionally, mentally, and physically in your project.

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Reinvention and the "Genre Trap"

August 14th, 2012

I recently received an advance copy of Tad Williams’ latest novel, The Dirty Streets of Heaven, an urban fantasy featuring a hard-boiled protagonist who also happens to be an angel. The first in a series, Dirty Streets is narrated by Bobby Dollar, a likable, engaging, and funny guy-- or rather, angel-- whose job is to act as Heaven’s advocate for dead souls in the fictional city of San Judas. Unlike some angels, Bobby and his friends spend most of their time on earth, wearing human bodies, and it shows.

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These Are Your Heroes On Drugs, And They Kind of Suck

August 13th, 2012

The path to excess leads to the path to wisdom. -William Blake Bull fucking shit it does -Me, at age 38 upon reading William Blake's famous quote So who wants to commit some literary blasphemy with me? Well of course you do!

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Adventures In Self-Publishing Part 1: Why I'm Doing It, And Also Zombies

August 10th, 2012

I don't know if you've heard, but there's this new trend in publishing where people digitally release their work on websites like Amazon. It's called self-publishing, and since I'm all about trends, I figured I'd give it a shot. 

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Book Vs. Film: Total Recall / We Can Remember It For You Wholesale

August 10th, 2012

At the very beginning of the recently released Total Recall, a graphic recognizes the company behind the movie, producer Neal H. Moritz's Original Films. The unintentional irony of the word "original" being attached to a remake caused the audience at my screening to chuckle knowingly. What the people in that theater may have missed in their gentle mockery was another card, deep in the credits, that acknowledged another layer of inspiration: Science Fiction legend Philip K.

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Book Brawl: YA Covers vs. Adult Covers

August 9th, 2012

Everyone does it. Some people might claim they don't, but they're lying. It's ingrained in our human DNA. It's a natural reflex that can't be denied. We can fight it, but our first instinct will always be to judge a book by its cover. And what's so wrong about this behavior, anyway? We may not have evolved enough as a species to overcome our superficiality, but haven't we developed as artists and designers? Is there any excuse nowadays for a bad cover? (The answer, by the way, is no.)

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Transgressive Women: How Bad Covers And Sexism Threaten All Of Literature

August 9th, 2012

Look at this book: Mentally project said book onto a shelf as you walk by. Assume your eyes flicker to it. Does it appeal? Would you reach up (in my hypothetical situation, you are short or the shelf is high) to read the back copy, maybe flick through the pages?

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Transition As Metaphor

August 8th, 2012

Introduction We’re all familiar with transitions as they relate to speeches or essays—the wide variety of clunkers we packed into our high-school and college papers in an effort to reach that ever-dreaded, ever-required, word count. Filler like: “In conclusion," or "with regards to," or "apropos of." As dead as these particular transitions may be to us as story-tellers, perhaps we must play Dr. Frankenstein and create for our living and breathing stories the pieces of tissue that keep their bones linked. 

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