Columns

Scandalous! Is Edward Rochester A Feminist?

June 29th, 2012

Welcome to a new column here at LitReactor, in which I will dauntlessly voice an unpopular opinion about a beloved novel. Today I'll speak on a topic near and dear to my heart - the feminist subtext lying within Jane Eyre's Edward Rochester.

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Fifty Shades of Pay: A Failed Attempt To Get Rich By Writing Erotica

June 28th, 2012

My mother has recently begun urging me to read some erotica, and the full strangeness of this only hits me as I’m typing this sentence. Let me explain: as one of those writer types, one must try to keep abreast of the literary scene, yes? And to eschew genre or mass-market pulp, the kind that you and I (O intrepid bastions of Apollo’s Quill!) wouldn’t read unless for the high sport of mockery, must be taken into account. After all, can we actually just read Proust and Stein every single day?

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YA Superstar: John Green

June 28th, 2012

If you stopped a random person on the street and asked him or her to name a YA author, you'd mostly likely get a response of "J.K. Rowling" or "Stephenie Meyer." Actually, you're most likely to get no response at all, since some people don't know what YA stands for, and others don't talk to strangers because of those scary PSAs from the '80s with men in trench coats driving sketchy vans.

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Passing Strange: 15 Of The Most Bizarre Author Deaths On Record

June 27th, 2012

Why go gently into that good night like a sucker when you can go out in a Bon Jovian blaze of glory and be remembered forever? If you're a 16th century poet or an obscure opera critic, it might be your only chance at leaving a lasting legacy. And if you're already a canonical author, it doesn't hurt your street cred if you die in a fiery car wreck and people blame the KGB.

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Writing In Parallel

June 27th, 2012

One of the biggest mistakes I see in first drafts — both among beginning writers who don’t know any better and experienced writers who are simply bad at editing themselves — is a proclivity to produce lopsided sentences.

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Book vs. Film vs. Mini Series: The Shining

June 26th, 2012

Stephen King’s third novel, The Shining, was conceived after a late–season visit to The Stanley Hotel in Colorado.  King and his wife found themselves in a near-empty building, the only diners in the dining room, the only footsteps echoing down the corridors, the only ones riding the elevator.  After King took a solo turn around the empty hotel and had a long chat with the bartender, Grady, inspiration wasn’t far from knocking.  Most people experience a resort hotel in peak season, thronged with staff and ot

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The Building of Worlds

June 26th, 2012

Fantasy fiction, like its sibling Science Fiction, often depends on worldbuilding to be successful. A contemporary tale that takes place in our world depends on our sense of being alive in this present to give us grounding. But secondary worlds often demand explanation - whether it’s how a particular history developed, what kind of creatures exist in the world, what the physics are, whether magic exists and how it works, and so on and so on.

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The Long & Winding Road: Part V - Submitting to Publishers

June 25th, 2012

Recap: The Long & Winding Road is a multi-part essay about my endeavors to get an agent and publish my first novel. Part I discussed writing my first novel and seeking representation, Part II discussed "revision hell", Part III discussed talking to and landing an agent, and Part IV discussed editing with an agent.

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LURID: Bad Trips - Ten Novels With Serious Drug Psychosis

June 22nd, 2012

LURID: vivid in shocking detail; sensational, horrible in savagery or violence, or, a twice-monthly guide to the merits of the kind of Bad Books you never want your co-workers to know you're reading.   “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix…” —Allen Ginsberg, Howl (1956)  

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YA Novels vs YA Comics

June 22nd, 2012

Already I have to warn you that the title of this piece is incredibly misleading. If you’re talking about YA Novels, you’re obviously talking about anything from Harry Potter to Hunger Games, but if you’re talking about YA Comics, you could be talking about two very different things. 

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