Columns
Showing 3539 Columns
Won't Somebody Please Think of the Children?
March 29th, 2012
A friend of mine, who produces films in Los Angeles, once used the phrase “wolves in sheep’s clothing” to describe the power of genre films. Essentially, he was arguing that the most effective stories, even those that are considered outside the realm of “high art”, bury deeply powerful themes within the artifice of something that might be considered a little less transcendent.
Read Column →Sentence, INTERRUPTED! - Five Ways to Interrupt Yourself (Grammatically)
March 28th, 2012
Interrupters! And I don’t mean your know-it-all coworker or chatty uncle. I’m talking about grammatical interrupters, the mid-sentence intruders that pop in to the middle of your sentences to add information—some of it necessary and some of it not. To interrupt means to stop or hinder progress by causing a break in something that was hitherto occurring continuously. In the English language, there are at least five ways to grammatically interrupt a sentence. This article will explain each one as well as offer a couple examples.
Read Column →A What-to-Do and What-Not-To-Do List for Agents
March 28th, 2012
Let me preface this piece by stating I have the utmost respect for literary agents, editors and publishers who have always acted in the best interest of their authors, their authors’ careers and as good stewards within the literary world in general. This article is in no way directed toward those fine people in our community.
Read Column →Indie Bookstore Spotlight: Murder By The Book, Houston, TX
March 27th, 2012
(photos by John Schiffmayer) ADDRESS: 2342 Bissonnet Street, Houston, TX 77005 HOURS: Monday - Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Read Column →From X to A: A Douglas Coupland Primer
March 26th, 2012
So you want to be initiated into the canon of Coupland, but you're not quite sure where to begin. You want that first time to be special, but you don't want to make a big deal out of it, either. Especially considering that if it doesn't work out, things could get awkward the next time you go into a bookstore and see him there on the shelf. "Oh, is this who you're reading now? What, I wasn't good enough for you?"
Read Column →Ten Lighter-Raising, Horn-Throwing, Can't-Miss Rock Biographies
March 23rd, 2012
Any rock bio worth the trees it felled rests on three unshakeable pillars: 1) an interesting subject; 2) comprehensive research; and 3) compelling storytelling. A book can be powered by oceanic amounts of analysis, but if the prose is dry and lifeless, it is not worth the plastic bag that carries it home. Likewise, a fast-moving story full of innuendo and hearsay is maddeningly unsatisfying. The best ones expertly weave all three, avoiding overt partisanship while selecting stories that deliver both insight into the artist and tension into the story.
Read Column →Writing Powerful Descriptions
March 22nd, 2012
Writing is an account of how people think. As a medium it's intrinsically empathic; it communicates patently human sensibilities. In order for a story to work, it needs to feel like real life, even when it’s actually something quite different. The more detailed and rich your descriptions, the better your writing will approximate the human experience, thereby establishing a connection with fellow minds.
Read Column →Post-Mortem: "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner
March 22nd, 2012
Post-Mortem: As much a book review as an autopsy is a eulogy. A breakdown of the mechanics of a book and the reasons why it should be read by the writers among us. It takes a while to love The Sound and the Fury. The book is tough. The writing is beautiful, the characters interesting, all these things are true.
Read Column →My Kindle Experiment: How Easy Is Amazon's Self-Publishing Platform?
March 21st, 2012
When the story of the 26-year-old romance writer from Minnesota who became a millionaire by self-publishing on Kindle hit the Internet, suddenly everyone was considering using the platform to upload their torrid boddice-rippers and young adult novels sure to be the next Hunger Games.
Read Column →
