Columns

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.

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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. 

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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.

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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?"

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Short Shorts: Extremely brief prose forms plus LitReactor’s first Short Shorts Contest!

March 21st, 2012

Image via: Taylor Made Designs You could probably use an extra lifetime just to read all those wonderful and interesting words out there:

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10 Science Fiction Books That I Love (And You Will At Least Like A Lot)

March 20th, 2012

As the new ‘Sci-Fi guy’ here at LitReactor, it only seems proper to formally introduce myself. I really enjoyed writing my first piece contrasting John Carter as a book and a film, but thought a more expansive entrée might be fun. And rather than the standard recitation of resume and influences, why not throw myself upon the mercy of the comment section and offer a list of my favorite books in the genre?

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