Columns

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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Top 10 Ways To Make 'The Walking Dead' Less Stupid, Revisited

March 19th, 2012

This is going to include SPOILERS for the comic and the show. Tread carefully.  Back in November, when The Walking Dead finished off the first half of its second season, I wrote The Top 10 Ways To Make 'The Walking Dead' Less Stupid. It was my attempt to address the ways in which the show was completely screwing the promise of its concept. 

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Ask The Lit Coach: "How Does The New Trend In Self-Publishing Affect Literary Agents?" and More

March 19th, 2012

Will U.S. agents consider work from writers abroad? And what is the fate of the literary agent now that the self e-publishing revolution is full throttle? Let's get into it, shall we?

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Slaying Dragons: Fantasy and Video Games

March 16th, 2012

I have a confession to make. Lately, I’ve been killing dragons. A lot of them.

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Book Brawl: Sense And Sensibility vs. Pride And Prejudice

March 16th, 2012

Every month I throw two books, somehow related, into the Book Brawl ring to fight it out for the coveted title of literary champion. Two books enter. One book leaves. Today, our contenders are Jane Austen staples Sense and Sensibility (1811) and Pride and Prejudice (1813). Let’s watch these two comedies of manners get impolite, shall we?

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LURID: Love Love Lovecraft

March 15th, 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.

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False Starts, Dead Ends and Bad Beginnings: A Guide to Successful Storytelling Patterns

March 15th, 2012

The beginning. It’s a rough spot for many first drafts. Writers routinely place a disproportionate amount of attention on their introductory paragraphs, for obvious reasons. As a result, beginnings are often the source of some glaring writer’s anxiety: too many thoughts piled on, too many unnecessary components added, pens leaned on too heavily — all habits that diminish the thematic resonance and overall power of the piece. Sometimes we just don’t know where a story is supposed to start.

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Getting It Right: Accuracy, Truth, and the Fudge Factor

March 14th, 2012

The great thing about fiction writing is: you get to make shit up. The worst thing about fiction writing is: you have to make shit up. Biographers are spared this pleasure/pain double-double-toil-and-trouble. We have to tell the truth, or something like it. It’s not as easy as it sounds.

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No Thanks, Mr Franzen, I Like My Novels Difficult

March 14th, 2012

Let's give praise to Jonathan Franzen. Not only does he write bestselling novels, he also manages to get on everybody's nerves with a few carefully reckless comments.

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Saga: Brian K. Vaughan's Return To Comics

March 13th, 2012

There's perhaps nothing more cliché than a childbirth scene.  We've all seen it done – frequently poorly – a hundred times before. So it only emphasizes Brian K. Vaughan's strengths as a writer that the opening in Saga #1 is a childbirth scene that is anything but cliché. Vaughan both celebrates and subverts our expectations of this scene by creating such fully realized characters that we get a sense of them instantly.

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