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Leave the Fat
December 7th, 2021
When I started writing, it was for defense. It was a way to keep the world at bay by naming it—that way I could tame the big scary uncontrollable mess of reality and force it to make some kind of sense. In order to do that properly, I came up with some rules, some principles for writing that I'd picked up here and there that, when consistently applied, I thought made my work sound serious, and literary, and mature. I got some stuff published at some good places, and I congratulated myself on cracking the code. In truth I had a very long way to go.
Read Column →10 Holiday Gifts to Give Your Horror Hound
December 6th, 2021
It would be so much easier to get into the spirit of the holidays if there wasn't all of that pressure to buy gifts for everyone on our lists. It can be so stressful to pick out that perfect present for your loved one and stay in a realistic budget. Sometimes the hardest part is just getting something special and unique instead of heading for that gift card kiosk at the grocery store. Let me help! And it's still early enough that it can be delivered in plenty of time. These are suggestions for the Horror Hound you know who has everything.
Read Column →The 12 Days of Writersmas
December 3rd, 2021
Writers are not hard to shop for. I don’t know how writers earned this reputation. Which other professions/hobbies come with this “hard to shop for” nonsense? It’s not like you hear people saying “Tailors are so hard to shop for…” It’s not like writing makes you immune to the charms of a personal hovercraft.
Read Column →The Unmistakable Voice of James Robert Baker (1947-1997)
December 2nd, 2021
Author photo via the estate of James Robert Baker Whenever I heard the word ‘transgressive,’ I always thought of it as something like… you know, you’ll read Chuck Palahniuk, Irving Welsh, Brett Easton Ellis — those are the big names you hear. You’re also told they’re very LGBT-friendly authors, but then, when I was reading that stuff, I’m like, ‘Okay, but where’s the gay sex?'
Read Column →The Stories and Worlds of Philip K. Dick's Grave
December 1st, 2021
Photos by Peter Derk Philip K. Dick’s stories built worlds where time reversed and people had to be unburied before they suffocated, worlds where people used a store-bought spray product to fix breaks in the fabric of reality, worlds where space travelers competed to bring the best hallucinogens to humanity. The story of Philip K. Dick’s grave also built more than one world, more than one story about how things wound up the way they are.
Read Column →The Hunt for Horror: Using Short Fiction to Navigate A Genre
November 30th, 2021
Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and other dreams. They are journeys you can make to the far side of the universe and still be back in time for dinner. ― Neil Gaiman
Read Column →Storyville: What's the Best Money You've Spent on Your Writing Career?
November 29th, 2021
I often wonder where our dollars should go, as authors. Does spending money on advertising even work? What about classes or an MFA? Should we go to conventions, do book tours, buy business cards? I took a moment to reach out to some writers I know to ask them this very question: “What is the best money you’ve ever spent on your writing career?” Here are their answers.
Read Column →Pass the Stuffing and the True Crime: 8 Titles to Get You Through the Holidays
November 25th, 2021
It’s almost the holiday season again, so I’m here to do the perennial good work of keeping readers from murdering their families by providing an ulterior outlet via reading about death and dismemberment. Or, hey, maybe you just want to peacefully curl up with a new read as the weather gets colder. No judgement either way. The following are a few upcoming and recently released titles for the tail end of 2021.
Read Column →Revisiting a Work You’ve Already Published: Things to Keep in Mind
November 24th, 2021
It’s not often you get a chance to revise your book after it’s been published. What would you do with that opportunity? It’d be tempting to launch a down-to-the-studs revamp—a line-by-line edit, tweaking and deleting and improving everything you found deficient the first time around. But you might not have the time or energy. You might fear that, if you do too much, you’ll strip away whatever made the book work the first time around.
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