Columns

Ask The Lit Coach: "Should A New-To-Publishing Writer Seek The Safer Submission Route, Or Routes That Pay More?" and More

November 21st, 2011

Always a pleasure to receive your questions, dear writers. This week we explore what one fresh MFA student should consider while starting out on her professional writer's journey and what another writer needs to consider before soliciting his anthology to the publishing world. As always, the solutions are never cut and dry. Who ever said the writer's life was easy? 

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Book Brawl: Battle Royale vs. The Hunger Games

November 21st, 2011

Every month I’ll pit two books, somehow related, against one another in a brutal, literary fight to the death. Two books enter. One book leaves. This month the brawling books are Koushun Takami’s Battle Royale (1999) and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games (2008). They are fighting it out due to their shared subject matter of kids killing kids in a government-sponsored bloodbath. So who shall prevail in our own me-sponsored bloodbath? Read on to find out!

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Vampires: No Longer “The Ultimate Zipless Fuck?”

November 18th, 2011

Original header image via Cottonbro Studio As Twihards throng the multiplexes for the release of Breaking Dawn Part 1, it’s time to reassess Stephen King’s 1981 hypothesis (in Danse Macabre) that the oral penetration promised by vampires constitutes “the ultimate zipless fuck”.

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Neglected Books: "An American Tragedy" and "1982, Janine"

November 17th, 2011

Original photo via Free Images For the November installment of my Neglected Books column, I thought I'd focus on two books that have no business being together. The first is not unknown, but it's largely unread nowadays. The other is unknown and unread. Here we go.

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UPDATE: What The Hell Ever Happened To... Nick Walker?

November 16th, 2011

UPDATE: Trafalgar distributor IPG has responded to my inquiry. The news is doubleplusungood:   Unfortunately, due to the recent developments you mentioned, we are unable to supply forthcoming titles from Beautiful Books.

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The Author's To-Don't List

November 15th, 2011

From established to aspiring author—typically in an interview format, you never see the advice go much further than: read, write, and learn as much about the craft as you can.  It’s rather standard, often recycled, and although I agree with it, I’d have to say most of my more memorable lessons came through trial and error.  Specifically, these are things you shouldn’t do as per the trial and error of others.  Not simple blunders, mind you, but large lapses in judgment that pay lasting damages.

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Indie Bookstore Spotlight: The Mysterious Bookshop, New York City

November 14th, 2011

Independent and used bookstores offer things the big chains can't: Precise recommendations, spectacular coffee, rare treasures, and a real sense of community. The LitReactor team is scouring the planet to find the very best bookstores in existence, and will highlight them through 'Indie Bookstore Spotlight'. These are the stores that don't necessarily outsell the big stores--but they almost always outlast them. ADDRESS: 58 Warren Street, New York, NY

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Battle Of The Books: Genre Vs. Literary

November 14th, 2011

Scratch the surface of most any discussion about fiction, and what you find seething under there is that old tension between the literary and the genre. Or maybe it’s a dynamo, an engine—two magnets spinning around each other, making energy, spinning out stories, or maybe it’s some yin-yang thing, and we’re supposed to understand that you can’t recognize the good if you don’t have some bad around to compare it to.

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The 10 Most Badass Literary Children

November 11th, 2011

Kids can be pretty annoying. They generally require a lot of patience, energy, and time, and who has any to spare? Yet some children rise above their youthful station to achieve great heights of badassery—although mostly only in books. Read on for the raddest fictional children ever.

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Strong Words: Pumping Up Your Writing With Better Vocabulary

November 10th, 2011

Original image via Pexels Where to find the Word As a Word Nerd, I love discovering new words, new ways to use words, and new meanings for words I thought I knew. Artists in all genres stay fresh and evolve by learning new skills, trying new techniques, and revisiting the classics to learn again. Similarly, writers know the value of constantly building their vocabulary.

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