Columns

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.

Read Column →

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.

Read Column →

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.

Read Column →

Writing Sentences With Impact

November 9th, 2011

How many times have you encountered a writer who had great ideas and a knack for compelling characters, but just didn’t use the rights words to say it all? Yeah, me too.

Read Column →

When Did A Bra Become More Offensive Than A Decapitation?

November 8th, 2011

September 21st 2011 - it's the date that will go down in history as the day I looked at my fellow comic book enthusiasts, shook my head in disgust, and hung it low from embarrassment. It's the day when the top news story wasn't about the immediate success of the DC 52 relaunch, or the first new issues of Scott Snyder's Batman and Brian Azzarello's Wonder Woman hitting the stands. No. It was about the fact that Catwoman was not only seen in her bra for a handful of panels, but capped off her first issue having sex with Batman.

Read Column →

Storyville: Cover Letters and Bridging the Gap

November 8th, 2011

You’ve found your voice and it’s what you’re calling urban transgression. You’ve cornered the market on dark stories that happen in cities, women with body parts pierced and tattooed, men with stubble on their faces, stinking of cigars and despair. Now what? You’ve done your research (hitting up Duotrope and surfing for the appropriate places to submit, a column we’ll do down the road, soon I promise).

Read Column →

2012 Comic Book Movie Preview

November 7th, 2011

A lot of us on staff here at LitReactor are big fans of the comic book adaptation. We normally try to bring everything back to writing, so this is admittedly a bit of a reach.  Having said that, it's time to strap on that utility belt and tie a blanket around your neck--hero season at the movies is bearing down on us faster than a speeding production company.  Let's begin.

Read Column →

Ask The Lit Coach: "How Much Is Too Much With Description?" and More

November 7th, 2011

Another good round of questions this week, writers. Sometimes your questions can be easily answered with a list of DOs and DON'Ts, or a flow-chartesque "if this then that" scenario. But not always.  We have one of each this week, as one writer needs clarity about the literary journal submission process and one writer is searching for the right balance of description in storytelling.

Read Column →

"Shockaholic" by Carrie Fisher

November 4th, 2011

Carrie Fisher on her latest memoir: Bad news for anyone who thought that Carrie Fisher had stopped talking about herself: Sorry, but after all of her seemingly endless blathering on about her nose-bleed-high-class problems, it appears she has yet another brand-new problem to overshare about (though don’t expect to relate to it). This time, the electro-convulsive-shock therapy she’s been regularly undergoing is threatening to wipe out (what’s left of) her memory.

Read Column →

What The Hell Ever Happened To... Jeff Noon?

November 4th, 2011

A young bookseller puts a feather into his mouth... ...and that feather was Vurt, the Aurthur C. Clarke Award winning debut of English novelist Jeff Noon. It was sometime in the late 90's, and the pusher was a friend and co-worker operating in full peer pressure mode. "C'mon, hardly anybody's doing it," she intoned. Her logic appealed to the budding literary elitist in me, so with my friend acting as guide, I took the trip.

Read Column →