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Film vs. Film: "Suicide Squad" vs. "The Suicide Squad"
September 7th, 2021
I’ve been writing these "versus" articles for quite a while now, but I am rarely afforded a chance to make this direct a comparison. Two movies with the same premise, same goal, and even the same name, but with two very different results. The first was mostly forgettable when it wasn’t terrible, but its successor seems to have learned from those mistakes. The second film improves upon its predecessor so completely that it feels like a second or third draft of what we saw five years ago.
Read Column →The Raw Emotion of Aaron Dries
September 2nd, 2021
Author photo via official website Aaron Dries is a talented artist and writer. He is also one of the most affable people you could ever meet in horror, the writing industry, or the world. On two trips to the States from his home in Australia, I got the opportunity to meet him and hang out at various conventions.
Read Column →Taking Yourself Seriously Is Killing Your Writing
August 26th, 2021
Here’s the best advice I’ve ever received from someone who starred in Robocop 3: Take what you do seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously. These are the wise words of Jeff Garlin, who you might know from Curb Your Enthusiasm or The Goldbergs or from his role as “Donut Jerk” in Robocop 3 (Garlin's description of the movie's place in the trilogy: “Y’know, the good one.”). Why am I bringing this up here?
Read Column →Dispatch from the Querying Trenches
August 24th, 2021
Image by Arun Thomas The past five months have been, in one specific area of my life, absolutely interminable. See, in mid-March 2021 I sent out the first of a new batch of queries for the novel I had been working on since 2017. Four years of drafting, revising, re-drafting, revising again and again and I finally thought the book was ready. In a way, I still think the book was ready. In another, five months of querying have sent my confidence spiraling to the depths.
Read Column →Storyville: How to Ask For, and Give, Book Blurbs
August 20th, 2021
Do you have a book, short story collection, or anthology coming out sometime soon? Would you like to get a ton of excellent blurbs for your project? Not sure how to go about it? I have some thoughts. Also, have you had some success, and now people are asking you for blurbs? How do you give one? What’s to be expected? I have thoughts about that as well.
Read Column →The Loss of Joe McKinney
August 19th, 2021
Photo via author's website For readers, fans, fellow writers, publishers, and the entire horror community, the death of author and San Antonio police officer Joe McKinney was shocking and heartbreaking. He was barely into his fifties, and aside from a couple comments online by fellow officers who said he died of liver failure, there was no cause of death officially released anywhere I could find. I was heartbroken at the loss for a variety of personal reasons.
Read Column →Prep for Your Interview, Sell Some Books
August 18th, 2021
Don’t you want at least a couple people to see your interview and buy your book? Don’t you want someone to read a profile of you and spend a couple bucks? Don’t you want to be on a podcast and see at least a little jump in your web traffic? Of course you do. Let’s get you prepped with a little program I call Preparation H. The “H” stands for “hella,” as in “Hella Good Interview.”
Read Column →A Quick and Dirty Guide to Writing a Book Proposal
August 17th, 2021
When it comes to traditionally publishing nonfiction books, a book proposal is completely crucial. Instead of sending off full manuscripts complete with “THE END,” nonfiction authors usually submit detailed proposals to publishers. (It’s worth noting, though, that while a whole manuscript isn’t part of a book proposal, sample chapters are required. But more on that later!)
Read Column →Happy Birthday To Georgette Heyer, the Salty Godmother of Regency Romance
August 16th, 2021
Header image is public domain August 16 is the birthday of Georgette Heyer, a prolific author who is credited with establishing the subgenre of Regency romance in the early half of the twentieth century. She had a split literary personality, alternating between thriller and romance novels, but also seems to have had a fairly salt-of-the-earth outlook on her writing’s success.
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