Columns

Yahoo! Answers: Books, Reading, and Writing

September 23rd, 2021

Yahoo! Answers is dead. But from Late 2005 to May 2021, it was the primary place to ask questions about, well, everything. You'd get terrible, poorly formed advice riddled with grammatical errors, but damn was it fun. Sadly, some questions remain unanswered. Which is why I dug back through questionable internet history to make sure everyone got definitive replies about about plot holes, reading methods, writing, and how babby is formed.

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Jack of Shrugtown

September 22nd, 2021

All images via David James Keaton This summer, I stayed at a cabin in the woods hoping for inspiration to strike but read my first Jack Reacher novel instead. I ended up choosing Die Trying, a.k.a. Jack Reacher number 2 (not just because it took place in a cabin in the woods) and holy balls did it have a lot of shrugging in it! But let me back up. I know, I know, everyone hates an origin story. Sorry in advance…

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Storyville: Critical Analysis—An Essential Part of Your Process

September 17th, 2021

Today we are going to talk about critical analysis, a crucial part of your development as an author. I want to define this term, but also let you know how best to apply it to your writing. It’s a more advanced technique, and is something that is important in your evolution from a new author to a solid writer to an elite storyteller.

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Leaving a Legacy of Equality and Hope

September 16th, 2021

Top: Rhonda Voigts, Dawn Hogan, Grace Agnew. Bottom: Trish McDonald, Maria Price I’ve had the unique opportunity to work with five debut authors—Emory Easton, Trish McDonald, Dawn Hogan, Maria Price, and Grace Agnew—who have found their voices while crafting memoirs and novels focused on a range of contemporary issues—climate change, sexual fluidity, adoption, abortion rights, abuse, loss and grief—that emerge from, and shine a light on, the trauma so prevalent in the world as we know it.

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Authors Invade TikTok

September 15th, 2021

Original image via Francesco Ungaro You either know what TikTok is or you don’t. That may not be an indication of your age, though. While TikTok users trend younger than Facebook or Twitter users, that is slowly changing. Age tends to lag behind youth when it comes to social media. Or maybe youth is constantly fleeing as people their parents’ age start invading the cool platforms, making them less cool over time.

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Library Lightning Round

September 14th, 2021

Because I worked in libraries for a long (long, long...dear god, so long) time, I figure I'm the right person to answer some common questions about libraries. The idea here is to answer the questions pretty quickly, so please excuse me for being a jerk. It’s jerkiness of brevity, not true assholery. For true assholery, please see, well, anything else I’ve ever written.

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A Brief Stroll Down the Corridors of Dark Academia and Its Romantic Roots

September 13th, 2021

I’m not exactly sure why or how it happened, and this may be an excruciatingly niche observation, but my YouTube recommendations have undergone a slow transformation over the past few months.

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DYI Horror: 10 Haunted Fixer-Uppers

September 10th, 2021

So many fans of horror love a good haunted house story. You can Google "Best Haunted House Books" and find a bajillion lists with countless recommendations. This list is for books with a trope within the haunted house trope.  The fixer-upper.

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10 Years of LitReactor News: A Followup

September 9th, 2021

2011. Wall Street was being occupied. Sharper Image was getting into the eReader game with the worst tablet ever made. Fifty Shades of Grey was shocking soccer moms with its dirty, dirty, dirtiness and shocking the rest of us with its inexplicable success. And of course, a plucky little lit website called LitReactor was there to talk about it all.

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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.

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