Columns

Big Bugs and Dead Astronauts: The Joys of a Non-Human Narrator

July 29th, 2021

A couple years ago, I had the idea to write a novel from the perspective of a sentient, sarcastic parasite living in the gut of a corrupt public health inspector. I figured a non-human narrator would have some interesting things to say about humanity. The final product, Absolute Unit, is a combination of body horror and crime fiction; the parasite gets tired of living on scraps and decides to use its budding telekinetic powers to conquer the world.

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How to Write Authentic Fiction

July 28th, 2021

Image via Brett Jordan Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. — Philip K. Dick If you want to write something good, it needs to be real.

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Freelance Copywriting Nearly Killed My Voice as A Writer

July 27th, 2021

Original photo via Andrea Piacquadio I spent the years after graduation in awful office jobs with none of my novels finished and a pile of unpublished short stories. I would troll through Duotrope on my lunch break and try to find journals and lit magazines to submit to after each fresh rejection.

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Storyville: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Scene Breaks

July 26th, 2021

Over the years I’ve noticed that my students sometimes break their stories in strange places, so I thought I’d write up my thoughts on when, where, how, and why to insert scene breaks into your stories.

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Things Casual Readers Don't Care About

July 23rd, 2021

Original Header image by Toa Heftiba, via Unsplash Let’s talk casual and abnormal readers. Casual readers get in a couple books every year. Maybe more if they’re in a book club. They unwrap a book on Christmas, but they don’t get a book from EVERYONE they know. They might stop at a landmark bookstore on a trip, but they aren’t packing an almost-empty suitcase for their book haul.

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Five Agents Tell You What You’re Doing Wrong... And How To Do It Right

July 22nd, 2021

Header images via cottonbro & William Mattey I've written about agents before. I've also heard every thought and opinion on agents out there. That said, the extremely complicated agent discussion can be boiled down to this: landing The Agent can change your life forever.

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Other Words for Dark: 10 Horror, Crime, and Thriller Novels in Translation for 2021

July 21st, 2021

There’s a Czech proverb that says, “You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.” At least, that’s what the internet tells me. I don’t speak Czech in order to verify this for myself, which rather proves the point. We may not all be fortunate enough to live multiple lives, as the proverb suggests, but translations give us access to ideas, places, and authors that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to enjoy.

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Book Cover Trends: Skulls!

July 20th, 2021

The cover of a book is so important. It's the introduction; the first impression. The reader engages with the cover before they read the synopsis or maybe even read the title or the author's name. That picture, that artwork, the font, the design...it tells its own story right there in a manner of seconds. "Never judge a book by its cover" might be great advice as it pertains to people, but when it comes to books, readers should one hundred percent judge that cover. If it looks like someone phoned it in, perhaps the contents were as well?

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Everything Is Permitted When It Comes To Submissions

July 15th, 2021

Original image by Rodnae Productions "Nothing is true, everything is permitted," Nietzsche (and then, more importantly, Meat Loaf) said, so at the risk of destroying all credibility right out of the gate, or even worse, running the risk of stating the obvious, the best advice for writers is still ignoring most writing advice. Boy, that was fast! Thanks for stopping by [credits roll].

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Christine Morgan: A Leading Voice in Extreme Horror

July 14th, 2021

Photo via author Twitter Everyone watched it happen. Friends, family, peers, readers, and fans tuned in to the Splatterpunk Awards ceremony live as part of Killercon’s 2020 virtual convention. Deserving authors, editors, and publishers were overwhelmed and gracious as they won awards honoring work in extreme horror.

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