Columns

The Poetry of Joni Mitchell’s "Blue" Album: An Appreciation

June 22nd, 2021

I first became aware of Joni Mitchell’s Blue when Rolling Stone printed their instantly outmoded "Top 100 Albums of the Last 20 Years" in 1987. That her masterpiece was ranked at 46, I’d later learn, was one of the many problems with the male-dominated list, but I’m grateful they at least printed the final verse to “The Last Time I Saw Richard.”

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Kindle Vella: What Is It?

June 22nd, 2021

If you’re a self-pub loser like me, you probably got an email about Kindle Vella, Amazon’s new self-publishing system/platform/thingie. If you’re a self-pub success story, your ASSISTANT probably got an email about Kindle Vella, and they printed it out, sealed the printout in a real, paper envelope, and then you used an ivory-handled letter opener to open it. This is how I assume the wealthy handle email.  What is Kindle Vella, why is it, who is it, and what good is it, anyway?

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Storyville: Evaluating Your Work in Progress—As Author, Editor, and Reader

June 21st, 2021

So today we’re going to talk about how to evaluate a work in progress. I think it’s crucial to look at your work through a variety of different gazes in order to achieve different things. You have to put on different hats, in order to see the full picture here, and then edit accordingly. So let’s dig in and expand on this topic, and see if we can’t improve your process.

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Rituals to Help Conquer the Blank Page

June 18th, 2021

Image via Alex Kozlov We’ve all sat in front of the blank page, cursor blinking, anxiety spiking, coffee cup needing a refill. To writers, honestly there is nothing more terrifying than staring into that emptiness, into all that untapped possibility. I can’t even begin to tell you about the number of nights I’ve sat at my computer, deleting words, rewriting outlines, wearing out the backspace key, and yelling at the wall. It’s maddening.

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In Honor of Audiobook Appreciation Month: A Celebration

June 17th, 2021

Image via Stas Knop For the longest time, I didn’t understand audiobooks. Not that I couldn’t comprehend the actual books: I legitimately couldn’t grasp the concept of audiobooks as a way of reading. I had tried, many years ago, to get into them, thinking it would be a great way to make use of my commute time. But I just...couldn’t. The subway was too loud, I couldn’t focus—I just wanted to read my hardcovers and paperbacks and maybe an occasional ebook.

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Have You a Tamerlane? Down the Rabbit Hole of U.S. Literature’s Black Tulip

June 16th, 2021

“It has been my happiness to start many earnest searchers on the endless trail, and it is my boast that I have disrupted more homes than all the divorce courts in the land,” Vincent Starrett wrote in a 1925 Saturday Evening Post article titled, "Have You a Tamerlane in Your Attic?” 

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What Is Identity Marketing?

June 15th, 2021

A column about identity is a dangerous thing to write. But identity marketing is something that affects your life, and you need to know about it. If you’re a writer or bookseller, you might do it intentionally, you might do it unintentionally, or you might have it done for you with no regard for your opinion on it. If you’re a reader, you’re being sold books (and other stuff) through identity marketing.

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Mary SanGiovanni Makes the Best Monsters

June 14th, 2021

Mary SanGiovanni is by far one of the most talented authors working in horror today. She is a singular creative voice in modern cosmic horror, and her depth of knowledge about the subgenre is incredible. I suspected as much from reading her work, but listening to her Cosmic Shenanigans podcast opened my eyes to the vast library of knowledge she possesses about the many instances of cosmic horror in books, comics, movies, visual art, and more.

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Comics vs. Television: "Invincible" Animates Well

June 11th, 2021

Superhero cartoons have always been a real mixed bag. For every truly timeless classic, there are dozens of glorified toy commercials. You always hope for another Batman: The Animated Series, but usually we just get cheaper, uglier versions of our beloved characters having laboriously tame, child-friendly confrontations, while ignoring all of the great storytelling that made the comic book a property worth adapting in the first place.

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A Year Expanding the Canon: Reading Non-WASP Stories

June 8th, 2021

I had what's considered a traditional education when it comes to literature: The standard curriculum for an English major during my undergrad, further exploration of the literary canon in my MFA program, and independent reading guided by the "classics." What this means is that I am fairly fluent when it comes to the traditional, English-language "canon."

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