Columns

The 10 Best Zombie Books You May Not Have Heard Of

April 2nd, 2021

I’ve watched a lot of zombie movies. I’ve watched a lot of really terrible zombie movies as a result. I’ve read a lot of zombie books and have written many myself. I had a zombie story included in Best Horror of the Year volume 5 edited by the legendary Ellen Datlow. I had a zombie story included in Zombies: More Recent Dead with Prime Books. For a few years, I ran a zombie book blog tour twice yearly, featuring the work of several fine authors in this subgenre of horror and apocalyptic fiction.

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Why The WandaVision Reception Is Insulting to Comics

March 31st, 2021

Let’s look at some reviews of Wandavision: Shirley Li, The Atlantic: She's not the first superhero to be affected acutely by emotional pain; everyone knows that quote about great power and great responsibility. Yet for an MCU project, the choice to focus on Wanda's inner life is revolutionary. David Poland, Movie City News:

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The Purr-fect Tail: 7 Books to Celebrate Respect Your Cat Day

March 26th, 2021

They say dogs are man’s best friend, but ask any cat lover and they’ll tell you of the deep bond that exists between cats and their human servants companions. Sure, it may not look as friendly as what dogs have to offer — a cat won’t exactly leap up and cover your face with slobbery licks — but don’t let a cat’s calm exterior fool you. Deep down, these beautiful creatures are every bit as capable of love, affection, and yes, outright silliness, as their canine counterparts. You just need to know how to read them.

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Storyville: What Do You Have the Authority to Write?

March 25th, 2021

NOTE: These are my opinions as a straight white male, who is solidly middle class. My basic advice is that YES, with research and hard work you SHOULD be able to write about any person you like, but never speak FOR somebody or something you are not. If you are unsure, ask a friend, or hire a sensitivity reader.

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Five Things I Learned About Writing From Learning How To Make Games

March 24th, 2021

Header image via New Old Stock Games have always been something of a dark art to me, a mysterious form of modern magic, and for the longest time, I’ve played them, loved them, had profound experiences with them, but never really understood them.  How could endless lines of code make all that cool stuff happen? All the pew-pews and the jumping and that? It’s pure magic. How could it not be?

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Thirteen Musicians Who Can Also Write

March 23rd, 2021

Pictured: Exene Cervenka, Jim Carroll, Nick Cave For decades I was a musician first, writer second — though I’m grateful that has flipped over the last five years. Since writing is a solitary endeavor, I feel the energy a writer expends is reciprocated in greater, more immediate reward — even if it’s only confined to our private vantage. Since the lifestyle of a musician seems to inexplicably require wasting large chunks of time where you’re not actually doing the “thing,” it’s almost unfair to compare the two crafts.

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Who Owns The Story?

March 22nd, 2021

Let’s say you and I date (I’ll apologize now, prepare do be disappointed, even in the hypothetical). Let’s say you’re an artist, and in the course of our romance you ask if I’d be willing to pose nude for a painting. And I agree. Again, prepare to be disappointed. You paint me naked. And you flatter me a little bit because, you know, we’re dating, and I’d appreciate an extra inch here, a subtracted inch there, some hair removal. Lots of hair removal. Butt area, primarily, for hair removal.

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"WandaVision" Demonstrates the Untapped Potential of the Superhero Genre

March 19th, 2021

Superheroes can do anything. This is true not just of the characters themselves, but also the stories they inhabit. A superhero narrative is so flexible it can be bent into any shape the writer can imagine—everything from detective procedural to sci-fi farce. It is a genre where literally nothing is too far-fetched or ridiculous. Superman can go from saving a cat in a tree to mediating peace in an interstellar war within the same issue. That limitless potential is one of the reasons the genre he sired has endured and thrived over the last century.

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Weapons of Choice to Draft That Novel Now

March 16th, 2021

You know how I know it’s March? Nope, not the sea of green in preparation for St. Paddy’s Day. Not the light spring breeze that I can almost pretend is actually there. No.  I know it’s March because I can feel the collective ooze of self-loathing from a community of writers who are feeling their goals of writing-that-dang-novel-this-year coming to a carpet burn-y halt. 

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March Madness: 8 Books That Will Mess With Your Head

March 15th, 2021

When I was in high school, I decided to take a Human Psychology class in place of a traditional Science class. About a week into instruction, I tripped out on the fact that my brain was literally learning about itself. It might have been because I often showed up to my 5th period class after taking a few hits off a joint at lunch, but I remember feeling like it was really weird for my brain to be studying... brains. Is that only weird to me? 

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