Columns

Critical Analysis: The Key Skill High School Kills

April 16th, 2021

Here's the most concerning insight I've had as a college instructor: Beyond simply lacking experience with critical analysis, most college freshmen struggle to move beyond established modes of "high school thinking." Their education, it seems, has entrenched them in patterns of disengagement and factual regurgitation.

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Why Bad Writers Are Good Mentors

April 15th, 2021

Let me tell you about my best coach. He was a running coach, mostly worked with distance runners. He taught me how to train, how to coach, how to recruit students who’d never thought of running (it’s as easy as taking interest in their lives and saying something along the lines of “Why don’t you come out and run with us? I think you’d like it, and I think you’d be a fun person to have out on the track.”).

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How My Father and I Bonded Over Thieves’ World

April 14th, 2021

Thieves’ World was a shared-world, sword-and-sorcery anthology series that debuted in 1979. The stories from different authors took place in the gritty city of Sanctuary out on the coastal edge of a thriving empire. Twelve anthologies came out between ’79 and ’89, one a year every year except ’86, which saw two releases. About ten authors at a time per book played in this universe, including some recognized talent, who joined in to create stories and characters. Over the course of a decade's worth of stories, regimes rose and fell.

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How to Write a Cover Letter That Won’t Kill You

April 13th, 2021

Original image by Vickie Intili Most literary journals ask for a “cover letter” to go with their submissions. This, of course, sends many writers into an anxious frenzy. What should the cover letter say? Should it talk about the meaning of the piece submitted? Should it include a bio? What does it all mean?? 

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Storyville: Reasons Authors Don't Submit Their Work—And My Responses

April 12th, 2021

I was talking to the students in one of my classes the other day and the topic of submissions came up. We had a long chat about stories, the process, and the dread. That prompted me to ask them WHY they didn’t send out their stories. What was stopping them? What stood in their way? Here are their answers and my responses, which will hopefully encourage them, and YOU, dear reader, to send out your work. How are you going to be discovered if nobody reads your amazing new story? Here is my advice. Hope it helps.

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"Reflecting Burroughs" by Chris Kelso

April 8th, 2021

In Burroughs and Scotland, Chris Kelso explores the relationship between William S. Burroughs (author of Naked Lunch, Junkie, and The Soft Machine) and a country very much attuned to the Beat author’s provocative, transgressive sci-fi style of literature. Kelso investigates why Burroughs was drawn to Scotland, why Scotland was drawn to Burroughs, and what exactly the author got up to during his various visits to Edinburgh.

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How To Help Indie Authors Without Spending A Penny

April 7th, 2021

There used to be a time when readers would join a local book club and get together to discuss their latest read, but since social media emerged and organizations like Amazon began dominating the online retail space, things have drastically changed. We live in a world where anyone can publish a book, which is amazing. There are so many talented writers out there that will never have their stories accepted by a massive publishing house, but they can get their book into readers' hands by utilizing tools such as online marketplaces and social media.

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10 Books that Influenced "The Paradox Twins"

April 5th, 2021

My debut novel, The Paradox Twins, comes out from CLASH Books on April 6th. It is based on a famous thought experiment and tells the story of estranged identical twin brothers who reunite at their father's funeral, only to discover they no longer look alike. The book is presented as "a copyright infringing biographical collage that exists on the Internet, pieced together by an unknown auteur." Essentially, it is an epistolary work comprised of excerpts from various memoirs, novels, screenplay adaptations, and documents of public record.

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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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