Columns

5 Ghost Stories to Help You Haunt the Holidays

December 11th, 2020

There is a longstanding tradition of telling ghost stories on the eve of the winter solstice. Favored folk festivities have brought friends and family around the yule log, spending the longest night of the year enveloped in tales of specters, mischievous fairies, and ancient deities and spirits alike, but while this time of year is a period to entertain and spend time with loved ones, it’s also a time to pause and reflect and get in touch with our shadow selves.

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10 Things I Learned Live Streaming the Writing of My 50K Word NaNoWriMo Novel

December 10th, 2020

It’s as crazy as it sounds. On its own, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is enough of a challenge for authors. The endgame—to create a 50,000 word novel in a month. I decided to write my 50,000 words over the course of 20 days, all while live streaming on Twitch. If you’re quick, you can see the videos on my Twitch channel before they disappear after 60 days. I have Gaming Prime, formerly Twitch Prime, available as a bonus with Amazon Prime, and 60-day storage of videos is one of the perks.

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LitReactor Staff Picks: The Best Books of 2020 - Part II

December 9th, 2020

Another year has come and gone. You know what that means, don't you? Time for a bunch of strangers to tell you what was good! And why should you care what the LitReactor staff thinks are the best books of the year? Trick question! You shouldn't. But what they have to say might interest you nonetheless, because they are good-looking and knowledgeable and they read like the wind. So for those who care, we submit for your approval/derision some of LitReactor's favorite reads of 2020 (part 1).

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9 Things About Agents No One Told You

December 7th, 2020

Images by Victoria Borodinova & Andrea Piacquadio If you follow me on social media you know I love talking about publishing. I love talking about writing because writing is my life, but I also love to talk about publishing. The difference is simple: writing is art, but publishing is a business.

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How to Shop for a Writer: the Holiday Edition

December 7th, 2020

The holidays are approaching, and you’ve got a writer to shop for. Easy! If someone’s a writer, there’s a decent chance they’re also a reader. So you can just buy them some random book, right? Right…? Well, not really. Unless you’ve got a good grasp of your recipient’s taste and buy something they’re really going to like, generic ‘first-middling-price-book-you-saw-at-the-store-that-had-an-okay-cover’ probably isn’t going to blow them away.

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27 Indie Bookstores to Support Online in 2021

December 4th, 2020

Let's get straight to it. These are some indies that go beyond the ones you hear about all the time, and they have some special offerings that'll help you pick out the right gift.  Look, sorry guys, but there isn’t enough room for everybody. And we had to set some standards. A lot of bookstores out there are awesome, but they don't offer the services people need to shop at the moment. Shipping, at least in the U.S., needs to be available.

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LitReactor Staff Picks: The Best Books of 2020 - Part I

December 3rd, 2020

Another year has come and gone. You know what that means, don't you? Time for a bunch of strangers to tell you what was good! And why should you care what the LitReactor staff thinks are the best books of the year? Trick question! You shouldn't. But what they have to say might interest you nonetheless, because they are good-looking and knowledgeable and they read like the wind. So for those who care, we submit for your approval/derision some of LitReactor's favorite reads of 2020 (part 1).

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10 Books on Writing and Creativity Every Author Should Ask for this Holiday Season

December 1st, 2020

Authors tend to run hot and cold on writing classes and writing books. Some people swear by them. Other writers are either dubious or bordering on hostile toward them. I’m not positive, but I believe these opinions are tied in part to other writing debates about what makes someone a “real” writer, what paths to publishing are most honorable, whether you should call yourself a writer or an author, or if it’s realistic to become a full-time writer/author.

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Storyville: How Long Should Your Story Be?

November 30th, 2020

One question I get from most of my student is, “How long should my story be?” Or, “How do you know when to stop, when your story is done?” And those are great questions. Let’s take a look at some different variables that can help you to figure out how long your story should be, and if there is enough meat on the bone to go longer.

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How to Protect Your Writing Time From Distraction

November 30th, 2020

Original image via C Technical I’ve got a running list of dates in my mind to remind myself of the person I was before said date hits. The Confident and Carefree Lisa of October 2016, the Excited For Three Weeks of Quarantine Lisa of March 2020, and the Wary and Ready to Throw Down Lisa of November, 2020—it seems like each new week brings a fresh hell of surprise and “it’s just unprecedented” and outrage and distraction.

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