Columns

Is Patreon Still A Viable Platform and Income Source for Authors?

November 24th, 2020

Patreon.com is a platform for creators of all types to share work with a dedicated audience in a subscription format. Supporters of particular creators on Patreon are called patrons. Rewards for support can be physical things that are mailed or digital work that is unlocked. Support can begin at as little as a dollar a month and moves up through tiers for higher-level supporters and content. Patreon includes pages from visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, podcasters, streamers, adult star “only fans” personalities, authors, and more.

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Storyville: 10 Tips on How to Be a Good Critique Partner

November 23rd, 2020

So I know a lot of you have been in workshops, either here at LitReactor or other places. How can you be a good critique partner, no matter what the environment? Here are some tips based on my twelve years of experience. Hope it helps.

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It's Time To Change the Virtual Event Game

November 20th, 2020

We’re all goddamn sick and tired of virtual events. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but they're not going away anytime soon.  Let’s talk about how you make your virtual event suck less.

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Meandering, Wrecked, and Random: My First True Understanding of Narrative Structure

November 19th, 2020

Photo courtesy of Karin Cecile Davidson In 1987, living in Iowa City with no intention of even trying for the Writers’ Workshop, I read and wrote and worked at New Pioneer Co-op, bouncing from running a register to unloading back stock to fronting bottles of shampoo or restocking bottles of beer. In the five years since graduating college, I’d worked on Colorado River rafting trips in the Grand Canyon; on the Mississippi Queen—a paddlewheel boat loaded with passengers and crew that traveled the Mississippi River between New Orleans and St.

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Creating a Reading System Helped Me Find Joy in Reading Again

November 18th, 2020

Images via Miguel Á. Padriñán & Leah Kelley Recently a tweet went around that had one of those alignment charts but for book-reading. Things like Lawful Good (read one book at a time, finish it before moving onto the next) were on there, all the way to Chaotic Evil (I can't even type it out it's too horrifying to me).

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Appetite for Destruction: 7 Food Horror Books

November 17th, 2020

I'm a little bit of a messy eater, so if I snack while I'm reading the food has to be very smudge-free, otherwise, I'm likely to leave more on the page than just my feelings. Some of my favorite go-to snacks are: Nuts & Seeds, Popcorn (not too buttery!), and pretzels. There's something so satisfying about the relaxing nature of eating and reading at the same time. But twice as nice is eating and reading about food! Food horror is totally a thing. Don't believe me? Check out these recommendations of horror with an emphasis on food.

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The BS Parts of the Submission Process

November 13th, 2020

This is going to sound like the embittered ramblings of someone who’s been rejected by a whole lot of publishers, lit mags, and agents. I guess this is the part where I explain why that’s not true. But I’m skipping that. Because, readers, if you’ve gone through a fair number of submissions, you’ll know that I speak the truth here. Once in awhile, an embittered jerkface, like myself ,gets it right.

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Stab Wounds: Meditation on the Line

November 11th, 2020

Photo by Badulescu Badulescu Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the line: how it breathes, how it holds itself together, the way it drags us gasping and screaming off the page. At the same time, it’s both vibrant and silent, and yet what’s so fascinating about it is the fact that its importance is so often overlooked because we, as writers and readers, often turn a blind eye to the way it frames the poem, how its skeleton allows us to move and dance and disappear on and off the page.

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Co-writing a Novel: Keys to a Successful Collaboration

November 10th, 2020

A few days ago, Bob Pastorella and I released our collaborative novel, They’re Watching, to coincide with Halloween. Though in many ways it was far from our first collaboration. We’ve been working together for years, hosting the This Is Horror Podcast and running the This Is Horror website.

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7 Books for Fans of Subtle Horror

November 9th, 2020

I am the oldest of three sisters. We are all avid readers and we inherited our love of books from our mother. I would say the whole family has an affinity for horror, but some of us like the intense scares (me) and some of us prefer a more subtle approach. My middle sister's birthday is November 7th, so this list of "Quiet Horror" is dedicated to her. Some of these books she has read and recommended to me, some I have seen lingering on her shelves, one she gifted to my daughter and the rest are books I think she would like.

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