Columns

Why NaNoWriMo is a Terrible Idea, But I Keep Doing it Anyway

October 26th, 2020

Images via Jordan Benton & Ketut Subiyanto I’ve been a full-time author since February of 2013. I remember the day I quit my teaching job in the middle of the week. It was a Thursday. I walked outside the school no longer employed. I had no idea how I was going to make it work. The air smelled fresher, colors were brighter, and I remember the song that was playing on the radio as I drove away.

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Storyville: Foreshadowing in Fiction—How to Set the Stage

October 23rd, 2020

When it comes to telling a great story, there are many essential elements. One of the more advanced techniques, whether it’s in your short story or your novel, is foreshadowing. Today we’re going to talk about what foreshadowing is and how it can make your stories more tense, believable, layered, and effective.  DEFINED From Wikipedia:

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Conjuring Strength Through Poetry: Battling the Slasher Movie in Your Head

October 22nd, 2020

Images via Karolina Grabowska & Engin Akyurt I’ve always been attracted to the word conjure. Even the way it rolls off the tongue—all thick and slow like hot, dripping honey—makes it feel strong, otherworldly, almost like a verbal talisman or charm.

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Paying Respects to Ursula K. Le Guin: The Queen of Spec-Fic

October 21st, 2020

Author photo via Wikipedia There is only one Ursula in the sci-fi/fantasy writing world. She inspired many of us before her passing a couple of years ago, paving the way for imaginative creatives (especially females). Without her Earthsea series it is very likely that Harry Potter would have never existed.

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What's Scary In Small, Indie, and Self-Pub

October 20th, 2020

Original image via Pixabay If you want to be scared this October, turn away from the mainstream. Tell Publisher’s Weekly to piss off. And stop looking to big publishers to bring the pain. If you want to get scared, go small.

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Showing and Telling, and Trusting the Reader

October 15th, 2020

Image by Henry & Co. Plenty of people have written about the most famous writing cliché, “show don’t tell.” At this point, I think we all know that the concept behind that is far more complicated than those three words literally imply. However, even for writers who are excellent at “showing” there is often a problem with telling, and it doesn’t result from some failure to use concrete and vivid imagery, or any sort of technical deficiency.

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Too Young for Horror?

October 14th, 2020

Most of us saw someone get decapitated a little before we were ready. Most of us had a parent who didn’t read a movie description, an uncle who liked to show us monster movies and fill us with sugar, and some of us just managed to fight sleep long enough to go deep into cable channels and see heads rolling, someone punching right through a dude, or maybe even a bit of nudity. Chances are you saw some horror before you could totally handle it.

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The Kings of Steam: Remembering the Work of Jay Lake and Brandon Black

October 13th, 2020

I miss Jay Lake and Brandon Black. I knew Lake solely through his writing as a reader and fan. Brandon Black, the pen name for James Louis Butler III, I knew as a peer and friend. I never had the pleasure of meeting either of them in person.

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Chuck-alikes: A Chuck Palahniuk Read-alike List Part 2

October 12th, 2020

Chuck-alike definition: Books like Chuck Palahniuk’s. [Click here for Chuck-alikes: Part 1] Chuck’s books attract people who don’t always enjoy the books they were assigned in school, the books that hit bestseller lists, the books that you find in book clubs. Which means Chuck's fans have to be a little more clever when we're looking for other great books.

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Storyville: How to Collaborate on a Fiction Project

October 9th, 2020

I’ve worked on two major collaborations in my career—The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books, 2016), which is four novellas linked together in the same world, but entirely independent, with Nik Korpon, Caleb Ross, and Axel Taiari; and the novelette Golden Sun (Chiral Mad 4), with Kristi DeMeester, Damien Angelica Walters, and Michael Wehunt. So how did these projects come together, what was the process, and what tips do I have for you? Let’s dig in and see.

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