Columns

Twitter Bots for Writers

September 21st, 2020

Twitter is a shithole.  Okay, that’s not fair. Twitter is a hole. And unfortunately, it only takes one person shitting in a hole for any hole to become a shithole. So, by that common standard, Twitter is definitely a shithole. But I don’t want to put that on anyone in particular. Instead, I want to tell you about a way we might be able to shovel some of the shit out. And I'm here to hand you a shovel. 

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Halloween 2020 Reading List

September 18th, 2020

October is just around the corner. If you're a Horror Fiction Hound like me, you need plenty of time to prepare the perfect selection of books for your Halloween Reading List. Some of these books need to be pre-ordered. I have made sure to note which books are already available and the release date of books that aren't. In this list you will find full-size novels, novellas, anthologies and short story collections. I'm putting a special emphasis on more recent titles and 2020 released books, but here are some classic books I like to sprinkle in for atmosphere:

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Struggling to Journal, but Learning to Forgive Myself

September 17th, 2020

Original images by V. Sadasivuni & J. Chan Toward the beginning of the coronavirus lockdown, I found myself back at my parents’ house in South Carolina, due to worsening mental health and the overwhelming need to be somewhere I didn’t feel in danger of hurting myself.

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Evaluating The Wit and Wisdom of H.L. Mencken

September 15th, 2020

Author image via Wikipedia The eminent journalist H.L. Mencken was born 140 years ago this month, which makes it a good time to take a look back at his work. The fact that it is a presidential election year makes it all the better, since Mencken’s acerbic humor was so often directed at politics and presidents, and much of it shows that the complaints we have about our contemporary politicians aren’t anything new.

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Happy Birthday to Richard Smyth: the Most Underrated Indie Author

September 14th, 2020

Author photo courtesy of Richard Smyth The ink is wild and the word-smithing never stops. Indie authors have to work twice as hard to be heard half as much as the big-name mainstreamers. It comes with the territory. 

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Managing a Professional Author Online Presence

September 11th, 2020

Laptop image via Karina Zhukovskaya Writing is hard. We all know that already. In addition to writing, there is everything that comes with it: marketing, establishing an online presence and managing it, growing an audience, and more. Many writers grow their audience through various means, including newsletters, convention appearances, bookstore signings, and their social media presence.

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The Art of the Gross Out Contest — from a Two Time Reigning Champ

September 10th, 2020

I am officially the grossest man in the world two years running. I’m gross on a championship level and still reigning. I won the KillerCon Gross Out Contest in 2019 and in 2020. So, I think it goes without saying that my mother is super proud. What Is A Gross Out Contest? It is a competitive reading done by authors of horror, extreme horror, and splatterpunk fiction. These short performances are done for an audience and then judged by an esteemed panel of notable genre members who embrace the gross.

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Reviewing Chuck Palahniuk's Reviewers

September 9th, 2020

Laura Miller’s dirty, hit-job review of Chuck Palahniuk's Diary started all this. In 2003 Miller reviewed Diary for Salon. And the review was so foul that in a rare, unprecedented, and unrepeated, move, Chuck Palahniuk himself responded to Miller’s critique:  I have never responded to a review, perhaps because I've never gotten such a cruel and mean-spirited one.

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It's Hard to Be Scared of the Man with the Knife, Anymore

September 8th, 2020

Talking about the scare-factor or the horror element of slashers can be as messy as a setpiece designed by Tom Savini with an unlimited budget. I've killed three previous drafts of this article for that reason, struggling to maintain the balancing act of word limit and avoiding the sweaty pantings of neckbearded fanboys.

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A Prose Writer Dips Her Toe in the Playwriting World

September 7th, 2020

When it comes to playwriting, I’m a late bloomer. I wrote my first stageplay, “Winnie,” an adaptation of my own short story, in 2016. At that point, I’d been writing prose for twelve years. During the process of adaptation, I realized I needed to get a better handle on playwriting “grammar.” I looked into playwriting classes and found the Dramatists Guild Institute (DGI). I saw that DGI was offering a 2-day workshop for playwrights in Los Angeles and signed up.

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