Columns

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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Storyville: Why Denouement is So Important to a Satisfying Story

September 4th, 2020

If you are hearing this word “denouement” for the first time, then we have a LOT to talk about. To me, it’s a crucial part of your storytelling, and one of the most important aspects of your story structure, mechanics, and ending. Let’s dig into it.

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Four Reasons Hulu Executives Were Fools To Cancel “High Fidelity”

September 3rd, 2020

I’ve admittedly never read Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel High Fidelity, though the film adaptation from 2000 has long been a favorite of mine. John Cusack manages to charm as main character Rob even though he is thoroughly, as Liz (played by Cusack’s sister Joan) calls him in the film, a “fucking asshole.” But he learns not to be a fucking asshole throughout the narrative, or at least, less of one. Jack Black’s turn as Barry is easily his finest hour as a comedic actor (save maybe his guest appearance on Community).

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The Scarlet Plague: Exploring the Historical Influence of Pandemics on Literature

September 2nd, 2020

Is it a good idea to write a pandemic story in 2020? What about next year or the year after? One of the things I thought early on as the pandemic played out was that the inboxes of publishers were going to be flooded with pandemic novels and stories. Another thing that hit me was how bad I felt for authors already in the middle of writing pandemic stories. How Do We Go On?

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The Ancient Universal Truths of Confucius on What is Likely His Birthday

August 27th, 2020

Image via Wikipedia K’ung Ch’iu, K’ung Fu-Tzu, K’ung Chung-ni... These aren’t exactly well-known names in western culture, but when you mention Confucius, everyone knows who you are talking about. He has gone by all these names. The infamous latter title is the westernized name assigned to him. 

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