Columns

The Best and Worst Book Furniture

August 17th, 2020

The comfortable chair will always have a place in reading. The gizmo in the reader’s hands might change, but the chair has been pretty similar for just about as long as we’ve had legs and activities that make those legs tired. Sure, there are cosmetic changes once in awhile, cup holders because we’re too lazy to hold objects, reclining ability because why not always sort of be in bed?

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Buy or Deny: 18 Trump Books You Should Consider Reading Before Election Day

August 13th, 2020

Image Credit: Vector Clipart Courtesy of friendlystock.com I shouldn’t have written this article. I’m sure many of you are already looking at me sideways, wondering why a Black woman in today’s America would even entertain such a topic. Believe me, I am well aware of how lightly I’ll need to tread here. But I think it is important that as we enter the 2020 election season, we move toward the ballot box armed with as much information about the incumbent as possible.

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Storyville: Universal Truths Can Help Your Readers Relate

August 12th, 2020

In my classes I talk about a lot of different ways to structure your stories and make them work. I talk about Freytag a lot—that narrative hook, inciting incident, exposition, rising tension, internal and external conflicts, leading to a resolution, change, and denouement. That’s very important. I also talk about writing across three levels to really appeal to the widest readership:

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Best Self-Published Horror Books of 2020 So Far

August 11th, 2020

The self-published category of horror fiction can be tough to navigate. There are a lot of talented authors who consistently put out quality horror. These individuals know the value of good editing, well designed book covers, and the importance of interior formatting. Here are my recommendations for the best self-published horror books of 2020 so far:

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Using Plain Language in Speculative Fiction

August 10th, 2020

One time my daughter walked up to me and said, “There’s a chicken in the wall.” Being a good father to a toddler, I hope, I let her take me over to the wall while I wondered what on Earth she was talking about. We took a few steps and she put her little hands out, cupped in order to cradle this chicken. She let her fingertips brush the paint, got the chicken, then turned to show it to me.

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Celebrating National Book Lovers' Day

August 7th, 2020

Original photo by Rahul Pandit I wasn’t always a book lover. In fact, when my mom first started teaching me to read, I went down kicking and screaming — metaphorically, of course. I have this clear memory of sitting in my bedroom in our apartment when the door opened and she walked in with one of those learn-to-read books, and I just pitched the mother of all fits. She says I didn’t pitch a fit, but I remember it that way and hey, this is my story.

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What If Books Aren't The Answer To Our Problems?

August 6th, 2020

I was wrong about what an “adult slumber party” is. Turns out it’s a polite way to advertise that you’ll go to a house and sell a group of people dildos. I was wrong when I figured that red and white wine were interchangeable when you were cooking. I was wrong when I was a kid and I figured if I could get my hands on a big enough TV, I’d have way more lines to the top of the screen, and Tetris would be a snap.

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The Origin of a Space Parasite

August 5th, 2020

The Parasite From Proto Space & Other Stories, a collection of short fiction and prose by Brett Petersen, is a glimpse into the mind of an autistic savant: a rollercoaster ride through hallucinatory realities subject to shift at any moment. True-to-life characters and their universally human experiences serve as the reader’s guiding thread through the fractal labyrinths of the Squid Universe: a world shaped by mental illness, paranoia, Id-driven language experimentation and theological speculation inspired by the works of Philip K. Dick, H.P.

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"Cursed": The Road to Redemption Starts with Strong Roots

August 4th, 2020

An outcast sorceress turned queen. A cutthroat fighting to regain his honor. Vikings. A drunk Merlin. Shadow Lords. Crusader monks. A nun who could probably give Pennywise nightmares––or maybe they’d be friends, I’m still not sure. The Netflix adaptation of Thomas Wheeler and Frank Miller’s novel Cursed is packed with a sprawling cast and a wide range of character arcs you’d expect in a book based on the Arthurian legends.

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The Bloody New Nostalgia of Splatter Westerns

August 3rd, 2020

When I was a kid, my dad loved westerns. He read Louis L’Amour books until he needed entire shelves just for that author. On Saturday afternoons, much to my chagrin, he would take over the TV and binge the old westerns, many in black and white, on the few channels we had. As a kid, I couldn’t really relate at all. Kids born in the 1970s often had fathers born in the 40s and 50s who grew up on a heavy diet of westerns that became deep-set nostalgia by the 80s. My father was fascinated by crime fiction, science fiction, high fantasy, and to a lesser degree, horror too.

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