Columns

Good Idea or Bad Idea: 100 Writers, Publishers, and Editors Weigh in on my Career Choices

June 2nd, 2020

I approached fellow authors, publishers, editors, and other industry folks. I gave them a list of twelve things I have done, I am doing, or that I’m thinking about doing in my writing career. They simply had to state "good idea" or "bad idea" for each one.

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What Libraries Get Wrong About Summer Reading

June 1st, 2020

This year I’ll be involved in my 16th summer reading at the library. There’s your bona fides. The library and summer reading go together like John Carpenter and synthesizers. Wait, that’s too cool. Not that I think summer reading is uncool, but c’mon, there's a limit.  The library and summer reading go together like glasses and retainers. There, that feels about right.

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5 Signs Your Reading Partner Is A Dud

May 29th, 2020

Original images by Leah Kelley & Markus Spiske Finding a great reading partner(s) can be like finding a needle in a haystack—you’ll likely go through plenty of perfectly fine writers before you find that one reading partner perfectly fit for your work. It can be hard to tell a good fit from a great fit, so here are five tell-tale signs your reading partner is better fit for someone that’s… well, not you. 

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Welcome the Characters Who Show Up Too Early and Stay Too Late

May 29th, 2020

Photo courtesy of the author In 2013, when I attended a prestigious writing conference, my workshop instructor’s reaction to my pages was a resounding “meh.” Not one to mince words, he told me the chapter I’d submitted wasn’t going anywhere—indeed, was going around in circles—and that the journey I’d imagined for my protagonist wasn’t an interesting journey at all. I had about a hundred pages of this novel back at home, and I came away from the conference convinced I should burn the whole manuscript.

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Exploring The Inherent Queer Undertones Of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"

May 28th, 2020

Earlier this month, the National Theatre in London made its 2011 production of Frankenstein, adapted for the stage by Nick Dear and directed by Danny Boyle, available to stream for free via their YouTube page. There were two separate recordings of this play, one featuring Jonny Lee Miller as Victor Frankenstein and Benedict Cumberbatch as the Creature, and the other featuring the actors in swapped roles (Miller and Cumberbatch alternated the parts throughout the production’s run).

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Celebrating Dashiell Hammett: The 'Thin Man' Himself

May 27th, 2020

Header and author photo via Wikipedia Dashiell Hammett, the hard-drinking ex-detective credited with helping found and popularize the crime genre known as “hardboiled,” would likely be celebrating his 126th birthday this May 27 with a shot if he was still around.

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A Cheat Sheet to This Year's Nebula Awards Nominees

May 26th, 2020

  Another drumroll, please — the Nebula Awards are almost upon us! Alongside the Hugo Awards, the Nebulas are one of the biggest deals in the SFF world: they’re basically equivalent to the genre’s Academy Awards, as members of the SFWA themselves vote for the winners.

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Skipp's Self-Isolating ABC’S of the COVID-19 (Stage One)

May 25th, 2020

Alphabet photo by Magda Ehlers AUTHOR’S NOTE — If there’s one symptom of the coronavirus that’s spread faster than the virus itself, it’s writer’s block through the writer’s community. You don’t even have to catch the bug itself, cuz it’s already done a number on our heads.

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Can Townies Write?

May 22nd, 2020

Original images by Michael Morse & Polina Zimmerman You want to write? Are you moving to New York? L.A.? Headed to an MFA program somewhere? You’re staying in the town where you grew up? Can that work? Writing and Publishing Right off the bat, yes, you can stay in your hometown and write. Publishing, that’s another story.

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Conflict Without Violence: How to Add More Depth To Your Fiction

May 21st, 2020

I'm going to give you three scenarios. In the first I'm laying in bed in the dead dark of 3 A.M when suddenly the three sleeping dogs around me begin to bark. I see the silhouette of a man at the window slip away, and I'm unable to sleep for the rest of the night.

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