Columns

Tackling the Dreaded Rewrite

March 13th, 2019

photo by Adam Klepsteen No one would put sour milk back in the fridge and expect it to be fresh tomorrow. The same logic applies to a bad manuscript. It won't improve without a grueling effort to make it more palatable to discerning agents and editors. When considering a major overhaul for a book-length project, writers need to ask themselves hard questions. Below are the first five you should ask yourself when considering the dreaded rewrite.

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Why I (& Many Editors) Reject A Book Based on the First Paragraph

March 12th, 2019

Original image via Free Images Open submissions are basically speed dating for publishers/editors/agents. The first line of a book is that first glimpse across the table. It is the first impression. It is the moment when an editor honestly asks themselves: am I into this or not?

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Comics vs. Television: The Umbrella Academy

March 11th, 2019

Every now and then, a comic book adaptation does the impossible. It not only translates its source material to another medium (tricky enough on its own), but actually improves upon it in almost every way. Plot holes get patched, characters get fleshed out, and dramatic tension is cranked to eleven. The original is still great, but the adaptation fixes a lot of flaws, making it more accessible to a larger audience.

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Captain Marvel: Primer Plus Predictions

March 8th, 2019

Perhaps, like me, a lot of you were pretty excited by the Captain Marvel trailer. She punches out an old lady on the bus! Finally, a hero who represents my interests! But perhaps, unlike me, you didn’t squander your youth with comics. Maybe you wasted your time, I dunno, building relationships, skills, or connecting with family. I’m not going to judge your terrible decision-making. Instead, I’m going to give you popcorn-munchers a quick primer on Captain Marvel.

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Dirty Little Secrets Part Three: Why the Agent Requested—and Then Rejected—the Full

March 7th, 2019

Every year, most likely, there’s a big writers’ conference in your area, one where aspiring authors gather to pitch their novels to agents in the hopes of landing representation. And every year, most likely, there are a whole lot of writers who get super psyched because one of those agents liked their pitch, liked their first 50 pages, and requested their full manuscript—only to get super bummed, either a matter of days or an archeological age later, when that agent decides to pass.

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The Five Habits of Highly Effective Horror Fiction Podcasts

March 6th, 2019

If you can believe it, podcasts are still a relatively new thing. There was a time when only the early-adopters (Apple cultists, people with raspberry jam on their hands, men called Keith, etc) knew what a podcast was. Now everyone's got a podcast or two on the go. Even my granddad has filled his iPad to bursting point with hours of World War 2 documentaries. And as the medium continues to flourish at a rate only comparable to the introduction of biscuits in England, so too, does the sub-genre of horror fiction podcasts.

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How I Fell for Dan Mallory's Lies, and Why I Took it Personally

March 4th, 2019

Dear World, On February 11, 2019, The New Yorker released a long-form article documenting the numerous and inexhaustible lies told by bestselling author Dan Mallory (writing as A.J. Finn). This is the story of how I fell for his lies, and how I took them personally.

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'The Punisher' Season Two: Worse Than the First

March 4th, 2019

The last time I wrote about Netflix’s The Punisher, I was severely disappointed. The show had fundamentally misunderstood its main character, and wasted a ton of screen time sanding off all the hard edges that make Frank Castle interesting, in a misguided attempt to make him a more “likable” protagonist. Much to my dismay, the second season of The Punisher repeats all of the sins of its predecessor while adding a host of new ones.

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8 Dr. Seuss Books You Positively Can't Live Without

March 1st, 2019

In 1925, Theodor Seuss Geisel was asked to leave Dartmouth College’s school newspaper, the Jack-O-Lantern, for drinking during the Prohibition. In order to continue working at the paper without the school’s administration knowing, Geisel decided to adopt the pen name “Seuss.” He added the “Dr.” as a poke at his father, who’d always encouraged his son to get a PhD.

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10 Black Caribbean Authors You Need to Read

February 28th, 2019

Header image via You already know you should be reading horror written by females and books written by writers of color every month, but February is a great month to remind everyone of this. It's also a superb time to remind folks that the black experience extends beyond the US. The Caribbean in particular has a long history, and black folks have been present since the beginning.

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