Columns

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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Baby Come Back...To Your Library

February 27th, 2019

Here’s the bittersweet relationship between the public and libraries: People like their libraries (sweet). They just don’t use them all that often (bitter). Libraries and the general public are in a failing relationship. We still love each other, but damn, we aren’t making enough time for each other. We live in the same house, but the passion is gone. We barely feel like friends, let alone lovers. How do we repair our flaccid relationship?

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Dirty Little Secrets, Part Two: Why Your Beta Readers Never Finished Your Novel

February 26th, 2019

If you’ve read more than three or four articles on writing and publishing, you’ve no doubt seen beta readers emphasized as a critical component of any successful writer’s team. It seems there’s hardly a published author out there who doesn’t gush about how great these people are, how she wouldn’t be where she is without their astute eye and insightful comments.

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Taking Your Patreon Game To The Next Level

February 25th, 2019

A couple of years back I wrote about how I more than doubled my Patreon in 30 days. But Patreon is a long game and if you want to retain patrons and grow your audience, you have to keep plugging away, working, and evolving. Below are some tips and suggestions that I hope will encourage you to take your Patreon to the next level. As with all advice, your mileage may vary.

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Book vs. Film: "If Beale Street Could Talk"

February 21st, 2019

If ever there was a time for a cinematic James Baldwin adaptation—and thus a resurgence in interest in the author (because these things so often go hand in hand), that time is now. Why? The opening paragraph of a short biographical piece on Baldwin from the American Masters series's webpage answers that question:

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Dirty Little Secrets Part One: Why No One Cares About Your Protagonist

February 20th, 2019

Photo by Luis Galvez via Unsplash If you’re a novelist, your fictional characters are likely very real to you. You’ve felt that moment of knowing when they first laid eyes on their soul mate; you’ve felt the depths of despair when their loved one met their untimely end.

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8 Books You Should Read Before Seeing The Movie This Awards Season

February 19th, 2019

When favorite books are adapted into movies, mixed emotions ensue. Often you’re excited at the prospect of getting to watch the story unfold, but feel trepidation that Hollywood (or other such movie-making centres) just won’t get it right. According to notable and prestigious organizations such as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the following eight film adaptations of books got it right — right enough to be nominated for a slew of different awards.

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