Columns

The Brick by Brick Method of Writing

April 28th, 2015

I spent a year and a half anxiously procrastinating work on my thesis. Then, after dozens of hours writing in a haphazard way that led to bloated versions of the project that I couldn't possibly finish, I implemented some ideas from the world of project management. By synthesizing these ideas with my own writing process, I was able to develop a method that broke past my anxiety and allowed me to build an 80-page thesis over the course of roughly three weeks.

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Culling the Poetry Classics: T.S. Eliot

April 27th, 2015

Apparently April truly is the cruellest month. The Poet Thomas Stearns "T.S." Eliot (1888-1965); Anglicized American;  born in St. Louis, Missouri. One of the most important poets of the 20th century on either side of the Atlantic, especially as an exemplar of the Modernist tradition that would dominate much of the 1900s. Winner of the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature. Died in Kensington, London, England, at the age of 76.

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5 Things I Would Like To See The Crime Fiction Community Stop Doing In 2015

April 24th, 2015

Alrighty, so you all know I love crime fiction, right? I mean, I really wouldn't have much of a career without it, so obviously I'm pretty nuts about it. But, there are certain aspects of the crime fiction community (which I also love) that I find just a wee bit annoying.

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So You Want To Edit A Book Part 1: The Dramatic First Read Through

April 24th, 2015

Hi you guys! Remember me? Last fall, we walked through the process of writing a novel together, during which I shared tips and tricks in the hopes that I could pass along something helpful. While I wrote that column, I was actually writing a book. I mean, I couldn't exactly talk/blog about it without doing it, right? My hope, at the time, was that you, dear reader, wrote one too. Did you? How'd it go?

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Marvel Movie Preview: Avengers 2, CapAm 3, and More!!

April 23rd, 2015

Warning: The following column is spoiler-heavy Seriously, if you want to go into Avengers: Age of Ultron or Captain America 3: Civil War with a clean palette—don't read anymore. Still good? Okay, let's talk a little bit about what's coming up in the Marvel films, starting with the new cast in A2.

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Wake Up and Stop Writing Dream Sequences

April 23rd, 2015

The most effective method of getting me to bail on a conversation is to say, “I had the weirdest dream last night.” I do not want to hear about somebody’s dreams. Nobody wants to hear about mine. Dreams are boring. They don’t make any sense as you experience them, and they certainly don’t make any sense the next day, especially considering you’ll only be able to remember fragments. Listening to someone trying to explain their dreams reminds me of someone being extremely bad at telling jokes.

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Storyville: Shifting Sympathies

April 23rd, 2015

WARNING: SPOILERS for Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

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Reading in the Dark: A Brief History of Books for the Blind

April 22nd, 2015

Imagine this scenario: you’re reading Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy and you come across a description of Lisbeth Salander’s wasp tattoo. You realize that you’ve never seen a wasp— in fact, you’ve never seen the color yellow. Think of Anne Shirley’s red hair, or the sea and sky that “look like fabric” in To the Lighthouse. With no visual referent, what do those words mean to you?

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5 Problems with the Humble Protagonist

April 22nd, 2015

As an independent editor, I work with a lot of novels over the course of a year, and a lot of protagonists too. Some are straight-ahead heroes and some are antiheroes; most fall somewhere in between. Then there's what I've come to think of as the Humble Protagonist (HP).

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Let's Read About Sex

April 21st, 2015

Everyone who read the above title and clicked away to watch a Salt-N-Pepa video, just know that I forgive you and understand your plight. Regardless of which Salt-N-Pepa video you chose. As for the rest of you, welcome to this column about sex. I'm hoping this qualifies me as a "sex columnist" and maybe even a "sexpert." Two goals met with one column? Not bad.

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