Monthly Archives: June 2012

Zot!, heroism, love, and the bravest story in comics

I’ve been a fan of Scott McCloud’s books on writing comics — books on writing in general, really, because his insights into narrative purpose and narrative structure are fascinating — but for some reason it wasn’t until a few months ago that I finally picked up McCloud’s own graphic fiction, Zot! When I did, itContinue reading “Zot!, heroism, love, and the bravest story in comics”

A Writer’s Notebook: Beth Locke: “A Louisiana Girl”

This is another exercise drawn from my tutoring, this time from a high school junior who’s been studying The Grapes of Wrath. I’ll explain more below, but before you start reading, a little context: What appears in the Notebook is not my own work but an edit of something my maternal grandmother, Beth Locke (néeContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Beth Locke: “A Louisiana Girl””

Yet another novel playlist

I’ve written so many times now on how music affects my writing that everyone must be getting sick of it. And I’m not the only one doing this — practically every writer with a blog has commented on his or her writing playlist at some point. I think it’s because we all wish we couldContinue reading “Yet another novel playlist”

Jersey Devil Press is going down the rabbit hole

But you’ll be lucky if it’s just rabbits you find down there. Seriously, this is a fairly dark issue, in some beautifully haunting ways. There are stories here that give me the chills, stories here that make me want to cry, and — lest you think we’ve lost our sense of humor — stories thatContinue reading “Jersey Devil Press is going down the rabbit hole”

“You’re into some kink.”

There’s a funny post from The Date Report making the rounds on Facebook today. It’s all about “What Your Bookshelf Says About You To A Date.” The piece is short and definitely intended as humor, but it’s kind of fun and not entirely untrue. Of course, tracking what my books say about me to aContinue reading ““You’re into some kink.””

“And the whole town’s waitin’ just to hear me yell”

Over at Jersey Devil Press, we have a whole mess of cool projects in the works. We’re working on a special Halloween-themed issue of the magazine, we have the special novella issue coming out later this summer, and we have not one but two books coming out later this year: Eirik Gumeny’s Exponential Apocalypse: Dead PresidentsContinue reading ““And the whole town’s waitin’ just to hear me yell””

134 Short Story Links in Honor of Short Story Month 2012

Gay Degani, over at Flash Fiction Chronicles, wanted to put together a list of 100 great flash fiction stories in honor of National Short Story Month in May. Instead of the 100 she was looking for, she got 134. I suggested three of the stories on the list, all really killer examples of the form.Continue reading “134 Short Story Links in Honor of Short Story Month 2012”

A Writer’s Notebook: revision (Civil War novel)

As some of you know (or as a lot of you know — for some reason I racked up more then 400 visitors yesterday!), I’ve had the 19th century American South on the brain lately, partly because I was so wrapped up in watching the Hatfields & McCoys miniseries on the History Channel and partlyContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: revision (Civil War novel)”