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The Many Covers of Elmore Leonard
In the world of book covers, crime writers have all the fun. The nature of the genre, filled to the brim as it is with guns and busty women and murder and intrigue, provides ample material for gripping artwork and design. It doesn’t hurt that crime novels (and movies) have a long and distinguished history…
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2016 Year in Reading: 5 Books to Blow Your Damn Mind
At the end of every year I read a lot of book lists: what’s great, what sucked, what should have been better. Sometimes I get the sneaking suspicion that everyone got together and voted on the year’s best books before anyone wrote anything, given that certain titles seem to pop up over and over and…
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The Art of Writing Great F#$@%#& Titles
“Title’s the first thing’s got to go…I mean, even this writer’s name, Murray Saffrin, is better than Lovejoy.” —Chili Palmer in Get Shorty Selecting the right title for your work is one of the most challenging aspects of writing. It ought to be easy, given that even the longest title is only half a…
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Our Work Come Back to Haunt Us: Westworld and the Shadow of Michael Crichton
“No cause for alarm, Bernard. Simply our old work come back to haunt us.” –Dr. Ford By now it’s become cliché to note the remarkable number of reboots and re-imaginings Hollywood has doled out—to varying levels of success—in recent years. Riding the nostalgic remix wave, HBO has served up the visually stunning and thought-provoking…
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How Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles” Changed Science Fiction (and Literature)
What has this man from Illinois done, I ask myself when closing the pages of his book, that episodes from the conquest of another planet fill me with horror and loneliness? ~ Argentinean author Jorge Luis Borges in the introduction to the Spanish-language translation of The Martian Chronicles. In 1950, precisely halfway through a century…
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Stranger Things: 4 Lessons for Screenwriters
The excitement surrounding the release and immediate success of Netflix’ paranormal stunner Stranger Things is well-deserved. Few shows (or movies) in recent years have executed such a fine balance between wonder, horror, humor, and nostalgia. In the wake of the show’s release a veritable flood of reviews, blogs, lists and videos flowed across the internet.…
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Christopher Pike: Master of 90’s Horror
There’s an odd juxtaposition between the world of YA literature pre-JK Rowling and everything that has come after. Harry Potter truly broke down the gates, allowing novels for teens to expand both in length and subject matter. Topics that were once taboo suddenly became commonplace, and themes once deemed too adult were now on the page…
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Smashwords FREE SUMMER BOOK SALE!
For the month of July, you can head on over to Smashwords for their outstanding Summer Book Sale. Thousands of books can be found at drastically reduced prices, and some, like my own Stranger Calls and The Other Side of the Door, can be downloaded for FREE. Once you reach the order screen, enter promo code SFREE…
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7 Memoirs to Give Your Son As He Heads Into the World
The memoir is a unique genre of literature. Unlike its brother, the biography, it relies more heavily upon reflection than fact. And while biographies are most successful when they relate the adventures of truly epic lives, memoirs can be powerful even when they record the existence of the most humdrum individuals. All of us need…
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The Beginning, The Middle, and the Twist: Writing Lessons from RL Stine
RL Stine is often acknowledged as the 90’s horrormeister for children, but he is rarely given much credit as a competent and (yes) talented writer. Stine himself often derides his work with humble criticisms, claiming that he is a hard-working wordsmith with little literary talent. Say what you want about the quality of Stine’s prose.…
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