Something not mentioned often in reviews of books is the writer’s sense of joy. Writing, whatever you may think, really is hard. Done well, it’s as taxing as any other job. You can’t just show up and watch the clock. Sure, some books are better than others, and good writers can write bad books, but unless you’re James Patterson or someone … Read More
Crackerbox Palace: the adult world that never was
If you’ve read this blog very often, you probably know I grew up in a tiny Tennessee town with little in the way of cultural opportunities. That meant I learned about music from two sources: WHBQ, an AM station in Memphis where you could hear just about anything (alas, now an all-talk sports station), and the more narrowly-formatted Rock 104 … Read More
Bang Head Here: passive vs active voice
A Facebook friend, Henry Snider, recently asked me, “Why is it that fewer writers seem to understand the difference between showing versus telling? Passive voice (running my head into a wall)!” In my case, passive voice–vastly simplified, the use of “-ing” verbs (telling) instead of “-ed” words (showing), such as “I was running” instead of “I ran”–is simply how my … Read More
The best of Dracula
The Halloween season here means one thing, one name: Dracula. It’s time for my annual re-read of the novel, and to break out the Dracula DVDs. Because I love them all: Schreck, Lugosi, Lee, Langella, Jourdan, Palance, Kinski, Butler, even misfires like Oldman. So I thought it would be fun to pick my favorites specific aspects of Dracula cinema. For the … Read More
Interview: Tim Hall, writer of The Last Mortician
Recently Tor.com premiered The Last Mortician, a comic written by my friend Tim Hall (author of Half Empty; see my review here) and illustrated by Dean Haspiel. You can learn more about its creation in this video, but I wanted to ask Tim some specific things about the story, which will involve spoilers. So we’ll wait while you go read … Read More
Interview: Anne K. Black, director and co-screenwriter of “Dawn of the Dragonslayer.”
Last week I reviewed the film Dawn of the Dragonslayer, a fun independent fantasy film. This week, I spoke to director/co-screenwriter Anne K. Black about some of the decisions behind the film. Me: What sparked the original story idea, and how did the script develop? Anne: This project began with an assignment to write a fantasy script that was low … Read More
Film review: “Dawn of the Dragonslayer”
First, a digression: the SyFy Channel, much like MTV before it, has done considerable damage to the very thing it first embraced. Now the phrase, “A SyFy Original Movie” elicits the same sort of laughter as Mystery Science Theatre 3000, and for the same reason: you hear it and you know you’re in for a bad movie. And SyFy is … Read More
Jennifer Goree: the voice of the Tufa
If the Tufa have a voice, it belongs to Jennifer Goree. The Tufa may be the fictional people at the heart of my novel The Hum and the Shiver, but Jennifer is very real. She’s a singer-songwriter from Six Mile, SC who has recorded three marvelous CDs that demonstrate such a range, it’s hard to believe the same person is … Read More
Guest blog: Dale Short on the music of the South
Dale Short is the author of Turbo’s Very Life and The Shining Shining Path, and the host of “Music from Home,” which airs on Oldies 101.5 in Jasper, AL and is archived here. I was born in the middle of the woods near a coal-mining town in northern Alabama, and I grew up in church. Literally. Seeing as everyone in … Read More
Reading in public: advice from the pros
Last Monday I posted a few things I’d learned from doing readings in public. I asked some of my writer friends for their suggestions as well, since many of them have much more experience than I do. Below are their comments. Thanks to all of them for pitching in. “I have a lot of stage and comedy background, so I’m … Read More