Writers

23 posts

Get to Know Boobookitteh

Hey, fuckos! Here’s the first in a series of articles where you get to know your fellow commenters. Can you feel the glamour? Because you should. Get ready for a shower of glitter-farting unicorns as we “lift the veil” a little bit, and start to learn a little more more about each other.

Questions will vary from time to time, and of course anyone can interview anyone else. As I like to say, the pioneers get into trouble and the people who follow them reap the benefits.

So! Boobookitteh and I are the first two in the barrel for this experiment in terror. Myself, as interviewer, and Boobookitteh as interviewee. Aren’t we brave? Yes, we are. Read along and ask your follow-ups to our dear Boobookitteh as you feel is appropriate! Or inappropriate, depending… Continue reading →

10 Brilliant Women Writers

Ruth Rendell. Aka Baroness Rendell of Babergh. How many crime writers are there good enough they got a baronetcy for it? Not too damn many. She also writes under a pseudonym, Barbara Vine. She’s known for the Inspector Wexford series, and for many one-offs that feature crazy people. Psychopaths and sociopaths. She’s known for her sharp insight into human (and inhuman) nature, and writes crazy people really, really well. A Judgement in Stone? Brrr. A Demon in My View? Brrr. Tree of Hands? Very uncomfortable look at mothers and daughters. Continue reading →

Chicken Soup for the Crasstalkers’ Soul

Anyone here not aware of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books? It all started innocently enough in 1993 with Chicken Soup for the Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit. The brief stories were meant to comfort the reader’s jangled nerves. If you had a bookstore, you’d shelve them in Motivation/Inspiration/Self-help. Or maybe in Gift Books. The original editors were Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. Continue reading →

Recommended Writers: Lisa See

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of going with a friend to see Chinese-American author Lisa See give a lecture at a nearby library. (Woot-woot for library public lectures! Check out to see who your own public library is bringing in. I’ve seen people from Nobel physicists to Ray Bradbury.)

See is the author of several novels (most recently Shanghai Girls and Dreams of Joy) and a sort of biography of her family’s immigration-to-America experience, On Gold Mountain. She’s also the author of some fairly successful mystery novels (Dragon Bones, and others. You know where powells.com is, go look.) Continue reading →

Why Read Young Adult Fiction?

First came the boy wizards, followed by sparkly vampires, tween demigods, and most recently, girl gladiators.  Unless you’ve been living under the proverbial rock, chances are you have more than a passing familiarity with some or all of these multi-volume series. And yet, if bookstore shelves and library labels are to be believed, they were not written for you.

Why do so many adults read children’s fiction? Fans will be quick to cite the richness and complexity of the Harry Potter series as well as its progressively darker tone. Similarly, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy has been praised for its mature themes and bleak, uncompromising approach to storytelling. But this sort of reasoning only raises another question: if these books are mature and complex enough for adults, why are they marketed as young adult fiction in the first place? Continue reading →

Story Ideas Board

This post is a way for people to exchange story ideas. Feel free to post ideas you have, and if you are a writer, feel free to use any of these ideas for your own articles. If you have used an idea please strike through the text, but don’t erase it. Example. Try to keep the list orderly so The Grand Inquisitor doesn’t have to keep cleaning it up. Don’t forget to hit update if you add or take away a post idea. This post is solely for listing article suggestions. Please don’t use it for other issues. Don’t forget to book mark this page, and I will drop the link into the writer’s guide as well. Happy posting!
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