Happy birthday, Patricia Wrede (March 27, 1953–)! Best known for her fantasy YA and children’s books, Wrede says she doesn’t write for children; she writes for herself. Wrede is an advocate for writing what you love. She writes fantasy. She writes about dragons. Why change what you love? As she explains: “I loved getting my […]
When I dressed up as Pippi Longstocking for Purim as a junior in high school, I knew I had discovered something special. And it wasn’t just in the thrill of wearing mismatched knee-high socks. Pippi Longstocking, created by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, provided a new definition of female strength. A sea-captain’s daughter, Pippi and her […]
I was the college kid who spent her weekends around a table in the Student Center, rolling dice, playing Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). Playing D&D became more than a weekly hangout with friends and more than a stress reliever. This game taught–and continues to teach–me about creating characters. When I sit down to start a […]
I’m doing a creative writing Masters. When I tell people, they usually ask me why. Some say that the tutors must be failed writers – that it’s a matter of “those who can’t, teach”. They tell me about a fool and her money, that creative writing isn’t a serious discipline. To be thought of as […]
Writers often complain about how it’s impossible to organize our writing time because we’re always distracted by other things. Very often those other things revolve around computer screens, smartphones, iPads etc. We know we *can* turn off the computer (or at least the Internet connection), but we don’t *want* to. We can even download software that […]
I describe the festival of Purim to my non-Jewish friends as “Jewish Halloween”. From historical and ritual contexts, Purim and Halloween are almost nothing alike. Halloween originates from the Celtic tradition of Samhain where you dress in costume to ward off ghosts and spirits. Purim celebrates Queen Esther, a Jewish woman who married the King […]
This post will be a little bit different from my usual format. The other night, I got into a conversation with some friends about alternate dimensions after watching Marvel’s Doctor Strange. Somehow, it morphed into a discussion about the possibility of sentient, alien life, and what that would mean for faith, religion, and the uniqueness […]
As part of my MFA funding, I teach composition and a breakout creative writing workshop. In these classes, one of my goals is to read and discuss with my students work by voices they aren’t familiar with—in other words, not white male middle/upper class writers. While I want my students to become better writers, my […]
Sabrina Vourvoulias’ Ink was mentioned in a previous post by Phoebe Wagner, which gathered a few other works that reflect our time to an eerie tee. I picked up the novel because it was a part of my course material in a university class. Vourvouslias’ novel evokes all the feelings of horror that dystopian works […]
Title: Strange Magic: A Yancy Lazarus Novel (Pilot Episode) Publisher: Shadow Alley Press Author: James Hunter Pages: 221 pp Price: 99 cents The Hook: Yancy Lazarus is a mage — a chain-smoking, hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, blues-loving rambler of a mage. He also has a reputation for being something of a fixer, thanks in no small part to his tendency to […]
