Innehållsförteckning för October 2019 från The Writer

I read multiple genres all year long, mixing poetry and nonfiction with novels and short stories as I please. The lone exception is October, when I read one genre and one genre alone: Horror. I want books that go bump in the night, leave me terrified to sleep with the lights off, convince me that someone’s lurking in the linen closet. I want prose powerful enough to raise goosebumps on my arm. I want stories that linger long after I’ve closed the covers (or buried under them). Scary movies, horror books, creepy TV shows, I love them all. But when I confess this love to others, I often get the same shuddering reaction: “Oh, I can’t do stuff like that. Too scary.” Which, of course, is a pretty understandable response,…

This comma goes by many names, including the serial comma and the Harvard comma, and is an issue of quite a bit of anxiety for some. (For the purposes of this response, I’ll call it the serial comma.) It’s the comma that comes before the final item in a list of three or more: I packed a deck of cards, pretzels, and three novels. See that comma before “and” toward the end of the sentence? That’s the serial comma. And why so much debate? As long as the sentence is clear, you can use it or not use it at your discretion. As always, there are notable exceptions. If you’re following a style guide, look up the particulars. Chicago Manual of Style advocates for its use, while AP Stylebook recommends…

All fiction is speculative to some extent, posing a “what-if” question, which serves as the premise and drives the plot. But for fantasy author Kij Johnson, winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Award, the specific genre of speculative fiction adds its own special writing challenges: “A brilliant speculative story is harder to write than a brilliant realistic story, because it must do all the same things mainstream literature does – characterization, language, theme, and all the rest – and also, it needs to meet the requirements of the genre: accurate science, plausible worldbuilding, and the physiological triggers essential to a horror story.” Before you set out to write any form of speculative fiction – whether fantasy, sci-fi, or horror – you must be aware of the meaning and application…

IF you plan to self-publish your book (or you already have), you need to think about how you’re going to get it into the hands of readers. One tried-and-true way is through paid advertising. Though it can seem like a huge undertaking of both time and money, with the right guidance and information, you can create a successful marketing campaign through Amazon Advertising and Facebook that won’t break the bank. Here’s how. AMAZON ADVERTISING Love it or hate it, Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world, with over 300 million shoppers and a 2018 net revenue in the U.S. of $232 billion. This makes it the place to sell and advertise self-published books. Generally, people visit Amazon with the intention of buying something. If your self-published book (print…

Many writers think only of the big-name magazines as outlets to publish work. But smaller magazines that specialize in a niche market are often looking for solid writers to contribute to each issue. The magazines in this section are a small sampling of what the industry has to offer. Find more market listings at writermag.com. Information in this section is provided to The Writer by the individual markets and events; for more information, contact those entities directly. ANIMALS/PETS ANIMAL WELLNESS Natural pet magazine aimed at helping pet owners make wise health-care choices for animal companions. Accepting articles of 500-1,500 words. Particularly interested in submissions for Animal Passages, Warm & Fuzzy, and Tail End columns. Submit via email. Contact: Animal Wellness, 160 Charlotte St., Suite 202, Peterborough, ON, Canada K9J 2T8.…

The following excerpt from my memoir Brave Face begins with a vocabulary lesson. Specifically, the vocabulary of hate. It wasn’t gay people I hated, however, it was myself. While I find the use of that particular F-word offensive, I used it in this selection to help readers understand how gay people were commonly viewed when I was a teen, how I viewed them, and how, therefore, I viewed myself. VOCABULARY LESSON, PART 1 Eighth Grade, 1991 to 1992 I KNEW WHAT IT MEANT TO BE A FAGGOT, BUT NOT WHAT IT meant to be gay. I was thirteen, in eighth grade at St. Mark’s Catholic School. Thankfully, this wasn’t a building filled with nuns who beat our knuckles with rulers. Our science teacher and vice principal was a woman with…

IT all started when Greg Shaw used the term punk in the April 1971 issue of Rolling Stone. The movement may have been already building, but now it was a word, and as all writers know, words are power. Less than 10 years later, Bruce Bethke introduced a new version of that word to the literary scene with his 1980 short story “Cyberpunk.” Said Bethke in the foreword to his story on the British website infinity plus, “In calling it that, I was actively trying to invent a new term that grokked the juxtaposition of punk attitudes and high technology. My reasons for doing so were purely selfish and market-driven: I wanted to give my story a snappy, one-word title that editors would remember.” History of the original literary punk…

James McNulty, co-founder of the literary organization Driftwood Press, recalls with admiration a contributing writer named Shane Page who separates his paragraphs with multiple spaces when he’s revising so that he can study each clearly on its own. “There’s so much attention paid to each sentence and paragraph, and that gets to me emotionally…seeing really gorgeous writing,” McNulty explains. Editors at Driftwood Press, a print and online publication now in its sixth year, look for beautifully crafted stories and poems. All topics and genres are welcome as long as the writing indicates time spent pondering each sentence and its effects on a reader. McNulty urges potential contributors to look at their prose as if evaluating a poem. “In poetry, you think about where lines break, where stanzas break,” he explains.…

Novelist Shaun David Hutchinson’s compelling (and award-winning) YA novels combine speculative elements with LGBT characters and themes. Now he tackles nonfiction for the first time with his memoir, Brave Face. He recounts his tumultuous life during his teenage years as he struggled to understand his sexuality, his depression, and the suicide attempt that led to a search for self-acceptance. Hopeful and courageous, Brave Face is every bit as poignant and gripping as Hutchinson’s fiction. Next up is his first non-speculative novel, The State of Us. The story of two opposing presidential candidates’ sons who fall in love will be out next year. Writing memoir vs. fiction Usually, I’m a “write by the seat of your pants” kind of person when it comes to fiction. I have a vague idea and…

IN the fall of 2018, I participated in a writing workshop at a liberal arts college where one of my white peers wrote a stereotypical Asian-American protagonist for their piece. When critique rolled around, and a fellow student pointed out the stereotypes at play in the author’s work – namely how the protagonist was displayed as an overly docile mathematician – the author was stunned. They asked, “What? Am I not allowed to write POC characters?” My answer is simple: No. OK, maybe I exaggerated the simplicity of my answer. Anyone can write any type of marginalized characters. If your writing is to reflect the world around you, then you’re going to have characters who fall into groups that you aren’t a part of. That goes deeper than including people…