After an eight hundred-year-long magical nap, a princess wakes up to find herself in twenty-first century England. This might sound like the beginning of a modern retelling of “Sleeping Beauty.” But while Katharine Campbell’s novel Rosaline’s Curse begins this way, the titular heroine proves herself to be decidedly more than a warmed-over Disney princess.
Continue reading >
A Quiet Place II and the Role of Post-Apocalyptic Stories
I have a love-hate relationship with post-apocalyptic fiction, in which some worldwide disaster (nuclear war, an alien invasion, environmental catastrophe, etc.) has recently caused a collapse of the world’s supply chains, communications, government, and social order.
Continue reading >
An Update on Books, Writing, and (Octopus) Research
So far this year… I finished reading three books (and I’m working on a fourth right now). I convinced a family member to read Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians, and they liked it. It’s a great feeling when you introduce someone else to a book. 🙂 I landed a full-time job as a graphic designer. I sent off my first short story to a literary magazine and it […]
Continue reading >
How to Design a Book, Part 2
How do you visualize a Shakespeare play? And how do you make it interesting for a modern audience?
Continue reading >
How to Design a Book, Part 1
My senior capstone project for my graphic design degree, Your Painless Guide to Shakespeare, is finished! ? I wrote, designed, and illustrated the entire book, and it was exhibited at my university in December. This project was a wonderful chance to read more Shakespeare plays, which reminded me why I love Shakespeare. I was one of those nerdy high schoolers who got excited to read Hamlet and Macbeth and fell in […]
Continue reading >
So I’m Making a Book about Shakespeare…
I have an announcement! You may or may not know that this is my last semester before I graduate college with a BA in graphic design. (Finally! I’m excited.) This semester, I have to complete a capstone project, my senior book. Basically, I have to write, design, and print a 56-page book on a topic of my choice. Right up my alley. 🙂 As you […]
Continue reading >
Don’t Forget a Comma Splice! — A Parody of The Hobbit
One of my favorite books is The Lord of the Rings… but The Hobbit (the shorter volume about Bilbo Baggins that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote first) is pretty good too, of course. In an effort to raise greater awareness of Tolkien and another of my interests (pointing out grammar mistakes), may I present the following parody of a particular poem/song in Chapter 1 of The Hobbit. […]
Continue reading >
Book Review – Philomena: A Tale from the Cor Novan Sky Almanac
Philomena: A Tale from the Cor Novan Sky Almanac, the debut novel of Mark Guiney, is a few hundred pages of flying through the sky under lighter-than-air envelopes of aether; meeting charming, quirky, and treacherous, characters; and journeying to mesmerizing and increasingly perilous places. The story’s world-building and fast-paced action rivals series like Redwall, books by Brandon Mull, or Wayne Thomas Batson’s wonderful Isle of […]
Continue reading >Four Quick Takes: Bookshelves, History, Giants, and More
Last month was interesting. Read some good books. Tried to do research. Decided to focus on my novella instead of my novel-length projects (for now). Wrote a chunk of the aforementioned novella. Oh yeah, and I realized I needed to write a blog post.
Apparently some bloggers write posts in the format of several “quick takes.” I came up with four. Here goes!
Continue reading >
What I’m Writing This Summer
Classes are almost over, and I’ve started to dream about what I’ll write once summer starts and I have a bit more free time. So… I wanted to do something a little different for this month’s post and share some updates on the projects I’ll be working on.
Continue reading >