Company Man
Reading Time: 3 minutesSam was a company man. He was exactly what the company needed and what the company wanted. That is what made him so disturbing.
Writing Fiction Scenes that Work
Reading Time: 5 minutesWorried about lackluster scenes? Something feeling broken in your story? Return to basics and think through what a scene is and what it can and should do for your story.
The Werecleaner Review: Werewolves Against Capitalism
Reading Time: 2 minutesOne of this year’s surprises is The Werecleaner. You play as Kyle, a janitor at a corporate company. But — you’re actually a werewolf!
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Dec. 20, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list has dinosaurs, warlocks and vampires, and a time travel romance by a New York Times bestselling author.
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Tuning
Reading Time: 11 minutesA mother who is frustrated with her teenage daughter comes across a magical object that can repair items. She wonders what effect the object might have if she used it on her daughter.
Let the Salt Decide
Reading Time: 4 minutesZeke looked out a kitchen window, into his backyard. Waves crested and lapped the shore, leaving salt-soaked artifacts in their wake. The sea always has a say.
Gods and Monsters Installment 43: Predator and Prey
Reading Time: 8 minutesRiver enters Bert’s. In spite of himself, his heart leaps at the sight of Pam. He wants his heart to be stone. He wants never to have met her. But wishes are overrun by desire. Love triumphs over fear.
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Mothermind
Reading Time: 12 minutesAmong war’s victims are the soldiers and those who care for them. Nothing in our shared future will change that, though some of the details will be new. What will be the reality for cloned soldiers?
4 Magical Must-Haves for Fantasy Stories
Reading Time: 6 minutesInclude these four elements in your story to fit it within the fantasy genre and reach your intended fantasy readers.
After Yang: The Case for Slow-Moving Sci-Fi in a Superhero-Dominated World
Reading Time: 3 minutesSuperhero movies are no doubt the largest science fiction movies that are being released at this time, but I long for films that give the audience to sit, think and reflect. Kogonada’s After Yang gives viewers that opportunity. It’s a gem of slow moving science fiction that we desperately need more of in today’s short form dominated world.
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Dec. 13, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes epic fantasy, cozy fantasy, dark fantasy — and an EMP attack against Ohio.
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Arachnophobia
Reading Time: 7 minutes“First contact” is an underexplored sub-genre with many opportunities for miscommunication. Sometimes deadly, sometimes not so much.
The Race
Reading Time: 4 minutesA young man starts a new job at a seemingly disused rocket ship yard.
Gods and Monsters Installment 42: Death and Memory
Reading Time: 7 minutesRiver wants to forget her, yet he knows that if he does, a part of him will die. Though he feels betrayed, he cannot keep away. He hangs the chain around his neck. He will go to Bert’s and fasten it about hers. Then he will leave, never to return, the prism remaining, a crystal kiss, a tangible memory, a concrete regret.
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When Characters Do the Unexpected
Reading Time: 6 minutesYour character has done or revealed the unexpected. Now, you must figure out how to navigate your story when the path no longer adheres to your writing plan.
High Vaultage Review: Lovable Detectives in the Big Chaotic City
Reading Time: 3 minutesHigh Vaultage comes fresh off the heels of the Victoriocity podcast, also written by Chris and Jen Sugden. As a disclaimer, I hadn’t listened to the podcast before reading the book, so I was pleasantly surprised the more I read. The book centers on Archibald Fleet and Clara Entwhistle’s efforts and misadventures trying to solve
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Dec. 6, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes two romantic fantasies by best selling authors, dragons battling it out over Detroit, and a space opera box set.
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Goodbye, Nathan, Goodbye
Reading Time: 10 minutesIt’s a little boy’s last chance to leave the planet. Can he talk his mom into letting him go?
Gods and Monsters Installment 41: The Color of Empathy
Reading Time: 7 minutesBeethoven does not merely drain his victims, he eviscerates them. When there are no more cats, he moves on to dogs and babies, climbing the food chain with grisly effect.
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The Girl Who Was Only Three Quarters Dead
Reading Time: 26 minutesSuki finds herself prematurely awoken from an induced suspension between life and death. With her retinas deactivated and her government persona suspended, it’s up to friend and P.I. Gabe, to recover her identity, before she dies for good.
Plot Turning Points and Story Development
Reading Time: 5 minutesYour story’s plot must include key turning points, which move your characters through the story milestone by milestone.
A Love Letter to Dredge
Reading Time: 3 minutesI cracked my brain trying to come up with a review for Dredge, but what always came out was a lot of gushing over the game itself. So, I decided to change gears a little: This is not a review, it’s a love letter.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 29, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes an adventure in the multiverse, mysterious artifacts, and a dangerous academy of magic.
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Alexander the Gray
Reading Time: 15 minutesAlexander, an extraterrestrial botanist whose mission to collect plant samples, is tasked with the emergency abduction of Roger Smith. Alexander has never come into contact with a human being, and when he meets Roger, he wishes wish he never had.
Under the Twinkle of a Fading Star
Reading Time: 26 minutesA veteran soldier in a postwar city, Jackson agrees to search for a friend’s wayward daughter and bring her back to her father. The task will be harder than he expected.
Gods and Monsters Installment 40: The Fabric of the Universe
Reading Time: 7 minutesIt’s twilight. Jeremy has finished his eight hours of practice and is out walking through golden fields. Smoke weaves the smell of burning wood and sugar through the air. At the end of the field is a tall man.
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The Candle Wench
Reading Time: 17 minutesOverworked and underpaid, a candle wench finds strange comfort in the warmth of the wax
Writing the Self as a Character
Reading Time: 6 minutesHow can we show our readers aspects of our truest selves while giving ourselves enough narrative distance and processing space to write ourselves well?
When Shadows Grow Tall Review: Sometimes the Road Is the Destination
Reading Time: 3 minutesMaressa Voss’s novel introduces an order of wizards that are able to control the four elements and gain insights from them. These wizards live separate from normal people because they’ve been labeled as charlatans and scammers. However, the order—called dactyli—have to interact with the world surrounding them and multiple people to collect varied points of
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I Don’t See How That’s Any of My Business
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhen a man’s vision changes, he suddenly sees much more about the people around him than he would care to.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 22, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes an underground magical society, a plot to move the Earth’s orbit, and an epic historical prophecy.
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The Healing Breath of Alpacas
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhen aliens descend on Earth, they request an audience with Karen, the United States’ most statistically average individual to sit judgement.
Gods and Monsters Installment 39: Beethoven’s Salt Sonatas
Reading Time: 9 minutesAs River’s eyes grow accustomed to the night, he sees a cat emerge from around a corner and disappear down a narrow alleyway. Another follows, and another. Surely, River thinks, there must be some meaning in all of these cats drifting toward a single destiny, their eyes glowing like secrets?
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Clear Pronouns Mean Clear Writing
Reading Time: 4 minutesAmbiguous pronoun-antecedent pairs hiding in your story may make the difference between reader immersion and reader confusion.
Schroeder Review: Gore for a Reason
Reading Time: 2 minutesNeal Cassidy’s Schroeder presents a man’s one-day killing spree. Although at first the book doesn’t quite explain what is happening, it never slows down or goes easy on the violence. The novel begins with Schroeder starting his daily routine, but it is quickly established this is no ordinary day. Schroeder leaves his house, cruises through
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 15, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a creepy cult, a trucker dealing with an EMP aftermath, and a space freighter headed off to a mysterious black site. Oh, there’s also dragons and a sexy and magical Christmas mystery.
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Turndown Service
Reading Time: 14 minutesA bellhop on one of Jupiter’s moons discovers a body, and murder may be involved.
Retirement
Reading Time: 3 minutesCost-effective retirement for those who work in the human harvesting industry can have unexpected consequences.
Gods and Monsters Installment 38: A Little Night Music
Reading Time: 8 minutes“If you follow a life,” says Ryo, “one strand leads to another. You take me to Pamela, and Pamela guides me to Jeremy. It is impossible to understand her without him. Jeremy was both her lover and her creator.”
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Mortal Wounds
Reading Time: 4 minutesAfter a thief is mortally wounded, strange visions of past crimes begin to haunt him. As he tries to make his way out of a dark forest to see the sun once more, he cannot shake the feeling he is being followed.
3 Items To Jumpstart Your Story
Reading Time: 5 minutesOnce you understand what story you want to tell and what you want to say about it, your task is to get the story on paper. Here are three items to jumpstart your story.
5 Short Horror Books to Extend the Halloween Cheer
Reading Time: 3 minutesIf you feel like Halloween didn’t last enough, here are five books to continue spreading the scares.
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Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 8, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes sexy gay vampires, sexy blue aliens, magical gryphons, and an EMP attack that involves the Statue of Liberty.
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After Impact
Reading Time: 19 minutesA group of people in a rural town face the outcome of a devastating asteroid impact.
The Shell
Reading Time: 25 minutesA little boy discovers a mysterious seashell that contains more than just “ocean sounds” – a lot more…
Gods and Monsters Installment 37: Love & Death
Reading Time: 10 minutesWhen Margareta is not working, and if Pamela has been very, very good, Sarah lets her model the lacey cap. When Pam puts on the cap, she becomes an enchanted princess. The dirty pigeons that clutter the ledges of the city are snow white doves that come at her call and do her bidding. She leans out her window, arms spread wide, embracing her kingdom… until Sarah catches her and pulls her inside.
If We Can Just Get to the Cabin Before…
Reading Time: 4 minutesMarsha and Frank are driving along a country road on a rainy night, with Frank regaling Marsha about his knowledge of Japanese Samurai films,
when they encounter a ghostly specter in the middle of the road.
Common Writing Challenges (& How to Overcome)
Reading Time: 6 minutesIf you wanted to write a story to submit but didn’t, what held you back from becoming the writerly unicorn you know you can be?
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 1, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a sexy druid, a sexy necromancer, a sexy werewolf, and a space marine who’s seen too much.
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