I write violent fiction. As a kid, I loved action movies and heroic fighting fantasy novels. I read The Iliad and The Odyssey when I was eleven and told my mom I preferred The Iliad because of the fight scenes. To this day, when I sit down to watch a movie, I will always […]
Archive > December 2012
Scene-stealing Antagonists
Merriam Webster defines an antagonist as, “one that contends with or opposes another,” and lists “adversary” and “opponent” as synonyms. Oxford defines the term as, “a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.” Of course in a literary context, an antagonist doesn’t have to be a person. I recall learning in […]
Hole in the Ground Contest!
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” This is the opening line to the Hobbit. According to Wikipedia, it came to Tolkien while he was grading papers. Not only should this bring hope to teachers and grad students everywhere, it’s the first step on an epic journey that many of us have […]
Listmaking and Letting Go
New Year’s is coming soon, and it’s a time when a lot of people think about how they’re going to improve themselves in the following year. Sometimes the lists have really nebulous goals, like “go to the gym more often” and sometimes they’re really concrete and specific like “run a marathon.” Usually making lists and […]