Note: I received this question via the contact form above. If you have questions that you’d like addressed here, post them there! I reserve the right not to run them, but if I think that they might help other readers (as I suspected this might), I will write up my answer and post it. Unless […]
Overt Intelligence: How do I manage a remote writers’ room? Read More »
When I saw reviews of The Rise of Skywalker saying that it had “walked back” much of what made The Last Jedi so interesting, my sudden protectiveness of that film surprised me. Why I was I so loyal to it? It was a big corporate franchise picture; it didn’t need my help. And then, I
(Note: I was originally intending to write this piece for Jacob Clifton, while he was working for Screener. But a national reading competition, plus teaching three classes at two universities, plus tteaching in Dubai, plus putting my mother-in-law in one nursing home and then another, plus a depressive episode, destroyed me. If you’re an editor
Wrapped in Plastic: Nostalgia, of Televised and Other Kinds Read More »
“Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn’t advise you to try to invade.” Like a lot of people, my husband and I saw Rogue One last night in an effort to stave off the Sarlacc pit of panic opening its devouring maw beneath our feet and ensnaring the totality
ROGUE ONE, hope, and the urban-rural divide Read More »
One of our favourite activities in this house — at least, one I can comfortably describe in greatest detail — is talking about how Trump could win the Presidency. This isn’t because I want Trump to win. I just see how he can. Papa Bear O’Reilly is right: Trump and Sanders are two sides of
Promising the Stars: How Trump Could Win Read More »
So there’s this piece going around, about what students need to do succeed as writers in literary MFA programs. A lot of it is pretty basic — show up, do the work, read good books, nurse your talent. And a lot of it is pretty bitchy — there’s a bit about how being abused as
Things I Can Say About MFA Writing Programs Having Never Done One Read More »
As you may have heard, actress Scarlett Johansson recently signed a deal to star in DreamWorks’ upcoming adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, a Japanese transmedia franchise that began as a cyberpunk manga by Masamune Shirow (the author’s pen name) in 1989. There’s a Ghost in the Shell poster hanging above my desk, in my
About that new Ghost in the Shell movie Read More »
The Sony hack is interesting to me on a lot of levels. One, because mine was a Sony family. My dad kept our Betamax alive until I was in university. In fact, we still have two at home — my boyfriend at the time bought us another so dad could complete his editorial projects, like
On the Sony hack, and the future of film Read More »
One dreary afternoon last October, David and I started playing a game. (Not that kind of game.) He would read aloud a passage from H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu,” and I would try to communicate the exact same thing, in the style of Hemingway. For example: Lovecraft: The most merciful thing in the world,
Fun exercise: translating Lovecraft into Hemingway Read More »
Like seemingly everyone else watching True Detective, I had my theories about who the Yellow King was. But for me, that was of tertiary importance compared to learning the answer to another question: Why the Yellow King? (Spoilers ahead, for True Detective and Twin Peaks.)
The (f)Anthropology of True Detective Read More »