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Borges Wrote the Sci-Fi Masterpiece of the 20th Century

Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. — Ray Bradbury

In 1944 a little-known Argentine writer named Jorge Luis Borges published a slender volume of cryptic short stories humbly titled Ficciones. Enigmatic and offbeat, it was riddled with mathematical equations,…

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The Many Covers of RL Stine

RL Stine has the benefit of having written for both teens and young readers during an era of markedly good cover art. Few series have been as blessed by consistently fantastic artwork as Goosebumps, and Stine’s early work for Point Horror hit the market when garish, sleazy covers were still the norm for works of horror and suspense. Stine’s longevity, too, has served him well.

He is back in the…

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Bentley Little's The Store: An Underrated Masterpiece

Bentley Little’s The Store: An Underrated Masterpiece

I don’t know why I’ve avoided Bentley Little for so long. I read his novel The Walking when it came out, and half of The Town years ago, but neither novel caught my attention so much that I stuck with him. That says more about me though than it does about Little, because after finally coming around to reading The Store, there is no doubt in my mind that Little is a damn fine writer. And The…

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#bentley little #horror #the store

Borges Essay Wins Thresholds International Feature Competition 2017

It was announced today that my essay “Did Borges Write the Sci-Fi Masterpiece of the 20th Century” won this year’s Thresholds Feature Writing Competition.

The judges were incredibly generous in their assessment of the piece:

‘This intriguing short essay allows us to explore the brilliance of Borges’ short stories as well as his uncanny prescience as a writer. The author draws vivid analogies…

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#essay contest #ficciones #jorge luis borges #threholds feature competition

Why the IT Remake Won't Terrify a New Generation of Kids

Why the IT Remake Won’t Terrify a New Generation of Kids

New Line Cinema finally released the teaser trailer for the remake of Stephen King’s 1986 blockbuster horror novel IT, and what a trailer it is. There’s a fair amount of carping going on around the internet, but let’s be honest here: this is a spooky preview with obvious production values.

It certainly inspires hope that this two-film project will deliver in ways that the original made-for-TV…

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#IT #IT remake #IT teaser trailer #stephen king

Submitted For the Approval of the Midnight Society: The Rise and Decline of Horror Anthologies on TV

The history of television is marked throughout by horror anthologies: shows that presented standalone terrors night after night. In spite of a healthy birth and a productive span of decades, the form has–sadly–witnessed a sad decline. That television as a medium is currently booming makes this decline all the more puzzling.

The heyday for televised horror was the 50s and 60s, though the 80s and…

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#alfred hitchcock presents #are you afraid of the dark #horror anthology #tales from the crypt #thriller #twilight zone

Read an Ebook Week: Free Downloads at Smashwords.com!

As part of Read an Ebook Week (March 5 thru March 11) you can download both of my story collections completely FREE at Smashwords.com.Click the link below to be taken to the downloads:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/577788

Hope you enjoy! If you do, let me know by leaving a review on Goodreads or Amazon.com. Every review helps! “I loved The Other Side of The Door…Aside from being a…

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How Stephen King's Earliest Novels Shaped His Career

How Stephen King’s Earliest Novels Shaped His Career

Juvenilia is a term used to define the works of a writer or artist that are produced while they are still young and before their skills have been wholly fine-tuned. For most writers, this work is rather embarrassing. It is all too easy to see the flawed characters, the hackneyed dialogue, the wandering plot of a seventeen-year-old’s work. Many writers burn their earliest work.

Others, lucky…

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#blaze #carrie #rage #richard bachman #roadwork #stephen king #the long walk #the running man

How Michael Crichton Mined Classic Literature to Write Modern Science Fiction

Years after his death, Michael Crichton is still dominating American culture. Jurassic World shattered records at the box office upon its release, demonstrating that Crichton’s dinosaurs-run-amok brainchild still holds wide appeal. HBO’s remake of Crichton’s early film Westworld was met with great fanfare, both from critics and audiences. And in 2017, a newly-discovered Crichton manuscript will…

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#arthur conan doyle #connecticut yankee in king arthur&039;s court #h rider haggard #hg wells #king solomon&039;s mines #mark twain #michael crichton #the lost world #war of the world

Why Jorge Luis Borges 'Ficciones' is the Defining Sci-Fi Work of the 20th Century

Why Jorge Luis Borges ‘Ficciones’ is the Defining Sci-Fi Work of the 20th Century

Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. — Ray Bradbury

In any discussion of the great science fiction writers of the 20th Century, Jorge Luis Borges’ name is not likely to come up. Ray Bradbury, Stanislaw Lem, JG Ballard, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick…many…

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#ficciones #funes #jorge luis borges #library of babel #tlon #uqbar

The Many Covers of Elmore Leonard

In the world of book covers, crime writers have all the fun.

The nature of the genre, filled to the brim as it is with guns and busty women and murder and intrigue, provides ample material for gripping artwork and design. It doesn’t hurt that crime novels (and movies) have a long and distinguished history with the noir movement, adding many darker shades to the palettes of cover designers over…

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#book covers #cat chaser #elmore leonard #get shorty #la brava #swag #the moonshine war

2016 Year in Reading: 5 Books to Blow Your Damn Mind

At the end of every year I read a lot of book lists: what’s great, what sucked, what should have been better. Sometimes I get the sneaking suspicion that everyone got together and voted on the year’s best books before anyone wrote anything, given that certain titles seem to pop up over and over and over again.

Not being a professional book critic, I don’t confine myself to primarily new books.…

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#2016 reading list #best books 2016 #brief encounters with che guevara #miss margaret ridpath and the dismantling of the universe #sapiens #staying fat for sarah byrnes #vision quest

Writing Great Titles for the Page and Screen

“Title’s the first thing’s got to go…I mean, even this writer’s name, Murray Saffrin, is better than Lovejoy.”

—Chili Palmer in Get Shorty

Selecting the right title for your work is one of the most challenging aspects of writing. It ought to be easy, given that even the longest title is only half a dozen or so words long. But much is riding on the title, and you, as the writer, know it. It…

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#great titles #titles #writing title

Our Work Come Back to Haunt Us: Westworld and the Shadow of Michael Crichton

“No cause for alarm, Bernard. Simply our old work come back to haunt us.” –Dr. Ford

By now it’s become cliché to note the remarkable number of reboots and re-imaginings Hollywood has doled out—to varying levels of success—in recent years. Riding the nostalgic remix wave, HBO has served up the visually stunning and thought-provoking Westworld, a reworking of Michael Crichton’s 1973…

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#HBO #michael crichton #westworld

How Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" Changed Science Fiction (and Literature)

How Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles” Changed Science Fiction (and Literature)

What has this man from Illinois done, I ask myself when closing the pages of his book, that episodes from the conquest of another planet fill me with horror and loneliness? ~ Argentinean author Jorge Luis Borges in the introduction to the Spanish-language translation of The Martian Chronicles.

In 1950, precisely halfway through a century dominated by scientific endeavor and discovery, Ray Bradbury…

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#Ray Bradbury #the martian chronicles

Stranger Things: 4 Lessons for Screenwriters

The excitement surrounding the release and immediate success of Netflix’ paranormal stunner Stranger Things is well-deserved. Few shows (or movies) in recent years have executed such a fine balance between wonder, horror, humor, and nostalgia.

In the wake of the show’s release a veritable flood of reviews, blogs, lists and videos flowed across the internet. Most of these focused upon the…

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#hollywood #netflix #screenwriting #stranger things

Christopher Pike: Master of 90's Horror

Christopher Pike: Master of 90’s Horror

There’s an odd juxtaposition between the world of YA literature pre-JK Rowling and everything that has come after. Harry Potter truly broke down the gates, allowing novels for teens to expand both in length and subject matter. Topics that were once taboo suddenly became commonplace, and themes once deemed too adult were now on the page for every reader who wanted to explore them.

And yet…

Recent…

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#90&039;s horror #christopher pike #die softly #master of murder #monster #whisper of death #ya horror novels

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