PAINTWORK

Tim Maughan

Available on Amazon and BN.com

Review by Kate Sherrod

Set in a tantalizingly attainable urban world of the near-future, the three somewhat related stories in Tim Maughan's Paintwork shimmer with the retinally-rendered pixels of a less dystopian cyberpunk.

And yes, I did say "tantalizing"—to read "Paintwork" and "Paparazzi" and "Havana Augmented" is to all but ache to play the games,* see the sights, watch the action (especially, if one has predilections like mine, that of the robotic beetles who generate and maintain billboard QR codes by secreting weirdly indelible nano-pigments "in both colors," inkjet style. I mean, who wouldn't want to watch that?), hang out with the graffiti writers, pro gamer stalkers and digital-culture heroes of Maughan's world.

I'LL BUY THE NEXT ROUND

By Mike Oliveri

@MikeOliveri

“I can network on message boards and Twitter just as well as I can at a convention.”

Bullshit.

Some relationships may start on the Internet, but they’re cemented in face-to-face meetings. It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about business relationships or personal relationships; at the end of the day, it’s about people.

Take a writer’s relationship with an agent or editor.

ON CREATING LITERARY KARMA

By Patricia Ann McNair

@PatriciaAMcNair

Ok, Writer Friends, I know what you are up to. You are sequestered in your garret, writing away, mumbling to yourself, moving in and out of the lovely yet isolated dream world of the work at hand. Soon, though, you will be yearning to have your work read by others, responded to, perhaps even enjoyed. A step toward that, I suggest, is to create a good, solid literary karma.

A PULPWOOD GENESIS

By Mark Justice

@MarkJustice

“The Dead Sheriff,” my rotting and reanimated lawman, had a gestation period of decades inside the dark, crowded attic between my ears. A lot of ingredients went into the soup: Clint Eastwood’s westerns, Marvel’s “Rawhide Kid” and “Two-Gun Kid” comic books, George Romero, “Chiller Theater,” and cassette tapes of old time radio shows (specifically “The Lone Ranger,” “The Cisco Kid,” “Gunsmoke,” and James Stewart’s “The Six Shooter”).

That Cullen Bunn sure is a busy guy.

Not only is he a go-to-writer for Marvel, writes the ongoing comic book series, "The Sixth Gun," writes the all ages fiction prose series, "Crooked Hills," writes a monthly column on creating comics for this website, now he's set to debut two new comics series early next year to be published by Oni Press.

The first is an offshoot of the popular "The Sixth Gun" (now in the works with NBC for television, by the way).

If you love crime stories and haven't caught wind of the release of "Shotgun Honey: Both Barrels," today might as well be your birthday.

This is a well made anthology featuring impressive emerging crime writing voices, among them, two of our favorites: Mike Oliveri and Kent Gowran. Mr. Gowran is also a founder and co-editor of the anthology.

The first volume is available now as a trade paperback, as well as e-book for Amazon and other digital platforms.

THE GREATEST COMICS OF ALL TIME—FOR NOW

Scott Cederlund

@ScottCederlund

Every ten years—2012 being one of those years—the British Film Institute compiles their critics and directors Sight and Sound Best Movies list. You might have heard about the kerfuffle around this year's list; the top voted movie on the critics list was Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. Since 1962, that honor had previously gone to Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, a veritable class in both how to make movies and how to watch them.

THEM'S FIGHTIN' WORDS! I THINK...

By Mike Oliveri

@MikeOliveri

When a character throws a punch, it should not knock the reader out of the story.

Physical conflict is as important to a story as dramatic conflict, and when handled correctly, it can really pull a reader in and get his pulse pounding. When the writer botches it, it brings his carefully-constructed narrative crashing down as the reader tries to figure out what's happening or what's at stake.

Egg Timers Are Cruel Masters

By Cullen Bunn

@Cullen Bunn

One day I’ll get what’s mine

Through the persistence of time

—Time, Anthrax

It’s commonly known that “Where do you get your ideas?” is the question writers are asked most frequently. There are variations, of course. “How do you come up with this stuff?” is a good one. In my case, I’ve heard “What the Hell is wrong with you?” more than a few times.

But that’s the most common question for non-writers to ask.

THE SCHOOL OF NIGHT

By Louis Bayard

@LouisBayard

352 Pages

Published by Henry Holt and Co.

Review by Greg Kishbaugh

@GregKishbaugh

There are pivotal moments in Louis Bayard’s glorious novel, The School of Night, that hinge on the archaic, pitch-dark machinations of alchemy. No small wonder, I suppose, as Bayard is himself a bit of an alchemist (perhaps conjurer is a more suitable term), capable of transporting readers to foregone ages with an almost supernatural deftness.
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