
"ILLUMINAE": A MASTER CLASS ON FORM
Well, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff just shredded everything I knew about writing a novel. Thanks for that. I binged their 2015 Illuminae earlier this week, devouring more than a mere kick-ass story, feasting instead on a genre-bending master class. Not genre as in the type of story (thriller vs science fiction vs romance vs fill-in-the-blank), but genre as in the form of literature. In many ways Illuminae has as much in common with poetry and graphic novels as it does with p

The Last Splinter
Editor's Note: This is part of the Writers comma Ice Cream visual writing prompt series. Each guest was shown the same picture and given five minutes to write to write a complete moment. -HG "Hey watch out!" A stranger yelled past me. I just kept walking. I mean who for sure could know who he was talking to. It was after all a city. I heard a crack, construction was going on everywhere. It didn't bother me. Another crack, more like a splintering sound. "You might wanna move s

The Bridge to Nowhere
Editor's Note: This is part of the Writers comma Ice Cream visual writing prompt series. Each guest was shown the same picture and given five minutes to write to write a complete moment. -HG The road tilted upward as a bridge to nowhere, inviting and scornful at the same time. This disconnected ramp, touching neither the ground nor the pavement, seemed the metaphor for my arrival on campus. Did I know where I was going? Could I even get there from here if I did? Transitions a