Category Archives: LitReactor

Catchin’ up

I’ve resigned myself to the fact that this blog will only ever feature collections of links to stuff I’m doing and haven’t had time to talk about otherwise. It’s cool. I have plans for original content soon. Maybe someday! Anyway…

The lastest episode of the LitReactor podcast is up. Shit gets real.

I stumbled across this blog where I am beaten to shit in the comments section over at article I wrote at LitReactor. It is great.

We’ve got a collection of very cool classes coming at LitReactor. Maybe check ’em out and sign up for one?

Also, we’ve kicked off our latest writing challenge at LitReactor: Teleport Us. Get in on the fun!

Here is an article from Mashable, about print vs. eBooks, in which I am quoted. Woo!

Over at Amazon, the sales page is up for an anthology I’ve got a story in. Somehow I was billed on the main sales page, and am next to Ken Bruen, one of my idols. I don’t even know what to say or do about this. When I first saw it I wanted to cry and vomit at the same time, in a joyful way. It hits in August. You will hear more about it between now and then.

My publishing house just re-released 12 novels from James M. Cain as eBooks. We don’t have the big three (Double Indemnity, Postman, Mildred Pierce), but we have pretty much everything else. Which, still, awesome.

Finally, the KDP window on my novella is up on Feb. 4, at which point I’ll make it available at Barnes & Noble and Kobo again. I’ll let y’all know when that happens.

More TK.

New podcast episode is live.

Episode 4 of Unprintable is live. And it features our first guest: Craig Clevenger, author of The Contortionist’s Handbook and Dermaphoria.

We talked erotica, the books we’re reading, and whether writers should get paid for their work. It was a lively conversation, despite the fact that I had taken Ibuprofen PM the night before and it hit me pretty hard, so I was a little spacey during the recording.

But, hey, still fun!

Check it out here. And if you could subscribe and review and rate that baby, it’d be greatly appreciated.

New class on plot at LitReactor

We’ve got a very cool slate of classes coming up at LitReactor. I wanted to share this one, which I’m very excited about.

Patrick Wensink is the author of Broken Piano for President, a pretty fantastic novel that’s best-known for being the “Jack Daniels letter book.”

He’s also an accomplished improv comic, and has some pretty cool ideas on how to apply the rules of improv to fiction writing—in particular, how to use them to build momentum and spark inspiration in plots.

So he’s going to teach a class about it.

I was excited to develop this two-week course with him, and the first lecture is amazing. Interested? Click here to learn more about it.

Various things have happened

The fourth installment of my column, Adventures in Self-Publishing, is live. In it, I talk about the Amazon KDP program.

Also live: The third episode of Unprintable, the LitReactor podcast. This is our best one yet. Probably because I was a little drunk. Check it out. If you could pop over to iTunes to review/rate it, that would be greatly appreciated.

The LitReactor shop is open for business. We are selling a very handsome t-shirt and a snazzy mug. Just in time for the holidays! Nothing says love like a mug.

Hey, also, I’ve been promoted to Class Director at LitReactor, which means that I’m now in charge of developing all those online writing classes the site hosts. I’m thrilled to be doing it.

We’ve got two classes coming up that are pretty great: One with Suzy Vitello on dialogue, and one with Taylor Houston on grammar and style. Check them out here. And there’s going to be more to share in the coming weeks.

And, on a final note, this week I got my very first check for a piece of fiction—a short story that’ll appear in Kwik Krimes, an anthology of flash fiction edited by Otto Penzler, to be published by Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer imprint.

It is gratifying beyond words to get paid for making something up in my head. Also, there’s a ton of really amazing authors in it. I don’t know why they let me in.

Kwik Krimes will hit in the spring, I believe. Don’t worry, I will tell you when.

Want my novella for free? OK, fine!

As I mentioned last week, I enrolled my novella for Amazon’s KDP Select program. Today, it’s available for free, because I wanted to try on this promotion thing, to see what would happen. Go and get it. I’ll recount how it goes in my column on LitReactor later this month. But not before I write a piece comparing the book and film versions of Anna Karenina, which I am very excited for, even though no one will read it.

Podcastin’

I’m a little late posting about this, but LitReactor has a shiny new podcast, called Unprintable. And it stars Cath Murphy, Joshua Chaplinsky, and me! It’s a fun time. We talk about books and writing and goof on each other and stuff.

It’s available through LitReactor (here) and iTunes (here). The first episode includes discussion on Cloud Atlas, the iPad mini, digital publishing, and pirating. Check it out, and if you could leave it a rating or a comment over at iTunes, we’d be much obliged.

If you have any questions you want us to answer or topics you want us to discuss, you can e-mail us at podcast@litreactor.com. We recorded the second episode last night, and we’re planning to do this twice a month. So keep an eye out.

Horrifying Hallowe’en Reads

I’m pretty honored to have my novella picked by Joe Nassise for a feature he’s running over at the Kobo Writing Life blog: Horrifying Hallowe’en Reads. I’m in good company–he’s recommending some really good books. You can see today’s entry, and find the entire series, at this link.

Joe is a fantastic writer, and also the guy who taught me how to code eBooks. He should have another class on that subject coming up at LitReactor soon, so keep an eye out.

Two new zombie-related entries at LitReactor

I’ve got two new columns up at LitReactor!

First is the third installment of my self-publishing column. I didn’t have much time to dedicate to marketing this month, so I’m using this as an opportunity for discussion–namely, on eBook pricing and reviews. Let me know what you think. The input so far has been terrific.

The second column is also zombie-related… we’re now doing television recaps! The Walking Dead seemed like a natural place to start, as it’s based on a comic book, and also incredibly stupid. And it turns out, the third season is starting off really strong. Check out my recap here, and head down to the comments to talk about it.

I’ve got some more stuff coming up soon that I’m excited about–a cool promotion for the novella and a short story I have coming out in a print anthology. More TK…

Adventures In Self-Publishing, Part 1: Why I’m Doing It, And Also Zombies

My new column at LitReactor just went live: Adventures In Self-Publishing, Part 1: Why I’m Doing It, And Also Zombies.

The gist: I took a break from the novel I’m writing and accidentally wrote a zombie novella. Since procuring a traditional publishing deal on a novella is essentially nil, I’m going to self-publish and see what happens. (Probable outcome: Become a billionaire).

Read the full column here…