Fridging = Lazy Writing
(aka Ask Me How I Really Feel About Misogyny in Fiction) The Killing Joke, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Brian Bolland, was a poignant reminder of how much horror has changed since The Killing Joke was released in 1988 and how much horror still needs to change. If you’ve never heard of “fridging,” […]
Joyride: Female Doesn’t Equal Victim
Joyride by Jack Ketchum was an incredibly difficult book for me to read. At first I had trouble putting finger on why that was (other than the obvious amount of sexual violence against women). But as I continued to read, it began to dawn on me that the author depicted women as whimpering pitiful creatures […]
Taxi Driver: Alone in an Iron Box
Directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert DeNiro, Taxi Driver details the everyman’s downward spiral into psychopathy. Travis Bickle, an unassuming and lonely NYC cabbie, seeks human connection amid what he sees as the human cesspool of the city. But the irony is that Travis himself is only a hairsbreadth removed from being the very […]
Charles Mansion: The Horror of Mind Control
If you stopped the average person on the street, told them you were Jesus, a race war was coming, you’d need to live in a big dark hole, and oh by the way, go out and murder, the last thing that person would do is actually listen to you. So how in the world did […]
Paul Sheldon: Passive or Not?
Stephen King’s Misery is one of my favorite horror novels. I don’t even remember how young I was the first time I smuggled it out of the school library to read under the covers. Re-reading it as a writer was an interesting experiment in figuring out why Misery works so well. Because there’s no doubt […]
How to Write Better Point of View Characters aka Not Cats
Cats … aka why your point of view character matters so much. Don’t believe me? Just get me started on the number of cat stories that come rolling through the FFO slush pile on any given week and you’ll get a rant of epic proportions. Actually, my cat rant has become something of a running […]
Flash Fiction Friday Writing Contest | October 6, 2017
It’s all the music this week for your flash fiction writing challenge. Music is probably the only real magic I have encountered in my life. There’s not some trick involved with it. It’s pure and it’s real. It moves, it heals, it communicates and does all these incredible things. Tom Petty And here’s a video […]
Flash Fiction Friday Writing Contest: September 29, 2017 – The Smashup
Here’s your writing prompt for this week’s challenge! It’s a genre smash-up. Not just a mash-up. A SMASH-UP. Congratulations to Dafydd McKimm for winning last week’s contest! Yes. One of your genres is … wait for it … pro-wrestling. You see, I’m a bit of a Glow addict. Why? Because wrestling is storytelling in a […]
Flash Fiction Friday Writing Contest – September 22, 2017
Here’s your writing prompt for this week’s contest: An Appetite to be Appreciated Congratulations to HL Fullerton for the winning entry in last week’s contest! Rules: You have from now until Sunday, September 24 at midnight EST to write and post your entry in the Forum. Entries must be under 1000 words and fit the theme of […]
Flash Fiction Friday Writing Contest – September 15, 2017
Here’s your writing prompt for this week’s contest: A Mysterious and Inexplicable Phenomenon Congratulations to Shawn Proctor for the winning entry in last week’s contest! Rules: You have from now until Sunday, September 17 at midnight EST to write and post your entry in the Forum. Entries must be under 1000 words and fit the […]