Bouchercon is the annual world mystery convention, this year held in San Diego, California. Every conceivable form of mystery, suspense, and thriller novel, from teddy bear cozies to hard-boiled, and noir can be found here. This year’s convention brought together approximately seventeen hundred people for four and a half days of fun and crime at… Read more »
In Professor Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, The “Ainulindalë” or “Music of the Ainur” tells of the creation of the Universe. telling how the Ainur or “holy ones”, a class of angelic beings, perform songs and great music of Middle-earth prefiguring the creation of the material universe, Eä, including Middle-Earth. I don’t know if this ever crossed… Read more »
Over the course of 2023 our critique group wrote this series of articles together as a Google docs adventure. We necessarily reminisced a lot, and we’ve grown closer in the process – even as we surprised ourselves with some uncomfortable realizations about what hasn’t worked in the “cauldron.” In our last article, we explored the… Read more »
Sam heard a faint tapping at the window as he was grading essays. He watched the red pen in his hand stop. He couldn’t believe the heavy rain had already started. He realized he had been working for three solid hours. He had watched the morning news earlier in the day that said the storms wouldn’t come in until late afternoon.
With a sigh, he pinched the bridge of his nose to stop the ache he felt behind his eyes. He decided to get another cup of coffee from the kitchen.
He looked around the small three-foot-by-three-foot space and realized all the coffee cups he owned were in the porcelain kitchen sink. It seemed he’d have to wash one. That was when he noticed the small footprints on the counter where he’d spilled flour the night before.
He wondered if the tiny people were back.
Welcome, beautiful people on the internet! We are at the final stop of Worldly Wise today, tracing the footsteps of various subgenres in the realm of Speculative Fiction. Unfortunately, we had only been able to cover Dystopian Fiction. But keeping my promise, today we will look into the key elements that you must include in… Read more »
Bouchercon is the annual World Mystery Convention held in honor of Anthony Boucher, a writer and editor of mysteries. This convention moves to a different city every year. This year in San Diego, seventeen hundred people attended. In the next few years, Bouchercon will go to Nashville, New Orleans, and Calgary before coming back to… Read more »
I’ve stated before that I’m a voracious reader. My love of books was definitely inherited from my mom, I mean, I pretty much grew up in a library, but it was my third grade teacher, Mrs. Janovik who allowed that love to blossom. While the rest of my class was running around at recess or… Read more »
This post is filled with love and packed with things that I either couldn’t wait to share with you or ones that you can utilize for learning over the next several years. If you would like to see similar content (3 short things, that are often educational but not limited to literature), sign up for… Read more »
On the eve of Justin Torres’s new release, Blackouts (coming October 10, 2023, from Farrar, Straus and Giroux), I’m reminded of his first novel, We the Animals, and what a powerful advocate it is for queer storytelling and for the creative memoir and (auto)biographical novel genres. Justin Torres’ We the Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2011)… Read more »
Today’s episode is our monthly Craft Jam. This is a new feature at DIY MFA, where once a month, Christa and I will be jamming about the craft. In these episodes, we’ll be doing a deep dive into various craft topics like character development, story structure, world building, and more. This month’s episode is a… Read more »
