Tag: Writing
-
Between Tradecraft and Thrills: The Brilliance Trilogy
Previously, I discussed Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X series and how the protagonist’s poor tradecraft set up superior scenes. The series demonstrates that you don’t need perfect tradecraft to create a superior story. However, if you throw authenticity out the window altogether, you won’t have a believable story. Case in point: Marcus Sakey’s Brilliance trilogy. In…
-
Between Tradecraft and Thrills: Orphan X
New York Times bestseller Gregg Hurwitz blew into the writing scene with his debut Minutes to Burn. With his Timothy Rackley series, Hurwitz hit his stride, solidifying his position as a top-shelf thriller author. In his latest series, Orphan X, he has reached new heights, producing a magnificent blend of pulse-pounding action, complex characterisation, powerful imagery,…
-
Looking Back on 2018, Planning for 2019
2018 was my most productive year yet. My focus on Pulp Speed has paid off, allowing me to write and publish more stories than I thought possible. Unfortunately, not everything went according to plan. In 2018, I published a novel and 14 short stories. If the short stories were compiled by theme, there is probably…
-
PulpRev’s Wicked Problem
A couple of weeks ago over dinner, Troy Tang and I discussed some of the fundamental problems facing PulpRev. PulpRev makes for a fine umbrella term for writers to rally around, but every writer has different ideas about the direction of their own writing. This makes it hard for people to define what, exactly, is…
-
Is There A Place for Morally Ambiguous Characters?
Last week, Rawyle Nyanzi wrote about black and white morality in fiction, and JD Cowan expanded on why readers love them . Characters with clear moral codes make for compelling reading. Armed with an uncompromising view of right and wrong, they act decisively against evil wherever they find it. Yet, fettered by their same uncompromising…
-
H P Lovecraft and Robert E Howard: A Contrast in Horror
When one thinks of horror in the pulp age, the figure of H P Lovecraft inevitably comes to mind. A doyen in the then-emerging field of weird fiction, he conceived of many modern horror tropes, and through his prodigious works brought to life the genre of cosmic horror. But another pulp giant also contributed immensely…