5 books that changed my life - made me want to be a writer. These are novels that suck you in and cast a spell, make you lose track of time.  Total immersion experiences. Reading each of these was such a powerful experience that I said to myself, "Cool, I want to...

  I don't believe in writer's block, but I do believe in writer's malaise. Sometimes I just can't get my ass in gear. When that happens I find that certain movies get the creative juices flowing and I can always rely on these five to get me sprinting to the...

As a kid, I have to admit that I was never much of a reader. I didn’t like to read, preferring to watch movies instead. Maybe it was because I was an only child and watching movies with my parents was a way for us to bond somehow. Fortunately for me, my dad had...

SCREAM (film) — Hilariously, this was my first date. It didn’t go well, because the guy in question thought I needed hand-holding, when I was in fact enthralled with and delighted by Kevin Williamson’s post-postmodern take on how horror had nothing new left to say,...

My Six Favorite Novels Set in Detroit (or near Detroit) 1. THE DOLLMAKER, Harriet Arnow (1954) an immediate popular and critical success, THE DOLLMAKER tells the devastating story of a Kentucky family that moves north to reap the riches of the factories going up in...

ALIENS (1986)  Where the first Alien movie was pure SF horror, the second was a straight-up military SF action flick. It was probably the most seminal influence on my teenage brain when it came to storytelling and how to do human drama and action beats. You had a...