The other (obscenely late) night, I watched the prequel to a modestly successful movie franchise. I’d never watched any other movies in the series, and I was surprised by how puzzled I was by the experience. For weeks afterward, a question nagged at me. Are movie prequels ever any good? …

As the months of 2020 have darted from improbable crisis to even more improbable crisis, it’s become clear that we’re all trapped in some kind of ludicrous fictional universe. It’s the only explanation for the absurd plot twists each day brings. I have plenty of time to spare, so I…

Grief, they say, has five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Since “they” is Wikipedia, and since I just watched a lineup of five Christmas movies that managed to mirror that psychological construct, I would like to take you on a journey. A journey through five lighter-than-Hallmark holiday films…

Storytelling is a universal human impulse. Nowadays, novels are written in just about every corner of the planet. But that wasn’t always the case. Just how old is the novel? Is a novel’s basic essence influenced by when and where it was written? Or is there something that all novels…

In the middle of October, days before Halloween and months into a plague slash political horror show straight out of a Stephen King novel, I was sitting in my car, minding my own business and eating takeout pastries, as one does In These Uncertain Times. To amuse myself as I…

So, you need to write an essay? Possibly you’re thrilled (probably you’re not). Either way, it doesn’t have to be a dull chore. Essays are as fun and as simple as … ice cream! Don’t believe me? Read on! What is an essay? An essay is a succinct piece of nonfiction writing that presents…

One slow and sunny summer day, I spent a blissfully pandemic-free afternoon scouring the internet for a recipe for golden rod cake. …

It’s been called one of the most inept movies ever made, hilariously demented, and pure unintentional camp. It’s on list after list of the worst movies ever made. It’s The Room. A close watch of this 2003 film lays bare a veritable buffet of stilted acting, baffling continuity issues, illogical…

Writing a novel can be incredibly time-consuming. Some authors commit years to the task. Others, decades. But who has that kind of time nowadays? Is it possible to write a novel in a lot less time — like a month? Yes! You can write a novel in just 30 days…