Monday, January 19, 2026
Sunday, January 18, 2026
Saturday, January 17, 2026
[Link] 10 books whose first line is enough to convince anyone to read them
A strong opening sentence can offer much more than a mere introduction to a story. It can establish the mood, raise interest, and hold a promise of something unforgettable. There are authors, of course, who are successful in hooking the reader right from the opening sentence. In fact, the reader might not be able to put the book down. These are the ten books whose opening sentence is enough to convince anyone to continue with the story, without hesitation.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
First line: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Read the full list: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/features/10-books-whose-first-line-is-enough-to-convince-anyone-to-read-them/photostory/126190537.cms
Friday, January 16, 2026
TWO-GUN PHOENIX PUBLISHING DEBUTS WITH FOUR TITLES-Crime Noir, Alternative History Adventure, Forgotten Books, and A Beloved Sailor
PRESS RELEASE
Two-Gun Phoenix Publishing, a company formed by a group of publishers, editors, writers, and fans, announces its existence with four books available now for purchase via Amazon and soon via other venues.
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Macavity. A name whispered around the world - feared by police and criminals alike. When the underworld mobs of New York go to war over a mysterious object, the elusive rogue possesses guaranteed to help the victor claim ultimate power, an unlikely duo unites to bring Macavity to justice: a British inspector and a gorgeous moll. With betrayals, lies, and deaths accumulating, Macavity threads the needle between success and defeat... with a shocking secret that no one can predict!
Known for his mind-blowing and prolific New Pulp work with characters like The Peregrine and Lazarus Gray, award-winning author Barry Reese takes on a genre unlike any he’s tackled before. Equal parts noir, crime, and adventure, MACAVITY has everything a good mob war story…and heist tale…and hard-boiled actioner needs!
Cover by Dana Black
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In 1936, Robert Ervin Howard, the creator of Conan the Cimmerian and countless other legendary characters, took his own life after the death of his beloved mother.
But…what if he didn’t?
Teel James Glenn’s A COWBOY IN CARPATHIA: A BOB HOWARD ADVENTURE won the 2021 Pulp Factory Best Novel Award and kicked off a series of alternate history adventures for one of the most beloved Pulp authors of all time. In this new Author’s Expanded Edition, Glenn takes Howard beyond his own history. First, Bob finds himself under the Big Top in New York City taking on corruption and betrayal the only way he knows how; two-fisted. Then, crossing the ocean, he finds depravity of a whole other sort in England, which carries him to far-off Carpathia. To save a woman dear to him, Bob sets out to take on a legendary, immortal evil boot to boot- the undead beast incarnate known as Dracula.
Cover by Dana Black
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Stories of wonder and adventure once filled bookshelves instead of phones and e-readers. Books you held in your hand that, in the right place, acted as portals to worlds and lives you could live over and over. All you needed was a little money to buy a passport to wherever or a library card to borrow passage for a while.
But some of those journeys, many of those far-off places and the people who created them have been forgotten to time. While we still watch movies based on some of them or read tales most definitely inspired by them, works from authors that maybe were even well household names have been lost in the past.
But not for Aubrey G. Stephens.
OFF THE DUSTY BOOKCASE is a collection of reviews and reminiscences written by Stephens, a teacher, writer, and fan of reading since his early trips to a Mississippi library. Beginning in that very building, OFF THE DUSTY BOOKCASE from Two-Gun Phoenix Publishing introduces readers of all ages to forgotten works of genre fiction while also touching on cinema, history, and more. This collection of essays is more than just a reminder of authors and their works. It's the love and passion of one man for the written word and all that it means to everyone.
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Ahoy! The world’s most popular sailor springs to new action-inspired life in TALES OF THE SAILOR MAN!
Created by E. C. Segar as a part of his ‘Thimble Theatre’ comic strip, Popeye sailed into newspapers in 1929, and his voyages have continued across every known medium! With arms like tree trunks, a squint that makes pirates quake and quiver, and a unique take on what passes for the English language, Segar’s one-time supporting character quickly planted his flag as the lead for not only the comic strip, but also a whole host of cartoons, comics, and more.
Join Jim Beard, Aubrey Stephens, and Brian K. Morris as they take the two-fisted mariner both back to his roots and into a new style, even for him. Three tales that draw from Popeye’s earliest days in ‘Thimble Theatre’ with their eyes squarely set in the direction of high-octane adventure!
So, enjoy a generous helping of Oyl, not Olive, and rub the Whiffle Hen for luck as you set sail with the roughest, toughest swab ever to walk a deck!
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To follow Two-Gun Phoenix Publishing, go to www.facebook.com/TwoGunPhoenixPublishing. Much more to come!
Thursday, January 15, 2026
Creating Religion in Your Stories
Let's talk about religion. No, not let's argue about religion or discuss the viability of religious though and action and defense. Let's talk about religion as it relates to your fiction.
Religion can be a powerful way to say something about your characters and about the world they inhabit. It can be a vital part of your setting culturally. Or it can even be a foil against which your protagonist rebels.
Ignore It at Your Peril, Writer (Oh Life Is Bigger)
Let's be honest. Religious affections or reactions to religious dogma are a part of life. They are part of what shapes much of the world. They are the very reason for so many of our holidays, for example and any story that revolves around a holiday should have at least a cursory understanding of it. Sadly, so little of that makes its way into a lot of fiction. Granted, this is looked at more in literary fiction than Summer beach reading, but every empty spot is a missed opportunity.
To be fair, we're not talking about using fiction to evangelize one religion over another (unless that's your character's, well, character -- after all, it worked for Hazel Motes in Wise Blood even if it didn't make him a nice person).
Nor are we only talking about Western or Christian religious viewpoints. The world is much, much bigger than American and European history, and we should as writers be open to exploring as much of it as we can.
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Additionally, when we talk about religious viewpoints here, let's be sure to include the viewpoint of disbelief. Although atheism or agnosticism would never be considered a religion, they are religious points of view that choose not to believe rather than believe. What we're really talking about here is religion as part of a character's background, what goes into the development of that protagonist, antagonist, or bit character as a person (albeit it a fictional person). Religion can be as effective as race, location, education, hobbies and interests, and goals when it comes to creating a three-dimensional character.
Also, we're going to address religion as it relates to world-building. So much of Ursula LeGuin's work couldn't exist at the same level or excellence if she had ignored the religious inclinations of the worlds her researchers visited. The same goes for Dune, and for a lot of the writing of Asimov and Bradbury and Shūsaku Endō and Margaret Atwood and Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston.
But, as said earlier, so many contemporary writers avoid any mention of religion, most likely (just my opinion here) due to the bad taste the merger between religion and politics has left in the mouths of so many folks nowadays and the fear of being labeled a "religious writer" instead of a writer using religion to build characters from words.
There are several ways to go about this, and we're going to look at each of them.
- Religions based on real-world faiths
- Dogmatic/theological religions
- Mythological religions
- Human as God religions
Building My Religion (I Thought That I Heard You Laughing)
It's far more common for writers of fantasy and sci-fi to create elaborate religions than it is for writers of mystery and romance. Now, that primarily happens because of the differences between a real-world and a not-tied-to-the-real-world (except maybe only tangentally) setting. Fantasy and sci-fi writers have the freedom to explore really out-there ideas or lock their created religions into more established norms. Writers who work in something based on the real world have less freedom (at least without becoming urban fantasy or romantasy). For them, the thousands of faiths across the globe are their base for research.
Tuesday, January 13, 2026
My Backstory Story
I was once asked by a fellow writer: How much of your character's back story do you know before the story begins? Do you know everything or just the basics?
I love the question.
There are two opposing ways of thinking about this, as opposite as democrats and republicans are politically -- at least in my experience of meeting and talking with writers. The members of one group tend to make it all up as they go along, reinventing their characters almost willy-nilly with every twist and turn or plot and nuance of the story. On the other hand, the members of the other group keep their folders of notes and printouts and family tree diagrams handy near their computer desk or (for the tech-obsessed authors) in a spreadsheet on the cloud so they can't lose the information at home and can have it readily available even when they're not at home.
Many, however -- and I'm certainly one of them -- fall somewhere in the middle. I like to know the basic personality and major life experiences for my core characters, but I tend to fill in the details for other things (like what college he attended, who was her first boyfriend, is he allergic to gluten, where did her tattoo come from, for example) as I'm writing and as the story dictates. It's funny, though, how often some of those minutiae of details can become key plot points in a story or triggers for a new story for a future volume featuring the character in some cases.
I used to do questionnaires about my characters, and I think those kinds of details are good to know, and I still recommend them as character exercises for beginning writers. However, after writing for nearly 35 years now, the questions that lead to those kinds of details have become internalized, and I no longer have to make a conscious effort to fill out questionnaires or apply for jobs as my character. As the characters become real in my head, those specifics become automatic, and sometimes even just held in my subconscious until such a time as they are needed for the story.
A caveat -- the longer the work, the more information I've learned that I need to know upfront about the back story. Why? Because I've found that those are the kind of details that help carry a story beyond the simple plot point A leads to plot point B leads to plot point C, etc., kind of story. Those are the things that take a story (at least for me, your mileage may vary) from a mere skeleton to a flesh and blood living being.
Monday, January 12, 2026
Sunday, January 11, 2026
Saturday, January 10, 2026
[Link] 100 Writing Prompts in the Crime Genre
Sometimes when I can't decide what I want to watch, I just run to any crime movie I have never seen before. I love the crime and gangster genre and think it contains some of the best movies of all time.
That's why I am so happy when I hear about a new version of these kinds of movies and TV shows being made.
But to get more movies and TV shows like these, we need scripts, and it's so hard to write them. I wanted to help give you a leg up. Use these prompts to jumpstart your creativity and get the pages flowing out of you.
If you’re staring at a blank page, here are 100 writing prompts categorized by crime subgenre to help you find your next "Big Score."
Let's dive in.
100 Crime Writing Prompts
The Professional Thief & Heist
- A retired safecracker is forced into one last job when his grandson accidentally steals from a mob boss.
- An elite heist crew discovers their getaway driver is a deep-cover FBI agent.
- A group of magicians decides to rob a casino using only "old world" stage illusions.
- The heist was perfect, but the "diamond" they stole is actually a high-tech tracking device.
Read the full list: https://nofilmschool.com/crime-gangster-writing-prompts
Friday, January 9, 2026
AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION PRESENTS SOLITAIRE 2 – THE AGENDA
Airship 27 Productions is thrilled to present pulp scribe Lee Houston, Junior’s second fast-paced thriller featuring his original, amazing new heroine, Solitaire. This one is filled with exotic locales, cunning bad guys, and non-stop action.
AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION – PULP FICTION FOR A NEW GENERATION!
Thursday, January 8, 2026
Tighten the Tension
You know that feeling when your gut constricts and your brain starts thrumming. Your heart might even pound a little. When it happens in life, it can be terrifying. When it happens in a story, it means the author did something right. The author affected you in a real, emotional, visceral way. The author made you react.
That reaction is called tension.
And if you can do it consistently as a writer, you’ll never fail to sell your work.
What It Isn’t
If you research this stuff on the ‘Net, you’ll often hear this topic discussed closely with the idea of suspense. Some folks might even try to tell you that tension and suspense are the same thing.
Don’t listen to them. They’re not.
Tension vs. Suspense
Tension is an immediate feeling of discomfort or stress. Tension is the knot that suspense can create inside you. Tension is the uncomfortable feeling you get because a situation isn’t optimal, or even something you can cope with. Tension is the tiger roaring on the plains near your camp.
Suspense is the feeling of anxiously awaiting a future event. Suspense is the buildup or increasing tension over time. Suspense is taking those uncomfortable feelings and combining them with anticipation. Suspense is the tiger’s roar getting louder every few minutes, making you look around for when its head eventually appears at the edge of camp.
Tension vs. Conflict
If you have an absence of conflict, you will never have tension. However, just as tension and suspense are related but not equal, the same applies to conflict. Without conflict, there may be no tension, but tension isn’t conflict.
It grows out of conflict.
Which conflicts? Well, all of them. You can have great tension with a person vs. nature story (2012, 28 Days Later, The Poseidon Adventure). You can create tight tension ina person vs. society story (A Clockwork Orange, The Awakening, The Crucible, Their Eyes Were Watching God). The same holds true for a person vs. person plot (The Bourne Identity, any Bond novel, Kramer vs. Kramer). Even a solid person vs. self story can keep a reader all wrenched up inside (Hamlet, Fahrenheit 451, The Old Man and the Sea).
A well-established conflict for your characters, particularly your protagonist and antagonist, builds a solid floor from which to create tension.
Wednesday, January 7, 2026
2025 Pulp Factory Awards open for nominations!
On behalf of the Pulp Factory Awards committee, we're pleased to announce that it's time to submit your nominations for this year's awards, recognizing the best in new pulp writing and art. Full details posted below:
Every year, fans gather at the Westin Hotel near Yorktown Mall in metro Chicago to celebrate the best in classic and New Pulp literature. As part of those celebrations, nominations for the Pulp Factory Awards are open. The 2026 awards will cover works published during the calendar year 2025.
The nomination process will be as follows:
- Members of the Pulp Factory Facebook group have through Monday, February 2, to submit their initial nominations for the Pulp Factory Awards. Any work published in print in 2025 can be considered for nomination. (Digital-only books are excluded.) Reprints are not eligible for individual awards such as Best Short Story but may be included in collections if those collections feature stories published for the first time in 2025.
- Nominations (by members of the Pulp Factory only) should be e-mailed directly to [email protected], with choices in any or all of the following categories. (You may nominate as many works in each category as you wish.)
- BEST PULP NOVEL
- Any novel published in 2025 in print format
- BEST PULP COVER
- Best cover produced for a pulp novel or anthology. Any final artistic product produced by AI app/server/machine will not qualify for any PF awards.
- BEST PULP SHORT STORY
- Best short story published in 2025 in print format
- BEST PULP INTERIOR ILLUSTRATIONS
- Best interior illustrations for a novel or anthology, produced by a single artist for the book. Single illustrations or books with illustrations by multiple artists are not eligible for the awards. Any final artistic product produced by AI app/server/machine will not qualify for any PF awards.
- BEST PULP ANTHOLOGY OR COLLECTION
- Any anthology or collection featuring multiple stories by a single author (a collection) or stories by a variety of authors (a normal anthology). The book must have been printed in 2025 and must have contained at least one new story. In the case of a new story plus reprints, the book is eligible for Best Pulp Anthology but only the new story is eligible for the Best Pulp Short Story category.
- Members are encouraged to discuss their choices on the Pulp Factory Facebook group but note that your nominations must be emailed directly to [email protected] to be included.
- After February 2, the committee will tally and craft a final ballot for voting (deadline to be scheduled), and that ballot will be submitted for fans to vote electronically for the awards. Awards will be handed out to winners during the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention on Friday, March 27, 2026.
Questions and nominations should be directed to [email protected]. This will ensure a more prompt response than reaching out to individual committee members.
Thank you for your interest, and we're looking forward to your nominations!
Tuesday, January 6, 2026
Some pointless drivel about my fave sci-fi and fantasy films...
My Fave Sci-Fi Films
1. Alien
2. Outland
3. The Fifth Element
4. Star Wars: A New Hope
5. John Carter
6. Planet of the Apes 1968
7. The Bride of Frankenstein
8. Forbidden Planet
9. Metropolis 1927
10. Children of Men
11. Ex Machina
12. District 9
13. The Matrix
14. 2001
15. Blade Runner
16. The Iron Giant
17. John Carpenter's The Thing
18. Akira
19. The Fly 1986
20. The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951
21. Planet of the Vampires
22. The Andromeda Strain
23. The Martian Chronicles
24. Aliens
25. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
26. Metropolis (anime)
27. Sleeper
28. Under the Skin
29. 12 Monkeys
30. Splice
31. The Bride
32. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
33. The Invisible Man
34. Demon Seed
35. This Island Earth
36. Heavy Metal
37. A Scanner Darkly
38. Titan A.E.
39. Predator
40. Robocop 1987
41. Transformers: The Movie 1986
42. The Thing from Another World
43. Slaughterhouse Five
44. Fahrenheit 451
45. 2010
46. Star Wars: Rogue One
47. Armitage Dual Matrix
48. 9
49. Ghost in the Shell 1995
50. The Day of the Triffids
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My Fave Fantasy Movies
1. Pan's Labyrinth
2. Princess Mononoke
3. The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad
4. Time Bandits
5. MirrorMask
6. Labyrinth
7. Ladyhawke
8. Orphée (Orpheus, Cocteau)
9. The Seventh Seal
10. The Princess Bride
11. She 1935
12. La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast, Cocteau)
13. Lost Horizon
14. The Wizard of Oz
15. The Hobbit animated
16. Spirited Away
17. I Married a Witch
18. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
19. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
20. Big Fish
21. Jason and the Argonauts
22. The City of Lost Children
23. The Never-Ending Story
24. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
25. The Dark Crystal
26. Thale
27. Spring
28. Mary Poppins
29. What Dreams May Come
30. The 13th Warrior
31. Reign of Fire
32. Willow
33. The Company of Wolves
34. Army of Darkness
35. The Lure
36. The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
37. Highlander
38. Wizards
39. Legend
40. Coraline
41. Stardust
42. The Beastmaster
43. Clash of the Titans 1981
44. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
45. Conan the Barbarian
46. The Brother's Grim
47. The Shape of Water
48. Fire and Ice
49. The Black Cauldron
50. Horns
Monday, January 5, 2026
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Sunday, January 4, 2026
Saturday, January 3, 2026
34 Orchard Open for Fiction Submmissions
34 ORCHARD, a dark literary journal, is open for fiction submissions 1000 to 6000 words from January 1-10, 2026. At 34 ORCHARD, we like dark, intense pieces that speak to a deeper truth.
We’re not genre-specific; we just like scary, disturbing, unsettling, and sad. We like things we can’t put down and things that make us go “wow” when we’ve finished.
But our main goal here at 34 ORCHARD is to publish the stuff we like to read, and you’re not in our heads. So don’t overthink it. Just submit.
Details on our guidelines page at 34orchard.com/guidelines. We look forward to reading your work!
Friday, January 2, 2026
HORRIFIC SCRIBES PRESENTS: INVASIONS OF WORLD, HOME, BODY, AND MIND
Invaders threaten us from above, below, within, and beyond. Not scared enough yet? This anthology will help! From the Horrific Scribes web archive of original short fiction (and some poetry) come 24 selections that involve horrific invasions. Only 23 are short stories--one is a group of poems--and that's not the only way the book cover deceives you. None of the stories involves UFOs attacking Earth.
Horrific Scribes seeks "the provocative, scary, and strange," and these works offer a wide array of perspectives on invasion, many of them unfamiliar. They stretch and cross the boundaries of horror, sci-fi, and other speculative fiction with dark edges.
Settle in and let your imagination be overrun by the invasions conjured by Phoebe Barr, Jim Best, Amanda M. Blake, Jon Clendaniel, David Corse, Richard Dansky, John Davis, Laura DeHaan, T. Fox Dunham, H.J. Dutton, Joseph Hirsch, Tom Johnstone, Kasimma, Emmanuel Komen, Leonardo J. Lamanna, Steven Mathes, Thomas C. Mavroudis, Trisha Ridinger McKee, Eric Nash, M. Brandon Robbins, Cassandra O'Sullivan Sachar, Sydney Sackett, K. Thompson, and Fendy S. Tulodo.
https://www.amazon.com/Horrific-Scribes-Presents-Invasions-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0G2FM82LC
Thursday, January 1, 2026
Wednesday, December 31, 2025
Just Another New Year's Eve: A Free New Year's Eve Short-Short
The jets and drones exploded over the Mississippi River as they had for the past four nights, during each of the raids on the Mothership. Supposed to be our protectors, our rebellion, they had become little more than fireworks bursting over the water, reflecting failure against the rolling surface of the river.
"Are you going to make a resolution?" Markie asked me.
"Why?" I responded. "What's the point? We're all going to be killed when the military stops giving them targets to distract them from the rest of us."
"Tradition?" she asked.
I smirked. She still could make me laugh.
Chemicals clouded into fog banks in the distance, and the screams of those trapped inside sounded small and so, so far away. As if they didn't matter. As if they wouldn't be us in the coming days.
"Okay, for tradition," I said as I pulled her to me. "I'll finally give up drinking. How 'bout that?"
She laughed. "And now that it's free for the taking with all the stores busted up and ready for looting." She paused. "Any idea what time it is?"
I made a pantomime of examining my watch, which had stopped at 4:45 PM three days ago after the EMP took out the town's power. "It's gotta be midnight somewhere," I said.
We kissed and watched the fireworks.
-- Sean Taylor
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Comics Script Advice from Gail Simone
NOTE: This was originally a series of posts on Twitter (X).
I have read a lot of first comic scripts by new writers lately.
A lot of them have very good ideas, but make basic mistakes in execution.
Here are a few bits of advice if you are just starting out writing comics, things to avoid.
Other pros welcome to add to this thread.
1/NAME YOUR CHARACTERS.
This is annoying, and even pros do it. If you have a character we are supposed to know, you have to name them ON PANEL, not just in script.
I read a major publisher book recently where the main characters were never called by name.
A huge mistake.
2/TOO MUCH DIALOGUE
Almost all writers do this at times.
But it is wearying, it is exhausting to read, and mostly it shows a lack of awareness of how to use a comics page. There are people who do this well and a LOT who do it badly.
It's alienating. Don't do it.
3/VARY THE CAMERA ANGLE
You can't always do this, and again, sometimes it's on purpose.
But for god's sake, page after page of it, it might as well not have art at all.
Sometimes, you write a diner scene and it's static. That's okay, but I see it in action scenes too.
4/USE ESTABLISHING SHOTS FOR GOD'S SAKE
Establishing shots give us mood and tone and a ton of essential information. Over and over I read stories where I have no idea where the characters are.
A good establishing shot also helps the artist, they don't have to draw repetition.
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5/THE READER DOESN'T KNOW WHAT'S IN YOUR HEAD
Really, this shouldn't have to be said, but read your script through (or have someone else read it) as if you were coming in cold.
The stuff that you think is super cool means nothing if it's not actually on the page.
6/TAKE A SECOND DIALOG PASS
This is serious, if your dialogue feels like you're heard it before, for god's sake, take the time to rethink it.
No one is excited by dialogue they have heard before. Only surprise makes an impact.
Write, then rewrite.
7/INCLUDE YOUR ARTIST
The artist is your collaborator and partner, try to avoid what they hate drawing, and LEAVE ROOM for them to add their skills and talents.
I usually choreograph fight scenes carefully. With some artists, you just let them go, because they kill it.
8/PAY ATTENTION TO STORY VELOCITY
Stories have a speed to them. Try to vary it a bit, include a speaking scene before or after an action scene. The emotional response from the reader is well worth it, and it stops your script from feeling one-note.
9/THAT'S IT
Other writers feel free to add on. A lot of people want to try to write comic scripts, and it used to be that companies had editors teaching basics like this.
That doesn't happen as much now.
Take your lessons where you can and use what makes sense to you!
Also, feel free to ignore what doesn't work for you. Just be sure you're right. :)
Good luck!
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