styler I am not a huge comics and graphic novel reader (too many books already on the TBR pile, but the fact we have a huge graphic novel bookshop in Oxford that I walk past every day means I am sure it will happen), but it’s part of the market I am always interested to follow …
The story opens with a young girl with light skin and dark hair observing her father training “to climb a big mountain called Denali.” He explains that he’ll spend three weeks with a team in Alaska, hauling food and gear across the Kahiltna Glacier. Including her in the experience, he draws his daughter into his …
In 1986, Natalie Chester lands her dream assignment for the American News Agency bureau in Moscow. Her first few months are marked by problems: Her boss, Max, doesn’t seem to support her, and the Soviet government’s tight restrictions lead her into trouble more than once. Early on, Natalie receives news of a seemingly minor accident …
On the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, host Howard Lovy talks to Allyson Longueira, associate director of publishing at the graduate program in creative writing at Western Colorado University, about what authors need to understand about book design, from typography and interior layout to covers and branding. They discuss how design choices signal genre, how authors …
Rockefeller Center archivist Roussel is well situated to explore the famous photograph “Lunch on a Beam” as a work of art, a work of commerce, and as strategic, impassioned propaganda. On September 20, 1932, a photo was taken of 11 ironworkers on an I-beam smoking, talking, and eating 850 feet above Rockefeller Center, with New …
A man facing divorce in the American South suffers a tragedy when his son dies by suicide. Rocked by the death and the dissolution of his marriage, he decides to travel to exotic locales around the globe. It’s unclear what his name is, but some details suggest his character, especially memories of an old friend …
In a small mountain town in Georgia, Harold Jeffers—best known among the drunks and delinquents as “Moogie the Shark”—makes a living loaning money to “deadbeat borrowers” who “wouldn’t be let in the back door of a bank.” Being the brains behind the operation, Moogie employs carefully selected muscle: young men with no past or future, …
The collection opens with “And Her Name Was Ralph,” a story about a person whose name and life subvert gender roles: By the age of 10, the titular protagonist is helping her farming family by operating plows and harvest machines. At 18, she meets a city boy named Alford—known as Six—and during their first conversation …
After five happy years of marriage, Eliza Talbot suddenly becomes a widow in her 30s. She’s coerced into therapy by Virginia, her annoyingly impeccable mother-in-law. Eliza becomes increasingly vexed by Virginia’s meddlesome antics, which include uninvited appearances at the cottage that Eliza shared with her deceased husband, Joseph, in the village of Dunsbury, England. She’s …
We start the week with some good news that segues interestingly out of the news that many indie authors have found alarming at the end of last week. The indie corner of the internet has been filled with little other than discussion (much heated) of Draft2Digital’s decision to introduce fees for new and low-activity accounts …