Linwood Barclay on the Art of Making Everyday Things Terrifying
“Making people fear things in their everyday lives in ways they never did before, that’s the dream of every writer of suspenseful tales,” prolific thriller author Linwood Barclay tells us.
How the far right seeks to spread its ideology through the publishing world
Jason Wilson, writing for The Guardian, describes developments in the publishing world that “illuminate the far right’s efforts to disseminate ideologically charged material as art in the US, and raise questions about its place in the broader culture wars waged by the Trump administration which is carrying out a broad attack on what it sees as liberal culture.”
The creativity hack no one told you about: Read the obits
“Reading obituaries can boost creativity by exposing you to distant ideas, fueling the associations that lead to unexpected breakthroughs.”
“I’ve been reading the obituaries for as long as I can remember,” writes Keith Sawyer. I used to do this pretty regularly back in the days when a printed newspaper landed on my front porch every day. Sawyer says each obituary offers “a glimpse into a life I never would’ve imagined.” He goes on to explain the psychology behind how learning so many seemingly random and unconnected ideas can boost creativity.
Close Reading Is For Everyone
Dan Sinykin believes that close reading, first developed by I.A. Richards in the 1920s, “is untimely. It bristles against today’s universities, which treat students as customers to please and as future workers to train rather than as people in pursuit of human flourishing.” But, in the face of artificial intelligence (AI), “close reading, which demands patience, openness to others, and slow, careful thought, is having a moment among academics.”
“But close reading is not just for academics, and it deserves a bigger audience.”
Immersive Interiority: How to Collapse Narrative Distance to Get Emotion on the Page
Videogames provide “total immersion in a character’s experience.” How can a writer create the same intense, immersive experience for a reader using only words? This article offers three examples of how to use language to make readers feel like they’re inside the story instead of observing from a distance.
Although this article is aimed at writers, its information can also help us become better readers by noticing when an author achieves this effect. And such noticing requires close reading, the process explained in the preceding article.
8 Novels to Read If You Want to Solve a Mystery
One of the reasons I like mysteries is that I love the challenge of trying to solve the puzzle the story provides. Freya Sampson suggests some books to read if you want to sharpen your detective skills.
What Hot Dragon-Riders and Fornicating Faeries Say About What Women Want Now
“‘Romantasy’ novels are booming when romance in general is in decline.”
In The Wall Street Journal, Anna Louie Sussman examines “the booming genre of “romantasy”:
[Romantasy is] a blend of romance and fantasy. Heroines wield lightning, ride dragons and read minds, all while having sexual encounters that rarely stop at one orgasm. When a love is finally consummated—after rising stakes and a great deal of tension—the lovers typically fight the forces of darkness together.
Highly visible examples of romantasy are the series A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas and Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. In terms of characters, the genre has “abandoned earthly plausibility altogether.” But “sexual consent is paramount in romantasy,” and sexual scenes “always take a woman’s point of view.”
The Best Gothic Fantasy Novels
Gothic fantasy includes elements of ghostliness and of trauma. For me, the Gothic is very much about the goo underneath the forest floor, the stuff that’s hidden from sight, the uncomfortable things, the ghosts of various kinds, the pain . . .
Author C.J. Cooke explains the pull of gothic fantasy and recommends five of the best books in the genre.
Given up on reading? Elif Shafak on why we still need novels
“Recent studies suggest we’ve fallen out of love with reading – but the more chaotic our times, the deeper is our need to slow down and read fiction”
Author Elif Shafak writes, “We live in an era in which there is too much information but not enough knowledge, and even less wisdom.”
It seems to me that the more chaotic our times, the deeper is our need to slow down and read fiction. In an age of anger and anxiety, clashing certainties, rising jingoism and populism, the division between “us” and “them” also deepens. The novel, however, dismantles dualities.
© 2025 by Mary Daniels Brown
I do enjoy immersive interiority!
I do too, Liz. And now I’ll be more on the lookout for it in the fiction I read.