“I found you in pretty bad shape,” mentions the scruffy, bearded Issac as a hot canteen of liquid is passed around the fire, “I want to ask you a few questions, just to make sure nothing is wrong, ok? What planet are we on?” The obsidian-haired stranger responds in kind ...

Ah, public transportation. A favorite bastion for random encounters with strangers from various walks of life.

In the early days of riding, a chance encounter on public transit would usually be drowned out using a variety of props: stereo-headphones; a pair of sunglasses; face mask; eye mask; inflatable neck pillow ...

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Merry Christmas and whatever you celebrate :)
Interesting topic from Banes! It's his idea that sometimes the literal elements of a story (the plot etc.) are simply ...

Photo: “The Future is Not Set” -Kyle Reese quoting John Connor from The Terminator (1984)

A folded document fell on my lap while turning through the pages of a book I had not glanced through in a year. It was a test print for a brand new printer and the ...

The idea of “sin” is a prevalent one in horror stories. In terrifying tales, the monstrous against the human also explores good vs. evil.

There is often a “sin” perpetrated by horror Protagonists. The classic Psycho begins with Marion Crane stealing money from her job. Her intentions are understandable, maybe ...

I'm wounded but you can't see it!


A lot of stories involve a wounded and/or flawed character. It's a staple of strong storytelling; a character has some kind of pain or wound to overcome, and that's the inner journey they take along with whatever outward ...

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Last time we covered tropes we hated! This time we're talking about clichés we actually like. It's quite a bit trickier because clichés are clichés ...

I remember when cell phones began to get popular and pervasive. As a fan of horror movies, I said to myself “well, that's the end of a lot of horror stories!”

With cell phones, it doesn't matter if you're stuck at camp or in a creepy house ...

I've had the conversation multiple times - maybe based on something I read in the past - that the
business of taking care of your money, your credit, taxes and expenses is something that was never touched on when I went to school.

Well, these have been proclamations rather than conversations ...

Yesterday I logged onto Twitter and saw this tweet trending.





And ohohoho I knew there was spicy drama afoot.

This origin story of this tweet was an column by Rob Salkowitz titled Who's a creative professional in the comics world? The answer is getting more complicated. He makes a ...