Generic 3rd Edition Released!!! Spring 2013!

Generic Release

Emerson College's solely genre fiction literary magazine was released last week to the whole campus. The stories include all different kinds of genres including, Western, Romance, and Fairytales. During the semester, workshops were held for Emerson students to learn about these three genres and test their writing abilities, creating stories based on writing prompts and exercises. 

Each genre brought its own challenges and PubClub has now released and online version! Enjoy here:

http://issuu.com/bookpubclub/docs/g3issuufinal

Pub Club, Pub World

Hello, and welcome to the next installment of “Pub Club, Pub World”! This section will update all you lovely blog readers about what’s going on in the world of publishing.

Here's the latest news for this month!

The Greatest American Novel was just decided on from a poll done on PWxyz (affiliated with Publisher's Weekly). Not surprisingly, To Kill A Mockingbird tops the list, followed by The Great Gatsby, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Grapes of Wrath, Moby Dick, and Gone With The Wind. The most interesting, however, is that The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, came in seventh place, beating out The Catcher and the Rye, Fahrenheit 451, and Slaughterhouse-Five. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, published in 2000, was the only book in the top 10 to be published in the 2000s. Never fear, American Lit teachers; it looks like we'll be reading the same books for a long, long time. The classics are still relevant to the modern reader.

Aspects of Self Publishing

Disadvantages of Self-Publishing

Many authors are turning to self-publishing because it has become so accessible. While it can be appealing to go the route of self-publishing, as it is less time consuming than traditional publishing, turning to self-publishing has its disadvantages.

For one, traditional publishers already have a platform to sell your book on. They have connections to publicize your book and get it out to the masses. Going into self-publishing means you have to create your own platform to market your book on. Traditional publishers are also helpful in making your book better, through editors, marketers, and designers, who all work together to make the book the best it can be. By choosing self-publishing, you must edit, design, and market your book without an objective opinion.

Tips for Writers and Workshoppers!

How to Kill the Blank Page

Hey writers! This month’s writing tip is: to overcome writer’s block with inspiration. We’ve all been there. We’ve all felt the drive to write, we’ve all procrastinated until a deadline looms, and we’ve all wanted (needed) to write something well. But we constrain ourselves the second we sit down, pen in hand or fingers flat on the keyboard, with the pressure of needing to write a masterpiece. We think, okay, I need to start this now, and this needs to be the best thing I’ve ever written. And sure, maybe that’s true. But when something unsavory comes out instead of the beautiful words we’ve been expecting, the panic rises. And that panic can be absolutely debilitating. I believe that in order to avoid the pains of writer’s block, we have to make conscious efforts to look for inspiration wherever we can. The following suggestions can help you squeeze out the ideas spinning around in your brain and give you the peace and confidence you need to approach your writing. 

1.   Act like a kid. 

Like many people at Emerson, I’ve been in love with words since I was very young. This topic came up during a workshop of mine just last semester: kids who write do so freely. They don’t think of a grade, they don’t have expectations confining them, and they don’t try to limit themselves to demands and specifics. They are completely free to tell whatever story they want to and so, they do. It seemed everyone in my class lamented this, felt envious. This is because like most writers, we all get older and allow our freedom to get bottled up. We put so much pressure on ourselves and set rules that only serve to put more stress and anxiety on our shoulders.

What's Trending

Old School Vampires, Meet the Shiny New Ones...

And More

They are everywhere. I don’t mean in your closet or under the bed or lurking in your high school cafeteria but in movies, TV and literature. Some people might be inclined to say that people are more obsessed with vampires than ever, but this is not the first time that vampires and the supernatural have had a significant place in popular culture. Because before Edward and Bella fell in love, in fact before Edward was even fictionally born, stories of vampires and the supernatural were shocking gentlemen and ladies alike during the 19^th century through Gothic literature. 

We have always been fascinated by ghost stories, but during the Gothic period, the dark and macabre was high fashion. I would go as far as to say that, at least in the world of YA, we are experiencing a Gothic revival, or perhaps more accurately, a Gothic reboot. For while the fascination is the same, the vampire obsession then and now has taken fans down different paths.

Turning Pages, Changing Channels

Elementary, My Dear Watson

In recent years, Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch have joined an elite club located at 221b Baker Street.  Both men have taken on the role of Sherlock Homes (originally brought to life by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) on CBS’s Elementary and BBC’s Sherlock, respectively.  Each show takes a drastically different approach to both the detective and his faithful sidekick, Watson, played by Lucy Liu (Elementary) and Martin Freeman (Sherlock).

           

BBC’s Sherlock is aired in three-episode seasons.  So far, there have been two.  The series adheres rather closely to Doyle’s original works.  The cases that Cumberbatch and Freeman solve are based on the cases of the fictional detective in the novels.  The dry British sense of humor is also apparent in the writing.  Sherlock is portrayed as an absolute genius, and far from modest.  The portrayal of how his mind works in this series is depicted as being rather computer-like.  As an episode progresses, viewers get to see Cumberbatch solve various clues as they come together in Sherlock’s mind. The similarities between this interpretation and Doyle’s original range from Irene Adler to Watson’s recording Sherlock’s cases, albeit in a blog.  

The House of Paranormal YA

Smokeless Fire by Samantha Young

“I can’t have anything happen to you. And being around me… not good. Starting now I have to walk away from all of this. From Ohio. From Dad and Rachel and Staci… and you.” (A conversation between Charlie and Ari, page 251)

Ari is a normal eighteen-year-old girl dealing with normal eighteen-year-old girl problems. She deals with anxiety of graduating from high school, trying to communicate better with her dad, and helping out Charlie, her best friend (and the guy that Ari claims to love), during difficult times that had led him to drug and alcohol problems. However, all of these problems change in one dream that turns out to be reality. Aria is pulled out of her normal life and thrown into the world of Jinn.