Monthly Archive: December, 2015

The Sense of Inexorable Death: YA v. Adult Novels

If someone asked me to name the biggest difference between young adult and adult stories, I would say, “Death.” Yes, I know that there’s more to it, including the age of the character and the difficulty level of the writing; however, when it comes to the maturity level, death plays a big part in transitioning between children’s books, YA fiction,...

Shakespearian Tragedies & Happy Endings: A Great Reason to Be Wary of Writing Trends

While I’m talking about happy endings and trends in what is considered good writing, let’s talk about Restoration England (cuz why not?). It’s a period when people preferred happy endings – to the point where they re-wrote Shakespeare’s tragedies to have them. Let me say that again: they re-wrote Shakespeare’s tragedies to have happy endings. Granted, years of strict Puritan laws...

Video Recommendation: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)

While I’m on a Shakespeare kick, if any of you haven’t seen The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), it is well worth watching if you enjoy Vaudevillian humor. The three men of the Reduced Shakespeare Company perform all the works of Shakespeare in a single performance. That calls for some witty re-writes that are enjoyable for the less-knowledgable and have...