A Monster Calls: When the Wild Things Grow Up

Posted on by Colin McMahon

Most young adult fantasies are safely detached from the real world. They exist in fictitious lands that bare only certain semblances to our lives. While many tackle familiar issues, the screen of the alien is always there to obscure everything. Not too much for the message to be lost, just enough for it to be fun. A Monster Calls smashes through that screen, picking the reader up into a world feels every bit as beautiful and terrible as the one we wake into each day of our lives.

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Writing Villains: the Moriarty Problem

Posted on by Colin McMahon

When writing fiction of any length, one of the most important characters to focus on is the antagonist. Merriam-Webster defines the antagonist as “one that contends with or opposes another.” In the case of writing, the antagonist is always in conflict with the hero of the story, or the protagonist. All great works seem to have strong protagonists and antagonists: Othello and Iago, Frankenstein and his creation, Sherlock Holmes and Professor James Moriarty. These characters enter into a struggle that is captivating from beginning to end. BUT – then the book ends, Holmes and Moriarty go over the falls – Holmes lives, Moriarty dies.

What next?

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The Righteous Mind is Essential Reading

Posted on by Colin McMahon

With partisanship on the rise and many Americans firmly settled into their echo-chamber media bubbles, books that attempt to understand political and religious thinking, without declaring obvious winners, are becoming crucial insights.Jonathan Haidt‘s The Righteous Mind is an essential tool for anyone trying to understand the political psychology of the other side.

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