Author Archives: Kelly Cipera

A mix of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s John Carter and Tom Hanks in Castaway, Astronaut Mark Watney is stuck on Mars. However, unlike A Princess of Mars, The Martian isn’t an incredulous or frivolous example of science fiction. While Read More

Issue #13 of Fatale is another flashback "episode", standalone in its story and loosely related to the overall arc of the continuing story. This issue is less about bare survival and escape and more about the protagonist finding some answers, which — Read More

Deep in the Dark Ages, France, Mathilda wakes in the middle of the forest, and she cannot remember who she was before arriving there. All she knows is that she seems to trail a curse in her wake. Wherever she goes, disease of the mind and body follow. Read More

While 1Q84 has its flaws, it is a compelling read of strangeness of a variety that only Murakami can pull off convincingly. His ability to weave the bizarre together with character development and portrayals is a hallmark of his fiction style — you are Read More

Sometimes wearing a costume can come with a risk: the over-zealous fan. Chris covered one aspect of this last month, but objectification isn’t the only peril of cosplay, so I’ve put a guide together to help you, the fan, make sure you’re not “that guy” Read More

With con season upon us, I thought this would be a pertinent time to discuss an issue that is familiar to essentially every con-goer: hygiene. Or, rather, bad hygiene. Read More

If you're the person who asks five minute long questions at panels about minutia, keep reading so I don't have to smack you next time I'm at a panel. Here are the "Kelly Cipera Guidelines to Effective Convention Panel Questioning". Read More

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a rare book that I keep thinking about after reading. I find that there is a lot more to it than a bunch of high school kids trying to find their identity, their voice, or acceptance from their peers — it has a really good Read More

The Sigh, which reads like a fairy tale, is a story appropriate for all ages. The art, typical to Satrapi, is perhaps not super sophisticated, but is really an addition to the story telling rather than the meat of the story telling. Read More

I apologize for being negligent in my posts leading up to NaNoWriMo. However, I am gearing up to start NaNoWriMo (in fact, I currently have 1349 words — how about you?). I am going to try my darndest to have posts throughout the month with encouragement Read More

Now that we know what NaNoWriMo is, we're at the perfect opportunity to start thinking about an idea for our stories. If you already have an idea, some of these could just be fun writing exercises to practice getting a certain amount of words a day. Read More

NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is going to be starting the 1st of November. If it starts in a month, why am I talking about it now? Well, because this is the best time you'll have to A) Learn about NaNoWriMo if you haven't before and/or B) Read More