John Wiswell on the Web

Veronica searched sixteen years for a real Ouija board. Its first message was "A S L ?" She didn't want it anymore.

A funny thing happened in Alice Walker's The Color Purple . While I have trouble reading it sometimes, I can hear it perfectly. It's...

It's March, which means it's National Novel Reading Month. This is an annual tradition encouraging people to read the classic novels...

It's almost March 2015, so of course we're all talking about the best movies of 2014. Naturally I disagree with some of the Oscar ...

Roses are red, Violets are blue, Tentacles aren't my thing, But you're my baby, Cthulhu.

Debate can be such a wonderful waste of passion. A couple months ago I discovered something physical books can't do. Yangsze Choo t...

I get a lot of random Friend Requests on Goodreads. I'm a Librarian, and I have a few lightning rod reviews, so people find me. General...

They teach you about symbolism, too. While I was in the hospital, submissions opened for the Viable Paradise workshop . It's ru...

Because I'm numerically attracted to things that end in 0's and 5's, I've been waiting a solid four years for 2015. A coupl...

2014 was a rough year. Twice, I found myself so sick for prolonged stretches of time that I wasn't cognitively capable of reading at al...

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, bless us for our good intentions, which always outstrip our good works. Tod...

This is the first year my sister has hosted Thanksgiving dinner, and God has decided to celebrate by sending a blizzard for my drive. While ...

This week the first-ever issue of Urban Fantasy Magazine was published. Its first two stories are "A Chance of Cats and Dogs," ...

"We need a Halloween movie." "Jaws?" "No, Jaws is a winter movie." "You mean summer?" "No, ...

Yesterday I finished John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Handling the Undead , and I wanted to call it the most creative zombie story since Max Bro...

It’s not my fault we live in the middle of the woods. It’s not hers, either, but I can use this. We finish Nightmare on Elm Street around ...

It's a good day to celebrate! Yesterday morning I signed the contract and sold my first short story to a pro-rate magazine. The lovely s...

There’s a lot I love about Pacific Rim, but its ending has bothered me since opening weekend. Spoilers , naturally, if you haven’t seen ...

An iconic Fantasy villain, with his +1 cleaver. From an early age I didn't understand most genre distinctions, and especially why...

Senility as wish fulfillment. I've already written a full review of Jo Walton's My Real Children , but I want to talk about som...

My nephew forced me to buy the chair at a yard sale. The "End of the World Sale," the plywood sign called it, and the chair was ...

The modern world has not done enough to safeguard against vampires. The corrupt the young and drink the old, but the bravest hunters st...

How impractical would it be to get Angela Lansbury, Tony Shalhoub, David Suchet, Emily Deschanel and Benedict Cumberbatch to star in an Exp...

From Pinterest . Perhaps you know Venom. He’s the coolest Spider-Man villain. Just ask my fifteen-year-old self and he’ll tell you so....