I have a new post up at Mental Floss: 8 Lovely Facts About The Secret Garden. I was surprised to learn that Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic book is basically an allegory for Christian Science. Weird. Click here to read the…
Literary Hub mentioned my article in The Atlantic about literary journals charging reading fees to submitting writers among The 50 Biggest Literary Stories of the Year. It’s under number 31: Literary Journals Making Money Off Slush Piles. Check it out!
I wrote another Halloween-themed Mental Floss post: 9 Mournful Facts About Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” Ravens can really talk. Here’s a video of a raven saying “nevermore.”
I’m excited to share an article I wrote for The Atlantic on literary journal reading fees. It looks into whether literary journals should charge writers fees to submit their writing, an important issue that needs more discussion. Check out: Should…
Here are my latest Mental Floss articles. They are Halloween themed. Wooo (spooky noise). 10 Monstrous Facts About ‘Frankenstein’ The amount of death that happened around Mary Shelley during the writing and publication of Frankenstein is astounding. Three children, her…
More Mental Floss articles that I wrote! Get ’em while they’re hot! 12 Gloriumptious Facts About Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl actually was a chocolate tester for a candy company when he was a kid. It stuck with…
Here’s a few recent articles: 13 Facts About L. Frank Baum’s ‘Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ L. Frank Baum was a fascinating person. I had no idea. He was a chicken farmer and a traveling salesman and went around the country…
Did you catch my most recent article in Mental Floss? It’s 11 Dickensian Facts About ‘Great Expectations’. Did you know Estella may have been based on Charles Dickens’s mistress? Also, remember the 1998 movie version with Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan…
Did you know that The Sound of Music turned 50 years old this year? I recently re-watched it for my Mental Floss article 14 Things You Might Not Know About ‘The Sound of Music’. Now I really want to go…
Want to learn about the white blackberry, the spineless cactus, or the trifoliate orange? Consider taking a trip to the Luther Burbank Experiment Farm, which I wrote about for Via Magazine.
When I was a kid, Vivien Leigh was one of my heroes. My admiration was re-awakened by this recent Mental Floss article Fiddle-dee-dee! 18 Facts About Vivien Leigh. She was a fascinating lady.
I recently got my first gray hair. That may have had something to do with my most recent Mental Floss article: 10 Head-Scratching Facts About Gray Hair