What's in a Phrase?

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In “A Redress for Andromeda,” Caitlín R. Kiernan lets the feeling of impatience replace the definition of impatience as it applies to her characters…
Casey Houser
In “The Specialist’s Hat,” Kelly Link has the protagonists forget a character's name, demoting her to secondary status in their eyes and yours.
Casey Houser
In “The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles," Margaret St. Clair uses a short moment of fear to create an extended feeling of uncertainty about the…
Casey Houser

February 2023

Jack Williamson shows in “With Folded Hands” that the loss of personal freedom can begin with removal of an object as commonplace as a door knob.
Casey Houser
In “Premium Harmony,” Stephen King keeps his prose on the surface level of his characters, allowing their universe beneath to unfold naturally.
Casey Houser
In “Sandkings,” George R. R. Martin captures the entire personality of his protagonist in the short story's opening paragraph -- with a display of the…
Casey Houser
In a passage from The Revivalists, Christopher M. Hood links the narrator's past to his present while subsequently using the reader's past to color…
Casey Houser

January 2023

In Hammers on Bone, Cassandra Khaw uses the physical posture and measured speed of her main character to give him an edge in his encounters with men and…
Casey Houser
In The Long Walk, Steven King uses a familiar type of highway sign to establish a link between the people of today and a society of the future. Is it…
Casey Houser
In “A Country Doctor,” Franz Kafka builds your connection with his main character by manipulating time and space in the story.
Casey Houser
In her short story, “Bloodchild,” Octavia E. Butler shapes a pivotal conversation in a way that places verbal and non-verbal elements at odds, leaving…
Casey Houser
In Joan is Okay, author Weike Wang uses the protagonist's personality to foreshadow the feeling of the entire novel. In one tense and telling scene, you…
Casey Houser
© 2023 Casey Houser
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