Guest Post by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Inspired by a similar post the Smart Pop team posted a couple months ago, we’ve asked some of our contributors’ to provide guest posts with their favorite Smart Pop essays selected. First up is the talented Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s picks.

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When the kind folks at BenBella asked me to write a blog about my three favorite essays in the Smart Pop series, I said yes. Sounds easy, right? Three favorite. Sure, no problem.

Until I actually sat down to write the blog. Then I realized I had too many favorites.  Three? Just three? Using what criteria? Mine? Really? Mine changes each and every day, depending on my mood. I’ve always had trouble picking favorites of anything. Ask me …

» Continue Reading “Indecision and the Fan Girl: A Guest Post”

Since this site gives us the opportunity to highlight not just our books, but the individual essays our authors have written for us (and, okay, since it also gives you the opportunity to buy those individual essays), we wanted to figure out more ways to showcase them. Thus: Editors Picks. Periodically we—and/or some of our past guest editors or book contributors—will select 3 essays we particularly love from our Smart Pop titles and offer a little commentary on why we think you’ll love them, too.

From Leah:

My three picks today have a theme: they’re all essays that changed the way I think about storytelling.

1. “The Night that Alias Reinvented Itself,” from Alias Assumed

This essay, by media studies professor and tv …

» Continue Reading “Best of Smart Pop essays: Editors picks”

It feels weird to be posting this right after the announcement of Dollhouse’s official cancellation. But we’re still planning on doing the book, and so we hope you’re still planning on writing an essay. (A book like this is as fitting a memorial as I can think of for such a weighty, complex show.)

Let me also take a second to remind you, or let you know for the first time, that we’ve added a place on the contest page where you can sign up for updates on the contest and book. We’ll also make sure to remind you when the deadline approaches . . . though if the last episode of Dollhouse airs as hypothesized on January 22, that’ll likely be reminder enough.…

» Continue Reading “Dollhouse Essay Contest Tip #2: More Than Just Story”

At various points from now until February 1, I’ll be posting tips for those of you thinking of entering our essay contest. Following any or all of these tips doesn’t guarantee anything, of course—but it can’t hurt!

When you’re dealing with any show or book or film, there are some ideas that are kind of obvious: the X-Men uses metaphor to explore real-world prejudices; Buffy was about female empowerment; Dollhouse asks questions about the nature of the self.

This doesn’t mean these topics make for bad essays; great writing or novel insights can make ideas that would otherwise feel like old news seem new again. But it does mean that it’ll be harder for your essay to distinguish itself, since you probably won’t be the only …

» Continue Reading “Dollhouse Essay Contest Tip #1: Surprise Us”