Sam Costello: Writer, Editor, Web Consultant
I am a writer, editor, and web consultant who works with marketing companies, web development and IT agencies, magazines, websites, and other organizations. I help clients develop and refine messages, ideas, and businesses through precise, creative writing, accurate grammar, and cutting edge web consulting.
I am available for freelance projects in any of these areas, and also in writing or editing fiction, comics, and graphic novels.
My clients include:
- About.com
- Schwadesign
- FrameMedia
- Rue Morgue
- Aardvark Design
- RI Home, Living & Design
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My services include:
- Writing for the Web
- Web Consulting
- Web Marketing: SEO and Email
- Journalism
- Editing
- Blogging
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Latest News
Archive for June, 2008
June 28, 2008 at 2:05 am
· Filed in Uncategorized
As interesting a study in genre as I can recall. If anyone else wrote this bludgeoning, gore-soaked novel, it would be horror, but the name on the cover makes it literature. Some of the violence is hard to take, but the language is amazing. Echoes of McCarthy in Brian Evenson’s Old West.
Buy Blood Meridian at Amazon
Book: 33/52
June 26, 2008 at 2:05 am
· Filed in 52 Books/52 Weeks
A good high concept: in an alternative 1920s, where demons overran the earth after World War I, a man and boy run booze across the countryside. The execution is less polished. Henderson’s work is reminiscent of Sin City-era Miller, but the story feels slight in this thin volume and doesn’t quite engage.
Buy Smuggling Spirits Vol. 1 at Amazon
Book: 32/52
June 24, 2008 at 2:21 am
· Filed in News
I’ve been doing some writing recently, and will be doing more throughout the year, for RI EPSCoR, the Rhode Island Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, via the good offices of The Basics Group, who has created a terrific new website for EPSCoR and its related organizations.
As part of this work, I’ll be writing a series of articles about scientific research at higher ed institutions in Rhode Island. The first two of these articles are now live:
June 23, 2008 at 2:03 am
· Filed in 52 Books/52 Weeks
The second installment of Aaron’s noir-on-the-reservation series. This collection of linked short stories focusing on an individual characters on the night of the opening of the reservation’s casino is more appealing than the first volume, with deep and rewarding character work. Not sure I’ll be buying volume 3; just don’t feel compelled.
Buy Scalped Vol. 2 at Amazon
Book: 31/52
June 21, 2008 at 2:01 am
· Filed in 52 Books/52 Weeks
I’d
decided to quit this pointless series before its end, but found I’d mail-ordered the final volume and forgotten. Since the book was in hand, I read it. Mistake. The series ends on an utterly pointless and befuddling note, hardly resolving key plot points and adding a bunch of junior high philosophizing.
Buy Dragon Head Vol. 10 at Amazon
Book: 30/52
June 19, 2008 at 2:16 am
· Filed in News
Despite this blog looking like I do nothing but read a lot of comics and the occasionally novel, I’ve been hard at work the last few months on a number of projects. Many have been mentioned on this site, some have not.
Among the most interesting and exciting things I’ve been working on can’t be fully revealed yet – especially so as not to jinx them. We writers are a cowardly and superstitious lot – but I can say this: In the last few weeks, I’ve sent a book proposal to 10 publishers and four different graphic novel proposals to two publishers.
Wish me luck!
June 17, 2008 at 2:38 am
· Filed in 52 Books/52 Weeks
From a series of short books on important albums. This one, on Black Sabbath’s album of the same name, is by my favorite musician, John Darnielle, AKA the Mountain Goats. This essay is written in the form of a novel about a kid locked against his will into a residential treatment facility.
Buy Master of Reality at Amazon
Book: 29/52
June 16, 2008 at 2:23 am
· Filed in News
I’m happy to reveal that I’ve been working with Bridgewater State College for the last few months to help three departments there — School of Graduate Studies, Continuing and Distance Education, and External Affairs — improve their search engine optimization. We’ve been working on both organic and pay-pay-click techniques and expect the work to go full live this summer. I’ve been collaborating with Pawtucket-based writer Anna MacGregor Robin on this project.
June 15, 2008 at 2:38 am
· Filed in 52 Books/52 Weeks
An early work by artist Kyle Strahm, one of my collaborators on Split Lip. Kyle’s work is distinctive and beautiful, though the print-on-demand reproduction undermines his art — the blacks are weak, not deep enough. Kyle’s got more, higher-profile work coming soon. I’ve seen a bit — and now can’t wait to see more.
Book: 28/52
June 13, 2008 at 2:34 am
· Filed in 52 Books/52 Weeks
An anthology covering the growing crossover between literary fiction and genres like horror, science fiction, and fantasy. I love those kinds of stories, but this group was weak. It would have been great to see Dan Chaon, Brian Evenson, or Steve Erickson in it. Instead, some of these stories just felt limp.
Buy Conjunctions 39 at Amazon
Book: 27/52
