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. That said, for marketing/SEO/marketing writing projects, I rarely work directly with clients, instead preferring to subcontract to agencies. I may exceptions from time to time, though.
My clients include:
- About.com
- Schwadesign
- FrameMedia
- Rue Morgue
- Basics Group
- Conrad Lane Designs
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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 October, 2008
October 16, 2008 at 2:12 am
· Filed in 52 Books/52 Weeks
Another installment of the excellent 33 1/3 series of books on seminal albums. This one is only nominally about GN’R. It’s really about the end of a the blockbuster album phase of the music industry, the decline of metal in the face of grunge, and correcting the shaky record that is memory.
Buy Use Your Illusion I and I at Amazon
Book: 55/52
October 13, 2008 at 2:11 am
· Filed in 52 Books/52 Weeks
A collection of short comics about Lane’s “Great American Mythological Drama” – think diners and Elvis, hoboes and criminals, dive bars and fast cars. A really solid debut collection. Lane shows pleasing Charles Burns and Dan Clowes influences, but is clearly his own artist as well. I look forward to his next book.
Buy Abandoned Cars at Amazon
Book: 54/52
October 10, 2008 at 2:09 am
· Filed in 52 Books/52 Weeks
The annual anthology of true crime writing from the country’s leading magazines. While always great books full of fascinating stories, it gets depressing to read the same broad outlines of people and the crimes they commit or are victims of year after year. It’s just an unpleasant commentary on the human condition.
Buy The Best American Crime Reporting 2008 at Amazon
Book: 53/52
October 7, 2008 at 2:55 am
· Filed in News
Just a houskeeping note: I’ve stepped down as the editor of Rhode Island Home, Living & Design magazine. I had a great 18 months in the position and am sorry to be moving on, but my workload has been so substantial this year that I needed to free up more time for my own writing, to say nothing of rest and relaxation. So, the issue on the stands now is the last one I edited. Elisabeth Herschbach, one of the magazine’s writers, has taken over as editor. I wish her, and Paul Anselmo, the publisher, nothing but good luck and look forward to seeing where they take the magazine next. I’m sure it will be great places.
October 5, 2008 at 2:09 am
· Filed in 52 Books/52 Weeks
Hammett’s second novel; I liked the first, Red Harvest, better. Though the prose and dialogue are a lot of fun, the plot felt too driven by the need for the book to continue and less by the characters. Perhaps the book was overplotted – I just didn’t want to continue after a while.
Buy The Dain Curse at Amazon
Book: 52/52
October 3, 2008 at 1:07 pm
· Filed in 52 Books/52 Weeks
A modern retelling of the Bluebeard legend (I did my own version at Split Lip), with art by my collaborator Sami Makkonen. A great debut for Genco, who updates the story well while retaining a dreamy sense of fairy tale. I’d love to see more comics adapting fairy tales and folk ballads.
Buy Blue at Amazon
Book: 51/52
October 1, 2008 at 2:05 am
· Filed in 52 Books/52 Weeks
The conclusion to Umezu’s 1970s kids apocalypse story in which a full schoolhouse is sent into the future after a disaster. Every volume has some “oh my god,” Lord of the Files-style moment, making each installment awfully, disturbingly pleasurable. The series ends on a downbeat note, which was both surprising and appealing.
Buy The Drifting Classroom at Amazon
Books: 48-50/52
