Author name: Graciela Newman

Graciela is a dedicated news writer with a background in lifestyle, books, sports, education, and tech. She loves to write about the latest trends in all five of those categories. She also enjoys reading and playing sports. She got her to start writing for Stroom News because she wanted to do something that would allow her to make a difference in the world—and she found it!

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Erika Swyler on Worldbuilding as Set Design

This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. Article continues after advertisement As an ex-actor and former set carpenter, I’m befuddled by the book world’s preoccupation with worldbuilding, and how often it’s used to denote genre. Worldbuilding is essential to fiction, no matter what genre, as set design is to theater. Portal fantasies […]

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The Unsolved Tale of a British Slave Ship’s Uprising and Shipwreck

In April 1769, a small British vessel sailing westward along the southern coast of Hispaniola made a disturbing discovery. In the shallow waters be-tween Petit Trou and Cape Mongou, near the French/ Spanish colonial border that today separates Haiti from the Dominican Republic, the crew spotted what appeared to be the hull of a ship

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something rotten

Something Rotten

What was he forgetting? He checked the list again, dragging his thumb down line by line, rummaging through the baby bag, suitcases, and carry-ons until he found each item: the squeeze packs, yes, the sleep sacks, yes, the pacifiers—The baby was crying. He looked up at it, still securely bound to the high chair (he

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Community college bachelor’s degrees stall for years amid Cal State objections

Santiago Canyon College is one of seven community colleges in the state that have yet to get final approval for bachelor’s degrees they proposed in 2023. Courtesy of Santiago Canyon College Rudy Garcia was excited when he learned that his local community college, Moorpark in Ventura County, planned to offer a bachelor’s degree in cybersecurity

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faulkner sexton noferatu

Vampires, pranks and podcasts: here are some ideas to reboot 2025’s public domain books.

January 16, 2025, 4:21pm The new year means new calendars you’ll stop using in a month, new resolutions you’ll break in a week, and new public domain works you can remix and ruin all year long. And in 2025, a lot of classics are escaping the shackles of copyright — Duke Law’s Center for the

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What Would Gabriel García Márquez Have Thought of the Netflix Version of His Novel?

It was in a trattoria on the Piazza Navona in early April of 1974 that for the first but not the last time I heard Gabriel García Márquez refuse to even contemplate turning his masterpiece, Cien Aňos de Soledad, into a film. Gabo—as his friends called him—was in Rome as one of the vice-presidents of

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Remembering Renay: On Growing Up With an Unforgettable Mother

This Sunday morning, the final hot Sunday of May, there are two matters foremost on my mind, creeping like those water stains down from the Roach House ceiling. I cannot escape this terrible feeling deep in my soul. This certainty. This knowing. Article continues after advertisement I would be underdressed for an awards show. Recently

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