Scratch Magazine
Ideas don't always become novels. Sometimes they become essays, reviews, observations, conversations, or simply stories worth sharing.
Scratch Magazine is the editorial home of Scratch Writing—a collection of articles exploring storytelling, hidden history, emerging technology, films, humor, and the creative process. Whether you're interested in the lore behind The Midas Files, the future of artificial intelligence, a great movie recommendation, or a laugh at the day's absurdities, there's always something new to discover.
Explore the channels, follow your curiosity, and enjoy the journey.
- Details
- Written by: Matt DeReno
- Category: Cool Filmz
Sometimes you scroll through Netflix looking for something familiar, and sometimes you decide to roll the dice on something new.
Read more: CoolFilmz: Atlas (2024) Review — A Queen With a Side of Sci-Fi Cheese
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- Written by: Matt DeReno
- Category: Bingham's Notebook
In The Midas Protocol: Midas Files Book One, I introduced time travel with a certain amount of deliberate fuzziness.
Read more: Bingham's Notebook: Time Travel in The Midas Files — The Foggy Room Theory
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- Written by: Matt DeReno
- Category: The Funny Newz
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a groundbreaking effort to reduce foreign dependence on fuel, lower energy consumption, and make the daily commute significantly more ridiculous, the Bowden administration has announced a bold new sustainable transportation initiative centered on the pogo stick.
- Details
- Written by: Matt DeReno
- Category: Cool Filmz
At its core, Bone Tomahawk is a rescue story.
Read more: The Cool Filmz: Recently Added On Netflix Review - Bone Tomahawk (2015)
- Details
- Written by: Matt DeReno
- Category: Bingham's Notebook
I believe it was James Scott Bell who described a book’s theme as something that often reveals itself after the story has been told.
Read more: Bingham's Notebook: 9/11, the Dread Aughts, and Call of the Minotaur
- Details
- Written by: Matt DeReno
- Category: TechGnosis
By Marcos Fernandez Tous, University of North Dakota
For about 15 minutes on July 21, 1961, American astronaut Gus Grissom felt on top of the world — and in a very real sense, he was.
Read more: Tech Gnosis: Splashdown — Why Spacecraft Still Return to Earth by Landing in Water
- The Funny Newz: Bargain United - How a Tech Outage Turned a Flight into a Time-Travel Adventure
- Cool Filmz: A Gripping Tale of Crime and Consequences - A Review of American Gangster (2007)
- Tech Gnosis: The CrowdStrike Outage Exposed How Fragile the Modern Internet Has Become
- Cool Filmz: Rediscovering The Phantom Menace - A Journey Through The First Prequel
Subcategories
The Scratching Post
The Scratching Post is Matt De Reno’s personal corner of Scratch Magazine, featuring author updates, creative reflections, Pittsburgh-rooted storytelling, house-project avoidance, writing life, book news, and friendly notes from the world behind The Midas Files.
Bingham's Notebook
Bingham’s Notebook explores the lore, characters, artifacts, hidden history, timelines, and behind-the-scenes mythology of The Midas Files, Matt De Reno’s Pittsburgh-rooted sci-fi thriller series about ancient power, impossible technology, and dangerous secrets.
Cool Filmz
Cool Filmz is Scratch Magazine’s movie and TV room, featuring essays, reviews, lookbacks, and story-minded reflections on sci-fi, thrillers, action classics, pop culture, character arcs, genre storytelling, and the films that shaped Matt De Reno’s imagination.
The Funny Newz
The Funny Newz is Scratch Magazine’s humor section, featuring fake headlines, sci-fi satire, UFO nonsense, cryptid chaos, ancient-alien absurdity, local parody, bad technology, and ridiculous reports from a universe that probably should not be trusted with advanced tools.
TechGnosis
TechGnosis explores strange science, future technology, space, AI, cybersecurity, fragile systems, hidden knowledge, and real-world ideas that sound like they escaped from a sci-fi thriller — all through the curious lens of Scratch Magazine.
