I'm back from an action-packed Worldcon, just in time for the start of a new semester!

My stand-alone academic presentation from the con, "His Fordship in the Capitol and Big Brother in the Districts: How The Hunger Games' World of Tomorrow Builds on SF's Classic Past," is now available for free on the latest episode of StarShipSofa. If you ( Read more... )

Here are a few new calls for papers that may be of interest:
- Doctor Who: Twelfth Night
- I Am Already Dead: Essays on The CW's iZombie and Vertigo's iZOMBIE
- Kaiju and Pop Culture Anthology
- Social TV Fandom and the Media Industries
- Octavia Butler Essay CollectionI'm back from a fantastic trip to Cherokee, North Carolina. I hope everyone is ( Read more... )

Wow! The first weekend of my two-weekend "The Dystopian Tradition: What Worlds Gone Wrong Can Teach Us" event was spectacular, with amazing students and fascinating discussions. I'm very much looking forward to the second half of the event. Thanks to everyone who participated ( Read more... )

* If 1) while reading C.S. Lewis you've ever been troubled by the problem of Susan Pevensie, and/or 2) you love Doctor Who, by all means read "The Solution of Susan." In less than half a page, it packs more of a punch than some novels I've read. Thank you, The Hero of Three Faces ( Read more... )

* Huge congratulations to Glass Hammer's Stephen R. Babb on the publication of his gorgeous The Lay of Lirazel in paperback, ebook, and audiobook form. The Lay Of Lirazel is narrative poetry told in epic fashion, but it is poetry fully equipped with fangs and enough terror to keep a reader turning pages till the last curse falls and death and doom ( Read more... )

I had a marvelous time at this year's Worldcon (which, the last I heard, was in the running to be the largest Worldcon in the event's 72-year-history with well over 10,500 attendees).

Some of the highlights of the con for me were the following.

- Meeting in person several of the StarShipSofa crew with whom I've worked for the last six plus years ( Read more... )

* I'm delighted to say it's official: I'll be giving an hour-long academic presentation on "Sherlock Holmes and Science Fiction" at Loncon 3: The 72nd World Science Fiction Convention in London this summer. (It's the perfect year for returning to London, as it's the 160th birthday of Mr. Holmes!) It looks like I'll be on some terrific panels, as ( Read more... )

It's been a good weekend to be a geek. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was absolutely exceptional. (I'll be seeing it again this week, and then I'll post more of a review. Nutshell version: it's brilliant! Very, very well done.) And there was An Adventure in Space and Time (Mark Gatiss did it again!) and "The Day of the Doctor." Wow. We even got a ( Read more... )

My Spring 2014 online, interactive, international course for The Mythgard Institute (available both for M.A. students who are seeking degrees and auditors wishing to participate the love of the subject) is now open for registration. It's "The Gothic Tradition."


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Fresh from Wildside Press, the new Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine #10 includes my essay "Sherlock Holmes and Science Fiction."


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