In this X-Files revival moment, I thought I'd share a couple of older X-Files-ish goodies for those of you like me who want to believe.

* My "Looking Back on Genre History" StarShipSofa tribute to The X-Files features my "whirlwind tour" of the genre ancestors of Agents Mulder and Scully of The X-Files -- in other words, a discussion of the ( Read more... )

Just a quick note to say that my essay "In Search of Fringe's Literary Ancestors" from the book Fringe Science is the spotlight essay today at the Smart Pop Books website. You can read it for free here!

I'll shortly be off to Asheville, and I look forward to seeing some of you at my "The Dystopian Tradition: What Worlds Gone Wrong Can Teach Us" weekend event.

Before leaving I had to make a quick post to say how very excited I am that The X-Files is returning (excited is an understatement!) and to share this Honest Trailer for The Hobbit: The ( Read more... )

These count as cool things:

- Here's a Call for Papers of potential interest: CFP: What Can We Expect from Joss Whedon?

- J. Michael Straczynski will be adapting Kim Stanley Robinson: "Babylon 5 creator heads back to TV to write the Red Mars series."

- Speaking of adaptations, has anyone watched the new Amazon Originals pilot of The Man in the ( Read more... )

These count as cool things:

- The Lovecraft eZine's Lovecraftian/Weird Fiction "Author of the Week" is the incomparable and eldritch ankh_hpl. Read all about it here!

- From io9: "Discover House Of Stairs, One Of The Most Underrated YA Dystopias."

- History goodness! "Researchers hopeful that NC site is that of Lost Colony."

- Hope springs eternal: "X ( Read more... )

I have a spooky tale for you today, straight from my own backyard!

Brown Mountain, which is found in the county next to ours in the Blue Ridge Mountains, has long been the home of ghostly lights. Called the "Brown Mountain Lights," these mysterious glowing lights - most prevalent in September, October, and November - have been the source of ( Read more... )

Hey there! Remember me? I'm back from a fantastic and thought-provoking colloquium in DC, rather tired, but in a good way. My final lecture for my spring classes is done, I've celebrated our seventeenth anniversary with my best friend and true love, and now I'm turning my attention to my as-yet-incomplete writing projects before the beginning of ( Read more... )

* RIP, John Neville, OBE (1925-2011). He was Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Terror, Baron Munchausen in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and the Well-Manicured Man in The X-Files, to name but a few of his many roles.
Read more here: Former Stratford Director, John Neville, Dies and Slice of SciFi Remembers John Neville* RIP, Hugo and Nebula ( Read more... )

The PotterWatch 2011 scholarly conference was fantastic! Cheers to everyone involved. It was especially great to see gods_lil_rocker again and meet amedia in person at last.

Don't miss book blogger Book Chick City's annual All Hallow's Eve event, which runs for the entire month of October and celebrates all things that go bump in the night! Check it out here (or on ( Read more... )

I'm back from a terrific experience in Washington, D.C. Everything was right where I left it last time, although I was disappointed not to find Fox Mulder and Deep Throat sitting on a bench and gazing at the Potomac. (On a related note, we just rewatched the "Duane Barry" and "Ascension" episodes of The X-Files, and I was struck by how much a young ( Read more... )