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Always Halloween and Never Thanksgiving

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This music mix is inspired by The Magic Ring by Baron de la...

This music mix is inspired by The Magic Ring by Baron de la Motte-Fouqué (1813, translated into English in 1825). Roughly half of the songs are authentic to the era in which the story is set, and two were written by historical figures who actually appear in the novel. I made this mix while editing this edition of the novel for Valancourt Books.
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Ring Out The Old, Ring In The New

Thanks to all of you for your friendship throughout this past year. Here’s to making the new year a much better one! Happy 2021! Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light; The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the mind, For those that here we see no more, Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring out the want, the care, the sin, The faithless coldness of the times; Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes, But ring the fuller minstrel in. - Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Ring Out, Wild Bells”
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I’m excited to say that in Summer 2021, I will boldly go where no Signum University prof has...

I’m excited to say that in Summer 2021, I will boldly go where no Signum University prof has gone before! I will be offering the 12-week online class “Exploring Star Trek” for M.A. students and non-degree-seeking auditors alike. I’m delighted at this opportunity! I’m pleased to announce that we will have a very special guest at one meeting of the “Exploring Star Trek” Signum University class in Summer 2021: New York Times bestselling author Una McCormack! What a delight this will be! The catalog page for the “Exploring Star Trek” class is now available. See the link below! Exploring Star Trek
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The House of Night, Watchmen, and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921

In my latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the new episode of the StarShipSofa podcast, I talk about Ray Bradbury’s concept of science fiction as a “reflecting shield” by discussing The House of Night, Watchmen, and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. You can listen here. 
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Happy Halloween 2020!

The day is here, my friends! We made it! Happy Halloween, Happy Samhain, Happy soon-to-be Día de los Muertos, and Happy…. Anything that Makes You Happy!  Thank you for joining me in my month-long holiday celebration. I truly hope you’ve enjoyed it. I have! (Source is “A Halloween Party! 1907″ by Yesterdays-Paper.)   Everyone, please stop by here, grab a virtual latte or cider or hot cocoa, a candied apple or some roasted pumpkin seeds, or even a goblet of blood and a plate of brains, and say hello!
Since many of us are at home due to the pandemic this Halloween, here is a way for us to enjoy some truly spooky and fascinating destinations safely (from Cult of Weird): “10 Strange Places You Can Explore Virtually.” Check this out!
(Source is “Hope Owl’s Well On Halloween" by Yesterdays-Paper.)
Let’s close with an excerpt from “Hallowe’en” by John Kendricks Bangs (1919). You can read the complete poem here.
(Source is “Halloween Greeting” by Yesterdays-Paper.)
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Halloween 2020, Day 30

(Photos above by Yours Truly. Plaster castings by Pumpkintown Primitives. The above are “1730s Lamson Death Head Plaster Casting” on top and “Plaster Casting Poole Stone 1754″ on bottom.)
Look no more for some perfect streaming music for this Halloween season!
Celebrating its 22nd year, “Out ov the Coffin” is hosted by the fabulous DJ Ichabod. What was born as a means of spreading dark and esoteric music to the Nashville area via WRVU, broadcasting from my graduate alma mater, Vanderbilt University (Go ‘Dores!), is now an spine-tingling and atmospheric podcast. Check it out for some perfect seasonal music! You won’t be sorry.
Here is the official description of the show: “’Out ov the Coffin’ is a specialty dark-music radio program, hosted by DJ Ichabod, designed to celebrate dark and interesting styles of music, from the goth perspective. Brand new entries are featured each episode, alongside older favorites and cult classics. Oft-featured sub-genres include: Goth, Gothic rock, deathrock, post-punk, darkwave, ebm, industrial, damnbient / dark ambient, dark metal, neoclassical, ethereal works, film scores, and theatrical experimentation.”
The time has come: The 2020 “Out ov the Coffin” Halloween Special is now available!  Here is the official description of the episode:  Listen to or download the special here! Pssst! Scroll through earlier shows to find past Halloween specials. Last year’s was brilliant! If you really want to party on (or like it’s) Halloween, you can play several Halloween specials back to back! DJ Ichabod’s regular shows also make for perfectly splendid spooky listening.  
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Halloween 2020, Day 29

This year I took part in the Ladies of Horror Fiction anniversary mini-readathon, and one of the titles I read may be the best book I’ve read in… well, ages and ages: the Shirley Jackson Award-winning novella Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand (2015). A key word there is novella; if you’re looking for a wonderfully chilling read for the season that won’t take days to digest, there’s still time to devour this atmospheric, Gothic, folk-horror beauty. (My 2021 plans now include reading lots and lots of books by Elizabeth Hand!)  Here is the official description: “When the young members of a British acid-folk band are compelled by their manager to record their unique music, they hole up at Wylding Hall, an ancient country house with dark secrets. There they create the album that will make their reputation, but at a terrifying cost: Julian Blake, the group’s lead singer, disappears within the mansion and is never seen or heard from again. Now, years later, the surviving musicians, along with their friends and lovers—including a psychic, a photographer, and the band’s manager—meet with a young documentary filmmaker to tell their own versions of what happened that summer. But whose story is true? And what really happened to Julian Blake? ”
And here is a brief excerpt, to give you a sense of the atmosphere.  - from Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand (2015) 
I discuss this novella in my recent Halloween-themed “Looking Back on Genre History” segment on the StarShipSofa podcast, October 2020′s Episode 645, which you can listen to here.
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Halloween 2020, Day 28

(Art is “ Monstrosity #16 / 2019” by boris-markevich.)
Here are some folk horror viewing recommendations for your day. From Kieran Fisher for Film School Rejects: “10 Great Folk Horror Movies to Watch By Yourself in a Candle-Lit Woodland Cabin.” From William Wright for Alternative Press: “Here Are the Folk Horror Movies Every New Initiate Needs to Watch.” From Adam Scovell for the British Film Institute: “10 Great Lesser-Known Folk Horror Films.”  From Shane Scott-Travis for Taste of Cinema: “The 10 Best Folk Horror Movies of All Time.”  Today’s reading recommendation list is from Jo Furniss for Crime Reads: “10 Novels Based on Folk Horror.” This quote from the article above seems fitting for the spooky season: 

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Halloween 2020, Day 27

- from We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)  We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a novel that’s been following and haunting me ever since I first read it. It is included among these other great Halloween-relevant reading suggestions from James Pate at Sublime Horror: “Mid-century horror, a reading list.” 
And here are a few more atmospheric quotes for the day. There’s this: “I can’t help it when people are frightened,“ says Merricat. "I always want to frighten them more.” And this: “I was pretending that I did not speak their language; on the moon we spoke a soft, liquid tongue, and sang in the starlight, looking down on the dead dried world.”
And this: I thought that we had somehow not found our way back correctly through the night, that we had somehow lost ourselves and come back through the wrong gap in time, or the wrong door, or the wrong fairy tale. - from We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)
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Halloween 2020, Day 26

I am so delighted and grateful that @OGOMProject put a vintage 1978 book on my radar this year: The Dracula Cookbook: Authentic Recipes from the Homeland of Count Dracula by Marina Polvay. I was able to find a copy in good shape, and it’s a treasure. If you’d like some festive and spooky mood reading, here is the introduction to the section on “Wines & Special Drinks”: And here are a couple of recipes, in case you like the warm, red stuff (but not in a vampiric kind of way):  The Count and the Bride seem to enjoy it. 
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Halloween 2020, Day 25

(Photo source is “Witch Girl 2″ by HauntingVisionsStock.)
Horror during a horrible pandemic? These links suggest that the one may help us cope with the other. I know my heart has been broken to pieces during this tragic time, and I’ve instinctively been seeking out horror to read.  Ellie Marney at CrimeReads explains “Why We Read Scary Stories During Covid.”  From Kayleigh Dray for Stylist: “Coronavirus: the psychological benefit of watching a traumatic horror film.” From Michael Marshall for New Scientist: “Horror Fans Are Better at Coping with the Coronavirus Pandemic.” From Corinne Sullivan for PopSugar “12 Sci-Fi Books About Pandemics That You Won’t Be Able to Put Down.” Earlier this year, I devoted one of my “Looking Back on Genre History” segments on the StarShipSofa podcast (Episode 613) to “Four Science Fiction Novels to Help Us Think about the Pandemic,” and you can listen to that here.  Here’s a favorite quote from a favorite novel, one I reference in the podcast segment above: The entirety of Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague (1912) is available online at Project Gutenberg. Here is an excerpt: - Jack London, The Scarlet Plague (1912)
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Halloween 2020, Day 24

In the past I’ve suggested some terrific podcasts that are perfect for this spooky season, and I stand by those recommendations. Read my past list here! In addition, just a few days ago Emily Stein contributed this list to CrimeReads: “8 Great Horror Podcasts and Their Spookiest Episodes!” Happy listening! Now here are several podcasts that are either new or new to me in 2020, and I highly recommend them!
1. Monster, She Wrote: Scholars Lisa Kröger  and Melanie R. Anderson are the authors of a book I thoroughly enjoyed, Monster, She Wrote, and now they are co-hosts of this wonderfully insightful and informative podcast about women in the horror genre. Don’t miss it! 
2. The Goth Librarian: Goths and librarians are two of my favorite kinds of people, and here’s a host who’s both. What’s not to love? “The Goth Librarian Podcast is a weekly podcast covering true crime, oddities, urban legends, haunted places, and other dark peculiarities.” Episode 37 on the “Spanish Flu” is a timely and topical place to start.  3. Bone & Sickle: This podcast “is a celebration of the intersection of horror, folklore, and history.  Every episode offers a bounty of frightful tales, fantastic legends, and macabre historical anecdotes harvested by eccentric artist, collector, and rogue folklorist Al Ridenour, author of The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas.  Co-host to the show is Sarah Chavez of The Cabinet of Curiosities and Death in the Afternoon. With acerbic wit and a scholarly penchant for the grotesque, Ridenour delves into a wide but carefully curated range of topics that have included: Faust’s deal with the Devil, classical necromancy, murder ballads, ghosts ships, the Victorian obsession with Pan (and mummies), Basque witchcraft, the evolution of gothic vampire literature, and tales of saints carrying their heads after decapitation…” Thanks to Aaron for this excellent recommendation! 4. The Strange and Unusual Podcast: I’ve just started listening to this one, and I’m hooked: “The unknown, it lies at the root of all fear, and has inspired legends, folklore, superstition, mythology, and even murder throughout history. Still today we feel the shadowy presence of our ancestors’ struggles to explain the mysterious in our lives, as we continue to keep fighting to keep our monsters in the dark. Welcome to The Strange and Unusual Podcast, a podcast with a focus on dark history.” 5. The Tomb with a View: This is another recent discovery for me. The official description goes like this: “A podcast about the history, preservation, and culture of American cemeteries hosted by Liz Clappin.” If you’re looking for a good starting place, I recommend the recent, insightful, and timely Episode 54: “Constantly Looking Back: The Gallows Hill Project, the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, and Giving A Voice to Innocent Victims”: “Looking at how memorials can give a voice to innocent victims and how good historical research can help us to look back and understand what was previously unknown important facts about the past. The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 are still being learned about and interpreted today as we continue to come to terms with our difficult past.” And here are some of my favorite Halloween-appropriate podcasts that were new in 2019 and remain very much worth exploring! 1. Odd Things I’ve Seen: For years, I have recommended J.W. Ocker’s brilliant Odd Things I’ve Seen website, and now he has a podcast. As he explains, “I visit odd things, I tell their stories, and I tell you how to find them. It’s Odd Things I’ve Seen, but out loud.” Gothic, macabre, and spooky! 2. Ladies of Horror Fiction Podcast: “Ladies of Horror Fiction was created to bring about a multi-dimensional way to support women who either write in the horror genre or review in it.” Check out Episode 2 for “The History of Halloween, Vanishing Hitchhikers and Weeping Widows”!
3. The Full Price Podcast: “The Full Price is a podcast that takes a cultural journey, walking in the shoes of the legend of stage, screen and sound, Vincent Price.” Price is perfect for Halloween, and this podcast is perfect for Price fans! *** Parting thought for the day: “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” — L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (1908)

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Halloween 2020, Day 23

This year I took part in the Ladies of Horror Fiction anniversary mini-readathon, and one of the titles I read is going straight into my next class syllabus: Darkly: Black History and America’s Gothic Soul by Leila Taylor (2019). What a powerful, insightful, and beautifully written work this is! Highly recommended. Here is the official description: “Leila Taylor takes us into the dark heart of the American gothic, analysing the ways it relates to race in America in the twenty-first century. Haunted houses, bitter revenants and muffled heartbeats under floorboards — the American gothic is a macabre tale based on a true story. Part memoir and part cultural critique, Darkly: Blackness and America’s Gothic Soul explores American culture’s inevitable gothicity in the traces left from chattel slavery. The persistence of white supremacy and the ubiquity of Black death feeds a national culture of terror and a perpetual undercurrent of mourning. If the gothic narrative is metabolized fear, if the goth aesthetic is romanticized melancholy, what does that look and sound like in Black America?” And here is a sample of Taylor’s haunting prose: - from  Darkly: Black History and America’s Gothic Soul by Leila Taylor (2019)
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Halloween 2020, Day 22

If you’re looking for a contemporary vampire read, Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite is brand new, edited by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker with stories by an all-star lineup of authors including Samira Ahmed, Dhonielle Clayton, Zoraida Córdova, Natalie C. Parker, Tessa Gratton, Heidi Heilig, Julie Murphy, Mark Oshiro, Rebecca Roanhorse, Laura Ruby, Victoria “V. E.” Schwab, and Kayla Whaley.   
If you’d like to sample a taste from the collection, Tor.com has a spooky excerpt from Rebecca Roanhorse’s story “The Boys From Blood River” here.
Enjoy a couple of eerie snippets. Now let’s go old school… From “The Giaour” by Lord Byron (1813). (Art is “Vampire” by akelataka.)

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Halloween 2020, Day 21

(Photo by Elizabeth. See the original source here.)  - from “Since I Died” by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, originally in Scribner’s Monthly (February 1873), as published in Avenging Angels: Ghost Stories by Victorian Women Writers edited by Melissa Edmundson (2018)   
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