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Always Halloween and Never Thanksgiving

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Happy Birthday, Shirley Jackson!

On this day in 1916, the great Shirley Jackson was born. Here’s a little piece I wrote earlier this year about teaching Jackson’s remarkable novel Hangsaman. It’s posted at “Reading Shirley Jackson in the 21st Century,” an online resource investigating the past and future landscapes of Shirley Jackson studies. I’m looking forward to teaching The Haunting of Hill House in January! Teaching Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman (1951) by Amy H. Sturgis
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eldritchhobbit

eldritchhobbit

 

Halloween 2022: Day 11

Song: “Wind and Rain” Quote: So she pushed her into the river to drown.
Oh, the wind and rain!
And watched her as she floated down…
Oh, the dreadful wind and rain! Read the complete lyrics. Listen to Crooked Still’s performance…
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eldritchhobbit

eldritchhobbit

 

“The Contrary Gardener”

Escape Pod | The Original Science Fiction Podcast I was delighted to narrate the wonderful science fiction story “The Contrary Gardener” by Christopher Rowe. Both parts are now available from the Escape Pod podcast!
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eldritchhobbit

eldritchhobbit

 

New “Looking Back on Genre History”

My latest “Looking Back on Genre History” segment is the first of a two-part review of the anthology AI Narratives: A History of Imaginative Thinking about Intelligent Machines, edited by Stephen Cave, Kanta Dihal, and Sarah Dillon, published by Oxford University Press in 2020. It’s now up on the new episode of the StarShipSofa podcast. ALT ALT StarShipSofa 718 Lincoln Michel | StarShipSofa
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eldritchhobbit

eldritchhobbit

 

Halloween 2023: 31 Days of Dark Academia, October 28

Dark Academia novel: All These Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth (2018) Quote: There was a story on campus about a student who had died many years ago—so long ago that no one remembered anymore what his name was or how he had died exactly, but there were reports every now and again of a sighting of his ghost. Some said he’d hanged himself in the showers of the senior boys’ dormitory over a broken heart; others said he’d overdosed on pills and fallen into an eternal slumber in his dorm bed over a failing exam grade. It was bad luck if you saw him, a harbinger of terrible things to come. Bryce Langston had reported seeing the ghost on his way home from the library one night. The next morning, he got a rejection letter from Harvard. Everyone had thought he would be a shoo-in, and he hadn’t even gotten on the waiting list. The next year, Amanda King supposedly saw the ghost right before she got in a fatal car accident. I always thought about the ghost when I was walking around campus at night by myself. I imagined seeing a white smear in the corner of my vision, but every time I turned my head, there was nothing there.
ALT
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eldritchhobbit

eldritchhobbit

 

Halloween 2022: Day 8

Song: “Little Margaret” Quote: Is Little Margaret in her room
Or is she in the hall?
Little Margaret’s in her coal-black coffin
With her face turned toward the wall. Listen to the performance of Sheila Kay Adams…
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eldritchhobbit

eldritchhobbit

 

Halloween 2022: Day 24

Song: “Willie Moore” Quote: She threw herself in Willie Moore’s arms,
As oft time had done before,
But little did he think when they parted that night
Sweet Anna he would see no more. It was about the tenth of May,
The time I remember well,
That very same night her body disappeared
In a way that no one could tell. Read the complete lyrics. Listen to the performance of the Kossoy Sisters…
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eldritchhobbit

eldritchhobbit

 

Halloween 2022: Day 27

Song: “Down in the Willow Garden” Quote: My father often told me
That money would set me free, If I’d but murder that dear little girl
Whose name was Rose Connolly. Read the complete lyrics. Listen to the performance of Tim O'Brien & Paul Brady…
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eldritchhobbit

eldritchhobbit

 

Halloween 2022: Day 29

Song: “Ghost” Quote: In the wind, there’s a lonesome sound.
In the night, there’s a cry from the hill country ground.
It’s a hum from an ancient tone.
It’s a presence. I can feel it in my bones.
Somethin’ I can’t see has been surroundin’ me,
There’s a ghost trying to talk through me. Read the complete lyrics. Listen to South Austin Jug Band’s performance…
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eldritchhobbit

eldritchhobbit

 

Halloween 2022: Day 13

Song: “Caleb Meyer” Quote: I drew that glass across his neck,
Fine as any blade,
Then I felt his blood pour fast and hot
Around me where I laid. Caleb Meyer, your ghost is gonna
Wear them rattling chains,
But when I go to sleep at night
Don’t you call my name. Read the complete lyrics. Listen to the performance of The Greencards…
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eldritchhobbit

eldritchhobbit

 

Halloween 2023: 31 Days of Dark Academia, October 19

Dark Academia novel: The Good Girls by Claire Eliza Bartlett (2020) From the cover: secrets and lies, then somebody dies Quote: The end of my life starts here. A rainy, sodden autumn has turned the river below into a roaring monster. Rocks jut out like jagged teeth, jet black against frothy white. My blood sings as the weathered wood sags behind me—someone has followed me onto the tiny bridge over Anna’s Run…. Legends say Anna’s Run takes one unlucky sacrifice every year. The wind wraps around my neck like a cord. ALT
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eldritchhobbit

eldritchhobbit

 

Halloween 2022: Day 9

Song: “Ghost of Norma Jean” Quote: When you see another cross By the road where she is lost, You’ll know that she has some company. Listen to the Steep Canyon Rangers’ performance…
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eldritchhobbit

eldritchhobbit

 

<p>ICYMI, my talk “Whitechapel ‘What Ifs’: Evol...

ICYMI, my talk “Whitechapel ‘What Ifs’: Evolving Perspectives on the Autumn of Terror in Science Fiction” is now on Rippercast. Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Podcast - Dr. Amy Sturgis -Whitechapel What Ifs- Evolving Perspectives on the Autumn of Terror in Science Fictio
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eldritchhobbit

eldritchhobbit

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