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About this blog

Always Halloween and Never Thanksgiving

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Halloween 2022: Day 17

Song: “Little Omie Wise” Quote: Little Omie, little Omie, I’ll tell you my mind:
My mind is to drown you and leave you behind. Read the complete lyrics. Listen to Doc Watson’s performance…
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Many thanks to @ashleywritesstuff and Mike Slamer of We Are Starfleet (hear the episode here), …

It’s time for my periodic “Thank you!” to those in the Star Trek and Science Fiction communities who have helped us get the word out about our new anthology, Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier, thus far. More details about our book (including the table of contents, reviews, etc.) are here on the Vernon Press website. (Note: The coupon code CFC10822213C4 provides a 24% “new release!” discount at the Vernon Press website. In addition, the book is also available from all major booksellers and for request via libraries as an ebook or hardcover. Library requests help us a great deal!) If you work with a periodical, podcast, blog, or website and might be interested in reviewing our book or talking to us or our contributors, please get in contact with me. I may be able to arrange a digital review copy for you! The easiest way to reach me is through this contact form on my website. Many thanks to @ashleywritesstuff and Mike Slamer of We Are Starfleet (hear the episode here), Brandi Jackola of Boldly Go (hear the episode here), Jarrah Hodge of Women At Warp (read the review here), and The Honorable Kavura of StarPodLog (read the review here) for their wonderful conversations, reviews, and support! ALT
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Two Upcoming Dark Academia Presentations

I’m delighted to say I’ll be giving two presentations this autumn on Dark Academia topics at academic conferences. Both events have online options, and I hope to see some of you there! I’ll be giving the talk “A Vanished Student Leaves a Haunted Space: An Unsolved Mystery and the Gothic Imagination on the Dark Academia Campus” at Perilous Realms and Haunted Spaces: New England Moot 2023 sponsored by Signum University in October. I’ll be presenting the paper “Consumed by the Campus: Dark Academia, the Gothic Imagination, and the Missing Student" at the Consuming the Gothic Conference sponsored by Sheffield Gothic in November. ALT ALT
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New Dark Academia Presentation

I am very happy to report that I will be presenting my paper “Missing Students and Their Fictional Afterlives: True Crime, Crime Fiction, and Dark Academia” at the Guilty Pleasures: Examining Crime in Popular Culture conference (May 2-3, 2024) sponsored by the Popular Culture Research Network. This talk is related to my current work-in-progress book project. I’m looking forward to it!
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2024 Wrap-Up: Publications

New Publication in 2024:
An essay, “‘Lifting Old Curses’: The mirror dance of The Flowers of Vashnoi and The Mountains of Mourning” in Short But Concentrated #2: a second essay symposium on the works of Lois McMaster Bujold, edited by @unamccormack. New in Paperback in 2024 (previously published in hardback & ebook in 2023):
Two books, Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier and Star Wars: Essays Exploring a Galaxy Far, Far Away, both co-edited with Emily Strand.
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Halloween 2022: Day 18

Song: “Blackadders Cove” Quote: I tell you a secret that nobody knows:
Her body’s still layin’ in Blackadders Cove. Read the complete lyrics. Listen to NewFound Road’s performance…
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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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Halloween 2023: 31 Days of Dark Academia, October 26

Dark Academia novel: A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid (2023) Quote: And Effy had walked right into the center of it, into this sinking house at the edge of the world…. When Effy was able to move her numb legs again, she ran down the stairs and hurled herself out the door, into the blackness of the night, heart pounding like church bells. She was not afraid of the ghost. But she was horribly, wretchedly afraid of whatever had killed the woman it had once been. ALT
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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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Halloween 2022: Day 6

Song: “The Ghost of Eli Renfro” Quote: Can’t you hear? Can’t you hear? When the moon is bright and clear From time to time, It’s old Eli dragging chains And moaning people’s names. I just hope and pray he never thinks of mine. Read the complete lyrics. Listen to The Nashville Bluegrass Band’s performance…
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Paula Welden and Missing Students

On December 1, 1946, sophomore Bennington College student Paula Jean Welden vanished. Her disappearance remains an unsolved mystery. I’m currently working on a book project that involves the Welden case. Today it feels especially important to say her name. Note: If anyone would like a (very brief!) peek into my current book project, here is a video of my presentation “Missing Students and Their Fictional Afterlives: True Crime, Crime Fiction, and Dark Academia.“ I gave this talk earlier this year at the Popular Culture Research Network’s “Guilty Pleasures: Examining Crime in Popular Culture” conference. ALT ALT
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Help launch Hangsaman!

My “Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson: Exploring a Gothic Campus Mystery” one-month module with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University is currently “on the launchpad” for potential launch in the autumn of 2025. Here is the official description: “Shirley Jackson is rightly celebrated as a master of Gothic storytelling thanks to her most well-known novels such as The Haunting of Hill House (1959) and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). In recent years, however, her earlier novel Hangsaman (1951) has received new attention and critical appreciation from fans and scholars alike.

"Far ahead of its time when it was published, Jackson’s deeply personal Hangsaman is many things: a psychological study of a young woman’s coming of age; a haunting Gothic mystery; a pointed critique of gender roles, family dynamics, and higher education; a meditation on trauma and mental illness; and an ancestor of today’s dark academia storytelling. Shirley Jackson drew inspiration from a variety of sources to craft this remarkable campus novel, from folk ballads and the Tarot, myth and ritual, to a real college campus and an unsolved New England cold case of a missing sophomore student.

"In this module, we will unpack this gem of a Gothic story, following freshman Natalie Waite as she searches for her “essential self” and discussing why Hangsaman feels freshly relevant and important to many readers today.” Here is more information on the Hangsaman module. To help launch this module, please go here, log in, and put this module on your launchpad short-list. Thanks!
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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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“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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15 Years of “Looking Back on Genre History”

I’ve been contributing my “Looking Back on Genre History” segments to the StarShipSofa podcast for 15 years now. All of my past segments are listed (with their topics and links!) on the “Podcasting” page of my website. (Scroll down to the “Looking Back on Genre History” section.) ALTALT
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The Last Dangerous Visions

On my latest “Looking Back at Genre History” segment on the StarShipSofa podcast (Episode 745), I discuss the New Wave in science fiction and the Dangerous Visions anthologies, including the newly-published The Last Dangerous Visions. ALT ALT
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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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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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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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