Yesterday was the summer MAPACA mini-session, a day of presentations in anticipation of this fall’s conference. I know, I’m no longer an academic but I am still persisting in being a scholar for some reason (habit mostly, I suppose). I do enjoy talking about this book! And yes, the fancy Folio Society edition with those…
Tag: fantasy
Deluxe Strange & Norrell FTW
I was delighted — in the mad, action-packed, over-filled days before my departure — that the much anticipated last-I-swear-splurge-before-imminent-unemployment arrived: the Folio Society edition of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Many of you know how much I delight in Susanna Clarke’s novel, but with the addition of illustrations and glorious endpapers by Charles Vess, is…
Enchanted: Fantasy Illustration
I ran up into the Berkshires to join the QoE Stephanie at the Norman Rockwell Museum, the unlikely setting for Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration. It ended up being a lot more rainy then we expected, in fact bucketing down while we enjoyed a leisurely lunch until it stopped long enough for us to…
Out Now: LOVE from @FoxSpiritBooks
LOVE edited by Chloë Yates Love. That many-splendoured thing. It can move mountains and make fools of us all, but what is it? Does it come courtesy of a cherub’s bow? Is it a battlefield? Endless? Crazy? Only available on a Friday? Well, the answer might be between these covers. Inside you’ll find stories from…
Film for a Friday: The Sorrows of Satan
Thanks to Angela (check out her fab writing at the Cultural Gutter), I was introduced to this interesting novel by the famous-but-largely-erased author Marie Corelli. The Sorrows of Satan was a sensation upon its release and a scandalous bestseller, so it’s typical that it has been overlooked despite its broadly appealing topic — Faustian bargains…
#NationalUnicornDay Medieval Style
In Scotland it is National Unicorn Day, the day they celebrate the national beast. With the lockdown and everyone staying indoors, they have become plentiful again, so I hear. Thus from medieval Scots history I offer you a tale told by a unicorn (on good authority!) from The Talis of Fyve Bestes (beasts that is,…
Good-Bye
I am more sorry than I can say to hear of the sudden death of John Grant/Paul Barnett AKA @Noircyclopedia on Twitter. He was a long-time writer (and ghost writer), scholar, reviewer, and appreciator of genre fiction — not just noir, but the world of SFF. He collaborated with so many folks, most of whom…
Con-Eire FREE!
In honour of SFF con season, my short play Con-Eire from today through Thursday will be completely FREE! It’s appropriate for this season as it’s a love letter to the hard-working folks behind the scenes putting the madness all together: It’s three days before the start of Con-Eire, the best Irish-themed science fiction and fantasy…
Out Now: Tarot in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
My essay “The Unlikely Milliner & The Magician of Threadneedle-Street” has been published in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature. Click the 1st link to read a free PDF; click the 2nd to find information on ordering the issue (you can get it through your library, too). There’s a…
#FolkloreThursday Freebie: Hard-Boiled Witch: Abra Cadavra
Today only! When a new burlesque club opens in Dundee, the owner calls on Hecate Sidlaw to deal with some strange attacks — by a skeleton! She and her familiar Henry need to get to the bottom of the magical threats, if she can get him away from the performers long enough to investigate. Looks…