eldritchhobbit

I'm delighted to share the work of Vine Deloria, Jr., William Sanders, Gerald Vizenor, Grace L. Dillon, Daniel Heath Justice, Rebecca Roanhorse, Cherie Dimaline, Johnnie Jae, Darcie Little Badger, Pamela Rentz, Mari Kurisato, and many more!

I thought I’d pause in my end-of-the-semester grade-a-thon to share a few things I’ve been up to…

Dramatic Reading

My unabridged dramatic reading of Tim Pratt’s wonderful “Anna and Marisol in Time and Space” is on Escape Pod, Episode 622 (April).

“Looking Back on Genre History”

My most recent “Looking Back on Genre History” segments for StarShipSofa include 
* tributes to Karen Anderson and Kate Wilhelm on Episode 529 (March) and 
* the first part of a two-part discussion of the Finalists for Best Novel for the 1943 Retro Hugo Awards on Episode 535 (May).

Publication

Last, this is new from the Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict series: Virtual Dark Tourism: Ghost Roads. This collection includes my essay “'Some Lingering Influence in the Shunned House’: H.P. Lovecraft’s Three Invitations to Dark Tourism.“

Here are three excellent new posts that have inspired me to add to my “To Read” list:

“20 Creepy New Books to Read This Halloween”

“5 Horror-Themed Audiobooks By Female Authors To Get You Into The Halloween Spirit”

“Boo! The best ghost stories you probably haven’t heard yet.”

(The art below is “My Light in the Dark” by FenwickParrody.)

Here’s a brief taste:

I use the last of the good candles to build the radio. I still have light. The fire burns, and there is a never-ending supply of the cheap, waxy candles in the storeroom. I will–eventually–burn through all of those. My fire will die. The cold will invade this space.

But today I have a radio. Today I will speak to the world–or what’s left of it. I compare my radio to the picture in the instructions. It looks the same, but not all the steps had illustrations. This troubles me. My radio may not work.

I crank the handle to charge the battery. This feels good. This warms my arms, and I must take deep breaths to keep going. I shake out my hand and crank some more. When buzz and static fill my ears, I nearly jump. That, too, sounds warm. I am so used to the cold. The creak and groan of ice, the howl of the wind. These cold sounds are their own kind of silence. They hold nothing warm or wet or alive.

I decide on a frequency for no other reason than I like the number. I press the button on the mouthpiece. This, according to the instructions, will let the world hear me.

“Hello?” My voice warbles and I leap back, as if something might spring from the speakers.

Nothing does, of course. In fact, nothing happens at all. It takes more than one try to reach the world.

“Hello? Hello? Is anyone there? Can you hear me? I would like to talk to you.”

Perhaps I should try another frequency–or try a little patience. If someone is out there with a radio, might they right now be cranking a handle to charge a battery, or sleeping, or adding wood to their fire? This last is something I must do and soon. The embers grow a bright orange, but the chill has invaded the edges of the room.

Read “In a Manner of Speaking” by Charity Tahmaseb here.

Listen to my Escape Pod narration of the story here.

Happy birthday to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (30 August, 1797 –
1 February, 1851)!

“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.”
- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818)

As guest editor, I am beyond thrilled to share this issue with readers. This project has been a year in the making! The amazing works assembled here represent Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, Mushkegowuk Cree, Karuk, and Ojibwe Nakawē perspectives. The stories are outstanding! Please check out issue 99 and its related podcast here.