I was excited to see that Dan Coxon and Richard V. Hirst recently won the British Fantasy Award for “Best Non-Fiction” with last year’s important release from dead ink books, called WRITING THE UNCANNY: Essays on Crafting Strange Fiction. Coxon and Hirst’s book is an excellent anthology of mostly-UK writers sharing their strategies for writing… Continue reading Review: Writing the Uncanny: Essays on Crafting Strange Fiction (Coxon & Hirst, 2021)
Tag: reviews
Mini-Review: Jamais Vu – The Journal of Strange Among the Familiar
Jamais Vu – The Journal of Strange Among the Familiar has just published its second issue, so I thought I’d mention this new forum of horror and fantasy here, as it relates to the Uncanny in its editorial mission. The journal is published by Post-Mortem Press, primarily known for their horror titles (like the fabulous… Continue reading Mini-Review: Jamais Vu – The Journal of Strange Among the Familiar
Toys of Terror
I have a short story in the new issue of Diabolique magazine and was excited to see that it also includes a good feature story by Brandon Kosters called “Toys of Terror” — a good overview of the appearance of “scary dolls” as baddies in horror film (from Chucky in Child’s Play to Corky in… Continue reading Toys of Terror
Review of Pea Green Boat (Spring 2012) — Special Issue on The Uncanny
Pea Green Boat is an online magazine of curious and compelling miscellany, publishing issues that collect articles and snippets on unique themes. The current issue of PGB (Spring 2012) focuses on The Uncanny. I should say up front that one of my articles, on “Eyebombing,” is reprinted from this very site. But PGB’s Uncanny issue… Continue reading Review of Pea Green Boat (Spring 2012) — Special Issue on The Uncanny
Strange Rain: An Uncanny Interactive Story for the iPad
STRANGE RAIN is a new iphone/ipad application (aka “app”) by Erik Loyer at opertoon.com that, simply, simulates looking through “a skylight on a rainy day.” Rain falls from the cloudy abyss “above” the viewer to splatter down on the glass of the device. Tilt the device and the atmosphere tilts back, too, maintaining a 3-dimensional… Continue reading Strange Rain: An Uncanny Interactive Story for the iPad
The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease — A Class Review
I am currently teaching an online horror literature course in “Psychos and the Psyche” for graduate students in our MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University. This month we are studying Freud’s article on “Das Unheimlich” and reading a fascinating new anthology of horror fiction called The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease,… Continue reading The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease — A Class Review
Book Review: Blankety-Blank by D. Harlan Wilson
Blankety Blank: A Novel of Vulgaria by D. Harlan Wilson This disturbing read is a breakthrough work of fiction that deserves a spotlight on the literary landscape as one of the best works of experimental writing of the year, if not ever. The story is quite a mess, and difficult to encapsulate in a review,… Continue reading Book Review: Blankety-Blank by D. Harlan Wilson