BlindsightPeter WattsScience Fiction-2006 From Storygraph: "It's been two months since a myriad of alien objects clenched about the Earth, screaming as they burned. The heavens have been silent since - until a derelict space probe hears whispers from a distant comet. Something talks out there: but not to us. Who to send to meet the… Continue reading October Reads and Reviews
Enchiridion
Childhood Fear and Horror as Psychological Development
For a while, my husband and I opened our home to foster children for something called respite care. It’s basically multi-day to weeklong babysitting for foster kids when the primary foster parents have to attend to something else. Out of state trips. Long weekends. The kind of thing where you might drop a non-foster kid… Continue reading Childhood Fear and Horror as Psychological Development
The Application of Camp in Horror Media
We’re at a stage in the media landscape where I sometimes wonder if we should ever so slightly gatekeep the word camp, if only to preserve some sense of meaning. For the sake of this thought experiment, imagine camp in your head. Further imagine camp horror, specifically. Because we do this thing where we’ll say… Continue reading The Application of Camp in Horror Media
I Hate the Book It, but Love the Mini-series
When I was about nine (give or take a year) some cable channel or other was re-running the 1990 It mini-series over the course of a week leading up to Halloween. My mom hadn’t seen it since in released the first time and thought it would be fun family TV. Now this might be horrifying… Continue reading I Hate the Book It, but Love the Mini-series
Deconstructing Genre Expectations Through the Lens of Horror
For horror movies, I love a good paranormal story. Something with demons or ghosts that present this sort of otherworldly threat. Mostly because I have the audacity to think I could take out a slasher, alien, monster, or otherwise corporeal menace. So I like a real threat.It's also one of the very few genres where… Continue reading Deconstructing Genre Expectations Through the Lens of Horror
Refining the Definition of Horror (In the Dumbest Way Possible)
A few years ago, a journalist bade the bold claim, on Twitter, that the Alien movies weren’t horror because they were set in space.I’ve always haunted a fair few movie and horror forums, and it was reposted there multiple times (here’s one of the places I saw it on Reddit where it’s still posted). No… Continue reading Refining the Definition of Horror (In the Dumbest Way Possible)
An Adaptation Casestudy in Comics
One of my favorite examinations of adaptation from book to movie or television is comics. That covers graphic novels, superhero comics, manga, webtoons, etc. All these types of comics while ostensibly in the same essential format present entirely different challenges.Graphic novels and completed short serials (ex. V for Vendetta, Gender Queer, 30 Days of Night)… Continue reading An Adaptation Casestudy in Comics
Acting and Set Design Theory for Books
There’s this really annoying (to me) piece of advice that gets flung around in writing circles about the use of dialog tags. The short is just to not use them at all. Just use “said.” On the surface it’s that same sort of blanket advice that doesn’t actually work and isn’t reflective of real life… Continue reading Acting and Set Design Theory for Books
Acting in Book Form
There was this very interesting thread of videos that popped up on TikTok one time which was essentially just making fun of the way physical actions are described in, typically, romantic works. And not the sexy actions. But things like he “his eyes darkened” or “his mouth curled into a grin.” Because these are a… Continue reading Acting in Book Form
August Reads and Reviews
AbaratClive BarkerYA Dark Fantasy-2002 From Storygraph: "It begins in Chickentown, USA. There lives Candy Quackenbush, her heart bursting for some clue as to what her future might hold. When the answer comes, it’s not one she expects. Welcome to the Abarat, a vast archipelago where every island is a different hour of the day. Candy… Continue reading August Reads and Reviews
Pixels and Pins Studio 