Month: January 2019

Well, the final January of the 2010s is over, and I can’t say I’ll miss it. I’m already rather tired of the annual limbo where a new year’s started and I want to feel optimistic about the future… but we’re still stuck in winter. And not the nice Christmassy winter with coloured lights and Bing Crosby numbers; just winter-winter. Grr. And brr.

Also, I caught a cold. It’s mostly cleared up, but I still have an annoying tickly cough.

Other than that, things are going pretty well for me. I’ve just sent 20,000 words’ worth of drafts to the relevant editors, and I’m in early talks about another project along similar lines. We’re also another month closer to the release of my book on The Mummy, and 2019 is still on track to be the year of the Midnight Widows.

Articles published elsewhere this month:

• The Vampyre’s Legacy: Two Centuries of Blood
• Amazing Histories, January 1928: Comets and Catastrophes
• Amazing Histories, February 1928: Rewriting History, Rethinking Physics

Article topics for February and beyond:

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My Amazing Stories retrospective continues! This time I’m looking at the February 1928 instalment, which includes Baron Munchhausen on the Moon, the fourth dimension, revolting pedestrians, and readers arguing about H. G. Wells. Catch it here…

Here’s my big blogging project for the year: a monthly series celebrating the bicentennial of John Polidori’s genre-begetting short story “The Vampyre”. Starting with Polidori’s tale, the series will focus on one vampire story for each decade from the 1810s to the 2010s for a comprehensive overview of the genre. The first post is now live at WWAC!

Also, my autocorrect tried to replace “from the 1810s to the 2010s” with “from the wimps to the woos.” I find this fascinating.

 

I’m aiming to make 2019 the year of the Midnight Widows.

For a while now, I’ve been working with illustrator Marcela Hauptvogelova and a number of other artistic collaborators (including Delia Mihai, who painted the lovely illustration to the right) to create a horror comic about the exploits of Dracula’s brides. Now that their groom has been destroyed, the Widows are unleashed upon the world to cause as much mayhem as they desire.

I’ll admit that the comic’s had a slightly bumpy ride so far. It was partly serialised in Belladonna magazine during 2017, but this was cut short by the magazine’s end. I planned to launch a crowdfudning campaign in 2018, but various things got in the way and it never happened.

But this year, I’m going to make friggin’ sure that the campaign comes to pass. It’s on track to launch this spring, and I’ve pulled some friends together to help it get off the ground.

If all goes to plan, 2019 will be the year when Edith, Kateryna and Gabriela finally see the light of day (or dark of night, if they prefer) in the pages of Midnight Widows.

I’m still at work on my book Monster Hunters, Dinosaur Lovers: Speculative Fiction in the Culture Wars. It’s about the fiction caught up in the Hugo/Puppy kerfuffle of 2013-6; and yes, I know that affair’s sinking ever-further into history – but the way I see it, this will merely enhance the benefit of hindsight.

I’ll be the first to admit that the book hasn’t been progressing as quickly as I would have liked. I haven’t managed to complete a chapter since last January, when I finished a draft of the chapter on comedic stories. One issue I’ve run into is something I’ve come to think of as the “small hole, big plug” situation, where a mostly-complete chapter ends up requiring a good chunk of additional research to fill in a certain section.

Continue reading “Progress Update: Monster Hunters, Dinosaur Lovers“

Come, let us usher in 2019… but ushering in 1928. It’s the latest instalment of my issue-by-issue Amazing Stories retrospective, this time looking at the January ’28 mag! With square-headed robots and stuff!