We should never forget that Sam Neill's best movie is the TV miniseries MERLIN (1998):

I think this is the current/forthcoming AI cover. It has that awful Thomas Kinkaid sheen. Horrifying. And *not* the first AI cover he's used. His cover art in the 80s and 90s was amazing. Gross to see this embrace of AI just because it's cheaper and easier. Is he also pro-AI novels?

One of the (many) exciting books @leverpress.bsky.social has coming out next year is the second edition of @effjayem.bsky.social's book on Heinlein. With this incredible cover:

how about House on the Borderlands's swine things?

Just played a banger 4.5hr game of FURY OF DRACULA. I was Dracula, as usual, but this was the first time I won in 6 years of playing. It was a very close game, too. I had 1 health left and, a bit anticlimactically, I won on a technicality. (Not my image, just for show if you don't know the game.)

I think Pokemon Crystal is the most aesthetically pleasing object I have ever owned. (This is, sadly, not my copy. Cartridges that still work go for $170+.)

Reading the second book in Cherryh's FADED SUN trilogy. It's fine. Interesting, at least, as most Cherryh is -- but the trilogy hasn't yet struck me as anything amazing stand-out.

Have you ever wanted to write about *every* *single* *minute* of a film? Well our incredible film|minutes series at @leverpress.bsky.social lets you do just that. The first three volumes in the series are beautiful, brilliant examples of how to do this kind of hyper-close reading:

I'm not sure if I've said this here before, but starting later this year @leverpress.bsky.social has will be publishing the edited collections that spin out of the Domitor conferences on early cinema. Here's a look at the cover of the first volume we're doing on copyright and early cinema:

What a silly fucking character. I can't help but picture this every time he's mentioned. What is cool about him?

"Fans of X are the specialest kind of fans" is such an uncompelling narrative, even if it's a rhetorically powerful one. You can find superfans of anything doing the same or equivalent stuff. I'm not convinced horror—or any genre—is especially unique in this regard.

It was surprising and a great pleasure to come across this comment by Gary Farber, discussing my writing. Very nice to see that the older generation of sff fans/writers/editors/critics doesn't think I'm totally off-base! (He goes on to discuss a minor issue with something that I totally agree with.)

I think this is pretty ridiculous to me for a few reasons. First, we don't need to do the "I got a PhD b/c I'm not right in the head" thing. That sort of self-deprecation isn't a useful strategy for thinking about pursuing higher ed.

Aside from citations, you really don't need all that many explanatory notes. Just say what you want to say.

From the comments:

Hmmm... I wonder if there's anything problematic about Craig Shaw Gardner's Arabian Nights trilogy... (Extra point if you can guess the artist; the woman's profile on the cover of the third book is a good giveaway)

Sorry, it's THE TRIBE not TRIBES:

This one got the range of weird/good/bad sff covers. I'm also partial to these, which interpret the novel's Asianness in drastically different ways:

Some exciting books forthcoming from @leverpress.bsky.social this year include:

This is a new binding type for me. It's essentially an extended french fold (or gatefold), where the back flap actually covers fore-edge and folds under the front cover, so that the book is completely wrapped. It must be very annoying to read!

From my southern upbringing, much beloved by the older generations: Ambrosia salad. Marshmallows, fruit, jello, nuts, and cream.

Whoever read this 1995 mystery novel won the jackpot! And they didn't collect! And what was the "surprise gift"?! I'm dying to know! I wish I could send this in and collect on it now, but alas I'm probably 30 years too late...

A few years ago I wrote an essay on Scalzi's RED SHIRTS and squeecore, interrogating that discourse, and today got a comment from someone who is still mad mad mad about "Scalzism" as though anyone really gives a shit about that in 2026. But it is a fascinating look at how Right-wing losers...

We're publishing the first book in our groundbreaking CINEMAS OF ASIA series this fall. Books in this series offer a sustained study of a single film, like BFI's Film Classics. The first book, by series co-editor Andy Jackson, looks at Lee Kwang-mo’s 1998 film Spring in My Hometown (아름다운 시절).

Drop your crime-fighting Catholics:

This is couple goals: Mystery writers Frances and Richard Lockridge, c. 1950, with their cat Martini.

It's eating at me that I'm spending a good chunk of my reading and writing time this year doing a Secret Thing that will not see the light of day until 2027. I've gotta work hard to keep up other reading/writing to make it look like I'm actually doing stuff this year. So my next essay is on...

You may be stressed, but not "Theoden-listening-to-Wormtongue's-bullshit" stressed.