12.05.2016

Life in the Marsh


This beautiful image of Jacksonville's Round Marsh was captured by the talented photographer Will Dickey. We have a number of his framed prints on our walls, and he clearly has a keen eye for capturing the natural beauty of Duval County. 
The Round Marsh is a special place for me, and every time I'm jammed up on a story or needing some quiet from the world or simply recreating in the world to give thanks for my blessings, it's a good bet that you'll find me here. Today, on an eighty-two-degree here in Jacksonville, I jogged the trails down there and was stunned to see so much activity in the water. Fish were jumping all over the place. Shrimp flipped easily across the surface in schools, bullied by bigger predators. Birds circled and swooped. I watched quietly as a small blue heron fished not ten feet from my perch, catching fry after fry and swallowing them whole in a matter of seconds.
As always, this place is filled with lessons. It's only a short distance from a major road, where cars filled with busy people scream by on their way toward the next appointment. But the woods and the water insulate these creatures, and their world is much more simple. It's dangerous and harsh, to be sure, but I admire those challenges so much more than the daily grind that leads to so many of the news stories that we chew up every morning like our daily bowl of cereal. I think, if more people got out of the cars and found a natural sanctuary like this one, the complexion of those morning news stories would change for the better...
Going to try to get back out there in the next few days, when the weather cools!

11.23.2016

So Very Much to be Thankful For...

It has been a tumultuous and amazing year around these parts. In the last few months, we've been tested as a family in ways that are hard to explain in words. We've been pushed to the very edge of doubt and despair, and we've persevered to the point where we feel comfortable and eternally grateful. This is a big part of that feeling:


Our son is such an amazing blessing. In 2016, we've overcome many obstacles. We just had our first brand-new roof as a result of hurricane damage. We've had our home repaired numerous times, and we've had to deal with some very real health problems for the ones that we love so far this year.

But the joy and the glee in that picture above is so real. This is our family, and Lyla is such a great big sister. I can only say that I am thankful.

I spent 2016 writing a non-fiction study. 2017 will be more fiction. I promise...

9.01.2016

Welcome Home, College Football!

Hey there, College Football. Have a seat and grab a cold one. Great to see you! We've missed you around these parts for a few months, but your formal arrival in my living room means a lot, and I'm damned glad you're here.

You see, we love baseball. We love the October Classic. We love the Orioles, and everything about going to the ballpark and watching the pageantry of BP and the wonderful game-within-a-game of the pitcher versus the hitter. All of that is riveting, and we'll always love the boys of summer. Seriously can't wait for the playoffs...

But there's just something special about your arrival on the scene. The weather cools. The leaves turn. There are thoughts of Halloween and turkey and pine trees in the living room on the horizon. There's all of that amazing renewal that accompanies the start of the new fall term. There's the hope of the chase for a conference championship and the debates around the water cooler and the love--nay, the pure joy--in knowing that the Men of Oregon will once again take to the gridiron.

It all starts tonight! It starts with those plucky (pun intended) little rodents from Corvallis, invading Minnesota for a match-up with the Golden Gophers (rodents in their own right). For this night, at least, Go Beavers.

Thanks, College Football. Glad to have you back, and here's hoping for a memorable year...

8.31.2016

ZZZZZZ...

While it's true that the title of this post certainly applies to my activity on this blog, the fact is that I'm posting this little update on the fleeting nature of sleep. The last eighteen months have been a whirlwind. It has been one of the most productive, satisfying, frustrating, wonderful, and bewildering periods of my life, and I'm looking at the healthy, happy reason for all of that as I type this, the first remnants of a tropical depression just whipping the branches of the old live oak out in front of my home office.

Luke David Powell is something of a miracle. 

Jeanne and I had a rough time in 2015, with everything culminating in some bad news last summer that I don't need to get into. We went from soaring heights to devastating lows in a period of about ten days. Life is like that sometimes, of course, and when the dust cleared we clung to each other and our daughter and counted our blessings. Something changed in our home, and it was a healthy change. I thought we were moving forward, just the three of us.

But I still had some hope. I still wanted to try for another little one, and I kept the faith and, pretty soon, we found out that we were pregnant. We were elated, but we were also guarded. It's hard to invest yourself so fully when a large part of you is also scared to death.

The baby did well, though. He hung in there and, ten minutes before boarding our flight home to Portland, Oregon, for Christmas, we got the news that everything was perfect with his health and we could fully freak out in joy.

And freak out we did. I'll never forget the way the three of us hit the floor with happiness. He was healthy, and he would be with us soon!

Luke grew and grew and grew in there. By the time we were in range to deliver, we had to go with a c-section because he was so danged big.

He joined us a few weeks ago, and we've had a fantastic summer with him. He's a happy baby. He has the most beautiful mischievous grin, and he dreams like a champ. I don't know what the little guy could be thinking about, but he often laughs in his sleep. He is bright, aware, and just a joy to be with.

I'm teaching nights this term and staying home with him during the day. Three days into that schedule and we already have our routines. No fussing, no mess, no sadness. Just love in the simple act of being together. He eats like a champ, and we hit the YMCA together, sing together, walk together, clean together, play together, and write together.

It's just like it was with Lyla, and those were some of the happiest months of my life. It's such a blessing to have another chance at that time, and we're making the best of it.

Oh, and it's true that I'm a little sleep-deprived at the moment. I could really use six uninterrupted hours... But it's better--infinitely so--than the alternative, and it's hard to say just how thankful I am for that.

5.10.2016

Movie Review: Annabelle (2014)

2014's Annabelle, a prequel to the excellent chiller The Conjuring (2013), was a much better film than I expected going in. I hadn't necessarily avoided taking a look at it, but I also didn't seek it out after I had read so many poor critical reviews of the film. Just as an aside, I do think that film-review aggregation has had a net negative effect on my film viewing habits. I'm at a place now where I don't really do any advance critical research on a film if it's one that I really want to see. This is just another effect of the Internet. When we used to get a review or two in The Oregonian (by the wonderful Shawn Levy, still my favorite film critic) entertainment section, I enjoyed gleaning a few thoughts on a film prior to heading to the theaters. But seeing triple digits of reviews all grouped together and then viewing that damn meta-critical score is ultimately counter-productive to my viewing habits. 

I give this film a B+ mark, and I liked it for a variety of reasons. The casting was strong. Annabelle Wallis and Ward Horton have great chemistry together, and their turns as young parents in 1964 California were believable and compelling. Wallis shows a lot of strength and vulnerability in her performance, and I liked that Horton put so much faith in her reports of what was happening in both of their homes. His trust is believable here. I'd like to think, skeptic that I am, that I could implicitly trust Jeanne if she were being haunted by a demon from Hell! 

Speaking of that, the occult aspects of the storyline deftly fit the doll's origin story. There was (and still is, truth be told) some weird stuff going on with cults back in that era, and the film's first act is both terrifying and convincing exposition for this particular story. 

The set design was awesome. Suburban California, complete with unlocked front doors, wide, inviting porches, and all of those Cadillac cruisers, was nicely rendered. The special effects were strong, and there are a few of genuinely scary sequences in the film. Mia's troubles in the sub-basement are hard to watch without squirming, and that scene in which the child runs at the door is absolutely chilling. 

The film, like The Conjuring before it, has a real sense of its place in the pantheon of this type of horror story. It's got so much of Rosemary's Baby in it that I can't think the name "Mia" is anything other than allusion. Wallis's believable descent into paranoia mirrors Farrow's in that film, and in both stories it's a heart-breaking thing to watch. 

I liked this movie a lot. It's a simple story of demonic possession that does a great job of filling in some gaps in what has become the best horror franchise going. Definitely worth the time to look at, and a truly scary movie in a sea of marginal films...

5.02.2016

Unbelievable Draft Success!



Extremely pleased with the draft that Dave Caldwell and his staff put together this past weekend. The Jaguars upgraded the defense in a major way, adding quality talent in particular at linebacker (Myles Jack) and in the secondary. That guy above, Jalen Ramsey, is a serious athlete. He tested off the charts in the vertical, the 40-yard dash, and with his lifting. He's an explosive player with a lot of versatility.

With the Jags adding Jackson, Gipson, and Amukamura in free agency, that side of the ball should be much improved. Add back in a healthy Marks and this team can make quantum leaps forward. Heck, if they improve on third down alone they'll win three more games. 

I'm excited about the future. Time to get those season tickets...

4.27.2016

The Same Deep Waters as You, by Brian Hodge

I've been reading Lovecraft's Monsters (expertly edited by Ellen Datlow) and really enjoying the diversity of the stories and the strength of the writing. It's a diverse collection, with a lot of unique voices. Most of the stories stray from the verbose prose style that plagues so much Lovecraftian fiction (particularly the entries by Laird Barron and Kim Newman), and I found Brian Hodge's "The Same Deep Waters as You" particularly unsettling.

“What you see there is what you get,” he said. “Have you ever heard of a town in Massachusetts called Innsmouth?”
Kerry shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“No reason you should’ve. It’s a little pisshole seaport whose best days were already behind it by the time of the Civil War. In the winter of 1927–28, there was a series of raids there, jointly conducted by the FBI and U.S. Army, with naval support. Officially—remember, this was during Prohibition—it was to shut down bootlegging operations bringing whiskey down the coast from Canada. The truth…” He took back the iPad from her nerveless fingers. “Nothing explains the truth better than seeing it with your own eyes.”
“You can’t talk to them. That’s what this is about, isn’t it?” she said. “You can’t communicate with them, and you think I can.”
Escovedo smiled, and until now, she didn’t think he had it in him. “It must be true about you, then. You’re psychic after all.”
It's a very creepy tale, unfolding at first very quickly and then stretching out over weeks and months. Kerry is a fully formed protagonist given an impossible task, and its her human ties--her fear of the water and love for her daughter--that makes it so easy to relate to her. 

I wasn't expecting the ending of this one, and it was delightful to be surprised like that. It took me a day to process it, as I had to decide whether I liked the story or not. 

I do. 

It's a horrible, terrible, unsettling final act, so it succeeds as top-shelf horror. Kudos to Brian Hodge on this one...

4.12.2016

The Philosophy of Horror, Or Paradoxes of the Heart

Noel Carroll's The Philosophy of Horror, or Paradoxes of the Heart is a remarkable work of critical philosophy. His discussion of art-horror as the emotional impetus for why we engage with dark storytelling seems to logically synthesize much of the work of thinkers such as Nietzsche, Kafka, and Kierkegaard.

He uses primarily classical source materials in outlining his theories of a dark aesthetic. I think the prose is really suitable to this type of study, as he acknowledges the limitations of his survey while still covering a lot of critical territory in advancing his claims. 

If you are working on research in the area of critical horror studies, I'd say begin with this text and then begin branching out into the more specific areas that interest you. I'm writing at present about the sociology of textual production, but I don't think I'd be in such a comfortable place if it weren't for grounding myself first in this book.

4.11.2016

Monday Potpourri...

Please excuse all of those cobwebs around this humble Web journal! I've been busy with a variety of endeavors, not the least of which has been preparing for the arrival of a baby in just a few short weeks! Without further adieu, a few thoughts:

  • My family and I really love where we live, but the house is too small. We live six miles from the beach. We live a mile from a great golf courses, and less than three miles from a productive fishing hole and kayak slip. We are close to hiking, biking, parks, a fine nexus for shopping, and some great restaurants. That said, we are really looking forward to moving to a larger house. Jeanne and I purchased this place in 2006. We expected to occupy the home for three years, but then the economy tanked and homes in our zip code lost more than half of their value. The neighborhood is coming back, slowly but surely, yet that really doesn't do much for us. The home is very close to my daughter's excellent school, and I'm thankful that I get to walk her there every morning. But we could use a few more rooms and a larger yard. I think, this time next year, we will be actively looking for a much larger place. We got very creative with moving things around, downsizing our lives, and preparing for our son. We look forward to a great year together, but it will be good to find a bigger spot where our growing family can stretch its legs a bit...
  • I've been writing about the sociology of textual production and publishing biography of horror in the twentieth century. These are fascinating topics, and the circularity between the one-man publishing shops that churned out penny dreadfuls and dime novels and the current digital publishing gold rush is uncanny. Dozens of digital-only magazines and publishers have proliferated in horror alone, and many of them are producing top-quality content. It's been an illuminating period of research for me, and I'm interested to see where we will be going in the near future...
  • The summer and fall terms are shaping up to be highly productive for me at FSCJ. I'm teaching a nice variety of courses, including media criticism, rhetoric and research, American literature, and English composition. The summer will mostly entail a traditional schedule, but I'm switching to nights in the fall so I can stay home with the baby during the day. It's a similar fall schedule to the one I worked when we had our daughter, and I'm thrilled to enjoy that time together during the day!
  • I've been running the trails of Northeast Florida this spring, as our temperatures have been really conducive to being outside. It's unsettling to see the warnings on the Zika Virus in the NPS parks, but the cooler temperatures have largely kept the insects in check. Thankfully, we will have the baby soon and I think our exposure to the virus will be minimal. It's a real and continuous source of anxiety for pregnant women in Florida (and, of course, throughout South and Central America), but I read yesterday that doctors in Brazil are making progress in their approach to dealing with its effects...
  • I looked at Beyond the Reach (C+) and Regression (B-) in the last week on Amazon Prime. They are decent films, though neither brings a ton to the table. I think Emma Watson gives a creepy understated performance in the latter. I'm pretty excited to see the second installment of The Conjuring, and I am about to begin watching The 100. The Walking Dead has been a real disappointment this year. I don't think the current model of feudal warfare has been nearly as compelling as were the depictions of day-to-day nomadic survival.
Enjoy the spring, wherever you are, and drop back by soon. I hope to post here a bit more frequently in the coming weeks as we approach our son's arrival...

2.26.2016

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Neil Postman's prescient examination of the role of mainstream broadcast media on public discourse was in full display last evening in the GOP debate.

What a shameful display.

I've already lodged my vote in the Florida Democratic Primary, but I am, of course, keeping tabs on the GOP as well. Sanders and Clinton have positive attributes and negative attributes.

Marco Rubio, a conservative centrist that has done some good things for the state of Florida, has positive attributes and negative attributes.

Ted Cruz and Donald Trump? I don't see anything to recommend either of these guys, and their public displays of intellect, critical thinking, and substantive content leave so much to be desired that I actually am a bit fearful of what might happen if one of them won the nomination.

Postman's argument rests on the notion that convergence in radio, print, and television transformed actionable information into edutainment. He notes that the contemporary media is context free, truncated, titillating, and shallow. He mentions the waning of the private self in contemporary society and he cautions against the dangers of losing historical perspective.

It's an excellent text and, even though I'm generally an optimist, last night's debate perfectly illustrates how far we've fallen in terms of public discourse. The name calling and mud slinging was discouraging. It was like watching adolescents fight in the back seat of Mom and Dad's station wagon, and the sad thing is that Rubio had to get down into the dirt with these guys. 

Ultimately, Americans--and particularly supporters of the far-right contemporary GOP--lust for this type of thing. When Trump tweets that Cruz is a loser, which he does a few times a week, he is pandering to a base that gobbles up the negativity like candy. When he states that he'd like to punch a protester with a different opinion--the very definition of American democracy, mind you--in the face, dim-witted ogres at his rallies cheer for him. 

Seriously. This isn't the kind of thing we should be cheering, people.

Trump epitomizes the very thing that Postman warned us to be very wary of. A bombastic dullard, Trump has declared bankruptcy multiple times. His projects routinely fail. he hasn't an iota of a clue on the legislative process, and he's never done anything truly meaningful for America. 

He is not a viable leader of the United States of America.

Rubio said that Trump would be selling watches in Manhattan if he hadn't received a $200 million dollar inheritance. I'm sad he had to stoop down into the gutters for a handful of mud, but I'm glad he finally did it because Trump deserves to take a bit of the abuse he so commonly dishes out. 

2.10.2016

Workshop on Narrative Theory

I will be presenting a workshop (Building the Killer Hook: How to Get—and Keep—Your Audience’s Attention) this Saturday at the Ponte Vedra Public Library. The workshop begins at 10:30 a.m. and will run for about an hour. 

Drop by if you're in the area and you want to chat about writing!

2.09.2016

The Revenant (2015)

The Revenant (2015) is the best film that I've seen since really enjoying Interstellar and Fury Road last year. Innaritu has crafted a film that instantly propels itself into the pantheon of classic filmic storytelling. The use of natural light, panoramic landscapes, and stark natural environments recalls Dances with Wolves. There is a touch of the angst and tension that permeates There Will be Blood here as well, as Leonardo DiCaprio's Hugh Glass seeks revenge for a variety of offenses against himself and his family. 

DiCaprio delivers the performance of his fine career here. That final shot--that close-up on his shimmering eyes and fatigued face--perfectly captures the immensity inherent in all that he has lost. It's as physical a role as he's ever played, and he nails it. I sincerely hope that he takes home an Oscar for this one, as I can't imagine a more difficult or trying turn.

The folklore surround Glass's travails is, in itself, a fascinating tale. The Revenant tells the story of the American West and the Great Plains in such a way that you'll want to look into the American Indian Wars more closely, and in particular the skirmishes between expansionist trappers and pioneers and the Ree Tribes of the Dakotas.

It's a total film, with fine, memorable turns, artistic photography, a captivating score, and a rich narrative. I give this one an 'A' mark on every count, and I highly recommend that you look at it in the theater, where the cinematography has its greatest impact.

2.04.2016

Turning to Peace



It's cool and rainy out. Feels a lot like Oregon today, and I had this kind of day at the word processor. Feeling good about the work, about the process, and about what the finished product might look like...

1.27.2016

The Sad (but Necessary) Outcome of the Oregon Standoff

Like many modern public controversies, there is a lot of complexity to the standoff that is now coming to a close in rural Oregon after almost a month of tension, intimidation, and public posturing. For many outside of Oregon, the perception of the state is directly influenced by shows like Portlandia and the bizarre news that frequently trickles out of what is, admittedly, an idiosyncratic place. 

What many aren't familiar with is the state's unbelievable diversity. There are arid high deserts in the eastern portion of the state and temperate rain forests west of the Cascades, which are themselves a series of active volcanoes. There are imposing mountain peaks, ancient sand dunes, coastal estuaries, and fertile plains. In short, the state is home to many diverse ecosystems, and the inhabitants of those various areas are just as diverse--politically, culturally, and socially. Folks think of Oregon as a haven of liberalism, and it often votes that way because of the large population centers in the Willamette Valley. But, there are also many areas of extreme conservatism. Eastern and southern Oregon are two of these regions, and these are sparsely populated agricultural areas in which a healthy distrust of government at almost any level runs strictly counter to the ethos in the valley.

The planned occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was not carried out by Oregonians, though there was definitely local sympathy for some aspects of the ridiculous aims of this cadre of self-styled patriots from Utah, Idaho, and Arizona. While many of these dangerous nuts were merely comical caricatures, there was a real sense of intimidation and fear in the close-knit community of Burns, Oregon.

The MNWR has been a federal steward of the land for decades in that part of the country, and many ranchers rely on its careful management to facilitate sustainable grazing permits for their cattle. The MNWR is also home to thousands of artifacts and archaeologically significant sites for the Burns Paiute Tribe, which voiced opposition to the federal government's handling of this standoff on multiple occasions.

The fact is, issues of conservation/utility, public/private, and federal/local have always been at the forefront of life in rural Oregon. I enjoyed my formative years in John Day, where militants had planned another session of public rabble-rousing before one of their leaders was shot and killed while charging at Oregon State Police. My father was a federal forester in a town with two sawmills--a place where federal logging restrictions created tension among the citizens that simmered up around dinner tables on on school playgrounds. 

Environmental terrorism has flourished in Oregon for decades, existing right alongside deeply held, hands-off conservatism; this has made for an often volatile public debate over how to use the state's abundant natural resources. 

My point here is that some of the tangential issues related to this stand-off merit scrutiny and public discussion. I say this as someone who believes in the stewardship of public lands, in environmental conservation, and in socially responsible employment. There needs to be a balance, and all sides of this argument have a different idea of what that balance should look like. 

But these gun-toting outsiders should never have been the face of change for creating this forum. None-too-bright and frequently unemployed, they came to Oregon with bad (and treasonous) intentions. Were they there for personally held beliefs, or to operate as the tip of the spear for the radical and dangerous beliefs espoused by the likes of the Koch brothers?

Again, many of the ranchers in the area have worked very productively with the BLM and MNWR for decades:
"It was interesting the number of ranchers who said, 'Why would we do that? Things are working pretty well. And we've been here 100 years. My grandfather was here. Take over public lands? Why would I want to take on that enormous expense when I can simply benefit from the government taking that on?'"
I graduated from Pendleton High School before heading out west to Linfield. One of my first jobs was working twelve hours a day, seven days a week, picking up peas on a combine at a farm out in Adams, Oregon. I rounded dinner tables with ranchers and farmers and cowboys for years. I watched as these battles played out in communities throughout our state. The fact is, there are legitimate issues to resolve as government, industry, citizens, and environmentalists work together to find a productive balance for Oregon.

But these protesters from out of state never had that in mind. 

They merely wanted publicity for a set of beliefs that even those in rural Oregon found abhorrent. And when they stated that they would leave and the citizens of Burns asked them to go, they lied and went back on their word. Ultimately, one has to ask: Did they want to become martyrs? The Koch brothers spent $122 million dollars trying to defeat Obama in 2012. They lost that battle, but I don't think their largess splashed blood on their hands. 

I'm not sure the same can be said for what happened yesterday in a narrow canyon between Burns and John Day.

I'm glad the Bundys are in jail. I'm glad the Paiutes will regain access to their lands. I'm glad that the MNWR's seventeen employees can (eventually) get back to their objectives of stewardship. I'm glad the people of Burns can feel safe in their town again, and that Oregon's state police can feel more comfortable about pulling over trucks with out-of-state plates again.

I hope things get back to some semblance of normalcy in that part of the world, and that productive talks about how to use the land create conditions where farcical political stunts like this one won't lead to bloodshed, intimidation, and treason in the future. 

1.20.2016

In the Walls and Other Stories

Friedrich Nietzsche’s prescient warning about gazing long into the abyss speaks to the very nature of the human condition. Whether we care to admit it or not, it’s instinctual to peer into the darkness from time to time—to question our mortality and the fabric of our world.

Stories are windows. Some open upon scenes of purity and goodness—on love and light. Others…well, others promise much darker environments, and horrific glimpses into the uncanny.

What voracious creature lurks in the waters beneath the Golden Gate Bridge? What dreadful apparitions revisit the Florida jungle, when the golden moon is high and the autumn grows ripe? What rough beast stares out from ancient walls, and deep into the souls of man?

In the Walls and Other Stories offers eleven explorations of uncanny imagination and spine-tingling dread. There are frightful things, dear readers, and unspeakable visions.

Go ahead! Take a look. Take a good, long look into the darkness…


From the author of Cold on the Mountain and The Reset comes In the Walls and Other Stories, a collection of eerie short stories sure to chill the heart and quicken the pulse.

Pick up a copy with the following retailers:

1.06.2016

Whoo boy! Quite the Working Bibliography...

2016 is devoted to writing a longer research project. My initial bibliography for a project on horror culture in the age of digital diffusion is listed below. Feel free to send along any suggestions for texts and/or materials (films are purposely omitted here, though are in play for the project) that might fit the general terrain of what you see below!

Working Bibliography
Aarseth, Espen J. “Nonlinearity and Literary Theory.” The New Media Reader. Eds. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. 761-780. Print.
Asimov, Isaac. I, Robot. New York: Spectra, 2008. Print.
Bailey, Dale. American Nightmares: The Haunted House Formula in American Popular Fiction. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University Press, 1999. Print.
Barker, Clive. “In the Hills, the Cities.” The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, eds. New York: TOR, 2011. 641-656. Print.
Barron, Laird. “Frontier Death Song.” Nightmaremagazine.com. Nightmare Magazine, Oct. 2012. Web. 6 Jan. 2016.
---. “Proboscis.” The Imago Sequence and Other Stories. San Francisco: Night Shade Books, 2007. 101-18. Print.
Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Marxists.org. Marxists Internet Archive. N.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
Berger, James. After the End: Representations of Post-Apocalypse. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. Print.
Birkerts, Sven. “Terminal Reading: Into the Electronic Millennium.” Bostonreview.com. The Boston Review, 1993-2005. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
Bolter, J. David. Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
Borges, Jorge Luis. “The Garden of the Forking Paths.” The New Media Reader. Eds. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. 29-34. Print.
Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles. New York: Doubleday, 1950. Print.
---. The October Country. New York: Morrow Reprints, 2013. Print.
Brown, Rick J. “The Puppet Show.” The Best of Horror Library: Volumes 1-5. Winchester: Cutting Block Books, 2015. Kindle edition.
Burnard, Lou, and Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe and John Unsworth, eds. Electronic Textual Editing. New York: MLA, 2006. Print.
Bush, Vannevar. “As We May Think.” The New Media Reader. Eds. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. 35-48. Print.
Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. New York: Norton, 2010. Print.
Carroll, Noël. The Philosophy of Horror, or Paradoxes of the Heart. New York: Routledge, 1990. Print.
Carvajal, Doreen. “Long Line Online for Stephen King E-Novella.” The New York Times 16 Mar. 2000. ProQuest. Web. 28 Dec. 2015.
Chandler, Daniel. “An Introduction to Genre Theory.” 1997. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. PDF file.
Cheever, John. “The Enormous Radio.” The Stories of John Cheever. 1st paperback ed. New York: Ballantine, 1980. Print.
Clover, Carol. Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. Print.
Coover, Robert. “The End of Books.” The New Media Reader. Eds. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. 705- 710. Print.
Cruz, Clarissa. “’Riding’ High.” Entertainment Weekly 533 (2000). LINCCWeb. Web. 28 Dec. 2015.
Delagrange, Susan H. Technologies of Wonder: Rhetorical Practice in a Digital World. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2012. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
Dinelo, Daniel. Technophobia! Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006. Project MUSE. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
Foucault, Michel. The Order of Things: An Archeology of the Human Sciences. Reissue edition. New York: Vintage, 1994. Print.
Fraistat, Neil and Julia Flanders, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Textual Scholarship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Print.
Frank, Pat. Alas, Babylon. New York: Harper Perennial Classics, 1959 and 2005. Print.
Freedman, Carl. Critical Theory and Science Fiction. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press. 2000. Print.
Gaiman, Neil. American Gods. Reprint ed. New York: Harper, 2002. Print.
Gergen, Kenneth J. The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life. New York: Basic Books, 1991. Print.
Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” The New Media Reader. Eds. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. 515-542. Print.
Harms, Daniel. The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia: A Guide to H.P. Lovecraft’s Universe. 3rd ed. Lake Orion: ESP, 2008. Print.
Hayles, N. Katherine. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Print.
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February Reviews: Gray Mountain, John Grisham

  I enjoy John Grisham's books very much and I usually knock out a couple per year. I have read three so far in 2024, and his writing is...