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- “Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Twelfth Night: or, What You Will
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- “I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “[My ambition is to] give something to our literature which will be our own.” — Walt Whitman
- “I don’t want to show things, but to give people the desire to see.” — Agnès Varda
- “I never made a message picture, and I hope I never do.” — Howard Hawks
- “If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET.” — poet Countee Cullen
- Reviews: Currents (2026)
- Reviews: Forge (2026)
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- sheila on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
- Biff Dorsey on 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Hamlet
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Tag Archives: Guillermo del Toro
January 2026 Snapshots
January has lasted four months. What a terrible month. I mean, good stuff happened but the stress and dismay is constant. It’s been really cold – colder than it’s been in years – and we had two big storms in … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Movies, Personal
Tagged Frankenstein, friends, Guillermo del Toro, Jafar Panahi, Mary Shelley, snapshots
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Frankenstein: interview with Taylor Gonzales
I had a lot of fun talking with Taylor Gonzales about all things Frankenstein on his popular web series where he interviews all kinds of cool people. We raved about Kate Hawley’s costumes, the performances, the creature makeup, Victor Frankenstein’s … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Movies
Tagged Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro, Mary Shelley, podcast
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Forbidden Planet interview: The Art and Making of Frankenstein
I forgot I did this interview with Phil Wallis, a filmmaker with Forbidden Planet TV, about my book The Art and Making of Frankenstein. Forbidden Planet just posted it this morning and I was like “Oh! Yeah! I did that!” … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Movies, Personal
Tagged Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro, Mary Shelley
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Talking with Rachel Dratch: Frankenstein is woo-woo adjacent.
This was such a treat: I was a guest on Rachel Dratch’s extremely entertaining podcast Woo Woo. She has people on to talk about their personal encounters with the paranormal – like Tina Fey staying in a haunted hotel in … Continue reading
2025 Books Read
I ended last year with a flurry of Oscar Wilde’s short stories, declaring I’d read all the plays in 2025. I mean, there were only five, sadly, due to the homophobic violence of his own society. I know these plays … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Anton Chekhov, Austria, books read, Charles Lamb, children's books, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Czeslaw Milosz, David Lynch, Dubravka Ugrešić, England, essays, fiction, France, Frankenstein, Germany, Guillermo del Toro, Hungary, Ireland, Jane Austen, Janet Malcolm, John Keats, Lord Byron, Mark Danielewski, Mary Gaitskill, Mary Shelley, Matthew Arnold, Memoirs, nonfiction, Oscar Wilde, poetry, Poland, politics, Rebecca West, Roald Dahl, Robert Kaplan, Robert Louis Stevenson, Russia, sci-fi, Scotland, scripts, Spain, The Beatles, Twin Peaks, William Shakespeare, Yugoslavia
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Interview with Women in Horror about Frankenstein
Staci Wilson interviewed me about the whole Frankenstein experience for her excellent site Women in Horror. We talked about the brilliant artists behind the scenes – production design, costume, everything – who helped bring Guillermo’s vision to life. I love … Continue reading
Let’s talk Frankenstein on the Slice of SciFi podcast!
Thanks so much, Summer Brooks, for having me on your legendary long-lasting podcast to talk about Frankenstein and my book. Great conversation!
October 2025 Snapshots
This fall was way too busy for me to write anything, anywhere. I spent three weeks in New York in October, a lot of back and forth, for screenings, meetings with friends, and then the Frankenstein New York premiere where … Continue reading
Posted in James Joyce, Personal
Tagged Emily Dickinson, Frankenstein, friends, Guillermo del Toro, nonfiction, poetry, Robert Kaplan, sci-fi, snapshots, Ulysses
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August-November 2025 Viewing Diary
I haven’t watched much this year, beyond what I was assigned to review. Of course at end of year I have to scramble to catch up, which I am still doing. Instead I watched a lot of true crime, re-watched … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged baseball, Brazil, crime movies, documentary, drama, England, France, Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro, historical drama, horror, Iran, Iranian film, Italy, Jafar Panahi, Jennifer Lawrence, literary adaptation, Martin Scorsese, Nick Nolte, Patricia Arquette, Roman Polanski, romantic comedy, Russia, Sissy Spacek, true crime, Ukraine, women directors, X-Files
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Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, and Guillermo del Toro: a live event
I had a wonderful time today discussing Frankenstein with Jen Johans, for the live event hosted by the Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. The whole thing’s on YouTube.
Posted in Books, Movies, Personal
Tagged Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro, Mary Shelley, podcast
11 Comments