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- 2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Much Ado About Nothing
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- “To me, music is no joke and it’s not for sale.” — Ian MacKaye
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- Bryce on The Books: “Nine Stories”- ‘The Laughing Man’ (J.D. Salinger)
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Tag Archives: Mary Shelley
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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“I love to lose myself in other men’s minds. Books think for me.” — Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb was friends with everyone. He knew Coleridge from childhood, Wordsworth, William Hazlitt (great writer and portrait painter – Hazlitt did the painting above), Lamb met Keats, he was inner circle with these guys. He was different, though. He … Continue reading
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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“I doubt sometimes whether a quiet and unagitated life would have suited me–yet I sometimes long for it.” — Lord Byron
— And who is the best poet, Heron? asked Boland. — Lord Tennyson, of course, answered Heron. — O, yes, Lord Tennyson, said Nash. We have all his poetry at home in a book. At this Stephen forgot the silent … Continue reading
Posted in Books, James Joyce, On This Day, writers
Tagged Camille Paglia, Christopher Hitchens, Dorothy Parker, Elizabeth Bishop, Elvis Presley, England, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Harold Bloom, Jane Austen, Jeanette Winterson, L.M. Montgomery, Lord Byron, Lord Tennyson, Mary Shelley, Matthew Arnold, Michael Schmidt, Percy Bysshe Shelley, poetry, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Robert Graves, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Six Centuries of Great Poetry, Tennessee Williams, W.H. Auden, Walter Savage Landor, war, William Hazlitt
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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
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
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Tomorrow, Nov. 14th: Poisoned Pen Bookstore Live event
Tomorrow, the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottdale, Arizona, will be hosting a discussion between Jen Johans and myself about my Frankenstein book and all things Guillermo del Toro. The discussion will be “live” on Facebook and on YouTube. Jen Johans … Continue reading