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The author of Skulls in the Stars is a professor of physics, specializing in optical science, at UNC Charlotte. The blog covers topics in physics and optics, the history of science, classic pulp fantasy and horror fiction, and the surprising intersections between these areas. -
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Category Archives: Horror
Burn, Witch, Burn! by A. Merritt
I’ve long been a fan of the works of Abraham Merritt (1884-1943), a talented and successful writer of weird fiction, and have blogged about many of his works. His 1920 novel The Metal Monster is one of my favorite works … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
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The Plague of the Living Dead, by A. Hyatt Verrill
One of the best things about studying history is the serendipitous discoveries one can make. This post is about one of those: while tracking down various stories about invisibility, I learned of the story “The Plague of the Living Dead,” … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Lovecraft
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The People of the Pit, by A. Merritt
Getting close to the end of my run of invisibility in fiction posts! Hope you’ve been enjoying them! Here we take a quick look at a story by one of my favorite weird fiction authors: Abraham Merritt, who went by … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Invisibility, Lovecraft
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Beyond the Spectrum, by Arthur Leo Zagat
Yet another post of invisibility fiction, driven by all the stories I found while researching my invisibility book! Here we have a curious case: an invisibility story written by a lawyer-turned-author, Arthur Leo Zagat (1896-1949)! Zagat wrote for many pulp … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Invisibility
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Beyond Power of Man, by Paul Ernst
Continuing my run of stories of invisibility to celebrate finishing the draft of my book on the history and physics of invisibility! I probably should’ve waited to do this until my book is actually out… ah, well. With so many … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Invisibility
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The Cave of Horror, by Captain S.P. Meek
Yet another post about invisibility in fiction! Will I ever run out of these? I feel like I need to write another book just about invisibility fiction. So in my last post, I wrote about “Invisible Death”, which appeared in … Continue reading
Posted in Adventure fiction, Horror, Invisibility
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The Shadow of the Beast, by Robert E. Howard
Another post about an invisibility story, from my researching into my book on invisibility physics. Sometimes a little bit of bad luck can turn into some good luck. To fill out my bibliography on invisibility fiction, I wanted to include … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Invisibility, Robert E. Howard
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James Clerk Maxwell – Vampyre poet?
So James Clerk Maxwell was one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the 19th century, even perhaps the greatest. He is most famous for compiling a system of equations in the 1860s that describe the interactions of electricity and magnetism, … Continue reading
Posted in History of science, Horror
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Halloween Treats 2021: Invisibility edition
Every year since starting this blog, I’ve done a post near Halloween linking to a bunch of public domain horror stories to read to get into the season. It so happens this year that I also just finished the draft … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Horror Masters, Invisibility, Lovecraft
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The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, Volume 1
Having a quiet night at home and realized this would be a good time to catch up on some book blogging! I finally started getting back into reading, after a long pandemic-depression hiatus, at the start of the new year, … Continue reading
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