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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
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
Some of my favorite horror video games!
So Halloween may be done, but I’m not quite done with Halloween! I was sitting around thinking about horror-themed video games, and decided that I wanted to put together a list of some of my favorites! Such a list is, … Continue reading
Posted in Entertainment, Horror
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Halloween Treats 2020!
I almost forgot to do one of my oldest blog traditions: sharing a series of classic ghost and horror stories to celebrate Halloween! The list of past post is too long to share these days, but you can search “Halloween … Continue reading
Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay
My apologies for the long delay in writing — the chaos in the world and the busy nature of life has left me rather drained! But I have managed to start reading some fiction again, and I thought I would … Continue reading
Posted in Horror, Mystery/thriller
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Skulls in the Stars 