Haunted Houses from Valancourt Books!

Posted on October 9, 2019 by skullsinthestars

It’s that spooky time of year, when I hunt down classic ghost and horror stories freely available on the internet and post them for your reading enjoyment! Currently working on that post, but I thought in the meantime I would draw some attention to my friends at Valancourt Books, who have been doing such an amazing job reprinting classic works of horror.

In particular, I thought I would mention the great job they’ve done in bringing some of the best haunted house books back into circulation!  When I first started blogging about horror, I wondered why there seemed to be so few “classic” haunted house books around. I could think of The Shining, Hell House, The Amityville Horror, and The Haunting of Hill House, but it otherwise seemed like there weren’t any others out there. It turns out that there are quite a few, but lots of them had gone out of print and been forgotten, until Valancourt resurrected them.  Let’s take a quick look at some of these, many of which I’ve blogged about before!

Just a reminder: I’ve written intros for Valancourt Books, including some of the books I’ll mention here. Putting that disclaimer out so nobody thinks I’m trying to trick them, but I genuinely love the books here.

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Old School Dungeons & Dragons: Part 10

Posted on October 1, 2019 by skullsinthestars

Okay, this post will catch me up with all my old school D&D posts that I’ve been doing on twitter! I’ll still be doing them, but will do them less frequently, only after I’ve got a handful from twitter to summarize. So until we meet again, here’s part 10!

S2: White Plume Mountain (1979), by Lawrence Schick. This one is one of the true classics! I think almost every old school D&D player has gone through it!

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Posted in Dungeons and Dragons, Entertainment, Fantasy fiction | 1 Comment

October reading: A Night in the Lonesome October

Posted on September 29, 2019 by skullsinthestars

So I semi-regularly blog about books on this site, and my usual strategy is to read the book and then write a blog post about it.

For October, I’m going to be a little different! Over the month, I’m going to read Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October (1993), and I encourage y’all to read along!

This book is special because it is divided into 31 chapters, each representing one day of October, plus an introductory chapter. By tradition, or even intent by Zelazny, people have taken to reading the book over the month, one chapter per day, in sync with the book.

Since this is a once-a-year opportunity, I thought I would encourage people to join in on the reading! I’ll blog my final thoughts about the book at the end of the month, and folks can share their thoughts, and will probably also tweet some thoughts over the course of October.

Join me in this odd Halloween experience! This book is one of Zelazny’s personal top five, of all the book he wrote.

Posted in Horror, Personal | 4 Comments

What a Scientific Englishman thinks of Scientific Americans (1874)

Posted on September 25, 2019 by skullsinthestars

Things are a little crazy here in the United States right now, so as a pick-me-up of sorts, I thought I would share this charming article that appeared in the January 30, 1874 issue of Scientific American: “What a Scientific Englishman thinks of Scientific Americans.”  It is a lovely reminder of how great we can be, when we put our minds to it!

R.A. Proctor (1837-1888).

The article was written by the English astronomer Richard Anthony Proctor (1837-1888), who is most famous for having produced one of the earliest maps of the surface of Mars in 1867, based off of drawings by the astronomer William Rutter Dawes.  He also was an early and prolific writer of popular science, starting with his 1870 book Other Worlds Than Ours; others include Light Science for Leisure Hours (1871), The Borderland of Science (1873), Flowers of the Sky (1879) and Mysteries of Time and Space (1883).

Proctor’s Map of Mars, from the fourth edition of Other Worlds Than Ours.

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Old School Dungeons & Dragons: Part 9

Posted on September 22, 2019 by skullsinthestars

I have almost caught up with all the old school Dungeons & Dragons posts I’ve been doing on twitter! So, without further ado, here’s part 9!

Die, Vecna, Die! (2000), by Bruce R. Cordell and Steve Miller. This module has the curious distinction of being perhaps the last “old school” adventure ever published!

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Posted in Dungeons and Dragons, Entertainment, Fantasy fiction | 1 Comment

Effects of explosions on the ear (1887)

Posted on September 22, 2019 by skullsinthestars

Here’s another blog post inspired, in part, by my work on my upcoming book on Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics! 

When we discuss our ideal impressions of science, we often imagine repeatedly doing laboratory experiments in which every variable is controlled and the fundamental phenomenon is isolated from all others.  However, in plenty of situations, especially involving biological specimens, such controlled experiments are impractical, impossible, or unethical.

For instance, as discussed in my upcoming book, there is a phenomenon known as “feline high-rise syndrome,” in which cats that fall from higher floors of a skyscraper are seemingly less injured than those falling from lower floors.  Because — thankfully — nobody is deliberately throwing cats out of windows to study how they fall, veterinarians must rely on those accidental fallen cats that are brought in for treatment.

A similar issue arises for unusual injuries in humans, of course.  A particular spectacular — and horrifying — opportunity arose to systematically study one of these in 1886, when an accidental explosion caught ten people in its concussive blast. Here was a grisly chance for an enterprising researcher to learn more about injuries to the ear that are caused by the sounds of artillery explosions.

The arrangement of men at the U.S. Ordinance Proving Ground, Sandy Hook, October 21, 1886. From Sexton’s paper in Science.

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Posted in ... the Hell?, General science, History of science | Leave a comment

Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics in Five Languages!

Posted on September 17, 2019 by skullsinthestars

Some exciting news to share: it turns out that my upcoming book on Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics will be translated into five languages so far!  In case you missed the lovely cover image before, here it is again, for the English edition:

Right now, it looks like it’s slated to be translated into: Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Chinese, and will also be available in audiobook format!  I will have more details on those translations when they get closer to completion.

In the meantime: please don’t forget that you can pre-order my book through Amazon or directly through the Yale University Press website! It is coming out on October 22nd!  I will be sharing a lot more information next week, once we’re at the one month countdown.

Posted in Animals, Personal, Physics | Leave a comment

Old School Dungeons & Dragons: Part 8

Posted on September 15, 2019 by skullsinthestars

It’s a quiet night, and I’m feeling great, so here’s old school D&D, part 8!

Chronomancer (1995), by Loren Coleman.  Chronomancer is one of the oddest AD&D supplements I’ve come across yet, and highlights how much TSR was willing to experiment to keep players engaged in the 1990s.

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Posted in Dungeons and Dragons, Entertainment, Fantasy fiction | 3 Comments

Old School Dungeons & Dragons: Part 7

Posted on September 14, 2019 by skullsinthestars

Almost caught up on my old school Dungeons & Dragons posts from twitter!  So here’s part 7!

UK4: When a Star Falls (1984), by Graeme Morris.  We start today with another of the UK-produced modules, which tend to have a very different flavor and welcome quirkiness when compared to their US counterparts.

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Posted in Dungeons and Dragons, Entertainment, Fantasy fiction | 2 Comments

Dr. SkySkull in China, Part 6: The Temple of Heaven

Posted on September 14, 2019 by skullsinthestars

Part 6 in a long series of posts about my month and a half in China. Part 1 can be read here, Part 2 can be read here, Part 3 can be read here, Part 4 can be read here, and Part 5 can be read here.

On the day we arrived in Beijing, and on the day before I nearly killed myself climbing the Great Wall, we warmed up by visiting another of the major historical landmarks of the city: The Temple of Heaven.  We in fact visited later in the day, having taken the train from Jinan that morning, but still had plenty of time to see the major sites in what is now a lovely historical park.

That image is just a tease to get your attention, but let’s back up for a minute and discuss the Temple of Heaven, its history, and its purpose.

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