Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4659 )

• Milkweed and Honey

  

  I’ve never thought of bugs as an ethical concern. Well, not directly anyway. I had some truly frightening encounters with insects and arachnids as a child, so... Read more

  Posted on 24 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• How to Talk to an Editor

  

  There are right ways and wrong ways to get your book published. When approaching an editor, there are a few things to keep in mind. For one thing, we’re human.... Read more

  Posted on 23 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Uncomfortable Truth

  

  Ugly. That’s not a word I use lightly. The phenomenon of racism is ugly. More than that, it’s insidious. I recently attended a community course on racism... Read more

  Posted on 22 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Colleagues

  

  The death of a colleague is a shocking grief. Although my teaching career was cut short at Nashotah House, the faculty there was always small, and often... Read more

  Posted on 21 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Amityville

  

  Surely one of the most controversial haunting stories of my own lifetime was that which came to be known as The Amityville Horror. Read more

  Posted on 20 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Deity Electric

  

  The title set me back. “Deus ex machina: former Google engineer is developing an AI god.” The article in The Guardian is surprising in several ways. Read more

  Posted on 19 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Scared Space

  

  Ghosts appear whether they exist or not. People have seen them, we know, since as early as written records permit us to know. I first ran into Colin Dickey’s... Read more

  Posted on 18 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Contrary Living

  

  “Where, o where, are you tonight?” If your mind has supplied the tune and pitchfork, you know just what I’m talking about. Or perhaps you too remember this old... Read more

  Posted on 17 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Which Window?

  

  October slipped in this year, and now I find myself unexpectedly in the season of ghosts, monsters, and witches. Given the number of posts on this blog about... Read more

  Posted on 16 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Haunting Toyland

  

  Although it hasn’t always been this way, one of the most characteristic aspects of the modern horror film is the sequel. Some franchises spin into countless... Read more

  Posted on 15 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Novelty Religion

  

  Religion is dead. So they say. They have been wrong before. One of the great things the web has given us is book fan sites. There are a number of them, and my... Read more

  Posted on 14 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Falls

  

  I can’t recall if I’ve been to Mexico City before. You see, back in the late 1980s I frequently read the novels of the existentialists, and although a copy of... Read more

  Posted on 13 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Gendered Lupines

  

  No doubt an excuse isn’t required for reading about werewolves this time of year. Something about October encourages that sort of thing. Read more

  Posted on 12 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Nicholas of Myra

  

  It may be a little early to start thinking about Christmas, but archaeologists don’t often worry about timing. A piece in the Washington Post announced somethin... Read more

  Posted on 11 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Church Vampires

  

  For people my age manga is a new form of reading that is easily ignored. Although I’ve read a graphic novel or two, “comic books,” no matter how adult the theme... Read more

  Posted on 10 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Ocean Blue

  

  I suspect with Trump in office Columbus Day will get a boost. After all, it’s the narrative of the white man coming to America and improving on what anybody els... Read more

  Posted on 09 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Diverse Colors

  

  After a warm snap, we’re not at peak color here in New Jersey. Some trees have changed, yes, and leaves have begun to fall, but green prevails. Read more

  Posted on 08 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Struggle for Relevance

  

  Futility is a specialization of those of us who consider ourselves fans of Ecclesiastes. Thus it is that the blog of an editor gets so little attention among... Read more

  Posted on 07 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Learning to Evolve

  

  Not to beat a dead hadrosaurus, but creationism is in danger of driving us extinct. On a visit to the Paleontological Research Institution’s Museum of the... Read more

  Posted on 06 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Getting Exorcize

  

  Supply and demand may seem to be an odd framework to apply to religion, but it obviously exists within the polity of churches, synagogues, and mosques. What... Read more

  Posted on 05 October 2017 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY