Author Archives: Gene Stewart

About Gene Stewart

Born 7 Feb 1958 Altoona, PA, USA Married 1980 Three sons, grown Have lived in Japan, Germany, all over US Currently in Nebraska I write, paint, play guitar Read widely Wide taste in music, movies Wide range of interests Hate god yap Humanist, Rationalist, Fortean Love the eerie

Ill-Advised Brief Statement From a Distant Corner

Woodrow Wilson censored the media and put political enemies in jail. Despotic fascism. Ah, but he was low-key and not a blathering lunatic, so we tend to forget. Besides, the fascist right normalizes such extremism. It was 1953 when Harry … Continue reading

Posted in Sample Essays | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Ill-Advised Brief Statement From a Distant Corner

Best Southern Gothic Novel In Ages

Darling by Mercedes M Yardley BlackSpot Books, 2022, POD trade pb 291pp, illustration motif throughout ISBN: 978-1-64548-119-5 A Review by Gene Stewart Superlative Southern Gothic, the best of its type I’ve ever read. The physical volume is beautifully published. It … Continue reading

Posted in uncategorized | Comments Off on Best Southern Gothic Novel In Ages

Harsh Words From A Buried Box

Some snarls, growls, and facts to be faced without fear. It’s not that you write, it’s that you publish that matters.  In the digital age this leads to a torrent of amateur work that floods the market, gluts the browsers, … Continue reading

Posted in Sample Essays, uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Harsh Words From A Buried Box

Electronic Voice Phenomena & Me

In 1976 I was in Gelnhausen, Germany listening to AFRTS radio as I was writing one afternoon about local and regional alchemists, having visited a few of their haunts. On came an interesting segment about EVPs, a topic I’d not … Continue reading

Posted in uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Electronic Voice Phenomena & Me

Decoding “Classic” TV

A percipient commentary by John Oliver regarding Dick Wolf’s Law and Order empire revealed how propagandistic and unrealistic it is. Diane Neal, who played an assistant district attorney on the show, chimed in to concur a few days later. It’s neither … Continue reading

Posted in Sample Essays, uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Decoding “Classic” TV

Be Amazed

Remakes are easier to get funded because they have a proven record. That has traditionally been what has driven Hollywood to keep producing retreads. Same story, new cast. What’s been happening lately differs because X-gen and later directors who grew … Continue reading

Posted in Sample Essays | Tagged , | Comments Off on Be Amazed

Why I’m So Old

Years ago, having published short fiction for more than a decade, in scads of magazines (remember them?) and anthologies, I’d begun writing novellas and novels.  Some of my novellas began appearing, notably in the War World Series of military sf … Continue reading

Posted in Sample Essays | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Why I’m So Old

Freedom of Expression Blues

Glad to hear Rushdie’s off ventilator and on the mend. His life is changed drastically once again due to hate. All our lives are changed once again. It’s appalling. As a writer I’m for free expression and peaceful discourse. Murder … Continue reading

Posted in Sample Essays | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Freedom of Expression Blues

Obverse Obsessions

An artist named Stoneham painted The Hands Resist Him, a painting called ‘haunted’ that sold for $150,000 on eBay.  It shows a creepy boy and a large female doll standing in front of a set of French doors, with hands … Continue reading

Posted in Sample Essays | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Obverse Obsessions

Detecting Patterns

Given my missing eye and intubation rasp, I could play Squint, a mob boss who cornered the market for glasses and is taking care of business by eliminating opticians who can’t see the lay of the land. My tag-line: ‘I … Continue reading

Posted in Sample Essays | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Detecting Patterns