Keith R.A. DeCandido's Blog, page 2

it’s Veterans Day…

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

—Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1915

Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Racing Mars”

Garibaldi and Sheridan have two arguments, Sheridan and Delenn have a very public night of passion, and Cole and Franklin have a hard time dealing with the Mars Resistance. The Babylon 5 Rewatch stars “Racing Mars.”

An excerpt:

I find myself wondering what the plan was for Garibaldi’s betrayal before Michael O’Hare had to leave the show. The Sinclair-Garibaldi friendship was a cornerstone of the first season—indeed, Garibaldi only had his job because the commander was his drinking buddy—and having Garibaldi betray the station would have had much more weight if it was Sinclair he was betraying. But the advantage of it being Sheridan is that the relationship between the two of them was never particularly strong. Yes, they worked together, and generally trusted each other, but the closeness that Garibaldi had with Sinclair has never been there with Sheridan. And so Garibaldi’s turning on him actually has a certain sincerity to it that it wouldn’t have had with Sinclair.

Of course, it’s a bit spoiled by the fact that we know that Garibaldi’s being controlled by something or someone. It might have been more effective if we didn’t know that about him, and thought this might be a legitimate character choice.

cover and TOC reveal: Weird Tales #372 with a new Supernatural Crimes Unit story!

Coming later this month is the 372nd issue of Weird Tales, which will include a new Kolchak the Night Stalker story by James Aquilone and a new Superantural Crimes Unit: NYPD story by me! That’s right, I’ve written a story that serves as a prequel to my new SCU:NYPD novel The Thin Blue Ley-Line. (And just by the way, the audio for my story will be read by Patricia Santomasso, who also read the audio for the novel….) In general, the theme of this issue is cryptids and urban legends, and we’ve got several different cryptids showing up in my story for the SCU to deal with…..

The print edition of the magazine is available for preorder right now, as is the eBook edition from Blackstone Publishing! The audio isn’t up for preorder yet, but it should be soon — I’ll update this post when it is.

Here’s the full table of contents:

“Cry of the Yeti” by Brian Asman“An Introduction to Cryptozoology” by Matt Bille“The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs” by Keith R.A. DeCandido“Mixed Tape” by Bryan Young“Meet-Up” by Scott Sigler“Kolchak Meets the Jersey Devil” by James Aquilone“Our Mothers’ Arms” by Lee Murray“The Grave Marker” by Cavan Scott“Crimson Eyes” by Samantha Underhill“Spider McGee and the Nidus” by Marie Whittaker“The Translator” by Preston Grassmann“Buford and the Swamp Ape” by James Jensen“Concerning Cryptids” by Henry L. Herz“Whistlin’ Through the Door” by Gretchen McNeil“My Tears Shall Drown the World” by Bev Vincent“Ol’ Nal” by Dana Fredsti“Mokele-Mbembe Explains Only Once” by Anne C. Walsh Miller

two upcoming Kickstarter anthologies that I’m contributing to!

Coming soon to the Starter that Kicks are two nifty new anthologies that I will have stories in! Both have pre-launch pages up, so please check them out!

First is Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2026, the fifth in Robert Greenberger’s series of pulp-style anthologies from Crazy 8 Press. For this one I’ll be doing a new story featuring Ticonderoga Beck and the Stalwart Squad, previously seen in Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2022. That crowdfund will be launching this month.

Next up is A Curiosity of Cats, the fourth in the “Forgotten Lore” series of steampunk anthologies edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail, published by eSpec Books, and done in conjunction with the Tell-Tale Steampunk Festival. Each anthology has stories inspired by the festival’s featured author, and in 2026 it’s gonna be Lewis Carroll! I’ll be doing a story featuring Signora Spada, an Italian swordswoman-for-hire from the turn of the twentieth century, who will encounter a rather bizarre tea party. It’s my second Signora Spada story — the first will be in an upcoming issue of Weird Tales. This crowdfund will launch in the new year.

In addition to yours truly, and the respective editors, these anthologies will feature stories by:

Christopher D. AbbottDerek Tyler AtticoAdam-Troy CastroBeth CatoJames ChambersDoc ColemanRuss ColchamiroMax Allan CollinsEf DealJ.M. DeMatteisMary FanDana FraedrichJohn L. FrenchMichael Jan FriedmanEsther FriesnerSteven GrantPaul KupperbergAlisa KwitneyJessica LucciBernie MojzesWill MurrayChristine NorrisAaron RosenbergHildy SilvermanMichelle D. SonnierDavid Lee Summers

Both these anthologies are going to be faboo, so you should seriously consider supporting them. At the very least, hit the button that will alert you to when it goes live!

Thanks!

(I want to add that it’s the absolute fucking thrill of my career to be in an anthology with J.M. DeMatteis, who has been one of my literary heroes since I was a teenager……)

my overview of Star Trek: Khan’s season

I do a review of the entire nine-episode season of the Star Trek: Khan audio drama starring Naveen Andrews in the role made famous by the late great Ricardo Montalban, and found it to be quite good!

Here’s an excerpt:

Probably the most effective is the death of Marla McGivers, another death we know is coming from Wrath of Khan. McGivers’ journey is the most interesting, mostly because the biggest challenge faced by [writers Nicholas] Meyer, [Kirsten] Beyer, and [David] Mack in this audio is to elevate the character of McGivers from the horrifically sexist portrayal of her by Carey Wilbur and Gene L. Coon 58 years ago. The script and Wrenn Schmidt’s performance do excellent work to accomplish that goal, giving us more of a reason than “Space Seed” did for why McGivers fell for Khan so hard that she committed mutiny, and why Khan thought a non-Augment woman would even be worth his time.

last two conventions of 2025 in November: Philcon and Starbase Indy

My final two convention appearances of 2025 will take place in this month of November.

As I have been pretty much every year since 1991, I will be at Philcon 2025, one of the oldest still-running science fiction conventions out there, which will be held in Cherry Hill, New Jersey from the 21st to the 23rd of November. I’ll be sharing a table in the dealer room with eSpec Books (the publishers of my Precinct and Bram Gold books) and Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD Book 1 will be part of their big launch party Saturday night — plus I’ll be doing a bunch of programming. There will be many nifty guests there, notably Principal Speaker Charles Gannon, Guest Artist Sara Felix, and Musical Guest Adam Stemple.

Then, Thanksgiving weekend I’ll be returning to Starbase Indy in Indianapolis, Indiana. I’ll have a table to sell and sign books at, and also will be doing a bunch of programming. Among the other guests are actor Lisa Wilcox (Star Trek: The Next Generation, A Nightmare on Elm Street), filmmakers James Bradford Huston (Winter of Empires) and Demetrius Witherspoon (Submerge Universe), performers Moxie Anne Magnus, The Red Rum Pirate Band, The Threepios, and Starship Edsel, podcasters Nayr and Kavura (StarPodTrek), cosplayers Mogchelle, Knightmage, and Da’Rell Miller, and DJ Ray Skills.

Hope to see folks!

two live interviews with me this week

I’m doing two live interviews this week to talk about Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD. The first will be with my good friend Derek Tyler Attico for his excellent Soul of the Story podcast on Wednesday the 5th of November at 9.30pm, Eastern time.

The second will be with Ron Permison for his And I Quote podcast, which will be live at noon Eastern time on Saturday the 8th of November.

Check them both out!

Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Atonement”

Delenn must go to Minbar to justify to her clan the decision to marry a human. It involves a living flashback to her time serving Dukhat up until his death, and the end result is some nasty revelations about Delenn’s role in the start of the Earth-Minbari War. The Babylon 5 Rewatch makes “Atonement.”

An excerpt:

A big reason why this episode works so well is the excellent casting of Reiner Schöne as Dukhat. After hearing several times about what a great leader Dukhat was, and how devastating his loss was, the casting of the role was crucial to making this episode work—and, for that matter, to make the entire Earth-Minbari War work as a plot point. Schöne absolutely knocks it out of the park, giving us a truly charismatic leader.

Much credit also goes to Mira Furlan, especially for her portrayal of Delenn as a very young acolyte. She convincingly gives us Delenn at three very different points in her life, and as usual inhabits the complexity of the character with verve and style.

review my stuff!

Let’s talk reviews.

I can’t emphasize how important it is in 2025 for readers to review things on Amazon (and also GoodReads, but for the purposes of this discussion, I’m focusing on Amazon). The reason why is, the more reviews a book gets, the more prominence it’ll get in Amazon’s various algorithms, particularly once you hit 50 reviews. If you want to help a writer out, write a review on Amazon and help that author get to the magic number of 50. That’ll make the book turn up higher in searches and make it more likely that people will see it, which in turn makes it more likely that people will buy it.

If you like my stuff, please go over there and review it. It doesn’t have to be a long or detailed review, but it really does make a difference in engagement. I particularly would love to see reviews of Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD Book 1 for obvious reasons, but what actually prompted this post is the paucity of reviews for some shared-world anthologies I’ve been involved in.

Hildy Silverman’s PRISM: The Mission Files (a bunch of related sci-fi thriller stories about the search for strange artifacts around the world in the 1980s) has all of one review, and the three Phenomenons volumes from Michael Jan Friedman (a bunch of related stories about superheroes in an alternate present) have, in total, two reviews, all of the first book — the second and third anthos have no reviews.

Among them, these four volumes have stories, not just by me, Hildy, and MJF, but also brilliant screenwriter Dan Hernandez, award-winning author/comics writer Alex Segura, and New York Times bestsellers Dayton Ward and the late great Peter David, as well as Christopher D. Abbott, Ilsa J. Bick, Michael A. Burstein, Russ Colchamiro, D.H. Eisenberg, Mary Fan, Robert Greenberger, Glenn Hauman, Heather E. Hutsell, Paul Kupperberg, Ron Marz, Aaron Rosenberg, Omar Spahi, Geoffrey Thorne, and Marie Vibbert!

So please, if you’ve read any of these five books, please pop over to Amazon and say what you thought. You’ll be glad you did — and so will we!

five movies that tried to capture Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and almost succeeded

On the eve of the release of Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, I look at five movies that attempted to do justice to Shelley’s work, to varying degrees of success.

An excerpt:

Poor Things asks the question, what if Victor had actually taken responsibility for his creation and tried to raise and nurture it? Bella (Emma Stone, who won the Oscar for Best Actress) is being raised by Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), a mad scientist who looks like Frankenstein’s monster, though it seems Baxter was born in the usual way and “merely” experimented on significantly by his father. Bella’s body is that of a woman who died by suicide while very far along in a pregnancy. Baxter took the fetus’ brain and put it in the woman’s reanimated body.

In Bella, we see the monster’s journey from Frankenstein, but under controlled conditions, at least at first. Eventually, she strikes out into the world, accepting the invitation of a Lothario (a lawyer played to sleazy perfection by Mark Ruffalo with a comedic British accent). Watching Bella’s journey is fascinating as she matures and learns and experiences—it’s a fascinating look at the journey of a being created in an adult body but with the mind of an infant, initially.