Steve Wiggins

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Articles

Finding the Source

2 months ago | steveawiggins.com | Steve Wiggins

I need to know the origins of things. Call it a sickness if you will, but I’m compelled to trace things to their source. This is why I went on to earn a doctorate, and it’s a trait that hasn’t left, despite my career malfunction. My interest in origins was recently reawakened by the citation, in a book, of a source that was incomplete. I turned to the internet, of course. I found the source, reprinted on a Tumblr page, for which I was grateful, but there was no proper citation there either.
Non-Believer

2 months ago | steveawiggins.com | Steve Wiggins

Heretic may be the ultimate horror and religion movie. It’s also a film you may need to see multiple times to follow the all-important dialogue. It’s a movie that would’ve been front and center in Holy Horror. And it’s deceptively simple. As I’ve written many times before, I try to know very little about a film before I watch it. This if often difficult with the internet and people wanting to tell you about the latest cinematic marvel.
Book Stages

2 months ago | steveawiggins.com | Steve Wiggins

Books appear in stages. All publishers are different. These platitudes encapsulate my experience in finding a venue for my ideas. Sleepy Hollow as American Myth has just appeared in McFarland’s spring and summer catalogue. I haven’t seen the proofs yet, but I suspect I will before too long now. What’s with the spring and summer catalogue? Well, believe it or not, books are seasonal. Publishers go by seasons. For many academic publishers there are two seasons: Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter.
Steering

Jan 18, 2025 | steveawiggins.com | Steve Wiggins

I’ve always been self-critical. Often when someone points out something I’ve done wrong I’ve already figured out that I’ve made the mistake and the reminder is painful. I can’t help but think that my childhood made me this way. In any case, since I haven’t ever found much success is writing, I figure I must need help with it. Recently I’ve read books on various aspects of writing by Stephen King and H. P. Lovecraft (published posthumously). I’ve read quite a few more over the years.
Measuring Books

Jan 12, 2025 | steveawiggins.com | Steve Wiggins

You know how some email servers stock your inbox with ads? I almost never pay attention to them. Then one for Books by the Foot showed up. I had to click. The basic idea is simple enough: you want to look smart so you fill your shelves with books by a company that sells them by the linear foot. You can get color coordination, rainbows, old books, you name it. Now this isn’t a free ad. In fact, this is a rather sad state of affairs.
Finding a Spot

Jan 5, 2025 | steveawiggins.com | Steve Wiggins

Sometimes you’re not born among your tribe. I live where I’ve moved out of economic necessity, not where my family’s located. My family’s not quite sure what to make of me anyway, so I seek my tribe. At first it was among the United Methodists, but when I was in seminary they let me know what they really thought of me. The Episcopalians seemed more welcoming to my academic aspirations and my doctorate led me to believe my tribe was those who studied ancient West Asian religions.
Mind the Gap

Dec 1, 2024 | steveawiggins.com | Steve Wiggins

One of the general rules for writers is not to engage in too many platforms on social media. There are a few reasons for this advice, the largest one being time. Social media can easily become a time sink. And time on social media is time not spent in writing. Another reason, also related to time, is that becoming proficient in various platforms takes time.
Paranormal Religion

Nov 12, 2024 | steveawiggins.com | Steve Wiggins

I remember well what it was like to be an evangelical. Measuring everything by what I thought the Bible said, fearing those things that seemed to come from outside. Being very concerned with salvation and its opposite. At the same time, I was fascinated by the paranormal. As I child I was teased for these interests and subsequently buried them. Then I had a slow, protracted, and continuing waking from dogmatic slumber. So it is natural that I would want to read R.
Consciousness Conscience

Nov 2, 2024 | steveawiggins.com | Steve Wiggins

Not so long ago—remember, I read old books—living to 60 was considered a full life. I’ve passed that and while I’m in no hurry to shuffle off this mortal coil, I often think of how improved medical practice has prolonged many lives. This is a good thing, but it does make death a more difficult fact to deal with. If there is any good that came from my Fundamentalist upbringing, it was that it taught me early on to think about death with some frequency.
The Publishing Self

Oct 13, 2024 | steveawiggins.com | Steve Wiggins

One of the things I noticed while researching Sleepy Hollow as American Myth was that many resources on the legend were buried in self-published editions of the “book” itself. And other material about the legend was from self-published sources. This lack of serious attention was behind my writing of the book. Clearly the story is an integral part of American Halloween and Halloween is a big business. Why aren’t mainstream publishers interested?