FRANKENSTEIN, REVISED

10:00 am - 11:00 am
| Location of Session: Swartz Stage
Adult Sessions

Start of Signing: 11:15 AM
| Signing Location: Adult Signing Tent

My Schedule

About the Event

Mary Shelley blended gothic horror and science fiction in her book Frankenstein—and these two writers pick up her mantle in their spins on the story. Set in 1916, Leila Siddiqui’s The Glowing Hours reimagines the composition of Shelley’s famous work, as seen through the eyes of a newly hired servant, Mehr, an heiress from India who finds herself stranded penniless in London. A frontier medicine woman and occultist in 1879 resurrects her late husband in Josh Rountree’s The Unkillable Frank Lightning. But bringing someone back from the dead means they’ll never really be the same. These two atmospheric novels are must-reads for lovers of gothic fiction.

About the Authors

Photo Credit: Leah Muse

Josh Rountree

Josh Rountree is a Texas novelist and short-story writer. His novel The Legend of Charlie Fish was included on the Locus Recommended Reading List and named one of Los Angeles Public Library’s Best Books of the Year. More than 70 of his short stories have been published in a variety of venues, including The Deadlands, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Bourbon Penn, Realms of Fantasy, PseudoPod, Weird Horror, and The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror. Several collections of his short fiction have been published, including Fantastic Americana and, most recently, Death Aesthetic, featuring tales of death and transformation.

Rountree lives in Austin with his lovely wife of many years and a pair of half-feral dogs who demand his obedience. His new book is The Unkillable Frank Lightning.

Photo Credit: Ruby Grais

Leila Siddiqui

Leila Siddiqui was born in Chicago, raised in Texas, and now lives in New York with her husband. She is also a digital-marketing strategist in publishing. When she’s not writing, she spends her time worshipping her three very floofy cats, experimenting with vegan recipes from Instagram, and crocheting fun new projects. Her debut young-adult novel, House of Glass Hearts, was published in 2021.

Leila joins the Book Festival to discuss her latest book, The Glowing Hours.

Moderator

Patricia Portales

Patricia Portales is Professor of English and Humanities at San Antonio College and a member of the Macondo Writer’s Workshop. She earned a Master of Arts in English from St. Mary’s University and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research interests include contemporary American literature with a concentration in ethnic literature, oral history, and linguistics. She is also a fiction writer and freelance journalist.