Lone Star Artist

In case I haven't mentioned it before, I love myself some sci-fi and fantasy as long as it's not all horror and gory filled or just giant bugs and horrible weather disasters. Seriously, when did a tornado or earthquake not caused by aliens or some weird cryptid animal become science fiction? Mystery, angst, romance I'm totally sold. Add in gorgeous locations or fantastic costuming as a bonus and I'll write a blog post highlighting your awesomeness. Mostly I'm outing my love for Urban Fantasy and if you know me, that closet door was mostly wide open which was a walk-in with seating.

Sooo... Syfy, who has finally convinced me the re-branding wasn't totally stupid and I often start to spell all sci-fi that way, has some good programming. But, I am still bitter about the loss of Eureka (insert sniffing here) and the Dresden Files which now that I'm getting started I really, really miss The Chronicle  and am kind of nostalgic for Stargate even if they did beat that horse to death a couple of times. I've got a little Battlestar Galactica angst as well. Also, I have started to get kind of pissed at Syfy for torpedoing a lot of great programming. 

Ok, I'm over it.

The new season of Haven is getting ready to start and I'm crazy happy about it. It's set in Maine, has lots of paranormal goodness with pretty people. What's not to love? They also have a pretty great twitter feed with Dave and Vince but I had to pare down the twitter following and just follow the Herald.

image via Syfy

The latest seaon of Lost Girl has just wrapped up and won't be back until January. I'm pretty sure you can catch up via episodes on Syfy. This one is filmed in Toronto so the scenery is pretty typical urban environment but the sets are pretty good and the costumes are fantastically leather badass with boots to match. There's been some romance angst that can get grating but I'm willing to give it another season before I decide if it's irritating or not.

image via Syfy

The whole family is a fan of Grimm on NBC but they're a pain in the ass to try and swipe a photo so they just get a link.  This one has fairy tale quotes, moody Portland locations, cute main characters and awesome set design/houses. In a quick cross over, if you love the fairy tales and also graphic novels then Fables is the series for you. Greatness.

In case TV isn't your favorite, I've got a few book recommendations that fit my criteria for good fantasy and have had releases this fall. Seanan McGuirre has two series that are huge favorites. The October Daye series and the Incryptid series which feels a little campier to me but that could just be that the lead character moonlighting as a dancer/cocktail waitress. And by dancer I mean ballroom not stripper. I've also started Celia Jerome's Willow Tate books and they are total camp. Not un-enjoyable but I have to be in the mood or I just find them irritating and want to smack everyone. I'm pretty sure that's not what she's going for when reading. 

A few more favorites are Kat Richardson, Ilona Andrews who does a lot of awesome stuff for e-versions and I'm primarily a fan of the gunmetal/Kate Daniels stuff so can't speak to any of her other series, Carrie Vaughn, and Laura Anne Gilman.I could list a ton more but these are the latest I've been reading. 

There's something about the onset of fall and the approach of Halloween that seems to especially embrace the typical spooky/angsty/moodiness of fantasy. For me, that's primarily  urban fantasy and the first Harry Potter with floating pumpkins, which has a lot of great talent embracing the genre right now. I'm striking and soaking it up while the iron is still hot. Sorry for the poorly constructed sentence there but you get the idea.