This has been a long time coming but we are finally updating the look and location of our old Harry Potter Website. The older site is still active at harry-potter.xenite.org. However the new site is now live at rowling.xenite.org. We have already transitioned three of the old sections to these new sections: Harry Potter and…
20 Years of Science Fiction and Fantasy: The Many Faces of Xenite.Org
On March 14, 1997 I officially launched Xenite.Org as a new collective home for four Websites I had established in various places. I built my first Website (“The Worlds of Michael Martinez”) on CompuServe in a special users’ section I think they called Compuserve Places (or maybe that was Compuserve Personal Pages), where we each received 1…
Dick Van Dyke and the Vantastix Sing ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’
In case you missed it, Dick Van Dyke’s acapella group the Vantastix gave an impromptu performance of the “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” theme song recently at a Denny’s restaurant in California. Patrons rushed to grab their cell phones and upload video of the performance to social media. It’s a catchy tune that everyone remembers fondly…
Low Budget Backyard Ideas from Science Fiction & Fantasy
The garden wall picture in this article titled “5 Compost Bin Ideas for a Beautiful Backyard” set my thoughts to wandering. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could create a science fiction or fantasy backyard on a low budget. I have never been a big landscaping buff because when I was a kid my parents…
New Information Added to CompuServe IMPs Site
Our special feature for the CompuServe IMPs online writing group has grown just a little bit. I have been chatting online with some of the IMPs recently and started feeling both nostalgic and inadequate as a biographer. There are so many IMPs and so many IMPcomplishments and yet I have so little time to write them…
Xenite.Org Adds Star Wars Movies Portal
December 17, 2015 is almost upon us and we have finally completed the initial work on a new section of our science fiction and fantasy movies portal for you. Now every good Star Wars fan knows that “The Phantom Menace” was the best of the six George Lucas productions (it has grossed more at the…
Cosplay Pictures from DragonCon 2015
I am the worst photographer in history. Give me a camera and I am sure to take the blurriest, most unfocused pictures you can imagine. You cannot count the rolls of film I have wasted in my life time trying to convince myself I could ever take a decent picture. The advent of the digital…
Watch Tolkien Moot XI Session with Two Bards
My friend Hawke Robinson invited me to host a panel session at Tolkien Moot XI with Scott C. Brown and Andy Doperialski of Two Bards Productions. If you have heard of “The Gamers: Dorkness Rising” then you may recognize Scott as Flynn / Leo / Turk. Scott and Andy have recorded over 100 podcasts that you…
Denny’s Offering Free Trip to Fantastic Four Movie Premier
If you would like to attend the premier for the new “Fantastic Four” movie, Denny’s (the restaurant chain) is running a promotion through July 19, 2015. The move premiers on August 4 and you have until July 19 to enter the contest by visiting http://www.dennysfantastic4.com/ to enter. You may recall that Xenite.Org founder Michael Martinez was among…
Edgar Rice Burroughs Returns to Xenite
Years ago we had several sections of content devoted to Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan, Carson Napier of Venus, John Carter of Mars, and other great characters of science fiction and fantasy fame. When Xenite was reorganized in 2011 we took that content offline. Although we still don’t have the time and resources to…
A Sad but Special Day for Andre Norton Fans
Ten years ago today Andre Norton closed her eyes for the last time in this world. It was a very sad day for many of us, and Xenite.Org was blacked out for 24 hours to ensure that all our visitors knew that Andre was gone. Today fans of the Grand Dame of Science Fiction and…
An Interview with Robert Mellette, Part One
Robert Mellette contacted us earlier this year and asked if we would be interested in interviewing him about his (now newly published) book, Billy Bobble Makes a Magic Wand. Mellette was better known to us old-timey Xena fans as Xenastaff on the MCA/Universal Web forum, so we said, “Gladly”. Naturally, everything broke down on our…