INTERVIEW: Lucy A. Snyder on The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'All Along the Scenic Route'

A short interview with author Lucy A. Snyder on her contribution to The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, out now from IDW Publishing...

THE X-CAST: How did you come to be involved with Secret Agendas?

LUCY A. SNYDER: The short answer is that editor Jonathan Maberry asked me if I wanted to write a story for the anthology. Because I've been an X-Files fan since the series premiered, I was very happy to join the project. I first knew Jonathan Maberry from the Horror Writer's Association; a few years ago, he was co-editing a zombie anthology that unfortunately never found a home. I had submitted a story to that which he had accepted, so he knew my work and figured I'd be able to write the kind of story he wanted to see. (He also contacted me about writing poetry for Scary Out There, a YA anthology that was recently published by Simon & Schuster)

TX-C: Have you always been a fan of The X-Files?

LAS: I saw the series premiere back in 1993 and was instantly hooked. I loved the dark, cross-genre nature of the show -- it mixed up science fiction, horror, mystery and conspiracy thriller elements. It reminded me of other shows I'd loved, such as The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, and Kolchak: The Night Stalker. And I loved the characters, too. As much as I enjoy the genres the show explored, if I hadn't connected with the characters, I wouldn't have kept watching.

TX-C: What informed the decision to frame a lot of the story around Susie Rainwater?

LAS: I approached this story as if I were writing an episode in the 3rd season (my favorite season). Episodes of the show often employ multiple viewpoints to reveal story and provide clues to the viewer. Mulder and Scully often know far less than the viewer at the end of any given episode as a result. I normally stick to just one viewpoint character in a short story, but if I wanted the story to have the cinematic feel of an authentic episode, I knew I needed at least viewpoint characters. Obviously, either Mulder or Scully needed to provide the agents' point of view.

So in planning the story, I had to figure out which other character would best show the reader more about the supernatural mystery than the agents could witness. Who would have the most at stake in the story? Who would be very close to the supernatural events? Who could act as a witness to those events without understanding them in a way that would neatly resolve the mystery for the reader? I quickly realized that young Susie Rainwater was that character, and so a fair bit of the story needed to be shown through her perspective.

TX-C: Native American legends and disrespect toward them is key to the mystery - did you always want to explore these concepts similar to X-Files episodes like ‘Shapes’ or ‘Teso Dos Bichos’?

LAS: I would say that Native American legends are certainly an important element, but whether they're the key or not is up to the reader's interpretation of what happens in the tale. When I was brainstorming the story, I did have those legends in mind, and I was thinking of the X-Files episodes that explore them.

TX-C: This is set immediately after Season 3’s ‘The List’, which Mulder & Scully reference - any reason why that episode specifically?

TAS: Since I knew I wanted to write something that would fit with Season 3, my initial bit of homework was to re-watch that whole season. "The List" takes place in Florida, and the episode after is "2Shy", which is in Cleveland. Mulder and Scully are shown to be traveling by car, and that would be a long road trip of at least a thousand miles. A lot could happen on a trip like that, so wasn't it likely that they could encounter another mystery along the way? Especially if Mulder chose the scenic route instead of the interstate? That's the start of my story: they stop for food and then get embroiled in strange events in a small town.

TX-C: Do you believe in the paranormal?

TAS: I am not a believer, but the paranormal fascinates me nonetheless. It's entirely plot-worthy.

Many thanks to Lucy for her time. You can follow her on Twitter @LucyASnyder.

Questions by Tony Black, who you can follow @ajblackwriter.

REVIEW: The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'All Along the Scenic Route'

Tony Black looks at the fourteenth story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, 'Along the Scenic Route'...

Written by Lucy A. Snyder

Edited by Jonathan Maberry

The penultimate story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas is more of an aside from Lucy A. Snyder than a full-on case itself, as 'Along the Scenic Route' which Mulder & Scully take on their way back from events of the episode, 'The List' (placing this roughly around early Season Three), sees them stumbling in on problems in a small-town possessed it appears by strange visions with fatalistic results. Snyder from the outset presents this more as a consequence of Mulder & Scully constantly being drawn to the paranormal and has some fun playing up on the idea for once they're not actually desperate to hang around and investigate.

Events spiral mostly around Susie Rainwater, a young girl suffering intense headaches, as the townsfolk in Tilton are seeing strange angels or devils or snakes across town, which could be hallucinogenic manifestations based on mold spores harvested from the Rainwater farm, but which could also connect back to Native American legends of sacred ground. Snyder's story to an extent shares some DNA with 'Teso Dos Bichos' (don't worry, it's better!) or in some ways 'Shapes', that idea of the ignorant white man looking to stamp all over ancient tradition and culture. That lies at the heart of the story and while the pantomime thuggery of said white man is a little on the nose for The X-Files, the ambiguity behind what could be causing this is welcome.

It's really Scully who cooks up most of the theory in this one, the scientific theory, for what may be going on, while Mulder doesn't particularly leap to too many conclusions; Snyder just leaves dangling a few possibilities as to what the cause might be, and it's not the kind of story which has a Mulder theory that ties everything up in a little bow. It becomes clear that Susie may be the primary catalyst for the weirdness but, again, the specific reasons are left open to debate. Snyder characterizes well along the way - she captures Scully's scientific rigor & Mulder's louche wit well, while Susie's childlike approach, when written in her POV, helps alleviate some of the cliched elements of the story.

A simple, well-told and decently written tale, 'Along the Scenic Route', wedging itself within X-Files continuity without falling into the trap of needing too heavily to connect back to the overarching mythos or tap into the lead characters psychology. Lucy A. Snyder simply tells a solid, interesting and open-ended short story effectively, and that makes it a welcome addition to Secret Agendas.

Click here for an exclusive interview this week with Lucy A. Snyder about her story.

Rating: 7/10

You can follow Tony @ajblackwriter on Twitter.

REVIEW: The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'All Choked Up'

Tony Black looks at the thirteenth story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, 'All Choked Up'...

Written by Lois H. Gresh

Edited by Jonathan Maberry

Sometimes you get an X-Files story that just doesn't feel like The X-Files, and Secret Agendas serves one up here in 'All Choked Up' from Lois H. Gresh. There's just something as a bit too pulpy and on the nose about Gresh's story that feels off in terms of Chris Carter's series, and while it's nice to see Scully once again get the focus (indeed in first person as well), her inner monologue didn't always sound like you'd imagine Scully would; moreover, certain interactions between our leads with characters such as Skinner (who feels too wily & playful) and the Cigarette Smoking Man (who comes across too cartoonish) just don't track. Dare I say it, the whole story feels very much like an X-File written by someone who hasn't seen much of The X-Files.

Whether or not that's true, it's hard to judge, and I wouldn't serve to presume. Gresh writes straight up, pulls no punches, and there's nothing especially wrong with her prose, it's her story that for me was full of problems. For example, Mulder & Scully talk throughout about the 'Syndicate' as if it's common knowledge as a name like they're talking about 'SPECTRE', say - they just didn't do that in the show, it wasn't a reference point. Also, a sub-basement for secret, clandestine experiments... right under FBI headquarters? Accessible only by secret codes? Really? Even for this show, that's a silly stretch. It also leads to a really cartoonish fight with the Smoking Man which is entirely out of a different

It also leads to a really cartoonish fight with the Smoking Man which is entirely out of a different series and didn't sit well at all. What's a shame is that the central mystery--involving a piece of AI technology which may be crushing people inside clothing they wear--is quite clever and unique, but it's dealt with in a jarring manner. Ironically, it doesn't have enough time to breathe.

'All Choked Up' is probably my least favorite tale in Secret Agendas because it simply doesn't feel personal and befitting to Mulder and Scully, that it could have been ported into various different shows and tweaked a slightly different way. It lacks that focus, that tonal accuracy, the character voices aren't always there, Scully's POV doesn't seem to have much point, and there are one or two plot holes that stood out (why, Skinner, did you care so much about Curlie?). While I admire the attempt, this one falls short.

Rating: 4/10

You can follow Tony on Twitter @ajblackwriter.

REVIEW: The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'Kanashibari'

Tony Black looks at the twelfth story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, 'Kanashibari'...

Written by Ryan Cady

Edited by Jonathan Maberry

Now here's an urban myth I've heard of before - the Kanashibari, a terrifying Japanese folk tale of an old hag who haunts the dreams of people in what would be referred to as night terrors. Ryan Cady captures the concept of such a creature well in 'Kanashibari', the twelfth story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas, clouding the very notion of what reality means in terms of the dream world and how potentially said unconscious can hurt us in the real world. In that sense it beats similarities with Season 2's 'Sleepless', but tonally and in terms of atmosphere shares as much in common with Ringu and other Japanese horror tales. Cady manages to craft a solid tale which remains, to a degree, open to interpretation.

You see it's never quite clear whether we're dealing here with a genuinely supernatural occurrence, a terrifyingly described 'Old Hag' with a shock of hair and white face which creeps onto and attacks you while you sleep, or a chemically induced series of hallucinations tapping into that fear response within REM sleep, and Cady does a very good job of letting Scully have as strong an explanation for what's happening here as Mulder himself does, he quick to leap to the fact a spiritual evil presence is lurking beyond the dream world.

Whether or not the Kanashibari is real, Cady manages to craft some genuinely unsettling moments for Mulder & Scully as they are assailed by terrifying dreams, in strongest written parts of the story; the whole piece is less effective when dabbling in the supporting Japanese father/son difficulties in Los Angeles, though Cady nicely suggests the City of Angels isn't quite as glorious as it seems, given how Scully reacts to the heat in November. It has nice incidental touches.

What 'Kanashibari' also has going for it is, arguably, the best final scene in Secret Agendas, as Ryan Cady weaves a wonderful little stinger at the end, just when you think everything has been relatively wrapped up in a neat little bow. It leaves you going 'ooooh' in the best tradition of The X-Files, in a way not every story in this anthology has done. It deserves applause for that and some evocative writing along the way.

Click here for our exclusive interview with Ryan Cady about his story later this week.

Rating: 7/10

You can follow Tony @ajblackwriter on Twitter.

REVIEW: The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'An Eye for an Eye'

Tony Black looks at the eleventh story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, 'An Eye for an Eye'...

Written by George Ivanoff

Edited by Jonathan Maberry

Hands down, this is the weirdest and creepiest story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas. No question. 'An Eye for an Eye' is short, sharp, punchy and really really strange from George Ivanoff, revolving around something we take for granted on a daily basis - our precious two eyes. Set during the first season much like the last story, Ivanoff begins in media res with Mulder right in the middle of an incredibly unnerving situation as some kind of bizarre creature made up of eyes begins sucking his eyeball out of his socket, before snapping us back in time to how the agents came to face such a truly weird creature, amongst the weirdest The X-Files has ever given us.

Ivanoff's writing is to the point but really engaging throughout, reading fast and fun, and he manages to nail Mulder's headlong exuberance to believe the weirdest explanation in contrast to Scully's measured response, as they begin investigating people from wildly different backgrounds who've had one of their eyes sucked out of their heads, before forgetting how it happened in the first place.

It's a quick tale which is more interested in getting us to the climax than dwelling on the investigation, with Ivanoff's writing being heavily dialogue-based as Mulder & Scully meet the victims (but he does get in a nice homosexual couple, and a welcome touch given this is set mid-90's) and then find the perp, but it's the encounter Mulder specifically has when they do come face to face with the monster here that makes the story; it's disturbing, very weird, and suggests historical child abuse may be a causal factor, plus it's all tied in with Biblical & religious overtones, which you can imagine given the title. The ending is icky & trippy and would really give you the shivers if you saw it on screen, which any good X-File should do.

Another fine story here from Secret Agendas, which rockets along from George Ivanoff and delivers a supremely creepy and strange villain, good character interactions, sprightly plotting and a memorable climax. 'An Eye for an Eye' may also make you wonder if you should ever wear glasses ever again!

Check here for an exclusive interview with George Ivanoff about his story!

Rating: 8/10

You can follow Tony on Twitter @ajblackwriter

INTERVIEW: Lauren A. Forry on The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'Stryzga'

A short interview with author Lauren A. Forry on her contribution to The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, out now from IDW Publishing...

THE X-CAST: How did you come to be involved with Secret Agendas?

LAUREN A. FORRY: Total. Blind. Luck. In 2014, I saw a post from Jonathan Maberry about this upcoming series of X-Files anthologies on the Horror Writers Association Facebook page. Two authors had needed to drop out of the project, so to fill their slots he was accepting pitches for stories and the offer was open to anyone. I’d had some short stories published by that point and had signed with my agent, but my first novel hadn’t been accepted anywhere yet, so I really doubted if a pitch from me – a nobody – would make the cut.

I thought about it over the weekend, and I still wasn’t sure if I should submit. When I tried to think of a story idea, I hit a total block. Then that Monday morning, I was walking my dogs before I went to work and the start of a story popped into my head. As I drove to work, the story really quickly began to take shape, and I realized I would be an idiot if I didn’t at least submit a pitch. The worst that would happen is that I’d hear “no,” and, like any writer, I’d already heard that plenty of times.

When I got to work, I sat down at a computer and started typing up my pitch. I teach at a local college and was in the tutoring center that day. I didn’t have any student appointments, so I kept working on the pitch and, after reading through it a few times, I emailed it Jonathan. I thought, well that’s that. At least I tried!

A few weeks later, I was leaving a movie theater and checking my emails. I had just seen Birdman and was in pretty good spirits when I saw an email from Jonathan. I figured it was the rejection. I had to read the email three or four times before my brain registered that he’d chosen my pitch. I literally stood in the middle of the theater, unable to move and with this stupid grin on my face, as all these people swarmed past me on their way out.

I responded, said I could submit the story by the deadline, and that was that. So it turns out, it really would have been a stupid, stupid decision if I hadn’t submitted my pitch.


TX-C: Have you always been a fan of The X-Files?

LAF: Oh, yes. The story of why I’m into The X-Files is actually part of our family lore now. I was eight when the show premiered, and you wouldn’t think it’s a show an eight-year-old should watch (and it probably isn’t). But my dad was a FBI Special Agent. He worked out of the Newark, NJ office and was, before his retirement, the East Coast Aviation Coordinator. FYI – nobody bullies you at school when they know your dad works for the FBI.

So I had grown up loving the FBI, playing with my dad’s badge, fingerprinting my family members, those sorts of things. And my dad loved TV shows and also the supernatural/paranormal. This is a guy who made 8mm short films about aliens when he was in college. So as soon as he heard about The X-Files, he was sold. In 1993, there weren’t as many procedurals on TV as there are now and really none that focused primarily on the FBI so that, too, was really exciting for him.

I very clearly remember standing in our kitchen and my dad saying, “Lauren, there’s this new show on about FBI agents. Do you want to watch with me?” (I was a pretty well-adjusted kid who didn’t scare easily and had a healthy understanding of real versus pretend. I was also writing my own stories about witches and dark blobs by that point and my favorite book was 'Bunnicula' by James Howe, so my parents already knew I liked weird, scary stuff.)

Dad and I watched the pilot together and every single episode after that for the next nine seasons. We lined up to see the first movie wearing X-Files pins and hats that my sister’s boyfriend had got for us (he worked at the movie theater). We would tape episodes with our VCR if we were going to miss them and always waited to watch them together. When, for an elementary school class assignment, I had to write to one of my heroes, I wrote a fan letter to Gillian Anderson. My parents helped me tracked down the address to send it to using the TV Guide. I never received a personal reply, but I did get a signed photo of Anderson and David Duchovny. Every time the “parental discretion” warning came on the screen, we’d always laugh because it was at my parent’s discretion that I was watching the show in the first place.

My dad sadly passed away in 2013, so he never knew about my getting to write Stryzga, and watching Season 10 earlier this year was the first time I’d watched new episodes without him. But I feel he may have somewhat had a hand in making sure I submitted my pitch to Jonathan.


TX-C: What made you want to use ‘Darkness Falls’ as a jumping off point for your story?

LAF: For some reason, and I might never know exactly why ‘Darkness Falls’ has always been one of my all-time favorite episodes ever since it first aired. I even have a YA novelization of it lying around my house somewhere that I got when I was a kid. I’ve always been drawn more to the monster-of-the-week episodes than the conspiracy episodes, and there’s just something about Mulder and Scully, still getting to know each other while being stuck in the woods with this mysterious, deadly force around them that always appealed to me. It’s a bit like a horror movie, with the characters getting stuck in a cabin in the middle of nowhere as they’re picked off one by one.

When I was trying to wrap my head around a pitch, I didn’t have much time to think about where in the timeline I should set my story because I’d wasted time trying to think if I should submit a pitch in the first place. So I thought, why not relate it to my favorite episode? I’ve watched ‘Darkness Falls’ probably dozens of times over the years, so I knew it well, and I realized that there was a natural break between that episode and the next, ‘Tooms.’ Mulder and Scully were in pretty bad physical shape, and they would have needed some time to recuperate. But ‘Tooms’ doesn’t address anything that happened in ‘Darkness Falls’ – Mulder and Scully are back in the field, in perfect physical condition.

So I thought, well, what happened in between? How long would they have needed to heal? ‘Tooms’ can’t be their first case back since ‘Darkness Falls,’ so what could have been their first field assignment since that fateful trip to the Pacific Northwest? My brain started filling in those gaps and a story started to emerge. The ideas flowed so easily, that’s when I knew I’d chosen the right timeframe for my story.


TX-C: You make a point of Mulder being very protective over Scully a key element of the story - was it interesting to write them so early on in their dynamic?

LAF: I found it fairly easy to slip into the mindset of their early relationship simply because there was less history that I had to worry about. Mulder and Scully have been through so much over the last 20+ years and along with the growth that’s happened during those decades, there is also a lot of emotional baggage to deal with.

So going back to a time where they were still getting to know one another – and know each other’s limits – was a lot of fun. They hadn’t yet dealt with Scully’s disappearance/abduction and coma. Mulder still didn’t know much about what really happened to Samantha and the conspiracy behind it. Heck, even Skinner and CSM don’t show up until ‘Tooms,’ so the characters felt a bit freer without all of that history weighing them down.

Also, because they’ve not yet experienced the worst to come, they’re still learning each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They don’t fully know, yet, what the other is capable of, and I wanted Mulder to become overprotective because he feels what happened to Scully in ‘Darkness Falls’ is his fault. In the last scene of the episode, when he’s standing over her bed and she’s unconscious, and he says, “I told her it was going to be a nice trip to the forest”? Like the doctor says, two or three more hours and she likely wouldn’t have made it. So here’s Mulder with a partner that he works well with, who understands him, who he’s developing a close bond with, and he almost kills her? He’s suffering from serious guilt right there!

We know now that there is worse to come for them, but at that moment, it was one of the worst experiences they’d had since they’d known each other, and I felt he needed to deal with the repercussions of that, and Scully, too.

TX-C: Where did the inspiration to use the Stryzga come from? Is it a myth you’ve been familiar with for a long time?


LAF: I actually started with the idea of a summer camp and wanted a monster that would fit in well with that setting. There is a camp in the Poconos that I went to for years as a kid and later worked as a counselor at, and I’ve always wanted to immortalize it in a story. Most of my descriptions of the camp in Stryzga, including the abandoned cabin, come directly from my memories of that summer.

So once I had that setting and developed an idea for what I wanted the monster to do, I searched various legends on the internet. The X-Files covered a lot of the major legends, like the Jersey Devil, so I had to find something the show hadn’t already used. I found the Stryzga the most intriguing, and the fact that it attacks night-time travelers and people who’ve wandered into the woods at night fit perfectly with a summer camp set in the woods.

(And I’ve been recently informed on Twitter of a typo I made in the spelling. It should actually be strzyga, so I apologize to lovers of Slavic mythology for screwing that up!)

TX-C: Do you believe in the paranormal?

LAF: I’m not a hardcore believer, but I’m not a total skeptic, either. I guess I’d say I have a healthy, if realistic, optimism that there might be ghosts and the like out there, but I’m not going to believe everything I hear. For example, I’m convinced my grandparents’ house was haunted, but I don’t think people have captured “real” ghosts on camera or a recording. I once burst out laughing at one of those real-life haunting shows on the Discovery Channel because these people had recorded a “ghost” screaming, and they played the original recording on the show. It wasn’t a ghost. It was a fox. I used to live in the London suburbs where there are a lot of urban foxes. When foxes scream, it sounds like a person being murdered. (Seriously. Search for screaming foxes online. It’s not a pleasant sound to hear at 3am, but it’s not a ghost, either.)

And as for aliens? Mulder would be disappointed in me, but I don’t think aliens have visited Earth. I did some research on the Fermi Paradox (if space is so big, and the possibility for intelligent life so prevalent, where are all the aliens?) for my next novel, and I believe that there has to be life out there somewhere, but it’s not come here. Yet.

Many thanks to Lauren for her time. You can follow her on Twitter @laurenaforry.

Questions by Tony Black, who you can follow on Twitter @ajblackwriter.

REVIEW: The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'Stryzga'

Tony Black looks at the tenth story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, 'Stryzga'...

Written by Lauren A. Forry

Edited by Jonathan Maberry

So far in The X-Files: Secret Agendas we've had a range of stories that attempt to get under the skin of Mulder & Scully, while both weaving in mytharc elements and more often than not, deliberate connections to X-Files events of the past. 'Stryzga', from writer Lauren A. Forry, is the first one to truly get the mixture right for my money, and for all of these tales--most of which have been great thus far--this one feels like an X-File of old we might see on TV the most.

Set during the first season of the show, it takes place just after the bleak ending of 'Darkness Falls' where, you'll remember, Mulder & Scully only just got out of woods alive (literally). Forry intentionally chooses to play on that fact as she weaves a story that sends the duo back into the woods, in a way that feels worthy and un-intrusive.

You have a solid gribbly in the mix for this story too, as the titular Stryzga is a Slavic monster of legend which appears to have killed a Polish national in a former nature reserve, and Mulder delivers one of his classic projector lectures to Scully whilst throughout the story projecting his own concern about whether she should be back on field duty so soon, after she came off the tree bug attack in 'Darkness Falls' in a much worse way than he; it didn't necessarily need any focus, as we took them both being fine for granted come the next episode, but Forry plays this beat naturally enough for it to *be* natural and provide a central level of depth to their burgeoning partnership which gives the story ever so slightly more weight.

Beyond that, it's a damn fine monster of the week story, essentially, with a few twists and turns along the way in terms of questioning man's abhorrent treatment of nature and some creepy secrets involving children and bizarre radiation tests. Crucially, Scully always provides a scientific explanation or attempt at one when Mulder is off theorising about two hearted monsters with double teeth, in precisely the way the show would do. It builds to a relatively swift but satisfying conclusion that ends on a comic beat but with the door still open.

It's among the more traditional stories in this anthology but that really works to its benefit - with fine writing from Lauren A. Forry, who nails characterisation as well as story, it's not the most out there or inventive of the volume but it could well be among my favorites.

Click here for an interview with Lauren about her story!

Rating: 8/10

You can follow Tony on Twitter @ajblackwriter.

REVIEW: The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'A Scandal in Moreauvia, or The Adventure of the Empty Heart'

Tony Black looks at the ninth story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, 'A Scandal in Moreauvia, or The Adventure of the Empty Heart'...

Written by Nancy Holder

Edited by Jonathan Maberry

In the ninth story of The X-Files: Secret Agendas, writer Nancy Holder takes a big big risk by bringing back one of the show's most reviled characters: Inspector Phoebe Green! 'A Scandal in Moreauvia, or The Adventure of the Empty Heart' is without doubt not just a curio but one of the most entertaining stories in this anthology, primarily because it really strives to do something different. 

Holder not only takes Mulder & Scully out of their comfort zone but even out of their country, placing them in England for the kind of tale it's a shame, if understandable, the TV series never actually did - connect Mulder back with an even greater tether to his 19th century inspiration, Sherlock Holmes, and touch again on his British Oxford education roots. It doesn't quite stick the landing, but Holder's story stands out in several unique ways.

Firstly, she really nails these characters, perhaps more than any other writer has quite done yet in this anthology. Holder gets that blend of dogged determination mixed with dry sarcasm in Mulder down pat, as she does the continued exasperation of Scully, who serves as the perspective for this story. Holder really plays up on the visible dislike Scully had for Phoebe during 'Fire', which this can be considered a semi-sequel to; with the comparison being much more on the nose to Sherlock and Irene Adler, down to the cod-Dr Moreau, 19th century literature title, the myriad of Holmes references, and of course a major chunk of the story taking place on Dartmoor. Phoebe is as slippery and annoying as she was when Amanda Pays played her, but that just means she's written well, and arguably the first half of the story as Phoebe leads Mulder into a particularly paranormal case is the strongest.

Holder perhaps falls down by trying too hard to connect this back to the mytharc, which oddly enough has been a recurring problem in many of the stories in Secret Agendas. She makes a point of setting this early in Season 3, tethering it pointedly to the 'Anasazi' trilogy and trying to connect the thematic element of the story to Mulder's brush with death in the boxcar and his 'rebirth', but it feels enormously forced in many places. The whole discovery Mulder & Scully make smacks of Fight the Future too and, oddly, almost doesn't seem to fit their Sherlockian surroundings. It's almost as if Holder had a different kind of story in mind and wanted to wrong foot us, when perhaps the original narrative might have been more rewarding. It's a shame, as the promise of the story doesn't quite pay off.

Regardless, 'A Scandal in Moreauvia' beyond its narrative problems and fan service is among the strongest penned in the Secret Agendas anthology, and just for the fact she gets away with bringing Phoebe Green back, Nancy Holder deserves a round of applause!

Rating: 7/10

You can follow Tony on Twitter @ajblackwriter.

THE X-CAST #72 - Jonathan Maberry on The X-Files Origins & Anthologies

THE X-CAST takes a break from episodes this week as Tony Black interviews New York Times best-selling author Jonathan Maberry, the mastermind behind the three X-Files prose anthology books.

In this conversation, Jonathan discussed how Trust No One, The Truth Is Out There & Secret Agendas anthologies came to be, including how they're recognised canon by Chris Carter, and talks about the newly released young adult books Devil's Advocate & Agent of Chaos (written by Kami Garcia) involving teenage Mulder & Scully. Jonathan also discusses potential future X-Files projects and his upcoming work in a range of other genres and universes.

Listen in for this exclusive chat with Jonathan, and just remember... trustno1...

Listen/Download here:

Next time on The X-Cast... Tony is joined by Matt Latham to discuss Season 2, Episode 10, 'Red Museum'...

INTERVIEW: Bryan Thomas Schmidt & Kate Corcino on The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'Border Time'

A short interview with authors Bryan Thomas Schmidt & Kate Corcino on their contribution to The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, out now from IDW Publishing...

THE X-CAST: How did you come to be involved with Secret Agendas?

BRYAN THOMAS SCHMIDT: Jonathan Maberry invited me and I asked my friend Kate, who was a more knowledgeable fan at the time, to join me.

KATE CORCINO: Bryan Thomas Schmidt first asked if I was a fan of X-Files. After my enthusiastic response he invited me to co-write the story with him. I leapt at the opportunity, as any writer fan would!

TX-C: Have you both always been a fan of The X-Files?

BTS: Actually, I became a fan for the story, because I had not related to the whole conspiracy theory thing in the 90s when it was originally on and had been too busy getting my Masters degree to watch much TV anyway. I had started watching a few reruns when the opportunity came along, and thought it would be a good fit, so I asked Maberry, and when he said yes, I then watched all 9 seasons, 2 movies, read all the novels, all the YA books, and the prior anthologies in about 8 weeks before we wrote the story.

KC: Yep, from the very beginning. I’d rave about the show to anyone who’d listen--I even got my mom watching. I think she became an even bigger fan than I was.

TX-C: What inspired your story here? You touch on various elements, including the treatment of Mexican people on the US border - were there any real-life inspirations?

BTS: Kate currently lives in El Paso. I did for two years and for a decade before that spent a lot of time on business down in that region. The real murders of women in Juarez has been an ongoing issue for two decades. It remains unsolved. I thought it would lend itself well to an X-Files spin, tragic as the real story is, and I immediately saw ties to the Mulder-Samantha mythology.

KC: Absolutely. Living on the border, and being a half-Latina woman, allows me to witness the complicated relationships that are woven into the fiber of the people here. There is a very real history here of Las Desaparecidas, more than 150 women and girls who’ve gone missing and whose disappearances have never been solved. Revisiting that horror in our story was a way of keeping the frustration and anguish current and real to an audience who otherwise might not be aware.

TX-C: Can you describe the process of writing the short story in tandem?

BTS: We decided I would write Mulder and she Scully. We outlined it, and I wrote the opening scene of the disappearance of a victim, and all Mulder, she wrote Scully, then we polished for voice.

KC: We tossed ideas back and forth in IMs, outlined together over the phone, then passed the story back and forth for each scene in our assigned POVs. I think this story came together the fastest of any story I’ve ever written. I tend to be a slow, perfectionist writer. Bryan made the process of collaboration easy and fun.

TX-C: Given the myth arc links in the story, did you always set out to make this very personal to Mulder’s search for Samantha?

BTS: I think I answered that above, but the goal was to create a story that felt like an episode of the show. So I wanted to weave in some threads episodes had in common, including the humorous banter of the two leads, their different approaches, and some mythology. The Samantha storyline lent itself best to the main storyline we’d chosen, so it was the obvious choice.

KC: We wanted the story to feel like an episode, including exploration of a larger arc. Mulder’s search for Samantha fit perfectly with the tone and topic of our storyline.

TX-C: Do you believe in the paranormal?

BTS: I believe there is a spiritual realm and spirit warfare with angels, demons, and other forces. Beyond that, it’s fun to write about, but I don’t know what else I believe. I have encountered real spirit warfare stuff when I was a missionary and traveling in Brazil and Ghana, so I know that’s real. I have never seen a UFO though, but I assume other intelligent life might well exist somewhere in the universe.

KC: *laugh* Even before experiencing “unexplainable events”--stories for another time--I was always a Spooky Mulder fan. So, yes.

Many thanks to Bryan & Kate for their time. You can follow Bryan on Twitter @BryanThomasS and Kate @KateCorcino

Questions by Tony Black, who you can follow on Twitter @ajblackwriter.

REVIEW: The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'Border Time'

Tony Black looks at the eighth story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, 'Border Time'...

Written by Bryan Thomas Schmidt & Kate Corcino

Edited by Jonathan Maberry

The eighth story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas plays it straighter than many of the other tales in the anthology, which have in some places attempted to mix up the storytelling with X-Files which think outside the box. 'Border Time' is a very solid, standard kind of story which would have fitted perfectly well as a mid-season episode. Co-written by Bryan Michael Schmidt & Kate Corcino, and set roughly around the third season of the series, it balances a rather traditional investigation for Mulder & Scully as a dead young woman turns up mutilated on the US side of the Mexican border, with an attempt to get under the skin of Mulder's obsession and lightly throw in some mytharc along the way. It's only partially successful, unfortunately.

The main problem is that the repeated references to Samantha and Mulder's personalizing of cases just doesn't feel earned. He did this more than once in episodes such as 'Oubliette' or of course 'Paper Hearts', but in both cases the writing was either subtle or Samantha's abduction directly connected to the story - here it feels like a reference point being forced, and given Schmidt & Corcino don't tell the story from Mulder's perspective & inner monologue, it often feels like the writer pointing and going "look, like this like Samantha, look!". It becomes jarring after a while.

Equally not really clicking is the mytharc link to what otherwise seems to be an organized murder operation, and again the inclusion of a fan-favourite mythology character only serves to highlight how much he doesn't fit tonally with everything that has preceded his appearance. It feels an odd & unsatisfying twist the story didn't need, again mainly there to underline the attempts to connect to Samantha.

It's unfortunate because 'Border Time' does have some good moments and character interactions, with Schmidt & Corcino getting the voices and actions of Mulder & Scully down well. They touch on the whole aspect of border patrols, illegal workers and the plight of young women being prey to abuse in the area, and supporting characters such as Lupo are well drawn as the investigation deepens - it's purely from a narrative perspective where it goes wrong and trying to shoehorn an emotional connection to Mulder’s psychology into the story.

Click here for an exclusive interview with Bryan & Kate about their story!

Rating: 6/10

You can follow Tony on Twitter @ajblackwriter.

REVIEW: The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'Love Lost'

Tony Black looks at the sixth story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, 'Love Lost'...

Written by Yvonne Navarro

Edited by Jonathan Maberry.

An intriguing tale from Yvonne Navarro for the sixth story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, as 'Love Lost' taps into a piece of mysterious history from Dana Scully's childhood heretofore unknown. Set during the revival series, taking place roughly late 2015 chronologically, it sees Scully being reminded of a titular lost love in Marcus Damicke, who vanished in 1982 after getting on a flight & leaving Scully for what was considered to be a brief time. It's an unusual but well-constructed story, which principally gives Scully more focus (which has been admittedly lacking in Secret Agendas so far). Where it falls down is in, oddly, trying hard to find connections to the myth arc and with characters who don't quite seem to fit the nature of her narrative.

The actual mystery of Marcus is well told, however, and you genuinely do get the sense that Scully compartmentalized his disappearance as a teenager looking for that connection. It's also nice, even after so much time working with Mulder, that Scully still feels certain elements of her past & life are private - that's very Scully, who Navarro captures well across this story as her investigation leads her to old faces, while Mulder attempts to understand how the seeming reappearance of Marcus, having not aged in over 30 years, links to a series of strange power outages at a major airport.

Navarro's short is strongest when it's exploring Scully's character in relation to the mystery, not when Mulder is linking up with Marita Covarrubias of all people; don't get me wrong, Marita is long overdue some kind of return in The X-Files, but her involvement in this story seems really off - she doesn't have a personal enough link to either of our leads to really work as anything other than a mysterious antagonist, allowing Navarro to call back to lingering, enigmatic plot points from Season 9 finale 'The Truth'. It's even weirder when she suggests a legendary, long-gone X-Files character may also be steering the mystery of Marcus behind the scenes, and it almost feels too much like fan service - the story didn't need either of them.

Regardless, while 'Love Lost' isn't the strongest story in Secret Agendas, it flows well, doesn't drag, retains a genuine mystery which Yvonne Navarro doesn't see the need to tie up in a neat bow or even specifically give explanations for by the end, and crucially it shines a light on Scully's past as a woman and her emotions connected to a previous, youthful love in her life which allow for some nice interplay with Mulder. A story worth telling.

Rating: 6/10

You can follow Tony on Twitter @ajblackwriter.

INTERVIEW: Jim Beard on The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'Desperately Seeking Mothman'

A short interview with author Jim Beard on his contribution to The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, out now from IDW Publishing...

THE X-CAST: How did you come to be involved with Secret Agendas?

JIM BEARD: I saw a post on the American Horror Writers Association Facebook page from editor Jonathan Maberry about needing to fill some slots in the book. I admire Jonathan to the nines -- he's a living, breathing action hero himself -- and couldn't believe the opportunity was presenting itself. I wrote a pitch, sent it in, and about a week later got a Private Message from Jonathan asking if I could deliver a finished draft in x amount of time (pun intended). I said, uh, yes? He said "Welcome to the X-Files."

I found out later I was up against about 680 other pitches. Yow.

TX-C: Have you always been a fan of The X-Files?

JB: Full disclosure: since Second Season. My wife started watching from Episode #1, back in the day, but I came to it later (can't really remember why). Being a big fan of the Occult Detective genre of fiction, I twigged to it immediately and here we are, all these years later (and yes, I went back and caught up on First Season).

TX-C: The Mothman is a well known American urban legend - what made you want to use that as a jumping off point for your story?

JB: It jumped into my mind, unbidden, for realz. I think it was because it was a subject that hadn't really been covered on the show before, not really. Or it might be the actual, documented undue influence the Mothman has on people. Regardless, as you say, it became more of a jumping off point because the plot went where it wanted to go. Which is a very cool thing to happen to a writer in my estimation; a story that has a life of its own.

TX-C: You put Mulder through the psychological wringer here - did you enjoy letting Maeve get under his skin?

JB: Ha -- I saw what you did there :) Yeah, I did. I write mainly pulp and in pulp the characters tend to receive more physical abuse than anything, so placing Mulder into a twisty-turny, mental labyrinth was a feast for me as a writer. And between you and me, he kind of deserved it. A little.

TX-C: Did you enjoy writing Mulder’s perspective specifically here? Was that a conscious choice from the beginning or did it evolve?

JB: Weird thing is that I'm more of a Scully fan, but Mulder demanded to take the wheel on this one. I think that's for the best because writers should come out of their comfort zone and tackle characters and subjects they may not have cared much for and see what makes them tick. Mulder's ordeal here grew organically as I plotted and I'm proud of what transpired, even if it meant that Scully took the backseat this time.

If I get a second chance to write X-Files again, that will be rectified. Oh, yes.

TX-C: Do you believe in the paranormal?

JB: As in other things, I'm an agnostic on that score. It depends on what day of the week it is. As Mulder might say, "I want to believe," but common sense sometimes rears its ugly head and shatters the attractive alternatives.

Show me a ghost, though. I'm ready.

Many thanks to Jim Beard for his time. You can follow him on Twitter @writerjimbeard.

Questions by Tony Black, who you can follow on Twitter @ajblackwriter.

REVIEW: The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'Desperately Seeking Mothman'

Tony Black looks at the fifth story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, 'Desperately Seeking Mothman'...

Written by Jim Beard.

Edited by Jonathan Maberry.

Did you chuckle at the title for the fifth story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas as much as me? I bet you did. It's a nice play on the 1980's Madonna/Rosanna Arquette vehicle Desperately Seeking Susan, but you may be surprised that Jim Beard's 'Desperately Seeking Mothman' isn't actually a comedy. It's certainly not without its darkly comical elements but this tale is much much more of a trippy, strange headf*ck for Fox Mulder which you don't almost see coming. Beard does a great job here of making you think, especially from that title, that Mulder & Scully are dealing with one paranormal element when he's simply doling out a huge slight of hand. It's clever and rewarding when Mulder does start tumbling so heavily down the rabbit hole of perception and persuasion.

Taking place roughly within the show's fifth season, Beard sets this as a case of Mulder venturing off into the middle of Virginia to pursue a wild theory, while being cautioned over the phone by Scully - and pretty immediately, Beard nails both characters, Mulder's dry wit particularly. It doesn't take him long either to throw Mulder into the thrall of the mysterious Maeve, and it's precisely the point that Mulder is presented as a rather sexless character for such a sexy actor playing him, which allows Beard to enjoy putting the character in a situation where he acts very against type.

It allows him to tap into the historical Mothman legend while also subverting it, in many respects having his cake and eating it - while combining Mulder's search for the truth alongside perhaps his own ego a touch, so keen once seduced by Maeve to help a damsel in distress he is sucker-punched by the thrall she puts him under. That allows Beard to place Mulder, whose perspective the entire story flows from, into some eerie situations - specifically his trawl through the woods as he's assaulted by weird sounds, haunting echoes and the kind of paranormal elements linked to the Mothman legend and beyond which would look great on screen.

Come the end of 'Desperately Seeking Mothman', as Mulder has been so compelled by the strange woman he reacts almost violently to the sight of Scully, you're really left feeling our intrepid agent has been tested across this X-Files tale, and that's a testament to Jim Beard that he managed to craft that with such few words.

Click here for an exclusive interview with Jim Beard about his story!

Rating: 7/10

You can follow Tony on Twitter @ajblackwriter.

REVIEW: The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'Transmissions'

Tony Black looks at the fourth story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, 'Transmissions'...

Written by Marsheila Rockwell & Jeffrey Mariotte.

Edited by Jonathan Maberry.

In the fourth story for The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, we change tack by coming from the perspective of an entirely different character from Mulder or Scully, in the form of Micah Goodrich, a small-town sheriff in Sulphur Springs Valley, Arizona, who finds himself very much out of his depth in 'Transmissions', from the writer duo of Marsheila Rockwell & Jeff Mariotte, which by degrees is one of the straightest and creepiest tales in IDW's third anthology collection yet. It cuts right to the very heart of the basest of human set-ups: the family, at which point it burrows its way into your mind just like the strange transmissions which begin compelling family men to kill. It's a frightening tale, all the more being from Micah's ominous, rational viewpoint.

Set roughly during the latter half of the show's third season, 'Transmissions' reminded me in places of Denis Villeneuve's Sicario, with a washed-out, sun-drenched oppression leaking out of Rockwell & Mariotte's descriptions coupled with a shade of nihilism, principally from Micah, as he faces down a career that has beaten him psychologically, with drug cartels and senseless murder.

The story itself for at least half of the length principally just sees Mulder & Scully following Micah from The story itself for at least half of the length principally just sees Mulder & Scully following Micah from crime scene to crime scene as the family bodies pile up, but that sense of small-town oppression grows as they slowly piece together a pretty enormous potential threat. It's the bleakness that appeals in this story, however, the drained brightness of the houses contrasted with the violent, bloody darkness of the murders that take place - shot through with a great X-Files level of weirdness with the transmissions themselves, recalling episodes such as 'Conduit'.

With a measure of good character work, with a strong and likeable protagonist in Micah who is rounded well, and enough action and strangeness to be a dark and engaging tale while never tipping over into melodrama or not feeling like an X-File, 'Transmissions' may end up being one of the darker entries in the anthology - indeed it could even be a Millennium episode, which is as good in terms of praise as I can bestow.

Click here for an exclusive interview with Marsheila Rockwell & Jeff Mariotte about their story!

Rating: 7/10

You can follow Tony on Twitter @ajblackwriter.

INTERVIEW: Jade Shames on The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'Give Up the Ghost'

A short interview with writer & composer Jade Shames on his contribution to The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, out now from IDW Publishing...

THE X-CAST: How did you come to be involved with Secret Agendas?

JADE SHAMES: I’ve known Jonathan Maberry for a long while and he reached out to me asking if I’d like to contribute to the anthology. I was thrilled.

T-XC: Have you always been a fan of The X-Files?

JS: Yes. I was pretty young when it debuted but I remember watching it every week. Still, I was fortunate enough have dated a girl in college who was a super fan and I still keep in touch with her. I made sure to let her read the story before sending it to Jon. I wanted to have the approval and insight of someone who REALLY knows the show. Her name is Kara Helmick-Nelson, by the way, and she’s a very good writer.

T-XC: So here’s the big question - where did the idea to put yourself in the story come from?

JS: I was trying to evoke the feeling of straddling two realities: Scully’s life as an agent and her life outside of that; Mulder’s confidence in his mission, and his insecurities; Sam existing in the paranormal, and Sam existing in the realm of science; The X-Files universe and our own. Inserting myself into the story was a way to further this feeling. And I think it creates a fun experience. It allowed me to make fun of myself and give the reader something they may not have seen in a story like this before.

T-XC: Your tale deals with some fascinating ideas of ‘meta’ reality & wish fulfillment - what made you want to write this kind of story? And is ‘Sam’ based on a real legend?

JS: I love those “deal with the devil” fables. Sam is based on that. He’s a Mephistopheles. But, in X-Files tradition, there also had to be a Scully side—a scientific explanation—which I drew from stuff like neurolinguistic programming, hypnosis, the McCollough effect, and other such things that seem to “hack” the brain. I loved the idea that the devil could be a kind of “brain virus”.

T-XC: You do some great character work with Scully here - do you think she truly wants a ‘normal’ life?

JS: Thanks! My thinking was that, at this point, Scully did consider it. She’s getting older and really doesn’t have anyone else in her life to share these experiences with except for Mulder. I like to think that both Mulder and Scully have had doubts about their mission and have had secret desires for a different life. I would have loved to see one moment in The X-Files where Mulder is on the toilet, perhaps hungover or sick, and lonely, and he says to himself, “What the hell am I doing?”

But in the show, we don’t see these things. Scully seems OK with this being her life, and in my story I wanted to suggest (spoilers) that perhaps that was due to a vestigial Sam code lurking in her brain, which is why she has the sudden change of heart at the end. Maybe it was Sam’s revenge—to keep her moving in a direction that deep down she doesn’t want to go. Or maybe she really does find satisfaction in her adventures. It’s open ended. Scully is a very complicated person and why she chooses the life she chooses is something we may never understand. I love that about her.

T-XC: Do you believe in the paranormal?

JS: Hmmm...well, I believe that science cannot currently explain everything, but I also believe that science will continue to explain things we once thought were unexplainable—meaning that what seems like paranormal activity now, will eventually be forensically explained. So, in way, yes.

Many thanks to Jade Shames for his time. You can find him at www.jadeshames.com also follow him on Twitter @JadeShames.

Questions by Tony Black, who you can follow on Twitter @ajblackwriter.

REVIEW: The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'Give Up the Ghost'

Tony Black looks at the third story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, 'Give Up the Ghost'...

Written by Jade Shames.

Edited by Jonathan Maberry.

We get a nice change of style and pace for the third story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, with a vibrant tale from Jade Shames which frankly is hard to pigeonhole. 'Give Up the Ghost' has elements of pathos, of black comedy, of character introspection, whimsy and just plain bizarre, trippy weirdness, not to mention a level of 'meta' narrative which sees Shames bring himself, Adaptation-style, into the story. It's an X-File as if written by Thomas Pynchon and directed by Spike Jonze, if you can imagine such a concoction, and consequently it's erratic, off the wall nature makes it arguably the most fascinating of these anthology tales yet.

There's a lot going on but ostensibly the heart involves Scully as she wonders whether she wants the life of an FBI agent on Mulder's quest - she imagines a different life with less pressure, more social life, even dating (this is not a story for the shippers among you!), and even comes close to quitting her job and starting anew. It's interesting then why Shames chooses to frame the weirdness in his story through Mulder's experience and yet Scully's prism, as the mysterious, Satan-like temptation being Sam places them in an alternative life where Mulder is championed as a successful FBI legend who brought down a global alien conspiracy; his desire is validation, or is it Scully's desire for him? Shames leaves many things unclear as his quick prose allows for jumping into a multitude of scenes, covering a fair distance across his story, and tapping into all kinds of thematic and contextual ideas.

Most fascinating is how Shames gets away with making *himself* a character in the story, and leaving it as an unexplored thread - as indeed he does another very specific reference to 'our' world through Scully. If his writing wasn't so swift, dark, creepy and just plain odd, he wouldn't get away with it, but 'Give Up the Ghost' has such an engaging blend of occult mythology with strange, quasi-technological references as to the effect of psychedelic compounds, with a dark and at times comic whimsy which feels very unique to The X-Files.

The biggest compliment is perhaps that Shames would deserve the chance to bulk this out and make it a full episode of the show, as it's a fun, visually arresting read, and defiantly different enough to really stand out.

Click here for an exclusive interview with Jade Shames about his story!

Rating: 8/10

REVIEW: The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'Perithecia'

Tony Black takes a look at the second story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas, 'Perithecia'...

Written by Andy Mangels.

Edited by Jonathan Maberry.

The second story in The X-Files: Secret Agendas sees Andy Mangels having his cake and eating it a touch, as 'Perithecia' manages to fuse together a traditional weird science with elements of monster story with layers and hints of the greater, overarching conspiracy mytharc which underpins the show. It presents a fairly traditional prism of a mystery for Mulder and Scully, set here within the show's third season, to investigate and Mangels weaves his tale from an equally traditional third-person viewpoint, as both agents venture down the investigative rabbit hole.

Where 'Perithecia' stands out is in the finer details. You can tell Mangels knows his XF. His story is littered with nods and winks, some on the nose (a ten-thirteen reference), some more oblique (a delightful moment where Mulder says the words 'inveigle' and 'obfuscate' in the same conversation); indeed his only glaring error is the references between Mulder & Mr X, who Mangels delights in including here, as to how X got Mulder off the train in '731' - unless I'm mistaken (and I could be) Mulder never knew it was X who saved his life, and was never told on screen. It's a nitpick, but it took me out of the story briefly.

Mangels on the whole, nonetheless, crafts an enjoyable tale here which blends Mulder's obsessive search for truth alongside Scully's measure of science; there's a great scene you could have lifted from any episode where Scully uses wonderful medical language to describe the strangeness at the heart of the victim they're investigating, as Mulder prepares to infiltrate a secret base where secrets are held. It encapsulates their relationship at the peak of their investigative prowess and that balance really comes off the page - as indeed do the incidental characters in the middle-American community, such as the recalcitrant Sheriff or the slippery, bed-hopping Dewey. Mangels fills out the tale with these memorable little bit players.

'Perithecia' feels a little nostalgic as the kind of X-Files story we may have seen back in the mid-90's, and while a few details don't scan and it deserved perhaps more pages to breathe, the piece is a well-written fusion of classic X-Files styles.

Click here for an exclusive interview with Andy Mangels discussing his story!

Rating: 7/10

INTERVIEW: John Gilstrap on The X-Files: Secret Agendas - 'Seek and You Will Find'

A short interview with best-selling author John Gilstrap on his contribution to The X-Files: Secret Agendas anthology, out now from IDW Publishing...

THE X-CAST: How did you come to be involved with Secret Agendas?

JOHN GILSTRAP: I've known Jonathan Maberry, the editor of the anthology, for years. We shared a publisher at one point, and I think we even shared an editor. When a writer of his caliber reaches out and asks you to participate in an anthology, the only reasonable answer is to say yes.

TX-C: Have you always been a fan of The X-Files?

JG: During its television run, I was a fan in principle, but rarely got a chance to watch it. During that sleeve of time, I was in the hazardous waste business, and on the road almost constantly. After I committed to Jonathan to write a story, I bought the first season of shows and watched them all. Loved them.

TX-C: Why did you choose to write from Mulder’s first person perspective?

JG: For "Seek and You Will Find" to work, the story had to be told from a very limited point of view, and there is no POV more limited than first person. Plus, in my novels, I never get an opportunity to use 1st person and I liked the challenge. I'm happy with the way it turned out.

TX-C: Did you find Mulder’s internal monologue easy to find & write?

JG: I'm not sure I could qualify any element of writing as "easy," but there's a twitchiness and cynicism in Mulder that I enjoyed exploring. He's a nerdy tough guy who's well aware of the fact that he's an outcast, and I don't think there's an artist of any stripe who has not felt like that from time to time.

TX-C: Your story deals with an alternate reality - what inspired this to be your X-File element of the story?

JG: A lot of my writing deals with the unexpected consequences of unusual events. When I started exploring plot lines, the first one to come to me was, what would it be like to be with someone who just went *poof*? Given that no one would believe the story that the person you were with just evaporated, would charges be filed? On the flip side of that question, how unnerving would it be for the person who disappeared? What's on the other side of reality? That's what my story is all about.

TX-C: Do you believe in the paranormal?

JG: I believe in energies we don't understand. I know that some people exude kindness, and others exude malevolence. I know that in a crowded party, if I look with a certain intensity at my wife who is all the way across the room, she will turn and meet my gaze. I know that when my son, unbeknownst to us, was the subject of a National Park Service search because he was lost in the woods, I woke up in the middle of the night compelled to write a scene about a character lost in the woods. Is that paranormal, or just coincidence? I'm not sure.

Many thanks to John Gilstrap for his time. You can follow him on Twitter @JohnGilstrap and check out his website here.

Questions by Tony Black, who you can follow on Twitter @ajblackwriter.

REVIEW: The X-Files Secret Agendas - 'Seek and You Will Find'

Tony Black begins a weekly exploration of the short story anthology, 'Secret Agendas'..

Written by John Gilstrap

Edited by Jonathan Maberry

Anthology number three of The X-Files from IDW Publishing, 'Secret Agendas', begins surprisingly in the first person from the perspective of, none other, than Fox Mulder himself. 'Seek and You Will Find' comes from John Gilstrap, nominally a writer of the Jonathan Grave series of political thrillers, and who here switches gears for a Mulder-centric tale of troubled adolescents, dark woods and mysterious doorways. It's an X-File with a defiantly weird central conceit, yet presented in a rather straightforward, character-led manner. The result is a punchy, sprightly read, if somewhat lacking in the atmosphere that makes the show so memorable.

At first it feels a little jarring to be reading Mulder's first person thoughts, and to my reading knowledge we haven't seen this done previously in X-Files writing (that isn't fanfic), but Gilstrap soon provides a really interesting insight into how Mulder may construct his thought processes when it comes to investigation. He's curiously dismissive at times of Scully but oddly enough that makes an element of sense, given his focus on the cases before him. What he is, however, is dogged and determined once he finds himself in the kind of paranormal situation directly that he would normally investigate from afar, and Gilstrap has fun unpacking the repercussions of that.

If I were to connect this story to any previous X-File, Season 9's '4-D' might be the closest shout given Gilstrap's tale, giving nothing away, has its roots in the concept of an alternate reality. To say any more would perhaps ruin the story but suffice to say there's a hint of Stranger Things in this piece, that sense of youth in a small-town community being troubled by the unnatural. With a sense of pace, some earthy and honest writing from Gilstrap, who does a good job with Mulder's internal monologue, it's a solid start to the collection of tales here.

Click here for an exclusive interview with John Gilstrap about his story!

Rating: 7/10

You can find Tony on Twitter @ajblackwriter.