Sunday, November 11, 2007

A Sojourn at Stately Wilson Manor

Spent a couple of very pleasant days in Hertford, NC, at Stately Wilson Manor, home of my longtime friend and fellow writer, Dave Wilson; his wife Trish Macomber; and their wild and woolly family. Yesterday, we had a booksigning in Elizabeth City at Page After Page Bookstore, though it might more rightly be described as a booksitting, since downtown Elizabeth City appeared bereft of human beings. There was supposed to be a Veterans' Day parade, but it was canceled due to inclement weather, and the frigid winds for the rest of the day made for a most uncomfortable out-of-doors experience, so we mostly entertained ourselves by watching trash blow down the all-but-empty street. Regardless, no time spent with Dave is wasted time, and we did enjoy a nice lunch from a deli down the street.

Last night, we watched 1408, which I generally enjoyed. Not at all a bad adaptation of King, though at times it did venture somewhat farther over the top than I could appreciate. Still, it did inspire me to dream about being in a haunted hotel, though the one I visited struck me as more annoying than traumatic.

Got back home this afternoon to find that two of the cats had managed to lock themselves in the bathroom overnight, and there was poop in the sink. Yeah, it was a stinky treat. At least their hearts were in the right place. Maybe next time they'll experiment with using the toilet.

I leave you with a shot of Dave and I making the best of it.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woah babe! You duped!

Stephen Mark Rainey said...

Damn if that wasn't weird. I kept getting an error message when I tried to post, but I guess it was actually going up after all. Anyway...hopefully all cleaned up now.

Anonymous said...

Some days you just wanna clock the 'net on the head with a hammer.

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

So...where's the tie and jacket? Where's the student waving a book and crying out: "Don't tazer me, bro?" Where's the line of groupies with glossy lip makeup? Just asking.

Stephen Mark Rainey said...

Ah, Stewart. You see, the tie and jacket thing doesn't suit certain of us curmudgeons because it can't help but add a certain aspect of class that goes totally against the grain.

The students and groupies were there, but they were unconscious and out of the camera's range. For the record, neither Dave nor I had a thing to do with it.

A STAR TREK fan showed up looking Dave's VOYAGER novel, but when he saw me, he ran out yelling, "Don't phaser me, bro!", and that's the last we saw of him.

David Niall Wilson said...

For groupies, we would have required a GROUP - and despite the small private entourage of the Vietnam author, we could hardly claim that.

Mark, of course, means he watched Room 1408 - not 1401 - unless this post (which apparently duped) came from another dimension where King wrote about a DIFFERENT room...:)

It was a fun weekend...a letter will wing it's way to Mark shortly from my daughter who has drawn him a picture...inspiration up and down the scale, I'd say.

D

Stephen Mark Rainey said...

Ah, typos. Edited and fixed.

Can't wait for the inspiration. I'm sure it'll be sweet.