Mister Moose

Y'all, please keep Mr. Moose in your thoughts. He's suffering from pancreatitis and is under a specialist's care in a facility out of town. Depending on the severity of the case, he may be able to recover, but it's not a sure thing. Seven years ago, Kim took him in after he was found starving and barely clinging to life when he was a tiny kitten. Ever since then, he's been living the dream with us, and we'd so hate to lose him. You'd never find a sweeter kitty.

Autumn Woods, Unexpected Stashes

The backyard is looking pretty nice

For well over two years now, I haven't missed a single day of walking and/or running at least three miles, usually a good bit more than that. Fall is my favorite time to take long walks around the neighborhood (except maybe sometimes when it snows). This year, we don't seem to have as many varying colors of foliage as we sometimes do, but it's still pretty, and the temperature is pleasant. We have woods on three sides of our lot as well as on the far side of the street out front, so we're surrounded by nature.

 

Lake Lanier is a small lake just down the street from us, and I walk there frequently. There's a smaller, adjacent body of water that we locals have always called "The Little Lake," and beyond it, a stretch of woods between two roads about a mile long. When I was a kid, several friends and I frequently played among those woods (mostly as soldiers who fought against the giant monsters that lived out there), and in my teenage years, we rode minibikes and motorcycles on the trail that snaked through the woods.

 

There's still a trail back there, now used mostly by our sizable deer population. Once in a while, I take a walk back there, and today was just the day for it. The terrain has changed somewhat over the years; the trees are denser and taller, but there's far less undergrowth. Back in the old days, the ground was largely covered by tall reeds and flowering plants, which gave it a more jungle-like appearance. During my adolescence, when I was so smitten with the daikaiju movies of the day, like Destroy All Monsters and War of the Gargantuas, we always kept a sharp eye out for monsters, and our BB guns at the ready (yes, they were very powerful, anti-monster BB guns).

When I was 11 or 12 years old, what I didn't count on finding back there was a stash of the most grotesque porn magazines possible—mostly about bestiality. The graphic photos and stories of animals, mostly horses and dogs, having sex with young girls were pretty traumatic. I was with a couple of young friends at the time, and I think we ended up burning them. I never had any idea which neighbor had hidden the magazines in a plastic bag in a hollow tree, but whoever it was must have been pretty sick.

 

The memories of fighting monsters in those woods are far more pleasant. And nowadays, it's a tranquil and lovely place to engage with nature.

Another Longest Day

Back in June, I took my first turn as an elections officer in my home precinct for the Democratic primary. Election Day, even for a smaller one like the primary, is a pretty long one: up at four a.m., at the polling place by five a..m., work the station for thirteen hours, then break down and repack all the equipment and complete the mountains of required paperwork, which takes from sixty to ninety minutes. Very tiring, but since I found working the previous election ultimately gratifying, I decided to do it again. I'll probably even go for it again next year for the mid-term election.

 

Yesterday, the election for state governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, plus several local positions, brought out a record number of voters in town for a non-presidential election. Whereas the first time around was a slow day (I even managed to get in a significant amount of work done on my then-current novel-in-progress), yesterday was busy, busy. Very little downtime, and quite a few hours on my feet, which I'm feeling a bit today.

 

The other officials on our team are all fantastic, consummate professionals, and I'm proud to serve with them in one of the most important democratic processes in this country. No matter who the members of our community voted for, it was my honor to be part of making their votes count.

WDBJ Channel 7 from Roanoke did a short segment about our election, and you can even get a quick glimpse of ye Old Dude in action in the video story. The link is here.

OUR SHADOWED PAST III Is in the House

During the month of September, I spent my days hard at work designing, laying out, and creating graphics for one of the most intensely detailed projects I've ever undertaken: the third in a series of books about the legendary TV series, Dark Shadows, titled Our Shadowed Past, created by the legendary Bob Issel, Dark Shadows devotee and mastermind of many evil things. (See "Our Shadowed Past III In the Works," September 16, 2025). It's a 256-page volume of essays by fans, interviews with show's stars, fan fiction, and—as the book's centerpiece—a retrospective of the many fan gatherings, all organized by Mr. Issel, at Seaview Terrace, a.k.a. Collinwood, in Newport, Rhode Island. There's also a detailed look at Dark Shadows: Sanctuary, which would have been the fourth Dark Shadows audio drama I wrote for Big Finish, had things not gone south prior to its production.

This book is a big, sturdy monster, with around 750 photos throughout, about half of which comprise the Seaview Terrace retrospective section. Alas, I've never been to any of the Seaview gatherings. Brugger and I were planning to go last year, but HBO tossed a monkey wrench in that plan—see "A Weekend in Providence," November 19, 2024 for details. But the in-depth essays and photo albums from the gatherings are so detailed and immersive, it really makes me feel as though I were a part of it all. We're still hoping we can get there for a gathering at some point, though the Carey family, who owns Seaview, has put it up for sale (at a cheap $29.5 million). We'll just have to see how things pan out in the coming days.

If you're even a casual Dark Shadows fan, I don't think you could ask for a better, more compelling volume to draw you into the world of Collinsport, Maine, and the big house on the hill known as Collinwood.

 

Our Shadowed Past III, like its predecessors, is a very limited edition, so few copies will be available beyond those who pre-ordered the book. However, I can't recommend this big honking love letter to Dark Shadows highly enough, so if you are interested in a copy, email Mr. Issel at bobubas59@gmail.com right now, and I mean NOW. You'll not regret it.

Hot Off the Crossroad Press—BLUE DEVIL ISLAND

Last week, Crossroad Press founder & CEO David Niall Wilson, audio book narrator Joshua Saxon, and I got together for a Zoom chat to talk about my novel, Blue Devil Island, as it was Joshua's first job with Crossroad, back in 2019. It was an enjoyable half-hour conversation, and is featured in this week's Hot Off the Crossroad Press newsletter. The video is live, so if you're feeling brave, you can watch it on YouTube here. Since then, Joshua has now narrated 76 audiobooks for Crossroad, and he is easily one of the most popular readers anywhere. Check out the conversation, and you'll see why. 

FREE FICTION! "Sky of Thunder, Island of Blood"

Sad that Halloween is over? We had a really nice one, so I sure am! So, I thought, why not offer up some free, monster-ific fiction? "Sky of Thunder, Island of Blood" is a short story I wrote some years ago, which originally appeared as an Amazon Shorts, which — sadly — no longer exists. This one is a thrilling World War II tale with a touch of the outré. The link below will take you to a Google folder where you can access either Epub or PDF files, whichever is your preference.

For the cover art, I picked up a royalty-free photo of a Messerschmidt Bf109, took a photo of one of my Rodan monster figures, and did a little Photoshopping.

Hope you enjoy the tale!

---

Download "Sky of Thunder, Island of Blood" FREE!

---

A Happy, Horrific Halloween

This is the third Halloween in Martinsville for Brugger and me since we moved into my old homeplace in 2023. The past couple of years, we had a fair number of trick-or-treaters, but last night topped them all. When I was a young'un, just about every household in this neighborhood had kids, so Halloween was quite an affair. Nowadays, there aren't so many kids, but folks from all over town head into the nearby, affluent Mulberry/Forest Park neighborhoods, and many of them pass our place along their journeys. Last night, Brugger and I decided to entice trick-or-treaters by setting up chairs down by the street and lighting up the fire pit.

 

It worked. We started the fire just before sundown, and within minutes, the kids started arriving. During the breaks between arrivals, we cooked chicken/jalapeno sausages over the fire for our supper, which were pretty danged good, along with delicious adult beverages to accompany—and of course, Halloween candy for dessert.

 

As a kid, I loved dressing up and trick-or-treating for Halloween; and as an adult, I probably love Halloween even more, especially when we make the night something an event. I find giving out treats to be intensely satisfying, and I'm happy to say that the kids were generally very polite and gracious. Almost all of them wore cool costumes, several of which were quite elaborate.

 

I think the coolest thing we experienced during the evening was when it was getting pretty late, and the trick-or-treaters were all done. We heard, far in the distance through the woods, the faint chiming of a bell, numerous screams, and what sounded like a werewolf howling. It came from well beyond any of the nearby houses, so...talk about neat and a little creepy. Tis here (you need to turn the sound up to hear the noises):

Over the past couple of weeks, I'd become a little concerned that Halloween wasn't going to be as big a deal this year because fewer houses in the area appeared to have been decorated. Happily, that wasn't the case. Best of all, we have quite a bit of candy left over—and it's the good stuff!

 

For afters, we settled in and watched Bram Stoker's Dracula, which isn't necessarily our favorite Dracula filum, but we kind of felt in the mood. And so we enjoyed it.

 

I hope your Halloween was at least as lovely.

Witches & Witchcraft for Halloween!

My contributor copy of the new anthology, Witches and Witchcraft: An Anthology of Stories, Poems, and Essays, from Hippocampus Press, is in the house! Edited by Katherine Kerestman and S.T. Joshi, this lovely volume features my story "Foragers," a frightful tale of the American Revolutionary War, and the horrors that a company of General Cornwallis's men encounter while marching toward the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.

Witches and Witchcraft also features contemporary works by Ramsey Campbell, Debra K. Every, Wade German, Simon MacCulloch, Darrell Schweitzer, John Shirley, and others, plus classic stories and essays by L. Frank Baum, Frank Belknap, Long, Cotton Mather, William Shakespeare, Clark Ashton Smith, and many more.

 

The genesis of "Foragers" comes from a local legend, which I used as the backstory for a few of my geocaches in Greensboro, NC...except that it's not really a legend. It was a quick bit of fiction about a witch named Lillian Gadwick that I came up with to hopefully enrich the experience of hunting geocaches in the woods at night. This faux legend was apparently convincing enough to lead some geocachers to believe it was actually based on local folklore, so when I was invited to contribute a story to Witches and Witchcraft, I decided to re-imagine and embellish the tale.

 

I think it worked.

You can check out the original story of Lillian Gadwick in the cache description at Geocaching.com here.

---

Witches and Witchcraft at Hippocampus Press

---

The Void Project, Karaoke, & I Am Old, Drink My Scotch

"Between waking and sleep lies a place you were never meant to wander. A borderland where time bends, shapes twist, and whispers follow you. It’s the layer of night where dreams blur into nightmares—where every culture tells the same stories of shadows, watchers, and figures that shouldn’t exist. Step too far into this in-between, and you’ll discover why some doors are better left unopened."

Friday evening, Ms. B. and I drove the dark, winding backroads up to my first college alma mater, Ferrum College, up in the boonies of neighboring Franklin County. Last year, the newly opened Ferrum Park put on its first haunted trail attraction, the theme of which was to find some missing hikers—without going missing yourself. This year, the event was called The Void Project, described in the passage above. Like last year, the trail setup was not all that extravagant, but it was absolutely a hootin' good time. There were a few roving creatures, some pitch-black corridors, optical illusions, and creepy alien sounds. I hope there will be another haunted trail there next year, and I might consider helping out with the setup, especially if I can be roving monster. Ha-HA!

 

Brugger and I survived the trail experience, and afterward, since it was on the way home, we stopped at Scuffle Hill Brewing in Collinsville, where friends Scott & Jamie joined us for a few brews and some raucous karaoke. Ms. B. and I both hollered a bit, but nobody ran screaming, so we shall have to try harder next time.

 

Friday was friend and fellow writer Richard Dansky's birthday, and each year, to celebrate, he holds a pretty large gathering at his place in Durham. He calls it "I Am Old, Drink My Scotch," and he puts out innumerable bottles of scotch along with a huge spread of Meats and Cheeses™, not to mention veggies, sweets, and other culinary goodies. This year's event was yesterday, and Ms. B. and I both planned to go. I had reserved a room for us at a hotel near Richard's place, but our cat Moose has developed what we fear is diabetes, and he was not doing well, so she stayed home to be with him. I set out yesterday morning, drove to Durham, and proceeded to hunt a good many geocaches, some of which involved some fairly serious hiking (although nothing as extreme as a couple of last week's outings at Wintergreen). There was also a cache at a very old graveyard hidden in the woods ("Leigh Farm Park Cemetery," GC95G2C), which was apt for the season, and probably my favorite of the day.

I settled in at the hotel about 3:30 p.m., showered and got presentable (as much as possible, anyway), and as the event's 7:00 p.m. starting time approached, I ventured out to the grim and morbid environs of East Durham, grabbed a handful more geocacches, and finally arrived at the grim and morbid Chez Dansky, which was properly decorated for both Halloween and a celebration for turning older than dirt.

 

Indeed, there was scotch. Lots and lots of scotch. And so many Meats and Cheeses™. Silly me, I was so preoccupied most of the time that I hardly took any photos at all. The ones I did take are below. Since Brugger didn't make it and Richard was largely occupied with hosting duties, I was pretty much a stranger in a sea of faces I didn't know. I tend to feel a bit awkward in such circumstances, but I did get into interesting conversations with several folks, all of whom were very nice and sociable. It helped that many were writers or involved in various creative businesses. So, I'm hoping that there will be many more Richard Dansky events, birthdays and otherwise, and that in the future, Ms. B. can accompany me.

Thanks, Richard, for being such a perfect host.

A most appropriate card for the aged Mr. Dansky

Chez Dansky, lit up for the season

The tiniest sampling of the cheezes available at the massive spread

Godzillasaurus

In between writing fiction and online diatribes about the current criminal regime, I put together a little diorama using the newly arrived Godzillasaurus figure (from Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah) and the S.H. Monster Arts Godzilla figure from the same film. I call it "Almost There, Kid—A Little More Vibrato!" The foreground is a composite of three photos of a miniature tree set I constructed a while back, and the background is a photo from Pixabay. Anyhoo, it was a bit of fun for me. Enjoy.

Oh, Shenandoah...Again

Back in May, friends/regular travel companions, Terry & Beth, joined Brugger and me for a few days' sojourn in the wine country of central Virginia, with our headquarters at the Wintergreen Resort. On that trip, we were able to enjoy a brief but mighty nice dinner and visit with long-time friends, artist Cortney Skinner & author Elizabeth Massie. Well, that was really too little of a good thing, so Ms. B. and I decided we must return to the scene of the crime, and this time bring on board as much of the local talent as possible. This area of the Shenandoah—Staunton and Waynesboro in particular—is home to several writers and artists, all of whom I've called friends for many years. Apart from Cortney & Beth, we have Keith Minnion, Nanci & Phil Kalanta, Dave & Trudi Simms, and Matt & Deena Warner (the latter of whom did a great job redesigning my website earlier this year). We plotted a reasonably massive gathering in advance, while leaving the rest of an extended weekend for Brugger and me to wander about, discover spirits & vittles, go antiquing, hunt geocaches, and do whatever deviant things our teeny minds might concoct.

Thursday, October 16, 2025

This morning, Ms. B. and I mounted up and set forth for Wintergreen, stopping for a few geocaches, lunch in Lynchburg (Chili's), and some provisions at the Wintergreen Market. Our little VRBO is cozy, convenient to all the local amenities (wineries, breweries, cideries, and restaurants) as well as our friends. We arrived right at check-in time (3:00 p.m.) and made ourselves at home. Happily, our host provided us with plenty of necessities (like coffee), and as you can see in the photo above, we put some of our own provisions to good use.

For dinner, we trucked over to The Edge, which we'd enjoyed immensely on our previous visit. This time was equally good. A damn fine gin martini, I can tell you, and a hell of a good turkey burger with bacon. Afterward, Ms. B. and I retired to our lodgings, where had some cheesecake and a smidgen of wine for dessert. And we watched No One Gets Out Alive, which we'd seen before, but found it enjoyably creepy.

 

A most satisfying inaugural evening, to say the least. Till tomorrow.

Friday, October 17, 2025

Hey, it's a geocaching morning! I rose early, before Ms. B. even stirred, had a quick breakfast and coffee, and then set out for a cache less than half a mile from our lodgings, at least as the crow flies. Damn, those lucky crows. I took a shortcut down to the trail, as it was only a couple of hundred yards behind our place, but what a couple of hundred yards. Steep, steep terrain, mostly covered with mountain laurel, and if you've ever bushwhacked through mountain laurel then you probably understand how abusive its whip-like branches are. SWAT! WHACK! THWACK! Gracious!

Once on the trail proper, I had to cross about a dozen contour lines on the map, and we're talking terrain that is steep, rocky, and slickery with leaves. So, with all the winding up and down, that less than half a mile turned into a full mile-plus, with every step requiring a lot of caution. No kidding, a bad step in such terrain could have dire consequences.

But let me tell you, what gorgeous terrain it was. Fall color is far more advanced in these woods than in the neighboring areas. There's a flowing stream near the trail with some nice waterfalls. And when I finally arrived at the cache, I found it in good condition. Understandably, it doesn't get much business out in that area, but it was certainly worth the effort. (I don't think I paused as often to rest when I hiked nine rugged miles at McAfee Knob to get my 10,000th cache a few years back.)

Near the cache (Foraldeliben's Treasure, GC8VWBQ)

After this adventure, Brugger and I stopped at the nearby market to pick up a few picnic provisions, and then we drove down to Valley Road Vineyards, not too far away. Here we found some pretty good local wine. Our timing was good because, just as we started our picnic, a passel of tour buses pulled in with several passels of people, which just about filled up the place.

Our next destination was a couple of geocaches on the outskirts of Waynesboro, then into Staunton, a few miles farther on. Brugger went antiquing, and I went...caching. Found several fun ones, but then I realized my phone was nearly dead—and my spare external battery was completely dead. Thankfully, I was done caching for the afternoon. Anyhoo, Ms. B. and I met up again at Accordia Wine Bar, which we had discovered on our trip here in May. A little liquid refreshment hit the spot here.

Valley Road Winery

Overlooking the valley from just outside of Waynesboro

Finally, we came to the most compelling reason for our visit—meeting our crowd of ne'er-do-well friends at Thai Staunton restaurant. Keith Minnion and Dave & Trudi Simms couldn't make it, but Matt & Deena Warner brought their sons, Owen and Thomas, so our table was pretty well filled up. The food and service here were fantastic, and the company was the best there is. There were lots of memories between all of us as well as many newer stories to tell. After dinner, we hopped a couple of doors down to Kline's Ice Cream Shop, had sweet treats, and yammered a whole bunch more.

Finally, we all parted ways, and Brugger and I drove the spooky, dark backroads to our lodgings. It was quite a day, to say the least, and the evening gathering could hardly have been more fun and mentally/emotionally refreshing.

We started watching The Ritual, which is a cool, creepy film just right for the season, but since we were both tired and about ready to pack it in, we stopped halfway, figuring we'll finish it tomorrow night. I managed to stay up long enough to finish today's blog entry.

I foresee another possibly rugged hike in the morning. G'night.

Front: Thomas, Deena, Matt, Nanci, Phil; Back: Cortney, Beth, Owen, Ms. B., Old Dude

Saturday, October 18, 2025

Today, the No Kings Protests will be held all over the country, and if we were at home, Brugger and I would certainly be taking part in the Martinsville gathering. We'd thought about going to one in Staunton, but we ended up getting a very late start this morning, and we wouldn't have been able to make it in time. We are kind of sorry to have missed it. Anyway...I can absolutely assure you, those of us who protest this regime do NOT hate America. Quite the opposite. We protest the burgeoning autocracy. We protest the disregard for the rule of law and the US Constitution. We protest the escalating attacks on our free speech. We protest the demonization of those who disagree with the extreme right's imposition of its policies of pure self-interest. If you don't see this happening, right smack right in front of you; if you somehow see protest as hating America; or if you say, "If you don't like it, then leave," you are truly too brainwashed, too dim-witted to be reasoned with. This country IS my home, and I don't leave my home because it needs one hell of a house-cleaning. Right now, it surely does.

Here in Wintergreen, first thing this morning, I set out on foot after a cache at an overlook about a mile away. It wasn't a rugged hike like yesterday, but the ups and downs are still pretty extreme right here on the mountainside. At ground zero, my coordinates bounced me all over the place for a while, but I finally homed in on an apt-looking spot. Sure enough, I found a hook where the cache would have resided, but...no cache! Dammit. Anyway, I scratched around the area for quite a while with my hikey stick and finally turned up the container buried in the leaves. So, I signed the log and re-hid the cache where it was supposed to be. Ah, success!

 

Just as I completed my task, a nice lady approached me and asked if I was geocaching. I said that indeed I was, and she told me someone she knew hid this particular cache. She didn't know that much about caching overall, so I explained a few of its finer points. I've been at this activity now for over 17 years, and I still have the bug. I don't see it ever going away

Brugger and I soon headed out for brunch at Beltie's, a nice farmhouse-type restaurant where they also have Beltie cows! Big and cute, I'd call 'em. Some of them quite enjoyed being petted. I had a bucket of coffee and a fried chicken, pimento cheese, habanero-bacon jam, and arugula biscuit, which was so good I just about hollered.

From there, we found wine at Afton Mountain Vineyards, which was decent. Their best wine was a blend called Bacco, presumably from "Tobacco," since it had the distinctive and very agreeable aroma and taste of rich tobacco. That made me very happy. Then we headed over to King Family Vineyards in Crozet, where we ended up sitting with a very nice couple who live in the area but have traveled all over the world. We shared quite a few enjoyable travel tales. The wine was generally very good, particularly their blend called Seven. And finally, we topped off our little winery tour at a beautiful place called Chiswell Farm & Winery. It's probably the most scenic winery I've ever visited, and their Meritage wine was superb. The images below are from Chiswell.

From there, we drove down to the old Crozet Tunnel, now known as the Blue Ridge Tunnel. It's an old railroad tunnel cut clean through the mountain, almost a mile in length. It's now a rail trail, and yes, there was a geocache. Interestingly, Ms. B. happened upon it quite by accident. We really loved going through the tunnel—it's very dark and very chilly (and in some places, quite damp). When we arrived, it was pretty crowded, but by the time we left, the sun was going down, and we were damned near the last living souls at the place, which made it almost—and very agreeably—creepy.

L: Southeastern tunnel entrance; R: Ms. B. dancing in the dark

L: The Blue Ridge Tunnel is almost a mile from end to end; R: the northwestern tunnel entrance

Once we departed the the tunnel, we found dinner at a fairly new pizza restaurant called Trinacria, which was right next to Beltie's. The (exceptionally large "small") pizza was quite good.

Finally, we returned to our place and finished watching The Ritual, which really is a fun horror flick, and perfect for the Halloween season. Tomorrow...it's back to Ground Zero.

Peace out.