Sasquatch Joins a Book Club, Autobots Roll Out, & Other Caches

Scott shining his flashlight into a chimney where,
just maybe, that geocache is hiding

Last night, friend and regular geocaching partner, Scott (a.k.a. Diefenbaker), drove up from Asheboro, NC, so we could make a geocaching trip to Roanoke today. Scott and his wife, Jane, will be moving to the coast soon, so it's about to become a bit more difficult to get together than it has for past 15 or so years. I hope we'll have at least another chance before they take off more or less for good.

As the sun set last night, we sat out on the front porch and drank a little bourbon. Then we went to Wild Magnolia for dinner and drank a little bourbon. Afterward, I took him to a nearby cache so he could hunt it (and, of course, he found it). From there, we hit the ABC store to buy a little bourbon. Then we came back home and drank a little bourbon (this rather inexplicably became the theme last night; don't ask us how).

 

Much to our surprise, Mr. Moose, usually the shyest of the three cats, came out and started begging Scott for attention, which, of course, he got. Moose has had some medical issues over the past few months, but he definitely seems to be on the upswing. He sure didn't have any problem getting treats last night.

 

We retired reasonably late and got up pretty damned early this morning. We hit the road, stopped for coffee and danishes, and made it to Roanoke in about an hour. Our first target was just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, but that section of it was inexplicably closed (there's certainly no snow or ice left out there; it was 85 freaking degrees today, gack). So we switched it up and went after a couple of nice multi-caches not too far away. The final stage of one called "Sasquatch Joins a Bookclub" was at the local library, inside a Bigfoot-themed book, and as one might guess, it turned out to be one of the day's favorites.

Autobots Roll Out!

We had several favorites today, which was nice. So many newer hides are of the simple, park & grab variety, which is great for padding one's numbers, but generally pretty boring. Today, we ended up hiking well over six miles in some pretty rugged terrain, and now I'm kinda tired and sore. But it's a good tired and sore.

 

Another favorite was called "Autobots Roll Out," which was had a 4 out of 5 difficulty rating. The host was a 15-foot tall Optimus Prime sculpture made out of auto parts. And yes, the cache was somewhere on/in it. I've always said it's just as fine to be lucky as good, and that proved very true here. After only a couple of minutes, I happened to notice a certain something that looked a little off, and... YES!... it was the cache.

 

We found a decent lunch at Mission BBQ, where we had eaten the last time we were in Roanoke. Afterward, we went to seek a couple of more. However, our sole disappointment for the day was a cache hidden in a multilevel parking garage, which can often make for an entertaining hunt. However, in this case, we followed every clue as best we could, hunted for an hour, and still came up empty. Definitely NOT a favorite, though a future attempt to avenge it is not out of the question.

 

Then it was back home, and Scott returned to Asheboro. Mercy, it was a great day, and I really hope he and I can work in at least one more outing before the distance between us becomes too great.

 

Till whenever.

What do you suppose that strange man is looking for in there?!

A little fountain in the middle of the woods

L: Scott makes friends with Moose; R: Scott makes friends with a ceramic bird with a cache in it

Scares That Care Presents AuthorCon VI, Williamsburg

Thursday, February 26, 2026
Obviously, these pics aren't from AuthorCon, but they were taken at a cool geocaching stop between Martinsville and Williamsburg—a cache called "Rock Out #2" (GCAA7W3), to be precise—along the Chickahominy River. It was a somewhat dreary drive, with a good bit of rain and fog, but I didn't let that interfere with the caching. Sadly, though, Brugger is unable to attend, due to her mom falling and breaking her hip and a leg, so she is having to go to Michigan to help both her mom and her dad get along. Thus, on this trip, I ended up going after more caches than usual, since I had no worries about taxing her patience while I hunted, heh heh.

I stopped for lunch at Indian Fields Tavern in Charles City, a few miles this side of Williamsburg. It's one of our favorite dining destinations, along with the nearby Cul's Courthouse Grill, which we usually visit on alternate trips. Both restaurants have some of the best burgers I've ever tasted, but through no fault of my own, I might have had one too many burgers this week (I didn't mean to, really!), So, I tried their "Barn Bird" chicken sandwich, which was quite good, though not in the same league as their "Charles City Burger."

At Angler's Park, Danville, VA

Once in Williamsburg, I stopped for provisions at a handy grocery store and then made my way to the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Williamsburg, where I settled into my room, took a much-needed shower, and relaxed for a bit. Eventually, I made my way down to the bar to see if I might run into any familiar faces. I did indeed, and I'm looking forward to seeing several others of my acquaintance who will be arriving later this evening or tomorrow morning.

For dinner, I ordered some Thai food from nearby Thai Tara—a Crying Tiger appetizer and tofu fried rice. Once done, I headed back to the bar and hung out with several old writer friends, which was quite pleasant. The bartender makes a damned good Bloody Mary, and damn if these people don't feature some kind of vodka concoction in a bag. I did not have one of those, and I almost certainly will not.

 

Tomorrow, I'll be setting up in the ballroom as early as I can manage, and I'll be on the Cosmic Horror panel in the evening.

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Friday, February 27, 2026

Coffee! Lord, did I need coffee this morning. There's a coffeemaker in the room that comes with some of that not-so-good stuff, and there's a coffee shop in the convention area that has the not-so-cheap good stuff. So I compromised and got some not-so-cheap coffee and then drank some not-so-good coffee. It almost woke me up, but I may need to return to the coffee shop for the better brew. And soon.

 

I was right there when registration opened up, so I checked in and then went about the task of setting up my table in the ballroom. Having Brugger along to do the heavy lifting would have helped a lot, but, well, nope. (She has reached Michigan and is currently at the hospital with her mom.) For most of the morning, I socialized with some incoming authors/artists/friends and circumnavigated the hotel a number of times to get my mileage in for the day. I plagued a lot of people with my existence—folks like Bridgette & Mike Brenmark, Rebecca Cuthbert, Richard Dansky, Larry Hinkle, Justin Holley, Brian Keene, Todd Kiesling, Red Lagoe, Tom Lucas, Bryan Nowak, Stephen & Sharon Provost, J. Dennison Reed, Mark Sieber, Dave Simms, Sidney Williams, Valerie Williams, and others. I guarantee there will be considerably more plaguing before this weekend is over.

 

At 4:00 p.m., the opening ceremonies officially kicked off the weekend. Then the dealer's room opened up. I manned my table, shot shit with many people, grabbed tacos from the hotel's taco bar, and sold a few books. At 7:30, I went forth to participate in the Cosmic Horror panel, which also included Ben Farthing, Amanda Headlee, Thomas R. Clark, Todd Keisling, Mary SanGiovanni, and Tommy B. Smith. It was very well attended and most enjoyable. When I returned to my table, several people came by and bought books. There is happiness.

Finally, I made my way to Rich Dansky's room for his traditional Scotch & Cheese Party™, which included lots of scotch, lots of cheese, and lots of people. We drank and made merry for a good while, and then... it was time to crash. Tomorrow, I have a reading (with Rich), a panel on Folk Horror, and a long day in the dealer's room. Hopefully, it will be a profitable day.

The opening ceremonies, with Joe Ripple extolling the virtues of Uranus

L: Old Dude; R: Sidney Williams, looking uncustomarily happy

Sasquatch...er...Richard Dansky in a rare, non-blurry photo

Old Dude and Grand Llama Bryan Nowak

An insidiously happy-looking Bridgette Brenmark

Stephen & Sharon Provost discovering that they accidentally super-glued their hands together

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Saturday, February 28, 2026
As with so many mornings lately, I woke up to a miserable allergy attack, so I reluctantly took a Benadryl, which works reasonably well on the allergy but turns me into a drugged-up zombie. To help compensate, I drank a couple of extra doses of coffee, but it failed to kill the zombie. I had a less-than-satisfying breakfast at the hotel's breakfast buffet, and then kerplunked into my chair at the dealer's table. I sold a couple of books before my 11:00 a.m. reading with Mr. Dansky. We ended up with a few folks in attendance, which is always better than no folks in attendance. Richard read a highly entertaining ghost tale, and then I read the first chapter of my sequel to The House at Black Tooth Pond, tentatively titled Broken Barriers. Neither of us suffered an onslaught of projectiles.

 

Immediately afterward, I was on the Folk Horror panel, which also featured Jonathan Gensler, Thomas R. Clark, Tony Evans, and Bitter Karella. This one was also very well attended, and the discussion was lively.

 

I snagged a late lunch from the coffee shop, which, much like breakfast, wasn't very appetizing—a re-warmed, overpriced, rather stale sandwich. Anyway, I spent the rest of the afternoon at my table, and—happily—sold a lot of books. Several folks who'd been to my reading and panels came to visit and showered me with money. In return, I devalued their books with my signature.

 

Things slowed down a bit late in the day, so I was pretty glad when six o'clock rolled around. That chair gets hard after a while. But afterward, I trucked around the place for a while and got my daily steps in.

Michael Deady and David Simms, scaring and caring

Somebody left their lipstick at my table. I hope it wasn't a gift because it's not my color.

L: Another photo of the inimitable Mark "Horror Drive-In" Sieber for my collection; R: Ruh-Roh

At 7:00 p.m., I joined a cavalcade of horror folk on a pilgrimage to The Whaling Company restaurant, which has been an AuthorCon tradition since the day I started AuthorConning. About 7:15 p.m., these fourteen devilish writers descended on the place and proceeded to drink, eat, and carry on with wild abandon. I killed a dozen oysters on the half shell, a cup of some of the best New England clam chowder I've ever had, and two very stiff gin martinis. The food and service here has always been better than exemplary, and so it was tonight. Sadly, though, this was almost certainly the last time any of us will be able to enjoy this particular experience, as, much to our chagrin, the restaurant is set to close this coming August. This feels like the passing of an old friend, for the memories of the people and good times here are many, and they are deep.

Once back at the hotel, I yakked with Brugger for a while on the phone. She and her folks are doing as well as could be expected under the circumstances. After we said our good-byes, I went round to the bar, where I met Mr. Dansky and some of his friends. We all sank another round of very potent drinks.

For tonight, this is all she wrote. Tomorrow is Last Day.

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Sunday, March 1, 2026

After dragging myself out of bed this morning, I got all my stuff packed up, took it out to the car, and checked out of my room. Then I settled myself at my table in the ballroom for a couple of hours. I sold several more books in that short spell. At noon, I had a final panel on vintage paperbacks, featuring Sidney Williams, Mark Sieber, Phrique, Jason Cavallaro, Craig Brownlie, and Bitter Karella, which turned out to be a lot of fun.

The Vintage Paperback panel, with Sidney Williams, Phrique, Old Dude, Jason Cavallaro, Mark Sieber, Craig Brownlie, Bitter Karella

Then it was time to hit the road. I was starving, so I zoomed straight to Cul's Courthouse Grill in Charles City, about a 40-minute drive. This time...yes, I did have that burger. An incredibly huge, indescribably good burger. It's hard to say whether Indian Fields or Cul's makes THE best burger, but they're both among my favorites in the world.

Cul's Courthouse Grill in Charles City

THE burger

Over many years of traveling to Williamsburg, I have found most of the geocaches anywhere near the highways between here and there, but a scant handful still appeared on my map. Not anymore, though, because I made a few stops and grabbed all the caches—at least those that don't require going some distance out of the way. These were all fun, and at one in Clarksville, I happened upon a couple of very sweet little kache kitties. They were friendly enough, though they didn't let me come too close, and I approve of this. A lot of humans are not as kindly disposed toward cats as I am.

Kache Kitties

By the time I reached South Boston, the sun was setting, and the view was pretty spectacular from the highway. I managed a couple of pictures, though as usual, they don't adequately capture the sheer vista and range of colors.

 

Sales-wise, this was one of the best AuthorCons I've had, and despite Kimberly's absence, I had an all-around excellent time. I got to hang with so many good friends, a few of whom I've not seen in a very long time, and I also met a bunch of great folks I didn't already know. It goes without saying that I plan to attend the next one, and I hope very much that, next time, Brugger will be along to do the heavy lifting.

 

Of course, AuthorCon is great for bookselling, networking, and having fun, though its true mission is to support the Scares That Care! volunteer charity. To date, the charity has raised and donated over a half-million dollars to organizations and families with a child affected by illness, burns, or women fighting breast cancer. So, supporting the con directly helps individuals in dire need. In fact, thanks to the generosity of so many creative individuals, Scares That Care! was able to present a check for $10,000 to this year's breast cancer survivor, Mindy Rhone, at the convention.

 

Till later, all my fiends and neighbors.

Scares That Care! presents a $10,000 check to the 2026 breast cancer nominee, Mindy Rhone

A Book Release Without a Book

Friend and fellow author, Richard Dansky, from Durham, NC, has a new novel release (Ghosts of Smoke and Flame), so last evening, he had a book release party at Bond Brothers Beer Co. in Cary, NC. Brugger and I decided to attend the event, and since Cary's a good couple of hours from here, we made a day of it in the Raleigh-Durham area. We left Martinsville shortly after noon, grabbed a couple of geocaches, and stopped for a late lunch at Ted's Montana Grill in Durham, which has long been one of my favorite dining destinations when I've been geocaching out that way. Ted's has bison. Lots and lots of delicious bison. So, yes, I had a bison burger. Brugger, however, is not so enamored of bison and had a beef burger. But she loved it, and that's what counts.

She had some shopping to do, so I dropped her off at Streets at Southpoint shopping area and went after a number of caches nearby. After all this, we made our way in the direction of Cary and discovered a nice wine bar called Maximillian's, which was very near our destination, so we each had a glass of wine. And from there, it was off to Rich's event.

Only problem was that he had no books! The copies he'd ordered from the publisher had not arrived on time, so we were forced to simply enjoy a party and his company. Heavens, I tell you! Bond Brothers has some very good beer, though I took it pretty easy since I would eventually have to drive us back to Martinsville. We had a really fine time all around, and Rich will surely have copies at Scares That Care AuthorCon VI next week, where we'll be doing readings together. I shall grab a copy then.

 

We snagged a late, light dinner at Scratch Kitchen & Taproom, right around the corner from Rich's party, which was enjoyable; worth a return whenever we night be in the area again. 

 

You can order Richard Dansky's Ghosts of Smoke and Flame here. And if you're planning to be at AuthorCon VI, I hope to see you!

Coming Soon — AuthorCon VI in Willamsburg

It's less than two weeks to Scares That Care: AuthorCon VI in Williamsburg, VA, and I'll be there with a passel of scary, fun, cosmic goodies, including The House at Black Tooth Pond, Blue Devil Island, Gods of Moab, and many others. This year, I'll be set up in the main ballroom. I'll also be on a handful of panels and doing a reading with Richard Dansky. Here is my schedule:

 

Friday, February 27
7:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m., Cosmic Horror 2026, with Ben Farthing, Amanda Headlee, Thomas R. Clark, Todd Keisling, Mary SanGiovanni, and Tommy B. Smith (2nd Floor, Room 18)

 

Saturday, February 28
11:00 a.m.–11:45 a.m., Reading with Richard Dansky (Second Floor, Room 1)

12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m., Folk Horror, with Jonathan Gensler, Jennifer McMahon, Thomas R. Clark, Tony Evans, and Bitter Karella (Second Floor, Room 17)

 

Sunday, March 1
12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m., Vintage Paperbacks, with Sidney Williams, Mark Sieber, Phrique, Jason Cavallaro, Craig Brownlie, and Bitter Karella (Second Floor, Room 18)

 

I can't wait to see bunches and bunches of you there!

A DISTURBANCE OF SHADOWS: From Creepy to Creepier

Sidney Williams' newest novel, a fairly short one titled A Disturbance of Shadows, begins on an intriguing note: Bryn and Reyes, on a trip to investigate a ghostly legend for their paranormal podcast, end up with their vehicle disabled, are found by a man who appears genuinely helpful, and are led to Lovegrove Farm, where help appears imminent. However, the house itself has a haunted history, which involves Aleister Crowley, so they turn their efforts from their original story to the house. As things begin to turn truly weird, it becomes clear they may have bitten off more than they can chew.

Sidney Williams has an engaging authorial voice, and I loved following the characters as they make their way down increasingly intriguing—and menacing—corridors. We have some quirky (and a few dangerous) characters, a smattering of genuine surprises, and a powerful climax. A Disturbance of Shadows is a solid, well-crafted story, and I quite enjoyed it. My only real caveat is that the text is typo-heavy, occasionally enough to distract me from the narrative. Cleaning those up would help the reading flow.

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A Disturbance of Shadows by
Sidney Williams at Amazon.com

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Do or Do Not. There Is no Try.

Neither Brugger nor I feel any great affinity for Valentine's Day, but we do enjoy it as an annual opportunity for a night out that we probably wouldn't bother with otherwise. I know, really romantic, right? This isn't to say we haven't had some superb Valentine's outings in years past; we certainly have, such as at GIA and Imperial Koi in Greensboro, The Celtic Fringe in Reidsville, The Third Bay in Martinsville, and many others. (We've had our share of miserable ones as well, such as in 2020, when a seriously impaired young man—who has since died, evidently of a drug overdose—smashed into my car.) We opted to stay local last night, so we made reservations at TAD Tavern here, which has been around for a couple of years, and we've visited it on a few prior occasions.

 

I cannot tell you how much we want to love TAD Tavern. It's one of the few reasonably upscale restaurants in town, the atmosphere in the place is lovely, and we've had good food there. Unfortunately, on every one of our visits, we've had issues ranging from serious staffing shortages, unavailable menu and drink items, and an only sporadically manned bar. We pretty much expected not to have a zippy dinner last night because it was quite crowded, but sadly, all three of the above issues raised their ugly heads, which really took some of the zip out of our experience.

 

It took 30 minutes after being seated to get a couple of glasses of water, 45 minutes after ordering to receive our bar drinks (they did not even have the fixings—gin & vermouth—to make a martini), and 90 minutes to get food (we'd kept our order simple, realizing it might be a very long night—chicken tenders for both of us). I know the servers were trying hard, but they were hopelessly inadequate to handle the crowd. Since TAD Tavern promoted the hell out of their Valentine's night dinner, we'd really hoped that the place would finally come through with flying colors. Alas.

All that said, the food was very good, and this experience beat the hell out of having your car smashed for Valentine's Day. Still, given the fact that after a couple of years, the issues we've dealt with in the past have not improved (quite the contrary), I can't help but fear that TAD Tavern will be unable to fulfill their promise of becoming a top-notch restaurant. Trust me, I want to be proven wrong, and we may yet give them one more chance. I know they're trying, but as a certain Jedi knight once said, "Do or do not. There is no try."

 

Cmon, guys—let's DO. 

Be Wiched to Save the Day

This morning, the timer on the coffeemaker was one minute from going off when — ZZZZT! POW! — out goes the power. We're having major winds, with gusts up to 55 mph, and they hit us early.

If you've had the misfortune of experiencing morning Mark before he's had coffee, you are aware that this is a horrid state of affairs. After several hours in this state, we hauled ourselves into town and found coffee, plus a really fine breakfast, at Be Wiched, in Uptown Martinsville. Thus, I am marginally alive again. Be Wiched owner Kathy Kitzmiller also owns a brand-new boutique — The 9th House — and today was its grand opening. There were mimosas and other treats, so Brugger was ecstatic about finding such a cool place in town.

Happily, we made the best of an increasingly uncomfortable situation, and the power came back on a short time ago. It's freezing out there, and it was getting that way inside. So, we're hoping the wind dies down, and we don't go dark again tonight. Temp is supposed to be 13° F, with a wind chill below 0°.

Ironically, we're about to have a generator installed, but alas, too late to help us this go-around.

 

Last night, though, was an enjoyable time. Lately, we've been spending Friday afternoons at Hamlet Kitchen, right up the street from us. They have a good selection of their own wines, and some decent food you can get for take-out. Last night, we spent an enjoyable couple of hours with some wine. Our regular hostess brought us a couple of glasses with "personalized" napkins — a party theme for Brugger (naturally!) and a semi-humorous Hemingway quote for me (even more naturally!). For afters, we watched Alien: Covenant, which really isn't a favorite, but we've been watching others in the Alien franchise, so we figured we otter.

 

In the immortal words of the late, great Dr. Franklin Ruehl, it was better than a slap in the belly with a wet trout.

Sylvan County's Voice of Love, Wisdom, and What All

Know what? I feel compelled to inflict this on you. When we were kids, my brother and I made tape recordings of a little fictitious radio station, WDUM, and on it, we did a show called "Mother Bell" which consisted primarily of prank phone calls. It occurred to me the other day that I should include Mother Bell as a podcast in the sequel to The House at Black Tooth Pond, tentatively titled Broken Barriers.. Prepare to be inflicted upon.

The Mother Bell Podcast
Sylvan County’s Voice of Wisdom, Love, and What All

Hello, children! This is Mother Bell, back with you on a chilly Sunday evening, hoping that come tomorrow, you survive your daring leap back into the workweek. I myself have had the loveliest weekend, and I trust you did too. My son, Scott, and his wife, Bethany, and my two grandchildren, Johnny and Mary Lynn, visited me yesterday, and I can’t tell you what it means to me that they give so freely of their time and energy in my old age. Without them, I could not get by. Oh no, I could not! And I know, many of my friends and neighbors are envious of this, and even some of you, too. But that’s okay. Y’all just envy away. Someday or another, everybody’s gonna get what’s coming to ’em.

Speaking of, whatever is coming, ain’t nobody knows, but I’m here to tell you things here in our town are spooky. It’s like, not so long ago, all these people from here vanished under 'mysterious circumstances.' So, what about our good ol’ sheriff, huh? Well, he and his people did their investigation stuff and such for a while, and then...they up and threw up their hands. Well, that’s what I heard. Then the FBI comes along, and they do their FBI stuff and such, and then they throw up their hands and go away.

I ask you, children, what is going on here?

Imma let you in on a secret. A lot of y’all know that I live up on Copper Peak, and in my lifetime, I have seen devils flying around up here. These are real, true devils, not just bad people who’ve never had the Lord in their hearts. I know, nowadays, we prefer to think that the devil is nothing more than the evil that human beings do, but I’m here to tell you, it’s not like that. These are the most frightening things you could ever imagine, and sometimes you can even smell ’em. Sometimes, that’s the only way to know they’re nearby.

And listen. They’re not just up on Copper Peak. Oh, no, they’re all around in this old, old part of the country, lurking and skulking in the dark shadows.

So, I’m telling you, children, keep the Lord in your hearts and be vigilant. Be careful of these devils. If you see them, they may well see you. And if they do, you’d better be wearing the Lord’s armor, else they may not pass you by. I keep my armor on day and night, and I surely do thank the Lord every day for His protection and His mercy.

We gonna talk more about this in a bit, but right now, I’m gonna put on one of my all-time favorite praiseful songs, “This Is the Day That the Lord Has Made,” sung by the incomparable Mr. Fillmore Skillman, for you to contemplate and enjoy. And while I’m gone, let it be known, like I always tell you: you won’t see me, but Imma see you, because I’m gonna be around, children. So, bye-bye for now, and I’ll be back in five.

#

"It's Pitch White Outside!"

Our solar lights are wearing little Cossack hats

Indeed, in the immortal words of The Peanuts' Linus Van Pelt, "It's pitch white outside!" While last week's winter storm didn't bring much snow, it left a two-inch-thick sheet of ice all over everything, and almost none of it has melted. Currently, at just past noon, we've got about six inches of the white stuff on top of the ice, and it's still coming down hard. I reckon we're gonna be holed up here until the temperatures rise sometime next week.

 

Yesterday afternoon, before the snowfall began in earnest, Brugger and I went out in her car (mine has been garage-bound since the ice storm and probably will be for a good many more days) to run some necessary errands and have a couple of glasses of wine at nearby Hamlet Kitchen. It was nice to have a brief spell out and about before we're completely snowbound—and, to our surprise—our friend Yvonne popped in and had some wine with us. Back home, we again had to park Brugger's car at the bottom of the driveway, since it was still a solid sheet of ice, and unfortunately, on the way up to the house, I took a spill and banged up one knee pretty good. I'm fine, if a little ornery; mostly, I'm glad our neighbors weren't out to witness the brief comedy sketch (though they might have heard some colorful descriptors of the situation wafting skyward).

 

As with last week's storm, I very much hope we don't lose power, as there won't be any quick fixes under these conditions. The snow itself is just fine powder, and there are no cars out there—at least not nearby—likely to knock out any power poles. I'm X'ing all my appendages.

 

Till laters.

Solar light starbursts last night before the snow covered them over. Below, some photos
Brugger took of the white outdoors and a couple of pics after dark