Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

I alluded to this in a blog entry a few days ago, but now that I am the rightful owner of one and a quarter wooded acres across the street, I aim to see that it remains wooded. When I lived in Greensboro, developers would sometimes disregard property boundaries and cut trees on land they had no business entering. Case in point, about fifteen years ago, our neighbor across the street owned a portion of the woodland adjacent to his house, but not the entire stand of woods. When the inevitable developers showed up to build on the other lots, they went right ahead and cut down the trees on his land. He and his family had been away for a time, and when they came home that day and found the lot cleared, I feared there would be bloodshed (he was that kind of guy). Me, I would much prefer to avoid bloodshed.

 

I must say, I rather dislike "No Trespassing" signs, as just about everyone and his brother has them on their property, and like the song says, "Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind." Regardless, I've put several out at strategic points because, in the event that developers set their sights on these woods, those markers will show which portion is not theirs to cut. Or even enter, for that matter.

 

As I mentioned in my earlier blog, I plan to place a geocache down there. And frankly, I don't care if kids come around to play at the creek, just like I did when I was a youngster, or if the plethora of folks in this neighborhood who take daily walks wish to walk in those woods. I just don't want there to be any ambiguity about where anyone who intends to cut down trees is not welcome.

Here's a few shots of the land, taken a couple of years ago.

The Creeps Are Back, Eden's Ember Bookshop, and More

When a traveler takes one of the winding back roads between Martinsville, VA, and Eden, NC, he may come upon a lonely and curious little community called Sandy Level. There, for many years, at least one forbidding-looking but otherwise jovial figure occupied a singular space along the roadside, leering and waving at the passersby. I called him the Sandy Level Creep (or Creeps, when there was more than one; you may read about them here), but a few years ago, all the Creeps mysteriously vanished. Happily, as I discovered recently, a new corps of Creeps has settled in the old ones' place. That's them in the photo above, in case there's any question.

 

I had an appointment in Eden this morning, so I opted to take the back roads rather than the main highway. Since I'd noticed the Creeps' return some time ago, I decided to stop and take a photo today. Notice how overjoyed they appear,

 

My trip to Eden was to deliver a few books to Eden's Ember Bookshop, which is set to open on Saturday, April 4. There will be a grand opening event from 12 noon to 4 p.m., with several local authors—including me!—on hand to sell and sign their books. The store will be carrying Blue Devil Island, Fugue Devil Resurgence, and The House at Black Tooth Pond, but I'll have a larger selection at my table, including The Lebo Coven, The Nightmare Frontier, Gods of Moab, and several of my Ameri-Scares series titles.

Eden's Ember Bookshop is located at 729 South Van Buren Rd., Eden, NC 27288 (see map below), in the basement of the Kings Mill Coffee building. (Note that parking and the entrance are at the back of the building.)

 

I'll throw in a personal plug for Kings Mill Coffee, as I had lunch there today—a gigantic BLT and a jumbo mug of coffee. The sandwich includes bacon, lettuce, and tomato, of course, but also prosciutto, arugula, avocado, and garlic aioli, all on toasted sourdough bread. It comes with fries. Yeah, I recommend this highly.

 

After lunch, I headed to several relatively new geocaches north of Reidsville. I even got first-to-find honors on one of them, which was fun.

 

I'd love to see you at Eden's Ember's grand opening. If you're within traveling distance, please stop in, so I won't have to hurl a bunch of insults at you. I will, you know.

Moo Moo Land

I had to go to Danville this morning to handle some business, and once it was done, I figured I should go geocaching because there was a trio of new caches a few miles east of town along the Ringgold Rail Trail. Well over a decade ago, various geocachers had loaded the five-plus-mile trail with all manner of hides, and it was a frequent destination for me, but now, with so many cachers retired, passed on, or moved away, I haven't had the opportunity to get back to it for a long time. Happily, it was a beautiful day for a pleasant, fairly lengthy walk.

Sadly, the first cache I hunted turned out to be a bust. Based on certain information I came upon later, I strongly suspect it is missing. Ah, well. But as I was hunting, a handful of moo cows came wandering up and gathered around me. They were nice enough companions, but they kind of suck at geocaching.

Eventually, I decided to give up on that elusive first cache and move on toward the next. To my surprise, the cows decided to follow me for a fair distance, although they gave up shortly before I reached ground zero. I managed to find this cache easily, thus earning the dubious first-to-find honors (as I did on the next one as well).

Once back at the Rodan Mobile, I made my way to Tokyo Grill, which is my number one Danville go-to restaurant, and had a very good sushi lunch. Then, it was time to motor back home.

I reckon there's no reason to make a secret of it, so I'll mention that I was in Danville to close on a tract of land I have purchased across the street from our house. It's 1.25-acre wooded lot that's been part of a larger buffer between our road and another one that meanders up the ridge beyond. This woodland has been there all my life, but lately developers have been making overtures toward building in that area. Oh, no, no, no, you don't. That land is an extreme flood zone (in May 2018, it was completely underwater, which you can see in my video of the big flood here). You'd have to be a damned fool to build down there, but that is rarely a consideration where developers are concerned. So, after lengthy contemplation, I tore into some assets that I didn't really want to, but I absolutely cannot abide the idea of anyone destroying those woods, ruining the creek that threads through them, and putting a bunch of fucking shoe box houses on the land. I just hope the adjacent lots to the north remain untouched.

Anyway, there's no question that I'll put a geocache down there. And I've ordered some No Trespassing signs to post around the boundaries in case any developers get confused about who owns what (those signs will not apply to geocachers, of course). It's almost tempting to go down there and post "No Tressping!" signs, as someone did out in the country not too far from here; some folks in these parts might even find that easier to understand.

Moo Moo Land. Moo Moo Land. All bound for Moo Moo Land...

"I turn my back on you, geocaching hooman."

This means YOU, developer-types

Urban Renewal

It's been awhile since I created a daikaiju scene, so I did. I was walking uptown this morning, and when I passed one of our local restaurants and had a clear view of the sky, I thought I might snap a photo that could be used for a background. And there it is.

 

Bandai Godzilla and MechaGodzilla, the 1974 designs, both about six inches tall, Photoshopped. Scary, eh? 

Erica, a Novel Completion, THE HOUSE AT BLACK TOOTH POND Reviews, and More

Erica Wetzel Fields and the Old Dude at AuthorCon. I look happy. I blame Erica.

At AuthorCon last week, I was over the moon to see book collector Erica Wetzel-Fields making her rounds, as she is the consummate AuthorCon fixture. I think Erica has done more to support all of us authors than anyone I've ever known. At each con, you'll see her rolling her large cart full of books from aisle to aisle, conversing and taking photos with the writers, and generally elevating people's moods somewhere through the ceiling. Here is a shout out and a big "thank-you" to her.

 

This past weekend, I finished a collaborative novel that's been in the works for many moons, so I had a celebratory martini, as is my tradition. Actually, I might have had two. There will be plenty more news on this once it becomes appropriate to discuss the details.

 

Also this weekend, a couple of new, very flattering reviews of The House at Black Tooth Pond came out and made me smile.

From Stephen Provost:

"Stephen Mark Rainey has created an intricate world populated with relatable characters facing horror beyond comprehension. The author deftly juxtaposes the "ordinary" life of a fictional rural community against the existence of a surreal and terrifying "other" dimension, then explores the explosive consequences when the two intersect..." Read more: Stephen Provost reviews The House at Black Tooth Pond

From Dark Entertainment Trends:

"Stephen Mark Rainey writes literary horror like it's nonfiction... It's this realism that elevates Rainey's stories to a literary level... I see other reviews calling this Lovecraftian. I think we're past calling Mark Stephen Rainey's work "Lovecraftian". It's time to use the more applicable moniker: Raineyan, for Real Horror." Read more: Dark Entertainment Trends reviews The House at Black Tooth Pond

I've got a busy week of appointments and other necessary tasks, but my main focus is going to be making progress on the sequel to The House at Black Tooth Pond, tentatively titled Broken Barriers. I'm well over halfway done with it, but there's still a lot of work to do whipping this monster into shape.

 

Till next time... 

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.

---

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

---

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.

---

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!