New Freebie: "Epiphany: A Flying Tiger's Story"

I've put up a new freebie on my website — "Epiphany: A Flying Tiger's Story," a tale of cosmic horror set in the Pacific during WWII. This one originally appeared in the Dark Tales anthology Dead But Dreaming in 2001. (There are also several other stories on the site you may check out if you wish.) Available as a PDF or ePub file.

 

This story is a companion piece to another WII story, titled "The Children of Burma," which originally appeared in The Spook magazine, also in 2001. I have made it available as a freebie in the past, and I'll no doubt do so again in the upcoming days.

If you enjoy these tales, please let me know. Use the "Contact Me" link at my website — The Realm of Stephen Mark Rainey (www.stephenmarkrainey.com).

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Grab "Epiphany: A Flying Tiger's Story" here

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Mark's Mythosphere

During the forty-some years I've been writing and publishing fiction, I have developed what amounts to a unique mythos, largely consistent with (if not necessarily part of) H.P. Lovecraft's so-called "Cthulhu Mythos." Like many writers from my generation—not to mention generations before and after—I came up as a fan of Lovecraft's works and many of my earliest stories qualified as little more than pastiches. None of them were publishable, but I consider them valuable practice runs for the works that would come after.

I've been asked on more than one occasion if I've made a definitive list of my stories and novels that fit into what I call the "Mythosphere," and the answer is no—until now! While some of my works definitely meet its (rather loose) criteria, others are harder to categorize; many might be called outliers, in that they share some common elements with my more overt Lovecraftian tales but don't fit neatly into any particular niche.

 

So, what is this Mythosphere? One of my earliest stories, titled "Threnody," latched onto the concept of sound—specifically music—as a means of bridging dimensions, inspired largely by HPL's "The Music of Erich Zann." In this story, I introduced a "music grimoire" titled The Spheres Beyond Sound, authored by one Maurice Zann. This volume served as a backdrop for a number of my early tales, and even some of my later ones. I never explored the character of Maurice Zann beyond describing him as an unspecified relative of HPL's character and stating that he vanished while experimenting with the musical formulae he devised.

 

The name Maurice Zann had what I'd call rather odd roots. When I was a youngster, I had a record album called A Child's Introduction to Music, and it was produced/narrated by one Maurice Zam. However, because this name was printed in a flowing script on the album cover, for many years, I read his name as "Zann." Thus was born Erich Zann's lesser-known relative.

 

I've written many stories over the years specifically for Lovecraftian/Cthulhu Mythos publications, though my preference has always been to shy away from specific Lovecraftian entities/settings/characters whenever possible. In any event, these overt Cthulhu Mythos stories comprise the earliest building blocks of my personal Mythosphere. As I continued to create fiction, I developed a few settings and characters that have appeared in numerous works. With my long history in the Piedmont and Appalachian regions of Virginia, I naturally gravitated toward them as atmospheric settings. The fictional Sylvan County and town of Aiken Mill are loosely based on the Martinsville/Henry County area where I grew up (and to which I've retired). Beckham College is based on Ferrum College in nearby Franklin County (Benjamin Beckham was Ferrum's first president). Barren Creek is based on Henry, Virginia, located between here and Ferrum. Also, since I lived in Chicago for several years, it has served as the setting of numerous stories and books.

 

In short, those works that I include in the Mythosphere are always rooted in cosmic horror to some degree or another, and most of them fit neatly into a fictional history of the regions in which they're set, occasionally with shared characters. One example of an outlier might be my second novel, The Lebo Coven (1994), which is set in Aiken Mill, though I consider it more an occult-based mystery than a true example of cosmic horror. The town sheriff in this novel is named George Parrott; in my recent novel, The House at Black Tooth Pond (2025), which is a distinct blend of folk and cosmic horror, the sheriff is Bryce Parrott, George's son (and he also appears in my new sequel to The House at Black Tooth Pond, titled Broken Barriers, to be released later this year by Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink).

 

And so, with no further ado, I will present here my list of stories and novels that I consider bona fide entries in Mark's Mythosphere. The year shown is when the works were written, and the bulleted entries denote the places/years of publication. Make of this what you will.

Mark's Mythosphere:
1985

“Smiert Galgalith”
   • The Haunted Journal (magazine, 1987)

“The Grey House” (short story)

   • Crypt of Cthulhu (magazine, 1992)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)

1986
“The Arms of Doom” (short story)
   • Deathrealm (magazine, 1987)

1987
“Threnody” (short story)
   • Deathrealm (magazine, 1987)
   • The New Lovecraft Circle (anthology; published under the title "The Spheres Beyond
         Sound"; Fedogan & Bremer, 1996)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

“The Red Depths” (short story)
   • Revelations From Yuggoth (magazine, 1987)

“The Spheres Beyond Sound” (short story)
   • Tales of Lovecraftian Horror (magazine, 1987)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)

“Rapture in Black” (short story)
   • Crypt of Cthulhu (magazine,1987)
   • The Innsmouth Cycle (anthology; Chaosium, 1998)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)

1988
“God of Byzantium” (short story)
   • Aberations (magazine, 1991)

“Symphonia Maledictus” (short story)
   • Dagger of the Mind (magazine, 1990)

“Chameleon” (short story)
   • Eldritch Tales (magazine, 1990)

1989
“Spiritual Radio” (short story)
   • Chills (magazine, 1992)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)

“Misfits” (short story)
   • Midnight Zoo (magazine, 1991)
   • Quick Chills (anthology; Scream Factory Books, 1992)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)

“The Last Trumpet” (short story)
   • Limited Infinity (magazine, 1991)

“Return of the Navigator” (short story)
   • Fugue Devil & Other Weird Horrors (collection; Macabre Ink, 1992)

1990
“Fugue Devil” (novelette)
   • Fugue Devil & Other Weird Horrors (collection; Macabre Ink, 1992)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

1991
“The Last Show at Verdi’s Supper Club” (short story)
   • After Hours (magazine, 1992)
   • Song of Cthulhu (anthology; Chaosium, 2001)

“The Herald at Midnight” (short story)
   • Not One of Us (magazine, 1992)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)

1992
Balak (novel)
   • Wildside Press (paperback/ebook, 2000)
   • Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink (audiobook, 2010)
   • Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink (revised edition; paperback/ebook, 2026)

1993
“Stalker of the Wild Wind” (short story)
   • Terminal Fright (magazine, 1993)
   • The Ithaqua Cycle (anthology; Chaosium, 1999)
   • Legends of the Night (collection; Wildside Press, 2001)

“Sabbath of the Black Goat” (short story)
   • The Shub-Niggurath Cycle (anthology; Chaosium, 1994)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)

1994
The Lebo Coven (novel)
   • Thomson Gale/Five Star Books (hardback, 2004)
   • Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink (paperback/ebook/audiobook, 2010)

“S” (short story)
   • The Azathoth Cycle (anthology; published under the title “The Pit of Shoggoths,”
         Chaosium, 1996)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)

1995
“To Be as They” (short story)
   • Miskatonic University (anthology; DAW, 1996)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000

“The Devil’s Eye” (short story)
   • Midnight Shambler (magazine, 1997)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

1996
“Shudder Wyrm” (short story)
   • Singers of Strange Songs (anthology; Chaosium,1997)

“The Fire Dogs of Balustrade” (short story)
   • New Mythos Legends (anthology; Marietta Publishing, 1999)
   • The Last Trumpet (collection; Wildside Press, 2000)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)

1997
“Orchestra” (short story)
   • October Dreams (anthology; CD Books, 2000)
   • Legends of the Night (collection; Wildside Press, 2001)

“Pachacutec” (short story)
   • Deathrealm (magazine 1997)

1999
“The Children of Burma” (short story)
   • The Spook (magazine, 2001)
   • Legends of the Night (collection; Wildside Press, 2001)

2001
“Epiphany: A Flying Tiger’s Story” (short story)
   • Dead But Dreaming (anthology; DarkTales Books, 2001)
   • Dark Homage (series; Delirium Books, 2004)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)

2002
Blue Devil Island (novel)
   • Thomson Gale/Five Star Books (hardback, 2007)
   • Marietta Press (paperback, 2012)
   • Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink (paperback/ebook/audiobook, 2015)

2003
“The Violet Princess” (short story)
   • Eldritch Blue (anthology; Lindisfarne Press, 2004)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)

2004
“The Transformer of Worlds” (short story)
   • Daikaiju (anthology; Agog Press, 2005)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)

2005
“Other Gods” (short story)
   • Cemetery Dance (magazine, 2006)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions, 2008)

2006
“Contact” (short story, with John Pelan)
   • Black Wings of Cthulhu IV (anthology; PS Publishing, 2016)

“The Ghost Lens” (short story)
   • Horrors Beyond II (anthology; Elder Signs Press, 2007)
   • The Gaki & Other Hungry Spirits (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2011)

“Messages From a Dark Deity” (short story)
   • Return of the Old Ones (anthology; Dark Regions Press, 2016)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

2007
“Signals” (short story)
   • High Seas Cthulhu (anthology; Elder Signs Press, 2007)
   • Other Gods (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2008)

“Abroyel” (short story)
   • The Gaki & Other Hungry Spirits (collection; Dark Regions Press, 2011)

2010
“Beneath the Pier” (short story)
   • Lovecraft eZine (webzine, 2013)

“The Warlords of Leng” (short story)
   • Secret Asia’s Blackest Heart (anthology; Timaios Press, 2021)

“The End of Henry Switch Road” (short story)
   • Dark Discoveries (magazine, 2012)

2011
“The Danforth Project” (short story)
   • The Mountains of Madness (anthology; Celaeno Press, 2015)

“The Gods of Moab” (novelette)
   • Damned Rodan Publishing (ebook, 2012; paperback, 2024)

“Ecstasy of the Gold” (short story)
   • Lovecraft eZine (webzine, 2012)

2013
“The Game Changers” (short story)
   • World War Cthulhu (anthology; Dark Regions Press, 2014)

“When Jarly Calls” (short story)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

2014
“Masque of the Queen” (short story)
   • In the Court of the Yellow King (anthology, Celaeno Press, 2014)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

“Short Wave” (short story)
   • The Summer of Lovecraft (anthology; Chaosium, 2019)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

2016
“The Diaries of Henry P. Linklatter” (short story)
   • Through a Mythos Darkly (anthology; PS Publishing, 2017)

2017
“The Veil of Dreams” (short story)
   • Tails of Terror (anthology; Golden Goblin Press, 2018)

“Clicks” (short story)
   • Tales From Arkham Sanitarium (anthology; Dark Regions Press, 2022)

2018
“Pons Devana” (short story)
   • Fugue Devil Resurgence (collection; Black Raven Books, 2022; reissued by Damned
         Rodan Publishing, 2026)

2022
“Nimbus” (short story)
   • The Weird Cat (anthology; WordCrafts Press, 2023)

2023
“The House at Black Tooth Pond” (short story)
   • Shunned Houses (anthology; WordCrafts Press, 2024)

2024
The House at Black Tooth Pond (novel)
  • Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink (paperback/ebook/audiobook, 2025)

“Throatwarbler Meets the Vampire” (short story)
   • Eldritch Force (anthology; Weird House Publishing, publication TBA)

“Foragers” (short story)
   • Witches and Witchcraft (anthology; Hippocampus Press, 2025)

2025
“Trial Phase” (short story)
  • Shoggoths (anthology; Crossroad Press, publication TBA)

2026
Broken Barriers (novel)
   • Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink (publication TBA)

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An Appalachian Sojourn

A short while back, I did a little scheming with our frequent travel partners, Terry & Beth, because Ms. B. has been going through a lot of stress, mainly from dealing with her parents' declining health, and we felt it was high time we helped her unwind with a wining, dining, and sightseeing trip together. We wanted something short of exotic (read not overly expensive) but a bit out of the ordinary. So, we opted for a three-day trip to the mountains of North Carolina — an apt destination because, in August, at Necronomicon Providence, I'm going to be on the Appalachian Horror panel. What better than spending a few days in the heart of legend-haunted Appalachia?

Thursday, June 4, 2026
Brugger and I hit the road about 9:30 a.m. Three hours and a couple of pee and geocache stops later, we met Terry and Beth in Blowing Rock, NC, at a cool little bistro called Storie Street Grille & Sidecar Bar, which was the first place that struck our fancy. Excellent food and drink, and it was great to gather with our good friends again. I decided to go marginally healthy and get a spicy lentil burger. I did have fries. These were fantastic.

 

Afterward, we checked into our lodgings, about ten miles out of Blowing Rock — the cabin you see in the photo above. A fine place indeed, with all the amenities and some lovely views. 

 

Beth's number one priority was to visit the Beacon Heights Trail, close to the town of Linville, about twenty miles west of Blowing Rock. She and Terry had visited it a few years ago and loved the incredible mountain scenery. So, off we went. Once there, it was a short hike to the top of the ridge, which is a huge, open quartzite surface that offers an unbroken view of the world, primarily eastward. As is our custom, once settled at the top of of the world, we broke out the spirits and toasted our friendship. We spent the better part of the afternoon taking it all in, and, eventually, made our way back to Blowing Rock, with most of daylight now behind us. Here, we found a decent dinner at Town Tavern, which we'd noticed earlier in the day. They had live music—agreeable, classic Americana—and some of the best damned chicken tenders I've ever tasted. And the Aperol Spritz took me straight back to Italy. All in all, a lovely day.

For the evening, we hung out at our place, enjoyed a little wine, and had some great conversation. This is what I call the best kind of therapy.

Old Dude and Ms B geocaching in Blowing Rock

Wine on the rocks

This Earth is NOT flat

Friday, June 5, 2026
There was a geocache about a mile from our lodgings, so first thing this morning, I set out after it on foot, and I've gotta tell you, the road from our place up to the main road is steeper than steep. This made for one hell of a strenuous trek. Once at ground zero, I had to scramble up, over, and around some boulders and otherwise rugged terrain, but in the end, I found the cache. Victory!

Today's group destination was Linville Gorge, which I'd visited many years ago with an old friend. There are several overlooks around the gorge, and we hoofed it to all of them. The farther up we went, the more spectacular the views. At the highest of the overlooks, we tore into our little cache of snackies, including our wine for toasting. From here, we saw a little bear cub hanging out in a tree a short distance down the mountainside, which was pretty neat, although we really hoped Mama Bear wouldn't come wandering our way because, at the overlook, escape routes were... shall we say... limited. (When I say limited, I mean going over the edge of the cliff....)

As it turned out, we had no bear worries and eventually made our way back down to the parking area. By now, it was mid-afternoon, and since the trail snackies were not exactly filling, we were all famished. Not far away, we found a little place called The Famous Rockhouse, a quaint, southern-style diner, where the prices are right and they make a very fine cheeseburger.

Not far away lay Linville Falls Winery, so we decided to haul ourselves over to it and sample their wares. It's a lovely location, and there was a good crowd on hand, with a band performing music. Now, I really hate to up and say it when a lovely place has bad wine, so today, the less said about the wine, the better.

Our home-away-from-home featured a game room in the basement, with an arcade-style video game console featuring Pac-Man and Galaga, which were kinda fun to revisit. And there was a foosball table, which provided much entertainment. Back in college, I played a lot of foosball, especially with one of my roommates, and back then, I was pretty damn good at it.

 

That was a very long time ago. This time around, I scored more points for my opponents than for myself.

 

And then that was all she wrote. Nighty-night.

Miscreants on the rocks...again

L: Brugger on a precarious perch. R: She put some pointers on her photo to make sure you see where the bear is.

"What the hell is that? What the HELL is that? Hey, kid, don't put your lips on that thing! What the HELL is that?"

A view of the Linville River down in the gorge

Winery antics. No, I did not clock Ms. B. a good one in the jaw. She had a problematic filling at the dentist the other day, which left her beauty...marred. You should have seen the dentist afterward!

Winding down in the aftermath

Saturday, June 6, 2026
After loading up this morning, we checked out of our place and headed into Blowing Rock, where we planned to meet Terry & Beth's son Bryon and his wife, Mary at 1:00 p.m. for lunch. Since we had a couple of hours, I went geocaching, Terry went in search of coffee, and Brugger and Beth went shopping. Once I completed the caching activities, I rendezvoused with Terry for more coffee. Eventually, our group reunited, and we met Bryon and Mary at The Speckled Trout Restaurant. Now, this was a lunch. Excellent drinks (Bloody Marys for some of us), and delicious vittles (I had smoked trout with hoppin' john).

Mayview Lake, taken while out geocaching

At last, it was time for goodbyes, and Brugger and I hit the road for Martinsville. We arrived back right at 6:00 p.m. All in all, I'd say this proved to be a superlative weekend with good friends, with beaucoup laughs, chats, refreshments, and more. I'm quite sure we'll be doing this kind of thing again, and hopefully sooner than later.

So, bye-bye for now.

BALAK (Revised Edition) Ebook Now Available

The ebook of the new, revised edition of Balak is now available from Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink; the paperback will be released very shortly.

"This revised edition of Stephen Mark Rainey’s first novel, Balak (originally written in 1992), offers a cleaner version of the text and includes some alterations to unify it with numerous other works that define the author’s unique, four-decade-old mythos."

About Balak...

Two years ago, Claire Challis’s four-year-old son disappeared without a trace. Now, on a cold winter morning, a neighbor’s child vanishes outside her apartment. The subsequent police investigation turns up no clues.

Claire encounters a strange priest. An ancient church that seems to be the site of unspeakable rituals. A shadowy figure that seems to appear and disappear at will. And now, Claire finds herself at the center of a web of intrigue—and in fear for her life. Still, she is determined to learn the truth behind the abductions and learn once and for all the fate of her missing son.

As she delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, Claire realizes that her quest may lead her not to the truth she seeks, but to a place of madness, horror, and agony beyond her wildest imaginings.

Cover art by M. Wayne Miller.

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Order Balak from Amazon.com

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BACKROOMS, OBSESSION, and WHAM!

Once in a while, Brugger and I both feel a hankering to go to the drive-in theater in Eden, about a half-hour down the way, and last night was one of those times. Over the years, we've had some lovely experiences there as well as some that were anything but up to snuff. Happily, last night was a winner...well, until the trip home.

The Eden Drive-In has two screens—the original, full-size screen and a more recent, pint-size screen with a correspondingly smaller parking area. The Mandalorian & Grogu played last weekend and was still on for this weekend, so we decided to check it out, since we both loved the series. However, once we arrived at the theater—about an hour and a half early—we learned it was playing on the small screen (it had played on the main screen last week), and that smaller lot was already damn-near full. On the big screen, they had Backrooms and Obsession, so we figured, well, fuggit, let's check them out. I'd heard good things about both from friends and fellow writers who'd seen them, and... hey... horror movies and drive-in theaters naturally go together. Huzzah!

 

It was a beautiful evening, and as it got darker, the breeze turned chillier... and chillier. We'd had the foresight to bring layers, so... hey, we felt happier than happy to get a break from the recent once-unseasonal heat. As the sun set, the sky turned all kinds of colors, and come full-on dusk, a bright full moon hung overhead. The perfect setting for us.

 

Backrooms was, to me, utterly brilliant — rather Lynchian, I thought, as if it sprang from the darkest heart of the Black Lodge. It's kind of the inverse of real life: a nightmare film, in which conventional reality occasionally asserts itself. Obsession similarly hit a level of intensity that I found disconcerting.in the extreme. Ms. B. preferred Obsession, while I preferred Backrooms, but that was all a matter of degree. We both loved both.

 

The only tragic part of all this was that, heading home on the rural backroads, I ended up hitting a deer. We'd seen loads of them along the way, so I was driving pretty slowly, but nevertheless, one came bounding out across the road at full tilt, and that was all she wrote. So, sadly...one dead deer. The damage to my car was minimal, but it's still going to require some body work, which is an expense we can ill-afford at the moment.

 

I hate hitting animals. Almost ironically, back in 2015, Kimberly hit a deer on the way home from that very same drive-in (see "Deer Damage"). In her case, the accident caused extensive damage to her car. Perhaps ironically, we'd been talking about that incident while we were waiting for the movies to start. Alas. Anyway, I feel horrible for the deer, and despite the pain the ass, pretty lucky that the accident wasn't any worse.

 

We had such a lovely evening, we decided that it was going to be our takeaway from it. Now, we're really looking forward to another drive-in movie night.

 

Peace out.

Coming Soon: The New, Revised Edition of BALAK

The production work on the new, revised edition of my first novel, Balak, has been completed, so I'm anticipating the book release in the very near future. This will be an ebook and paperback release; the audiobook is available from Crossroad Press, though it's the original version. The legendary M. Wayne Miller has provided the artwork, and I'm thrilled with it.

 

I had posted a few details about this release in my May 16 blog entry, "New, Revised Edition of Balak in the Pipe," and as soon as I have any ordering information, I will of course share it here, there, and everywhere.

 

Also, it's kinda nice when I see this sort of thing on social media. One of Ms. B.'s friends found The House at Black Tooth Pond at her local library and was kind enough to shared it online. Huzzah!

AuthorCon VII — March 5–7, 2027

'Tis done—I have reserved a vendor table in the ballroom at Scares That Care: AuthorCon VII, coming up March 5–7, 2027, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Williamsburg. I have attended all the Williamsburg Scares That Care events, so now, each one feels kind of like a homecoming. This past year's con was among my best ever, sales-wise and fun-wise (spoiled only by the fact that Brugger was not there because she had to go to Michigan after her mom broke her leg).

 

Guests of honor for AuthorCon VII include V. Castro, Eric LaRocca, Erin Louis, and John Skipp. I'm sure more will be added in the coming months.

 

Anyway, I'll be there (hopefully with Ms. B. this time), and I hope you will too. 

NecronomiCon Providence 2026 Is Taking Shape

NecronomiCon Providence 2026 is coming — August 13–16 — and Ms. B. and I will be there to plague the existence of everyone there. The con is spread between the Omni Providence Hotel and the Graduate Hotel (formerly the Biltmore). The programming schedule has not been finalized yet, but I will be participating on two panels and possibly (hopefully) having a reading.

 

At the last NecronomiCon Providence (2024), I stayed at the Omni, which is a fabulous hotel, but this year, Brugger and I are planning to remain a few extra days to avail ourselves of some of the nearby locales we'd like to visit, such as Salem, Massachusetts and, possibly, Newport, Rhode Island, again, which we very much enjoyed on our November 2024 visit. So, to save a bit of money, we've booked a nice AirBnB on nearby Federal Hill, which we visited on our previous trip. As any H.P. Lovecraft reader knows, Federal Hill was featured in his writings, most notably, "The Haunter of the Dark" (1935), which is among my favorites of his tales.

 

The panels on my schedule, as of now, are the following: 

PANEL: Drifting Down the River of Night’s Dreaming: Karl Edward Wagner. Karl Edward Wagner (American, 1945–1994) was a poet, editor, and publisher born in Knoxville, Tennessee. Wagner is known for his Sword and Sorcery anti-hero Kane, the Mystic Swordsman, and more contemporary horror tales that often drew on his personal demons and training as a psychiatrist. Wagner co-founded Carcosa Press and was executor of Manley Wade Welman’s literary estate until his death. He edited many anthologies, including fourteen years of The Year’s Best Horror. Our panelists discuss Wagner, his influences, and his impact on horror, fantasy, and the greater weird. Panelists: Douglass Winter, F. Brett Cox, John Langan, Jordan Douglas Smith, Stephen Mark Rainey (Moderator) 

PANEL: In Mountains Older than Bones: Appalachian Gothic. Rightly or wrongly, on America’s cultural map, Appalachia is the equivalent to “Here there be monsters”--a region assumed not only to be unknown but perhaps also unknowable–where we credulously suspend our own disbelief. Panelists discuss what defines Appalachian Gothic, good and bad examples of the genre, and why the region has such a hold on the popular imagination. Panelists:Jess Lewis, Mike Allen (Moderator), Shanna Germain, Stephen Mark Rainey, Tonya Monteforte

Note that a cruel miscreant had the gall to designate me the moderator of the Karl Edward Wagner panel. I'm not fond of moderating, and I hadn't expressed any interest in it, but, well, there it is. I had a fair amount of personal experience with Karl, particularly since he wrote the column, "The View From Carcosa," for Deathrealm magazine back in the day.

So, I'll update information about the con as I get it. Hope to see a bunch of you...to plague you with my existence. 

Sweet Revenge

No, the title of this blog entry has nothing to do with the dish in the photo, really, other than the fact that the the shrimpies you see there served as a something of a little reward for taking said revenge. Last Tuesday, after dumping Brugger at the Greensboro airport for her parental maintenance visit in Michigan, I went geocaching in the Caswell County Gamelands (see "Alone Again, Naturally") and ended up stymied by this one dastardly cache ("Slot Machine," GCGCBPQGN), despite it having a relatively low difficulty rating. I hunted the damned thing for an ungodly amount of time, all the while focused more on the information in the cache description than the coordinates, mainly because the former struck me as more vital. How wrong I was.

 

Apparently, I completely misinterpreted the information on the cache page (as did another experienced geocacher), and thus the difficulty. Anyway, the cache owner later reached out to me and shared some useful intel, so today, I ventured back down to the gamelands and walked right to cache. I mean, I didn't even have to hunt. Oy. The shame of it was that, the other day, I stood inches from the hide and somehow failed to lay eyes on it. Oy. So, actually, the title :"Sweet Revenge" might be more aptly read as "Shameful Revenge."

 

Anyway, the reason for the outing was that friend/fellow author Samaire Wynne was selling books at Danville's Festival in the Park, and she'd invited me to stop by. So, I did, after making a relatively short detour to the cache in question. Since it was lunchtime when I arrived at the park, after a nice visit with Samaire, I popped over to one of the nearby food trucks and procured the plate of vittles pictured above. The sea bugs were pretty danged good.

 

And that's the whole story. See you in the future. 

New, Revised Edition of BALAK in the Pipe

Back in 1992, after having spent several years writing exclusively short fiction, I buckled down and wrote my first novel, Balak. My agent at the time very quickly found a mass-market publisher who was interested in the book, and for a while, it looked like its publication was in the bag. Unfortunately, before I even signed the contract — as so frequently happens in the publishing business — the imprint that would have launched Balak went the ways of the wind, leaving the novel without a home. Sometime afterward, though, Wildside Press, a much smaller but prolific and respected publishing house, picked up the novel, and released it in 2000 (for reasons unknown, Amazon.com shows Balak's publication date as 2003, but that is incorrect), along with my short fiction collection, The Last Trumpet.

 

Recently, I've had a mind to do something more with the book because the character, Balak (whom I appropriated from the Bible), has played a significant role in a number of my works of fiction — including a very new one. Since Wildside Press has had the rights to the book for... OMG, twenty-six years (and has done very well with it, I'm pleased to say)... I decided to reclaim the paperback and ebook rights (Crossroad Press has the audiobook rights, and it is currently available), revise it so that it reads less like the inaugural outing of a very green novelist, and repackage it. The first step is complete, and I have also secured the rights an apt piece of art by the incomparable M. Wayne Miller, whose work adorns several of my book covers as well as numerous stories I published in Deathrealm magazine back in the day. Note that the cover image above is a dummy I created with Wayne's art; it is subject to change.

 

The long and short of it is that I am currently in the revision process, and once it's all done, Crossroad Press will release the new paperback and ebook editions (the audiobook will remain the original). I anticipate having this all in the bag in the next couple of months, so it will hopefully to precede the release of Broken Barriers, which is also in the pipe.

So, I hope this will be cause for celebration and that you unfortunate souls who were exposed to the original product will avail yourself of the new edition rather than go the rest of your lives wondering what the hell was wrong with that peculiar young writer.*

 

*Now, you may rightly wonder what the hell is wrong with that peculiar old writer.

CRYPTIDS... Thar She Blows!

KJK Publications has just released the latest anthology in their "Classic Monsters" series, Cryptids, and it includes my story, "The Devil Flies in Strix," a wicked tale of inhuman goings-on set in the Old West. At the moment, it's available only as an ebook, but the paperback is on the way very soon.

 

From the publisher:

They have always been there. Just beyond the the treeline. Beneath dark water. In the places humans don’t map.

In this chilling eighth installment of the Classic Monsters series, editor/publisher Kevin J. Kennedy turns his attention to the unknown beasts that haunt global folklore as well as current news reports, delivering a collection of relentlessly powerful horror stories.

A hiking expedition becomes a desperate flight from intelligent, pack-hunting predators that move like something almost human. A rancher locked in a brutal war with a blood-drinking creature learns that monsters do not always choose the guilty. In the aftermath of war, a broken soldier is drawn toward ancient beings that may offer salvation — or something far older and more terrible than peace.

In a quiet lake, betrayal awakens a sleeping horror that does not forgive. In isolated corners of the world, grief, guilt, and fear serve as bait for entities that feed on what makes us human.

From shapeshifting killers that predate civilisation, to underground civilisations that blur the line between human and beast, to entities that mimic sound, speech, and emotion with unsettling precision.

Cryptids are not myths. They are warnings. And once you see them, they never stop looking back.

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Order Cryptids from Amazon.com

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Alone Again, Naturally

Well, not really alone; more a bachelor for a couple of weeks while Ms. B. returns to Michigan for another stint of looking after her parents. She had a dawn flight this morning, so we were up at 3:15 a.m. to get her to the airport in Greensboro. Her trip went smoothly, so there she is, and here I am...again. Next trip, sometime in July, I will be accompanying her. It's been quite a while since I was there.

 

Anyhoo, I decided to go after some new geocaches in the Caswell County Gamelands, a few miles northeast of Greensboro. It was a very foggy morning, and I got there right at dawn. The fog lifted shortly thereafter. I put in about four miles in pretty rugged terrain and found three out of the four new caches. The one I didn't find is probably in place, but the coordinates there were incredibly unstable—and I might have been hunting with only one eye open because...well...we got up at 3:15 a.m.

And now, I'm mystified by my computer going somehow wonky. When I booted it up a while ago, it appears a bunch of web fonts are not working on any browser. Far as I know, I changed nothing, and I've tried a number of recommended fixes, to no avail. Anyway, it's vexing me, and I would really like to get this cleared up because it's making working on the laptop difficult. Freakin' beast.

 

Addendum, 5/13: All is well with the fonts again. I dunno. Maybe some strange Google issue? Hope it doesn't happen again. 

Birthdays, Broken Ribs, and Broken Teeth

Kimberly's birthday and mine are (a few years) and one week apart, so after celebrating mine last week, it was her turn. Sadly, after the festivities last Saturday night, she tried to wrestle with me and fell off the bed, striking the corner of her nightstand and breaking three ribs in the process. So, she's had a rather painful week of it, though she's definitely improving.

On her birthday eve, we ventured to our regular Friday afternoon hangout, Hamlet Kitchen, where our friend Yvonne popped in to visit with us. Then we went for an excellent sushi dinner at Yamato Japanese Restaurant, which really hit the spot since it's been a long while since either of us have had sushi.

 

Yesterday, to begin her birthday festivities, we went up the street to visit briefly with friends Joe & Callie, who had helped celebrate my birthday last week. They have this thing called "Meat Day," for which they open their doors to just about anyone who dares enter, and Joe grills a variety of meats all day long. Brugger is not much of a Meatosaurus, but I am, so we sampled a few of the treats, which were awesome, and even Ms. B. approved.

 

From there, we headed to Greensboro, first to our regular hangout from our days in North Carolina, State Street Wine Company, and then for dinner at Pangaea Bistro, which we'd never tried before. Here, we met friends Terry & Beth, Joe & Suzy, and the "other" Mark & Kim. Yep! We definitely enjoyed the dining experience here...except, right at the end of the meal, I took a bite of very soft potato and broke a fucking tooth. Lower molar, busted right in two. So a trip to the dentist will be on the menu very shortly. Uggh.

 

To finish off the evening, we decided to return to State Street, where we hung out long enough to have another drink. We mellowed there for a good while so we'd have no worries about heading back home.

So, apart from unexpected body parts breaking, Brugger and I had damn nice celebrations this year. After all these years of birthdays, I think she's finally older than I am. Cheers!

BROKEN BARRIERS Completed!

I just slapped "THE END" on my 15th novel, Broken Barriers, to be released a bit later this year. This is the sequel to The House at Black Tooth Pond, which came out in 2025. I'll have the proofing, editing, and all that stuff to do, but the bulk of the book is finished. Might need a celebratory martini this evening!

Here's the teeny-tiniest of excerpts... 

Doctor Melissa “Mel” Crawford's deep green eyes lingered on Parrott’s for a few seconds. They sat across from each other at a small table by the front window of Willy’s Downtown Tavern, which offered a lovely view of the sprawling, two-century-old First United Methodist Church building across Main Street (the congregation of which had disapproved of the tavern’s proximity for a full half as many years). Doc Crawford had always looked far younger than her age, which he put at around forty…or maybe thirty…or maybe fifty…who knew? But since last month, several new lines and creases had formed at the corners of her eyes, and a few gray streaks ran through her short, wiry brown hair, so that she resembled a sagacious pixie. As the county medical examiner, she had borne more than her share of the FBI’s condemnation during its investigation of Aiken Mill’s missing six.

“When was the last time I trusted anyone?” Parrott asked.

“Well, you trusted me when I told you we were dealing with something wholly unexplainable at Black Tooth Pond. And when I advised you to call the FBI, you up and did it, against your better judgment. And when I said, ‘Let’s go out to dinner because you need cheering up,’ you accepted. At this point, I would have to call you exceedingly gullible—the fact that we were dealing with something wholly unexplainable notwithstanding.”

“Point taken, but our admittedly nasty intercourse with the FBI was inevitable. We were in over our heads.”

Doc Crawford snickered and raised her nearly full glass of Chardonnay. “To intercourse and being in over our heads.”

Parrott lifted his half-empty, no-longer-chilled mug of Thunder Knob IPA to touch her glass. He struck it a little harder than he intended and sloshed a smidgen of her pale gold-tinted wine onto the table. They both ignored it. A couple of seconds later, the last of his beer had vanished.

#

What? Another Barfday?!

Oh, come on. No way is it birthday time again. I'm pretty sure I turned 66 only a few days ago, and now I'm turning 67. What the fook? Yeah, I know, getting older is better than the alternative and all that, but the increasing speed at which these years keep zooming past is staggering. At this rate, I'm going to be a pile of cremains as of yesterday.

A few days back, I vaguebooked about certain hard times that were sucking out my very soul, and while I'm not entirely free of those issues, things are better. A lot better, for which I thank Yog. I'm going to say that my Birthday Eve last night was the best ever. No shit! Lately, Kimberly and I have been regularly spending Friday afternoons at nearby Hamlet Kitchen, a lovely local wine spot three minutes up the road, and so yesterday, we made it a little birthday celebration—just the two of us, but damn, it was nice. And tonight, we had good friends Joe & Callie over for dinner, drinks, and what amounted to a raucous rumble that almost resembled dancing. 

Kimberly very kindly gave one of her beautiful handmade cards for my birthday, and just above, you can see it on the living room bookcase, with a wee bit of support from Gabora and Baragon. Splendid! 

Her birthday is next Saturday, so we'll be celebrating that in some fashion as well. As you can see in the photo below, she's getting really, really old.

Oh, wait, that's the guy behind her. Sigh.

Brugger and Old Dude having a birthday eve celebration at Hamlet Kitchen

Old folks prior to the shenanigans

Made lemon-garlic shrimp for dinner

Old Dude, Brugger, Callie Hietala, Joe Keiper getting ready for dinner and whatever the hell it was that came afterward.

The whatever-the-hell-it-was that came afterward

The Mummy vs. Cotton

Yesterday afternoon, Brugger needed to hop over Danville to deliver some medical information to one of her doctors, so we decided, well, maybe we should both go and make a little event of it. So, she did her business, and then we headed over to the Danville Stadium Cinemas to check out Lee Cronin's The Mummy (comments below). That took us right to dinnertime, so off we went to Cotton at Riverside Mill, which has become one of our favorite restaurants. It's moderately upscale, with pleasing decor and a scenic deck that overlooks the Dan River and the nearby Riverwalk (which I have visited for the purposes of geocaching many, many times). They make a dynamite gin martini at Cotton, and Kim enjoyed the wine. My double smash burger and Kim's cast-iron-baked meatballs did more than the trick. An awesome dinner.

On Lee Cronin's The Mummy... It was moderately enjoyable, with some effective, creepy set pieces, particularly the VHS video of the ritual that sets things in motion. Mostly, it's a rehash of The Evil Dead Rise, which I liked a lot better. This one could stand to be about 30 minutes shorter, as it felt needlessly padded. A fine enough way to enjoy an afternoon, I'd say, but I have no desire to revisit it.

 

So, our more or less spontaneous Danville outing turned out to be most satisfying — as well as much-needed given the severe stress to which I alluded a couple of blog entries back. Till next time...

A very creepy Natalie Grace in Lee Cronin's The Mummy

I Wonder What That Is...

Well, it sure looks like something is out there at Black Tooth Pond.

My work on the sequel to The House at Black Tooth Pond is coming closer and closer to its end. Only a couple of chapters more, I believe, before I can slap "The End" on it. And then we shall see...

Another Election Day

Virginia held a special election yesterday to approve or disapprove new congressional districts, created primarily in response to the Republican redrawing of Texas districts to pick up new seats. For me, as a local elections official, this meant another big day working at my polling precinct (fortunately, it's at my old elementary school, a short distance up the road). Especially for an aging dude like me, it's pretty grueling. Up at 4:00 a.m. to be at the site by 5:00 a.m.; get the polling area all set up (we did some of it the day before); open at 6:00 a.m., work until 7:00 p.m., with a brief lunch break midday; and then break down/repack all the equipment, as well as tabulate/sign off on all the results. This means getting home a bit after 8:00 p.m.

It was a busy, busy day, with at least three times as many voters coming in as in the previous elections I've worked (about 650 at our precinct). The redistricting issue was the only one on the ballot, so at least tabulating and reporting the results weren't very complicated. There were two hardware snafus during the day (these seem almost inevitable on Election Day), but fortunately, they were relatively brief inconveniences. Oh, and one unhinged fellow who clearly wasn't a registered voter who had a little fit when we wouldn't allow him to vote without going through the full registration/affirmation of identity/provisional ballot process.

Having been on the other side of the voting booth, it's safe to say that while I'm not a fan of making voting difficult, I'm certainly a proponent of requiring a valid ID to vote. It's sensible and practical. No, not in the way the SAVE Act proposes. There's too much potential for disenfranchisement in the terms of that proposal. What we currently have in Virginia is absolutely sufficient.

I don't have it in me to editorialize on the results of the election, other than to say that what's good for the goose is good for the gander. I hate gerrymandering, but when one party starts using it so blatantly to gain an advantage, you cannot be surprised—or legitimately disapproving—that the other does so only to even the playing field. You start cheating, and cheating comes back to bite you.

At least in Virginia, the voters approved the measure. In other states, it was foisted upon them. That said, however the election might have turned out, I am happy to have been part of the democratic process that functioned exactly as it should. By the way, if you believe Trump's typical, unhinged rant about how the election was rigged, I have one question for you: How is the air there on Planet Moronica?