‘Ameri-Scares’: Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap & Assemble Media Developing Family Horror Anthology

A bit of happy news regarding Elizabeth Massie's Ameri-Scares series....

This deal has been in the works for a while, and Ms. Massie can finally announce that Margot Robbie and her LuckyChap Entertainment are teaming with Assemble Media and Warner Horizon to develop the Ameri-Scares book series as a family-friendly horror anthology broadcast and/or streaming series.

There are fifty books planned for the Crossroad Press series, one for each state, each involving legends, folklore, or historical events from that particular state. Eleven have been released so far, including two of my own contributions, West Virginia: Lair of the Mothman and Michigan: The Lake Superior Dragon. I do have more in the pipeline, including books for Georgia and Ohio. At this point, the TV series is still in development, and I will of course post more news when it's available.

Visit Deadline.com for more details.

Remembering Greg Shoemaker

This weekend I received the devastating news that Greg Shoemaker — consummate giant monster fan, gifted editor, friend, and, in many ways, one of my earliest creative mentors — passed away on Friday. If you're reading this blog, there's a fair chance you either knew him or knew of him. Greg rightfully earned the reputation of having birthed daikaiju fandom in the United States, most notably via his long-running fanzine, The Japanese Fantasy Film Journal, which I discovered as a lad of 10 or 11 in 1970. At that time, living in the little town of Martinsville, VA, I was already a diehard Godzilla fan and an aficionado of giant monsters in monsters in general. As such, every month, I picked up a copy of Famous Monsters of Filmland, always hoping to find photos of and articles about Godzilla, kith and kin. In one issue, in the Classified Ads section, I happened upon a listing that advertised the "Godzilla" issue of something called The Japanese Fantasy Film Journal. It cost a whopping 35¢, so I sent off a quarter and a dime to the editor.

For a while, nothing arrived, and I began to get frustrated. Then, one day, a manila envelope showed up in the mail. The return address indicated it was my long-awaited issue of what came to be known as JFFJ. When I opened it, I found, not a "Godzilla" issue, but one devoted to Frankenstein Conquers the World, a movie I had never seen but had heard of — once again, in the pages of Famous Monsters. In the editorial, called "In Right Relations," ye editor, Mr. Gregory Shoemaker, apologized to readers who had ordered the Godzilla issue via FM. Due to the lag time between the ad's submission and publication — and because the ad had drawn considerable attention — that first issue was no longer available. Thus, Greg filled the order with the most recent issue, which was #4. At first, I felt a tad disappointed. I had really wanted Godzilla.

Well, I was disappointed until I started reading the text in the cheaply printed mimeographed fanzine. Holy cow, this thing was filled with serious, critical writing. The editor and the various feature writers took these movies as seriously as I did. It wasn't like the pro magazines of the day, which mostly made fun of my favorite monster flicks. And thus I was hooked. I sent in my couple of bucks for a subscription. And thus began my love affair with JFFJ. Not only that, I fired off a letter to Mr. Shoemaker, expressing in gushing terms how much I enjoyed the fruits of his labor.

Greg wrote me back a long, thoughtful, appreciative letter. He was clearly a bit older than I, and most definitely wiser. In my decade-plus-change-long existence, I had never met anyone as well-informed about my favorite movies as Greg. We began a longtime correspondence that lasted decades.

In those days, I wrote and illustrated my own Godzilla stories, which I confess were dreadful, but I sure enjoyed creating them. I sent several of them to Greg, hoping he might find them thrilling beyond words. He promptly wrote back with encouraging but brutally honest criticism. That he failed to recognize the brilliance of my work disappointed me no end, but somehow, I took heart in the fact he had taken the time to recommend artists I should study, authors he thought might positively influence me, thus giving me hope I might improve enough for my work to one day grace the pages of JFFJ. He motivated me, creatively, like no one else to date ever had. I drew. I practiced. I threw every bit of my creative energy into producing work that might somehow impress the one guy on earth I knew I had to impress.

Greg did it. He accepted some of my art for publication.

It wasn't long afterward that I decided to try my hand at publishing a fanzine of my own. I studied the layouts of JFFJ, the styles of the various writers, the placement of the wonderful art that accompanied the articles and filmbooks. And in 1974, at age 15, I produced the first issue of Japanese Giants, which was devoted to Destroy All Monsters, a movie JFFJ had not yet covered in depth.

The history of JG is a whole 'nuther story. The first issue wasn't much to look at, but it was a true labor of love. By way of a couple of other publishers I became acquainted with, JG actually lasted until the early years of the 21st century. Without question, Greg Shoemaker had more than a small hand in JG's success, despite the fact he considered it "the competition."

I met Greg face-to-face for the first time in 1982, when I went to Chicago to visit my friends Ed Godziszewski and Bill Gudmundson, fellow monster fans who had also come together via JFFJ (not to mention they became the Japanese Giants Guys). I had visited Ed and Bill in 1978 and 1979, and in 1982, I began dreaming of actually moving to Chicago to be there with the Japanese Giants Guys because, really... where else would I want to be? In August of 1982, I flew back to Chicago for an extended visit, having no idea that the World Science Fiction Convention was happening there at the time. But it was... and Greg had come into town to attend. Wow, what a serendipity. I met him for the first time at the convention center and thought, holy cow, this guy is Neil Diamond. Well, he did kinda look like Neil Diamond (except he was far more handsome).

In our continuing correspondence, above and beyond monster business, Greg and I talked music, art, life, everything. His tastes influenced mine, always for the better. He spoke his mind honestly, sometimes bluntly, but never without empathy. Despite his strong convictions, he communicated with humility, compassion, and respect. He loved animals. Like me, he sometimes seemed to relate to them more strongly than people.

Sure enough, in 1983, I moved to Chicago. In 1986, when I got married, Greg came to Chicago to attend the festivities. He met my parents, who remembered how profoundly he had influenced me during my teens. In the early 2000s, I had the pleasure of hanging out for a few extended periods with Greg at a G-Fest or two in Chicago. Perhaps ironically, it was about the time that Facebook became the preferred means of communication that our contacts became less frequent. But Greg had always told me he was somewhat reclusive. He had little affinity for social media.

In this past decade, my communications with Greg have been relatively few — mostly via Facebook. Greg wasn't old (he was 72). I guess I somehow expected him to be around for a long time yet. I've never, ever stopped admiring him or remembering how deeply our interactions in my formative youth affected me. I recall that, in our correspondence in the 80s, I had let him know this, at least to some extent. Now more than ever, knowing he's gone, I wish I could have the chance to reiterate that fact. To let him know that he influenced my life not only directly, but indirectly. Despite the recent, relative rarity of our communications, at no time has Greg not been close to me in heart and mind.

To be honest, I have no idea how my existence impacted his, if at all; all I know is that he cared enough for me and about me to willingly share quite a bit of his life with me. I respect and love that. I am, at this moment, heartbroken. But we are all bound for the same destination, and I trust Greg has gone at peace and with the knowledge that his existence touched others deeply. I know I am far from the only one he touched in similar fashion.

Farewell, my friend Greg. I will remember you always.

Thanks to Darlene Michalski for the photos of Greg. I have a few of him from Chicago in the 1980s, tucked away in the vault. It's a massive job, searching the vault, but I do hope to turn up some of those pics.

The First Batch Is in the House!

The first copies of Michigan: The Dragon of Lake Superior just darkened my doorstep. It's my second entry in the Elizabeth Massie's Ameri-Scares series, and the design — as always from Crossroad Press — is top-notch. These books are perfect for young readers, ages 8–14, and also for adventure-loving adults. Please check out this one, and our other Ameri-Scares novels. And reviews are always appreciated. Thank you!

BBC's Quatermass & The Pit

Director Roy Ward Baker's Five Million Years to Earth (a.k.a. Quatermass and the Pit, Hammer, 1967), has long been one of my favorite horror/SF films. I saw it for the first time in my very early teens, and it has haunted me since then, much in the way Jacques Tourneur's Curse (Night) of the Demon has haunted me over the years. Having pre-ordered the upcoming Blu-ray of the 1967 film, I decided to also pick up the DVD of the 1958–59 BBC six-part serial Quatermass and the Pit, which I had never seen except for a few clips online. Last year, a remastered version of the serial was released on Blu-ray in the UK, but the domestic DVD that I picked up, from 2010, features video quality that is only fair.

Regardless, the original television serial proved a delight. Renowned screenwriter Nigel Kneale scripted both the television production and the Hammer film, and while both follow the same story, the serial, by way of its longer running time, more thoroughly develops the characters and concepts. In both serial and film, the story tells of eerie events that have been going on for centuries in the area known as Hobbs Lane (originally spelled "Hobs," referencing the devil). The serial devotes most of an entire episode (#2, "The Ghosts") to chronicling these events, which appear to be of supernatural origin. The discovery of fossilized remains of dwarf-like "ape men" and what appears to be a spacecraft buried at a Hobbs Lane construction site convince Professor Quatermass (André Morell) of the British Rocket Group and paleontologist Dr. Matthew Roney (Cec Linder) that the source of the creepy goings-on is extraterrestrial rather than supernatural.

Inside the spacecraft, the science team discovers a number of insect-like creatures with three legs and devilish-looking horns on their heads. Quatermass postulates that the creatures and spacecraft originally came from Mars. Using Dr. Roney's remarkable invention known as the Optic Encephalogram, which televises images generated within a human brain, Quatermass determines that, roughly five million years ago, Martians came to Earth and genetically altered the indigenous primates to be their slaves — ultimately resulting in the human race. Over the years, psychic emanations from the buried spacecraft triggered ancestral memories in sensitive individuals, thus generating the belief that "ghosts and demons" haunted Hobbs Lane.

Professor Bernard Quatermass (André Morell) and one of the locust-like creatures from the Martian spacecraft

The alien spacecraft unearthed at the construction site in Hobbs Lane

Much to Quatermass's dismay, the British government has transformed the Rocket Group, which he had created for peaceful space exploration and research, into a military organization and assigns Colonel James Breen (Anthony Bushell) to oversee the excavation. The high-strung and strident Breen believes the spacecraft to be nothing more than an experimental German buzz bomb from WWII, the creatures from within nothing more than fakes. Needless to say, sparks fly between the two opposing personalities.

André Morell as Quatermass and Anthony Bushell as Breen play well off other, perhaps even better than Andrew Keir and Julian Glover in those same roles in the 1967 film — not that either of those actors are slouches; they are, in fact, quite imposing in their talents. Although I grew up knowing Keir as Quatermass (and in my adult years, I saw Brian Donlevy in the role in The Quatermass Xperiment [a.k.a. The Creeping Unknown, 1955] and Quatermass 2 [a.k.a. Enemy From Space, 1957], having now experienced Morell in the part, I can't help but consider him the "definitive" Quatermass. His mannerisms and appearance convey the character's typically stern demeanor while displaying a tad more wit and humor than either of the other actors. (I recently caught a portion of 2005's The Quatermass Experiment, featuring Jason Flemyng in the role, and I cannot say I was wholly impressed.)

Bushell's portrayal of Breen is anything but reserved. Initially, he appears a reasonable enough personality — stoic, tempered by military discipline — but as events spiral beyond his control, he becomes shrill and willfully blind to the mounting, irrefutable evidence regarding the aliens. Cec Linder (probably best known as Bond sidekick Felix Leiter in 1964's Goldfinger) as Dr. Roney acts brasher and more boyish than the taciturn James Donald as Roney in the Hammer film. While Linder plays a believable and likable character, he cannot rival Donald's striking screen presence. Still, he provides a fitting counter to Quatermass's grimmer personality. Christine Finn as Roney's assistant Barbara Judd, despite having several strong moments, such as when she volunteers to use the Optic-Encephalogram, never conveys the intense, haunted quality actress Barbara Shelley brings to the role in the Hammer film.

When an electrical accident jolts the spacecraft, all hell breaks loose in the city of London. Much of the city's population succumbs to a "hive mind" mentality and begin to attack, en masse, individuals who are not part of the hive. Quatermass calls this the "Wild Hunt," a recreation of an ancient Martian purge of all life forms different from themselves. London becomes an inferno as the Martian mastermind — "Hob," as it is known — asserts itself across the land. Roney and Quatermass determine that electricity fuels this phenomenon and devise a means of countering and ultimately defeating Hob, though at the cost of Roney's life.

Being so familiar with the 1967 film, it's virtually impossible not to compare the two productions. In both, events proceed in mostly identical order, both generally well-paced and developed. Despite its relatively low budget, the serial does provide some striking visuals, especially those involving the locust-like Martian creatures. I daresay their design is superior to the film's, with more realistic — and believable — detail. In both productions, the original Martian Wild Hunt as viewed through Roney's Optic Encephalogram features distorted video of the event, but the serial's imagery plays far better, as in the film, the Martians appear to be nothing more than rigid miniatures, crudely controlled by puppeteers.

The build-up to Hob's corporeal manifestation, increasingly charged with tension, may also be superior to the film's. Conversely, though not unexpectedly, due to budget constraints, there is only a brief, not altogether satisfying shot of the monstrous Hob rising from the remains of the spacecraft to hover above London. Similarly, in the film, Roney's sacrificial act to destroy the alien is spectacular and memorable. The serial's necessarily low-key resolution feels at once tragic and anticlimactic. I can only imagine the impact it might have had to viewers long before the film came to be.

Story-wise, Quatermass and the Pit is the quintessential blending of science fiction and horror. Both BBC serial and Hammer film easily hold coveted places at the pinnacle of alien invasion scenarios. Having now seen both, it feels like I've experienced the best of all worlds, for both productions shine in their respective milieus.

The domestic Blu-ray release of the Hammer film comes later this month, and I am eagerly awaiting the opportunity to view it again, this time with its predecessor fresh in mind. Together, in their own ways, these productions showcase Nigel Kneale's brilliant vision and screenwriting prowess as well as the vast talents of those involved in both serial and film.

Captain Potter (John Stratton), Colonel Breen (Anthony Bushell) and Quatermass (André Morell)

Barbara Judd (Christine Finn) and Dr. Roney (Cec Linder) with a reconstruction of a genetically altered primate

A manifestation of "Hob" towering over the city of London

The Big, Beastly Bison and Others

Three-quarters of Team COG on Lake Townsend: Fishdownthestair, Diefenbaker, and Old Rodan,
with Old Bloody One-Eyed Rob behind the lens

This past week, three new geocaches came out on Lake Townsend, all of which required a boat to access — unless one might be inclined to do some serious wading, as friend Ranger Fox, a.k.a. Christopher, did at one of them earlier this week. Today looked to be a beautiful, if somewhat scorching day for a paddle, so a number of the usual suspects — Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott), Fishdownthestair (a.k.a. Natalie), and Old Bloody One-Eyed Robgso (a.k.a. Rob) — gathered this morning to see if we might make short work of the three caches, and perhaps get first-to-finds on the two as yet unlogged. One of them — The Big, Beastly Bison (GC8AD72) — looked as if it might present some physical challenge, as the published description put it some distance up in a tree whose limbs were not fit for climbing. So, we chose it as our first target.

Diefenbaker preparing to retrieve The Big, Beastly Bison

Once at ground zero, we spotted the container quickly and considered our various options. Diefenbaker had brought ropes and tackle; Fishdownthestair came with her prodigious height (roughly 5' 1"), which we figured sufficient to conquer any vertical challenge; Old Rob brought his customary bad attitude; and I had built up a substantial reserve of sheer brute strength after enjoying a couple of bottles of The Old Infuriator with Ms. B. late last night.

In the end, using a combination of the aforementioned tools of the trade, we soon had the cache in hand. And hot diggity, the log sheet didn't have a mark on it. It does now. From there, we paddled on under a hot sun, occasionally relieved by a fair breeze. We made short work of "Temptation"(GC8AD6G), the one Ranger Fox had already found, and scored another nice FTF at "Turtle Point" (GC8AD2E). On the way back to the marina, we stopped at a handful of other caches some of our group had yet to find. We are nice that way. Except for me, I am told. I am merely that villainous scum at the front of the pack.

Afterward, three of our number, sans Old Rob, sallied forth to Uptown Charlie's, not too far away, which has been the customary destination for lunch when our crowd is dripping wet after a geocaching outing. Their chicken wings with suicide sauce are to die for. I wouldn't be surprised if the staff wonders why, every time a certain group comes in, watery footprints appear on the floor. It is all rather ghostly.

Since the owners of the new lake caches — Skyhawk63 (a.k.a. Tom) and Punkins19 (a.k.a. Linda) — live very near my route home, I made a brief stop at their place to offer my regards and thank them for the caches.

And now, so many things to do and so little time. Au revoir, mes amis.

The Old Man and the Sea... er... Lake

Damned Rodan taking a breather

It's Here! Michigan: The Dragon of Lake Superior

Yep! It is now officially released — in ebook and paperback, with audio book to follow soon — from Crossroad Press: my latest entry in Elizabeth Massie's Ameri-Scares series for young readers.

Michigan: The Dragon of Lake Superior

On a hike along the shores of Lake Superior, thirteen-year-old Anna Hendrix sees a huge creature rise from the waters, and — to her horror — sink a tour boat. Soon afterward, Jeff Grigg, also thirteen, encounters a similar but smaller creature in the woods around his parents' vacation house.

Unable to resist investigating, both Anna and Jeff venture into the nearby forests. They meet each other at a huge waterfall, where they discover a hidden cave. Inside it, they find a cave painting of a creature that resembles the ones they have seen. Suddenly, in a bizarre twist of time and space, the youngsters are transported to strange, unknown land, vastly different from the Michigan they know. Here, they meet a mysterious but friendly young man who calls himself Skyhawk. He claims to be a member of a civilization that can only be reached by way of the cave.

In this bizarre land, huge monsters roam freely. Skyhawk and his people worship the beasts as gods. But while the people of this land appear welcoming, Anna and Jeff discover they hide a deadly secret. And the two youngsters realize they must somehow find their way back home before the passage between the two worlds closes forever.

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Each Ameri-Scares novel is based on or inspired by an historical event, folktale, legend, of myth unique to that particular state.

Check out Michigan: The Dragon of Lake Superior here.

The Summer of Lovecraft Is Coming

From the editors of World War Cthulhu: A Collection of Lovecraftian War Stories...

Cthulhu meets flower power in this weird, wild, trippy, far-out, cosmic, and horrific anthology. Summer of Lovecraft - Cosmic Horror in the 1960s, edited by Brian M. Sammons & Glynn Owen Barrass, published by Dark Regions Press. For my part, I consider Short Wave to be one of my most eerie and disturbing tales.

There are FIVE days left in the Dark Regions Press Summer Sale where you can pre-order Summer of Lovecraft, which features the following stories and authors:


Night Trippers by Lois H. Gresh
Operation Alice by Pete Rawlik
The Summer of Love by C.J. Henderson
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Sullivan by Lee Clark Zumpe
Dreamland by David Dunwoody
Lost In the Poppy-Fields of Flesh by Konstantine Paradias
Five To One by Edward M. Erdelac
Keeping the Faith by Samantha Stone
Mud Men by Sean Hoade
Misconception by Jamie D. Jenkins
No Colors Anymore by Joe L. Murr
Shimmer and Sway by Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
Short Wave by Stephen Mark Rainey
The Song that Crystal Sang by Tom Lynch
Through a Looking Glass Darkly by Glynn Owen Barrass and Brian M. Sammons
The Color from the Deep by William Meikle
The Long Fine Flash by Edward Morris
Just Another Afternoon in Arkham, Brought to You in Living Color by Mark McLaughlin and Michael Sheehan, Jr.
Crystal Blue Persuasion by Jeffrey Thomas

Initially, Summer of Lovecraft is being released as ebook, but a paperback release will follow shortly. Pre-order in the next FIVE days at the Dark Regions Press Summer Sale.

Buzzing Around Myrtle Beach with Team Crabby

Ah, the beach! Ms. B. and I have had some mighty good times at the beach in recent days. And once again, our good friends BigG7777 (a.k.a. Gerry) & Suntigres (a.k.a. Bridget) invited us, as well as friends Terry & Beth, to spend the Fourth of July weekend with them at their condo in North Myrtle Beach. We had intended to make the trip down at Memorial Day, but circumstances didn't allow for it at the time. I was a little leery of hitting Myrtle Beach over July 4th because... well, you know... 18-million-billion people, but in our undaunted wisdom or foolishness, we decided to brave the onslaught of humanity and sally forth. So, last week, Ms. B. and I packed up the necessary beach and geocaching gear, left our respective animals in very good hands, and, on Thursday at the ass-crack of dawn, hit the road in the Damned Rodan mobile. Heading down, we didn't stop for all that many geocaches, but at least I found a handful of nice ones. I took some serious back-back roads, so except for a short stretch around Chadbourne, SC, holiday traffic turned out to be a non-issue.

We arrived just about lunchtime, so after settling ourselves into Gerry & Bridget's condo, we hauled ourselves over to the nearby Ultimate California Pizza for... wait for it... pizza, and then across the courtyard to one of our favorite places ever, Coastal Wine Boutique for... wait for it... wine. It's pretty much the only place for a rather ridiculous radius where one can actually get very good (non-local) wine, and they do have some very nice wines.

In the same area, we have The Pepper Palace, home of the Wall of Flame Challenge, where one is given a little shot of super-hot sauce followed by a little shot of super-super hot horseradish. Well, of course I did the damned thing (I actually did this once before, I believe on my first visit to Barefoot with Gerry & Bridget). It was pretty hot, but nothing I couldn't handle with relative ease. Certainly not as painful as my favorite burger in the world—the Welsh Dragon Burger at The Celtic Fringe in Reidsville, not too far from here. Anyway, I enjoyed the heat, and I picked up some good hot BBQ sauce for my own good hot cooking.

After our outing, we made mellow at the condo until later in the evening, when we ventured forth to check out Barefoot Resort's fireworks extravaganza. Here, we did have to suffer a fair crush of humanity to procure a viewing space, but this we did, and our vantage point turned out to be pretty good. The show was fun, if not spectacular (earlier in the evening, someone in area had put on a show of their own, and, ironically, it was superior). We enjoyed ourselves immensely, and a regular application of wine kept our gears turning smoothly.

The Wall of Flame Challenge: before and after

Do not feed these beasts!

Friday morning, before the sun had climbed much above the horizon, I was awakened by a voice that sounded remarkably like Bridget's whispering, "Mark... Mark... Mark... Do you want to go geocaching?" About ten seconds later, I was dressed, with GPS in one hand and coffee in the other. Thus armed, I set out with BigG and Suntigres, and we rambled all around North Myrtle Beach, snagging caches wherever we might. Fortune failed to smile on us at a handful of them, so we ended up logging DNFs, but the good ones more than made up for the failures. The highlight of the outing was at Heritage Shores Nature Preserve along Cherry Grove Marsh, where we went after an exceedingly cool cache called "What's Up Dock?" (GC1M62B). Here, we encountered entertaining critters of all sorts, including fiddler crabs (by the thousands), a snake, cranes, egrets, cormorants, and kingfishers. The cache itself turned out to be a prime example of ingenious craftsmanship, and the preserve is one of the most striking in the area. Since we ended up mingling with so many crabs, we decided to call ourselves Team Crabby. Well, okay, so I decided to call us Team Crabby. Not that any of us are crabby. Ever. Nope.

Fiddler crab

View across Cherry Grove Marsh

Boardwalk that leads to the cache

While the three of us were caching, Brugger, Terry, and Beth remained at the condo to lounge at the pool. On our way back, a storm blew in, and a lightning bolt that was probably visible all the way to Barcelona struck quite nearby. We calculated at that point that our friends had just vacated the pool with all haste. Upon our return, they told us that when a lightning bolt that was probably visible all the way to Barcelona struck quite nearby, they vacated the pool with all haste. We understood.

By this time, hunger had reared its ugly head, so we decided to try out Greg Norman Australian Grill at Barefoot Landing. It's a nice enough spot, with classy ambiance and a reasonably upscale menu. Sadly, the service started out lacking, with no one attending to us for an unseemly long time. Apparently, none of the staff had informed the servers they had seated us. Anyway, they made reasonable amends. Our food proved excellent, the wine—Greg Norman's own label—fair. Overall, I'll give them a B, and I'd return when we're down that way.

At Coastal Wine Boutique, our personable and knowledgeable host had warned us that none of the nearby vino establishments served any serviceable dry wines—not that we really needed any warning, for this is Myrtle Beach—but we decided to gird our loins and try out Carolina Vineyards in Barefoot Landing, just because it was there and we are nothing if not dedicated and stalwart oenophiles. I mean, we have tried dry South Carolina wine before, and it is not to write home about, unless one is writing a horror novel. So... oh my lord... the dry wines here about sent us into hysterics because I don't know what that stuff was. In all fairness, most people around those parts prefer the sweet, refreshing wines, and if I drank sweet wines, I'd probably say Carolina Vineyards' sweets are more than adequate. I will admit that I quite liked their cherry chocolate wine slushy. And yes, I did, I did try a wine slushy, and you can just shut your mouth.

And after all that, although our lunch had been late, Bridget wanted us to head northward to Little River, where a haunted house-turned-restaurant/wine bar awaited our attention. Brentwood Restaurant, which supposedly has its share of ghosts, also has some fine alcoholic spirits and incredible food. We didn't eat much, but we did sample some excellent wine and what had to be the best escargot I've ever tasted (yes, I am a fan). We didn't see any ghosts, but I sure hope we have a chance to return in the not-too-distant future to sample a more sizable portion of their plentiful fare. It was easily my favorite dining establishment we experienced on this trip.

The mad photobomber strikes!

The haunted Brentwood Restaurant in Little River, SC

Our big ol' fun outing for Saturday was a Segway tour around North Myrtle Beach Park & Sports Complex, which includes a lengthy and very scenic nature trail. Gerry and Bridget had ridden Segways before, but none of the rest of us had, so we had a trainer/guide named Garfield who showed us the ropes. Garfield did a fine job, to be sure. Even we tyros were up and going in no time, buzzing around the place with something like reasonable control of our machines.

Buzzing around the beach

Garfield led us around the park, first in the smooth, paved parking lot; then on grass, around the soccer field; and finally, on the nature trails, which in places turned out to be pretty rugged. I felt confident (not cocky) on the machine and fortunately handled the various terrain without mishap. Alas, a few other members of our party, including Ms. B., suffered a couple of damn-near serious woopsy-daisies. Happily, although a bit of blood spilled, the biggest casualty of the day was likely a few ounces of pride. I loved the whole business and, since Segway tours do run much closer to home, I hope our group can do one again (next time without anyone falling over).

To fill out the rest of the day, we had some vittles at Lulu's (owned by Lucy Buffet, Jimmy's sister), which was all right, and some later goodies at Filet's tiki bar, which was all right, and then we returned to the condo and dunked ourselves in the pool. Also all right. No lightning this time.

And today, back home. Early in the trip, we made out well, as I again took the backest of back roads to avoid traffic—again successfully. It wasn't until much closer to home that the trouble started. An accident in Rockingham, NC, backed up traffic for miles, and once we got out of that, thunderstorms began in earnest, and these were real gullywashers. Made driving some kind of treat. Regardless, although the finish didn't exactly make my day, we had such a good time in the overall that the unpleasantness of the drive shall quickly fade.

These outings with good friends are the things that make the best memories, and I will treasure these particular memories as long as the old brain deigns to allow. Hang in there, old brain!

L: Beth's pre-Segway glamour shot; R: buzzing through the forest on the nature trail

Team Crabby on Segways! Terry, Gerry, Bridget, Kimberly, Old Dude, Beth

Virus

No, I'm not ill. "Virus" is the title of my latest completed short story, which has been sent to the editor of a specific anthology, which I can't yet name, though you can be assured I'll be hollering it all over the place if and when the story is accepted. It is, to my mind, pretty creepy.

Here's a wee excerpt. In the tale, Scotty Griffin has witnessed a number of unusual phenomena. Strange images appearing on his computer display. His wife, Kendelle, undergoing a bizarre physical change. An unearthly light on the horizon. In this scene, he's concerned about Kendelle, who hasn't come home after several hours away. He hears distinct sounds of movement on the upper floor of the house, which should be unoccupied....

Another low shuffling sound. Definitely from upstairs.

“Kendelle?”

His voice sounded stark and hollow. No reply came.

He went up the stairs to their bedroom.

Empty.

The bathroom.

Empty.

The spare bedroom. The closets.

Empty.

He looked toward Kendelle’s art room. In there, she liked to paint, draw, practice calligraphy. The door hung half open. He was sure he had closed it when he came out.

Like a black ghost materializing, a shadow formed on the door.

The shadow of a human figure.

It was very tall.

His throat so parched he could barely utter words, he croaked, “Who’s there?”

From out of thin air, a deep, sonorous voice answered.

“No one.”

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