Where There's Smoke...

I spent yesterday morning geocaching in Kernersville, NC, with friend Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott), followed by an excellent lunch at Don Juan's, one of my longtime favorite Mexican restaurants. Brugger was returning from an artsy-craftsy event in Hickory, NC, so after I parted company with Scott, she and I barged in on our friends Terry & Beth at their Kernersville home. We downed plentiful wine and tapas, enjoyed some time in their hot tub, and then spent a good hour on their back porch watching a huge column of black smoke erupting from some point about a mile from their house. We learned later that it came from a fire at OmniSource, a scrap metal recycling center, and as of this writing, it's contained but not fully extinguished. The wind carried the smoke column away from our location, but it could seen from I-77 in Fancy Gap, Virginia, about fifty miles north-northwest. One firefighter was injured, but there are thankfully no reports of any others, as far as I know.

In an altogether happier vein, The House at Black Tooth Pond has been getting a decent amount of love, which pleases me no end. Last week, I was a guest on two different podcasts, courtesy of authors Rick Kleffel and Bryan Nowak; of course I will post links to them when they go live.

A few excerpts from recent reviews:

"The House at Black Tooth Pond is a great read for lovers of small town horror, cosmic horror, and police procedurals. I enjoyed the combination of these subgenres..."—Rebecca Cuthbert

"Rainey is one of a handful of writers who can give you the supernatural, the cosmic, and the eldritch terror in carefully measured doses that intoxicate you their simple cleverness and their absolute dread. Lovecraft would be proud. So keep the lights on while you read..."—John M. Cozzoli (The HorrorZine)

"The House at Black Tooth Pond climaxes into a beautiful, (you know what I mean) cosmic 'Holy Crow, Are You Kidding Me?,' finale that's completely satisfying. Highly recommended.—Alice Loweecy

"Stephen Mark Rainey returns to haunted Sylvan County, Virginia, with this slow-burn weird tale in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, TED Klein, Twin Peaks, and maybe even The Trollenberg Terror..."—Joe Maddrey

Speaking of Ms. Cuthbert, who was kind enough to give Black Tooth Pond a nice review, I found her collection, The Six o'Clock House & Other Strange Tales, a most engaging read, with several tales that I found superlative (my review is live at Goodreads; still pending on Amazon). She is also an accomplished graphic artist, and very kindly created a nice promo graphic for Black Tooth Pond that I am more than happy to use and share. Thank you, Rebecca!

I've started listening to the audiobook of friend/author Scott Thomas's 2017 novel, Kill Creek. Several chapters in, I'm enjoying it very much. The narration by Bernard Setaro Clark is smooth and engaging. Will give this one a full review when I'm done.

Till next time...