A Fine First Fest

Ms. B. proved to be the main draw at my table.
I think I'll keep her.

As I had posted last week, Brewed Awakening Café in Danville, VA, formerly Binding Time in Martinsville, VA, hosted its first annual book festival yesterday, continuing the tradition it had begun at its original location several years ago. I have participated in each, and while I miss having the shop in my old hometown, the owners — John and Bonnie Hale — appear to have made the right decision by relocating. Since its grand opening last week, the café-slash-bookstore has already made an indelible mark in town, generating remarkably positive publicity and drawing substantial crowds since day one. All my copies of my novels Blue Devil Island and The Monarchs sold out quickly. I kept replenishing my stock with various books lurking in my devilish bookbag, and those, too, departed post haste, all having been rightly devalued with my distinctive John Hancock.

Brewed Awakening, at 610 Craghead Street, Danville, VA, occupies an old brick warehouse building, one of many that has been renovated after years of disuse in what had, decades ago, been a thriving industrial district. With tobacco and textiles, once the city's economic foundation, now moribund in the southeastern US, Danville has taken admirable steps to rebuild its infrastructure and its image, and while it still has a long way to go, its efforts are showing measurable results. There are numerous new, upscale restaurants, taverns, and shops, a first-class library, countless historical buildings and monuments, Averett University, and parks and trails that are unrivaled in the region. Not only did Brewed Awakening's book fest draw a bigger crowd than the past two or three fests in Martinsville combined, the economic benefit spilled over to other businesses in the area. After the event, Kimberly and I visited the new, nearby Golden Leaf Bistro to celebrate with a couple of glasses of wine, and who should appear but veritable hordes of festival attendees — including writers and patrons — all but storming the castle.

One of many distinctive old buildings
in Danville's warehouse district

If you like antiques, you could have yourself a rectangular spasm in Lou's Antique Mall at 231 Main Street, Danville, VA. It's located in what appears to be a typical, mid-size retail store on a downtown street corner, but what you get is a three-story labyrinth of goods from countless ages past, of varying quality and prices. I am admittedly not so much an aficionado of antiques and such, yet I couldn't help but be sucked in by the sheer quantity of wares both familiar to me from my youth and just outright neat/fascinating/weird. Now, some of the items I saw were priced way beyond what I would have ever considered paying, but the proprietor was friendly and attentive, and even insistent that we not pay full price for whatever items caught our eye. I did end up leaving with at least one Christmas present that I think will be quite meaningful for the recipient. And finding that, I must admit, meant the world to me.

And geocaches? Danville is full of them; in fact, there's one at the farmer's market directly across the street from Brewed Awakening — "The Crossing," (GC1BR2C), and another, "The Forgotten Door," (GC5PKJ2) which is particularly memorable for me (story here), just two blocks away. My favorite recollection of the book fest was talking to a rather striking and most assuredly engaging young lady who turned out to be the local library's book acquisition manager, who is also, of all things, a geocacher. As fate would have it, there just happens to be highly challenging geocache — which I have not yet found — inside the library where she works. We enjoyed trading a few stories about books, writing, local history, and geocaching, though, when I suggested she might be able to shed some light on the location of the cache, she went close-mouthed as if her lips had been sewn together with barbed wire. However — ha! — I have years of experience, well over eight-thousand caches to my credit, and more than a passing familiarity with the cache's setting. Make no mistake, I will surmount this geocaching challenge, and our reticent young book acquisitions manager shall bear witness, this I promise.

It was a good day.

All set up and rarin' to go

The local turkey buzzard population must have known something was up because,
just about the time the book fest opened, the scavengers began circling.

Doing the necessary devaluing of the book

Rudolph (apparently, the sun had filtered into the alley sufficiently to scorch one's nose) and ye old
geocaching horror writer at Golden Leaf Bistro, celebrating an excellent book festival

Still life with flowers, a brusque sign, and razor wire

August Book Festival at Brewed Awakening

Binding Time Café & Bookstore in Martinsville, VA, has moved to Danville, VA, and changed its name to Brewed Awakening — in fact, the new location just opened for business this week. For the past several years, as some of you will recall, Binding Time has put on a regular book festival featuring numerous local authors, including the old dude, and Brewed Awakening will be continuing the tradition. The next festival will be held on Saturday, August 29, from 10 AM till 2 PM, and I'll be on location to sell and sign books (yes, my own; I get fussed at for signing other writers' books). I plan to have copies of The Monarchs, Blue Devil Island, Other Gods, The Gaki, and possibly others on hand, so if you are in traveling distance and possessed of exceptional intestinal fortitude, by all means, stop by. I'd love to see you.

Not only does Brewed Awakening sell books, they serve first-class sandwiches, wraps, and beverages (I'm especially fond of their hazelnut latte). And for you intrepid souls who enjoy geocaching as much as braving Rainey's horrifying books, Danville is a geocaching mecca — in fact, there is a cache ("The Crossing," GC1BR2C) directly across the street from the café. Good books, good refreshments, good geocaching. A regular hat trick, wot?

Mark your calendar and join us.

Brewed Awakening Book Festival 

Saturday, August 29, 10 AM–2 PM

610 Craghead St., Danville, VA 24541
(434) 483-2138

In the Black at Binding Time

The disreputable contingent: ye old scary dude
with author/moviemaker James Wayland

Binding Time Café and Bookstore's 2014 Book Festival opened at 10:00 this morning to a fairly small crowd, but over the next couple of hours, business picked up with a steady flow of patrons coming and going, most leaving with a new book or several in hand. The majority of the authors in attendance brought works of local, regional, and general literary interest, but local writer and moviemaker James Wayland, author of Trailer Park Vampires and Dirty Southside Jam — not to mention writer/producer/director of the recent indie movie, Never Look Back Again — and I made for a shuddersome, thoroughly disreputable horror contingent. My table was set up next to Dr. Mary Helen Hensley, who has written a series of autobiographical volumes known as The Promised Trilogy (Promised, Circles of Light, and The Land Beyond the River), which details her near-death experience after a car accident in the 1991 as well as a children's book titled The Chakra Fairies. Her late father, Dick Hensley, was principal of Martinsville High School as well as head football coach when I was a student there (not quite a full half century ago). A few years back, Mary Helen published a little volume of her father's memorable sayings and wisdom, which range from entertaining to profound.

For a small town that fell into economic depression twenty-some years ago and has suffered seriously ever since, Martinsville, VA, does manage to retain an inviting, eclectic culture that has attracted and kept lots of creative individuals and small businesses reminiscent of its richer days in decades past. Binding Time proprietors John and Bonnie Hale do a bang-up job putting together these regular book festivals — and any time I attend such an event and leave in the black, then it's been a pretty good day. Like today.

Read, eat, drink, and be merry.

Authors and book dealers, start your engines!

Dr. Mary Helen Hensley, author of The Promised trilogy, The Chakra Fairies, and others.

Author Michael Howlett, channeling Mark Twain, with Binding Time proprietor John Hale

Binding Time's 2014 Book Festival

Ye author at Binding Time's 2013
spring book festival

For the past few years, I've been a regular at the Martinsville, VA, book festivals sponsored by Binding Time Café & Bookstore, and this year's festival takes place this weekend — Saturday, August 16, from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. I will have copies of The Monarchs, Blue Devil Island, Other Gods, The Gaki, Song of Cthulhu, and others available for purchase, and I'll be more than happy to devalue them with an autograph. See if I won't. I will also have a handful of CDs of the Dark Shadows audio dramas that I wrote for Big Finish Productions, which feature several members of the classic ABC-TV series, including David Selby, Lara Parker, Nancy Barrett, and Marie Wallace.

Binding Time is a great little cafe that features a decent selection of books for sale, many by local/regional authors. The shop started out as a bookstore that offered a nice little selection of food and drink items, but over time, the dining side of the business grew until it became more a café with a selection of books offered as a bonus. Still, owners John and Bonnie Hale are very much devoted to the literary side of things and go all out to promote working writers. About twenty authors are scheduled to participate on Saturday; you can find a complete roster here.

Binding Time is located at 1115 Spruce St., Martinsville, VA 24112 — in the Druid Hills Shopping Center, which is very easily accessible from all points around town. Please do stop in, check out some of my most pleasant works of endless, raging, grueling horror, and have a really good sandwich and a coffee or espresso, or perhaps another satisfying beverage.

Eat, drink, read, and be merry.

Fall Book Festival at Binding Time

Next Saturday, October 26, Binding Time Cafe & Bookstore in Martinsville, VA, will be holding its semi-annual book festival, featuring a number of local and regional authors. I'll be on hand to sell and sign copies of my books, including The Monarchs, Blue Devil Island, Other Gods, The Gaki, and others. Authors scheduled to appear include Mary Helen Hensley, Lisa Pickeral Chitwood, Gail Hedrick, Graham Gardner, Carol Nolen, Sylvia Pearce, Becky Mushko, Tom Perry, Avis Turner, Stacy and Robert Moody, James Wayland, Melissa Rooney and Camden Campe. The spring festival — the first of these I have attended — had a very good turnout, and I scared lots of unsuspecting patrons. Please come around so that I might do this again. It'll be a fun pre-Halloween fright. For you avid readers who are also geocachers — there are plenty of geocaches in the area to more than make your trip worthwhile.

In addition to promoting and selling books, Binding Time serves great sandwiches, wraps, salads, and coffee. It's located in the Spruce Village Shopping Center at 1115 Spruce Street, Martinsville, VA 24112; www.binding-time.com. The cafe is locally owned and operated; please give it your support.

Binding Time and the Blustery Book Festival

Cold, cloudy, and windy. Just the weather for an outdoor book festival in Martinsville, wot? One might not think so, but a decent-size crowd actually did show up at Binding Time Cafe & Books for the event — even better than proprietors John and Bonnie Hale anticipated, so I was informed. The festival ran from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, with 20 authors, there or about, on hand to sell and sign books. I did quite well, I must say; I moved enough product so that my stock of available books is now running very low. Before any future events, I'm going to have to re-order some because I surely do not want to be shy of hellish scares for the unsuspecting.

My space beneath the sometimes perilously billowing tent was next to Dr. Stan Gravely, who grew up in Martinsville about the same time I did, though we didn't know each other well at the time. He was promoting his new book, This Is It!, which is something of a motivational guide to personal growth. I quite enjoyed the opportunity to get to know Stan a bit better, as we have a lot of shared background as well as ideas about living life (and the afterlife) in general. It was also cool that a few geocachers of my acquaintance stopped by, as did one of my most personally influential high school English teachers, Mrs. Linda Pulliam.

A fairly random sampling of some of the other attending authors include James Wayland, who wrote Trailer Park Trash & Vampires; Mary Helen Hensley, daughter of the late Dick Hensley — Martinsville High School principal as well as head coach of the Martinsville Bulldogs football team back in my day — who debuted a book of her father's wisdom, titled The Pocket Coach; former Ferrum College professor Becky Mushko, author of Ferradiddledumday, an "Appalachian retelling of Rumplestiltskin," who once had Elizabeth Massie — my writing parter on Dark Shadows: Dreams of the Dark — and I give a presentation on writing to some of her classes; Guy Andrews (whose wife Becky works with Kimberly and I in Greensboro) with his book, Dare to Summit, a guide to tackling the entire Bible, which he likens to "climbing Mt. Everest"; and Kristin Paige-Madonia, an award-winning writer of Young Adult fiction, author of Fingerprints of You, her first novel.

There will be a fall book festival at Binding Time in October, which I hope to attend as well. Guess I'd better get those books in....

Mary Helen Hensley autographing a copy of The Pocket Coach, a book of "her father's wisdom,"
for which she gives him writing credit.

James Wayland, author of Trailer Park Trash & Vampires, with books and two of his ex-friends

It's a dog's life! The Martinsville-Henry County SPCA's info booth, complete with mascots

Award-winning Young Adult author Kristen Paige-Madonia (center), author of Fingerprints of You.
To her left is Ms. Kerry Tillery, my 7th grade US History teacher.

Putting on the charm! Dr. Stan Gravely, non-scary, and Dr. Damned Rodan, scary.

Binding Time's Spring 2013 Book Festival

A couple of months ago, I did a book signing at Binding Time Café in Martinsville, which proved quite enjoyable (see "Binding Time Book Signing," Friday, March 8). A fair number of folks came by so that I might devalue their books with my signature, and the cafe food was superb. After the signing, roving reporter Ben Williams, accompanied by photographer Mike Wray, conducted an in-depth interview with me, and the resulting article was just featured in the Sunday, April 27 edition of The Martinsville Bulletin. Unfortunately, it's not included in the online version, but I was quite impressed by Mr. Williams' presentation. It was factually correct, and I was even quoted properly — a rarity indeed.

Saturday, May 4, Binding Time is hosting the 2013 Spring Book Festival, at the Druid Hills Shopping Center, 1115 Spruce Street, Martinsville, VA 24112, from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. I'll be among the many local authors participating, so if you're anywhere near the area, please come by. I'll devalue your stuff, too. You see if I don't. I will have copies on hand of The Monarchs, Blue Devil Island, Other Gods, and The Gaki. Join us.

Authors attending include Kristen-Paige Madonia, Dr. Mary Helen Hensley, Louise Lester, Avis Turner, James Wayland, Laura Wharton, Angela Harris, Donna Smith, Karen Hall, Oma Boyd, Stacy and Robert Moody, Carol Nolen, Betsy Ashton, Mary Dalton, Arnetta Hairston, Becky Mushko, Sally Roseveare, Franz X. Beisser, and Guy Andrews.

A Fine Time at Binding Time

Today's book signing at Binding Time in Martinsville went quite swimmingly. Overall, a decent turnout — I came very close to selling out of The Monarchs — followed by an enjoyable interview for The Martinsville Bulletin, conducted by writer Ben Williams and photographer Mike Wray. As an aside, back in the spring of 1974, The Martinsville Bulletin ran its first feature about my rather monstrous creative activities — I had just sold a filmbook of Godzilla vs. The Thing to the very late, very lamented Monster Times (the filmbook ran in issue #42, July 1975), and I was just putting together the very first issue of Japanese Giants — and Mike was the photographer even back then. It's quite nice to see he's still providing a wonderful service for the newspaper and the community. It was most gratifying to have several geocachers pop in — Norman & Lynn, a.k.a. Spring1; Carol, a.k.a. Cassiliz; and Jeanne, a.k.a. Cantergirl — as well as my good friend Beth from Winston-Salem; and my seventh grade history teacher, Mrs. Tillery, who was surprised (and I gather pleased) to see I've made something other than fertilizer of myself.

Binding Time is a wonderful little cafe with a decent book section, and they actively promote local writers, which I very much appreciate. They serve excellent deli sandwiches (named after local streets — I had one called the Sam Lions Trail, which was smoked turkey, swiss cheese, red onion, tomato, and baby spinach on a croissant), desserts, and specialty coffees. It's a fine commodity for this economically challenged town, and I wish them every success for the long haul. They sponsor book festivals in the spring and fall, and I'll be appearing at the next one, which is on Saturday, May 4. If you're in the area, by all means stop by.

Ye auld author with his seventh grade history teacher, Mrs. Kerry Tillery

Beth Nelson sharing a laugh with a right funny fellow. Funny ha-ha, that is.

There be cachers here — Mr. Norman Dillon, one half of "Spring1"

In the sheer sadness department: by now, most everyone in the dark fiction community is aware of author Rick Hautala's passing of a heart attack at age 64, just yesterday. I was at dinner with Kimberly last night when I received the news, and it hit me so hard I could barely eat. I first met Rick back in the late 80s, at Necon, in Bristol, RI, and we ended up at various events together many times over the years. We've kept in touch pretty regularly via Facebook, though we hadn't met face to face for most of a decade; the last time was when we had dinner together at a convention in Charlotte, NC. I was never as close to him as many of our mutual friends, but I liked and admired him more than just about anyone in this business, and he always seemed to really appreciate our various interactions. I had published at least one story of his in Deathrealm, a good many years back. He was a congenial, rather humble man, clearly possessed of integrity; to my mind, that rarest of all things, a true gem of a human being. It's doubly tragic in that he had just secured a new book deal and it seemed as though, after taking some serious knocks over the years, he had finally reached a great place in his life. I know he dearly loved his wife, Holly. Rick touched many, many people, as evidenced by the vast outpouring of grief from those who knew him. His life — and his death — serve as a stern reminder that our time is short and we ought make the best of it. He set a mighty worthy example.