The Editor Known as Mr. Deathrealm. Author of The House at Black Tooth Pond, Blue Devil Island, Dark Shadows: Dreams of the Dark (with Elizabeth Massie), and many others. Feed at your own risk. Note: Stephen Mark Rainey is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for the author to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com.
Saturday, September 16, 2023
Dark Corners of the Old Dominion Is in the House... or Woods
Friday, September 8, 2023
Release Day: Dark Corners of the Old Dominion
It’s release day for Dark Corners of the Old Dominion from Death Knell Press. This one features my story, “Doom at Dragon’s Roost,” which is gonna scare the pants off of you. It will too!
What’s so scary about Virginia?
From Edgar Allan Poe’s Ragged Mountains to the shores of Tidewater’s Seven
Cities… From the blood-soaked battlegrounds of the Civil War to the shadowy
political arena of the D.C. Beltway.
We have four hundred years’ worth of ghost stories, folk horrors, small-town terrors, urban legends, backwoods monsters, otherworldly secrets, and down-home Southern Gothic.
Within this idyllic landscape, there are many dark corners. Within these pages, Virginia authors explore twenty-four dangerous destinations, myths and monsters from the commonwealth’s past, present, and future. Read on, if you dare.
Dark Corners of the Old Dominion is edited by Joseph Maddrey and Michael Rook, with a foreword by Brian Keene. Every author in this anthology has strong ties to Virginia and it is clear in the stories and poems they’ve created. They are steeped in the salty waters of the Chesapeake Bay, pulsing with the thrum of the beltway, and bleeding from old battlefield scars.
Foreword by Brian Keene. Proceeds for Dark Corners of the Old Dominion go to the Scares That Care charity.
• “The Bride of Dream Lake” — Catherine Kuo
• “Keep It Civil” — Clay McLeod Chapman
• “A Holler You Can’t Call Home” — Paul Michael Anderson
• “Doom at Dragon’s Roost” — Stephen Mark Rainey
• “The Woods Behind My House” — Sonora Taylor
• “Room 1968” — Nicole Willson
• “By a Thread” — Querus Abuttu
• “Notches” — D. Alexander Ward
• “New World Order” — Ella B. Rite
• “Chesapeake Bait and Hook” — Sirrah Medeiros
• “The Girl Who Sleeps in the Room Next to Me” — Charles E. Wood
• “Cave Kisses” — William R.D. Wood
• “In the Mountain Mist” — Margaret L. Carter
• “The Wrong Time” — Ivy Grimes
• “The Flooded Man” — Michael Rook
• “The Bunnyman of Clifton” — Brýn Grover
• “The Song Between the Songs” — J.T. Glover
• “A Mischief in Gordonsville” — Valerie B. Williams
• “Lost Soul” — María Badillo
• “Odditorium” — Sidney Williams
• “This is How Your Garden Grows” — Joseph Maddrey
• “Beach House” — Bryan Nowak
• “A House’s Tale” — Brad Center
• “The Path to Freedom” — James L. Hill
Sunday, September 3, 2023
What’s So Scary About Virginia?
Author/Editor Red Lagoe has posted on
HorrorTree
some nice, brief author interviews by contributors to the upcoming
Dark Corners of the Old Dominion
anthology, due very soon from
Death Knell Press.
An example of one old dude’s responses:
Q: A paranormal investigation team has only one night to spend in a Virginia location. Where would you send them and why?
A: St. Albans Sanitorium in Radford, I expect. It’s reputedly the most haunted site in Virginia, and though I’ve not yet visited the Sanitorium itself, I know the area well from many sojourns in Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and the surrounding vicinity. The haunted vibe in this part of the state is near and dear to me, as the southwestern Virginia mountains serve as the backdrop for a significant amount of my fiction. The Sanitorium is on my bucket list of sites to visit, and I reckon I’d be obliged if investigators were to check it out in advance.
Q: Without giving away any spoilers, where does your Dark Corners story take place and what inspired the idea?
A: “Doom at Dragon’s Roost” is set in the mountains of southwest Virginia, very near the real-life location known as Dragon’s Tooth in the Catawba Valley, northwest of Salem. Over the years, I’ve created a fictional corner of the state — sort of “tucked into” the mountain region between Martinsville and Blacksburg. Many of these stories involve several families over a long period of years. Although it is a standalone story, “Doom at Dragon’s Roost” could be considered a chapter in the ongoing saga of the fictional Sylvan County. Many of my stories — including this one — involve music as a means of bridging the gaps between natural and supernatural realms.
On a perhaps less scary note (unless you happened to cross my path), I woke up to a beautiful morning, so I decided to take a walk around nearby Lake Lanier before the heat and humidity set in. There were a good many people out walking and a few boating and fishing on the lake. It’s gonna be another scorcher today, so that was probably the extent of my outdoor activities today.
Be goot.
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| A purty view of Lake Lanier from the Blue Heron Trail |
Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Dark Corners of the Old Dominion Now Available for Pre-Order!
Edited by Joe Maddrey & Michael Rook, this one features my story, "Doom at Dragon's Roost" as well as frightening tales by 22 other Virginia authors. Dangerous destinations, myths, and monsters from the Commonwealth’s past, present, and future lie in wait for you here...
Forward by Brian Keene. Proceeds go to Scares That Care!





