It's Getting to Be THAT Season...

L: "Notebook Found in a Deserted House" art by Matt Fox; R: "Sticks" art by Lee Brown Coye

The other day, friend and fellow writer Joe Maddrey sent me a note wondering if I might have some short story recommendations apt for the Halloween season. More than I can count, actually, but I figured I'd focus on a couple of stories I found pivotal in my descent into horror madness.

My perennial favorites are probably Karl Edward Wagner's "Sticks" and Robert Bloch's "Notebook Found in a Deserted House." Both are among the most atmospheric, dread-laden tales I can think of.

"Notebook Found in a Deserted House" may be the most memorable because it's the story that drew me to Lovecraftian/cosmic horror in the first place. When I was a senior at the University of Georgia, a good friend had a pile of the old H. P. Lovecraft/Cthulhu Mythos paperbacks, which he thought I might like. I said I'd take a look, so he gave the lot of them to me. At the time, I lived out in the sticks in a fairly secluded house with five other people, and the night I started delving into those books, I was the only one at home (which was exceedingly rare). "Notebook" was the first of the stories I read, and I was smitten. I stayed up most of the night reading those books because — for the first time since I was a kid — I didn't like the idea of turning off the light and trying to sleep.

It was around that time that I read "Sticks" as well. Another friend of mine at college, Lew Hartman (a fantasy artist), was a devoted Wagner fan and introduced me to Karl's work. "Sticks" stood out as my favorite, but I read his Kane books and stories, and later, many of his other tales. Back when I was producing Deathrealm magazine, I got to know Karl, as he wrote a column for the magazine. In the early 90s, Karl, Lew, and I were all guests at a convention in South Carolina, so it was a real pleasure to introduce Lew to Karl in person, especially since he'd introduced me to Karl's work. Sadly, my friend Lew died a few years after Karl did.

There are plenty of other great stories for the Halloween season — just about any of Lovecraft's classics (my favorites include "The Dunwich Horror," "Call of Cthulhu," "The Whisperer in Darkness," "Dreams in the Witch House," "Haunter of the Dark," and numerous others), Manly Wade Wellman's "The Desrick on Yandro," Michael Shea's "Fat Face," Jeffrey Osier's "The Encyclopedia for Boys," and F. Paul Wilson's "The Barrens," just to name a few. These don't even scratch the surface, but as far as I'm concerned, a damn good start.

X-treme Fear

It was barely over a week ago that Ms. B. and I met friends Tom (a.k.a. Skyhawk63) and Linda (a.k.a. Punkins19) some 700 miles northward in Michigan to go geocaching at Power Island on Lake Michigan (see "Michigan Misadventure, Madness, & Merriment, Part 2," July 31, 2026). Today, back in our old home turf (Greensboro, NC), Tom and I met up again to hunt a multi-cache that struck this old dude's most wonderfully sensitive nerves, for it is set on the grounds of a former haunted attraction that the co-editor of Deathrealm magazine (Danielle D'Attilio) and I visited back in the mid-1990s. I recall that time with great fondness because she and I were the only living souls at that haunted trail at the time, and for that  reason, the experience proved to be fucking scary. So, revisiting the setting all these years later was both nostalgic (thanks for the memories) and beyond cool (because it's bleeping geocaching).

 

I had a medical appointment in Greensboro this morning, so I'd arranged with Tom to hunt this relatively new cache (it's been found only once, by friend/geocaching partner Natalie, a.k.a. Ms. Fishdownthestairs) afterward. We met at the starting coordinates just after 11:00 a.m., hosed ourselves down with bug spray, and set out into the woods. We didn't have to go very far, but in thirty-plus-years' time, the woods have really grown up. What we found remarkable was that so much of the old attraction still remained. Granted, it was mostly in miserable condition, but largely still there.

 

We found semi-intact old structures. We found countless skeletons, corpses, spiders, snakes, and abandoned electrical equipment. We found cache stages that required feats of physical strength and dexterity. We found one hell of a good (if sometimes frustrating) time exploring the remnants of what was  once a very cool haunted attraction.

 

As I'd discovered several years ago while geocaching, sometimes finding all that remains of a creepy attraction can be all the creepier simply because it's nothing but remains.

 

A favorite point awarded for "X-treme Fear: Fox's Footsteps" (GCBV1AV).

A Happy, Horrific Halloween

This is the third Halloween in Martinsville for Brugger and me since we moved into my old homeplace in 2023. The past couple of years, we had a fair number of trick-or-treaters, but last night topped them all. When I was a young'un, just about every household in this neighborhood had kids, so Halloween was quite an affair. Nowadays, there aren't so many kids, but folks from all over town head into the nearby, affluent Mulberry/Forest Park neighborhoods, and many of them pass our place along their journeys. Last night, Brugger and I decided to entice trick-or-treaters by setting up chairs down by the street and lighting up the fire pit.

 

It worked. We started the fire just before sundown, and within minutes, the kids started arriving. During the breaks between arrivals, we cooked chicken/jalapeno sausages over the fire for our supper, which were pretty danged good, along with delicious adult beverages to accompany—and of course, Halloween candy for dessert.

 

As a kid, I loved dressing up and trick-or-treating for Halloween; and as an adult, I probably love Halloween even more, especially when we make the night something of an event. I find giving out treats to be intensely satisfying, and I'm happy to say that the kids were generally very polite and gracious. Almost all of them wore cool costumes, several of which were quite elaborate.

 

I think the coolest thing we experienced during the evening was when it was getting pretty late, and the trick-or-treaters were all done. We heard, far in the distance through the woods, the faint chiming of a bell, numerous screams, and what sounded like a werewolf howling. It came from well beyond any of the nearby houses, so...talk about neat and a little creepy. Tis here (you need to turn the sound up to hear the noises):

Over the past couple of weeks, I'd become a little concerned that Halloween wasn't going to be as big a deal this year because fewer houses in the area appeared to have been decorated. Happily, that wasn't the case. Best of all, we have quite a bit of candy left over—and it's the good stuff!

 

For afters, we settled in and watched Bram Stoker's Dracula, which isn't necessarily our favorite Dracula filum, but we kind of felt in the mood. And so we enjoyed it.

 

I hope your Halloween was at least as lovely.

The Void Project, Karaoke, & I Am Old, Drink My Scotch

"Between waking and sleep lies a place you were never meant to wander. A borderland where time bends, shapes twist, and whispers follow you. It’s the layer of night where dreams blur into nightmares—where every culture tells the same stories of shadows, watchers, and figures that shouldn’t exist. Step too far into this in-between, and you’ll discover why some doors are better left unopened."

Friday evening, Ms. B. and I drove the dark, winding backroads up to my first college alma mater, Ferrum College, up in the boonies of neighboring Franklin County. Last year, the newly opened Ferrum Park put on its first haunted trail attraction, the theme of which was to find some missing hikers—without going missing yourself. This year, the event was called The Void Project, described in the passage above. Like last year, the trail setup was not all that extravagant, but it was absolutely a hootin' good time. There were a few roving creatures, some pitch-black corridors, optical illusions, and creepy alien sounds. I hope there will be another haunted trail there next year, and I might consider helping out with the setup, especially if I can be roving monster. Ha-HA!

 

Brugger and I survived the trail experience, and afterward, since it was on the way home, we stopped at Scuffle Hill Brewing in Collinsville, where friends Scott & Jamie joined us for a few brews and some raucous karaoke. Ms. B. and I both hollered a bit, but nobody ran screaming, so we shall have to try harder next time.

 

Friday was friend and fellow writer Richard Dansky's birthday, and each year, to celebrate, he holds a pretty large gathering at his place in Durham. He calls it "I Am Old, Drink My Scotch," and he puts out innumerable bottles of scotch along with a huge spread of Meats and Cheeses™, not to mention veggies, sweets, and other culinary goodies. This year's event was yesterday, and Ms. B. and I both planned to go. I had reserved a room for us at a hotel near Richard's place, but our cat Moose has developed what we fear is diabetes, and he was not doing well, so she stayed home to be with him. I set out yesterday morning, drove to Durham, and proceeded to hunt a good many geocaches, some of which involved some fairly serious hiking (although nothing as extreme as a couple of last week's outings at Wintergreen). There was also a cache at a very old graveyard hidden in the woods ("Leigh Farm Park Cemetery," GC95G2C), which was apt for the season, and probably my favorite of the day.

I settled in at the hotel about 3:30 p.m., showered and got presentable (as much as possible, anyway), and as the event's 7:00 p.m. starting time approached, I ventured out to the grim and morbid environs of East Durham, grabbed a handful more geocacches, and finally arrived at the grim and morbid Chez Dansky, which was properly decorated for both Halloween and a celebration for turning older than dirt.

 

Indeed, there was scotch. Lots and lots of scotch. And so many Meats and Cheeses™. Silly me, I was so preoccupied most of the time that I hardly took any photos at all. The ones I did take are below. Since Brugger didn't make it and Richard was largely occupied with hosting duties, I was pretty much a stranger in a sea of faces I didn't know. I tend to feel a bit awkward in such circumstances, but I did get into interesting conversations with several folks, all of whom were very nice and sociable. It helped that many were writers or involved in various creative businesses. So, I'm hoping that there will be many more Richard Dansky events, birthdays and otherwise, and that in the future, Ms. B. can accompany me.

Thanks, Richard, for being such a perfect host.

A most appropriate card for the aged Mr. Dansky

Chez Dansky, lit up for the season

The tiniest sampling of the cheezes available at the massive spread

Halloween Party Horrors, Ghosts, Legends, & Cryptids

Joe, Suzy, Jennifer, Jamie, Scott, Samaire, Mark W., Kim W., Kimberly B., Terry, Beth;
the Front Man is behind the camera

The Front Man

'Tis done! Brugger and I put on our annual Halloween Party last night, which was—as expected—crashed by a plethora of frightful fiends. Sadly, several folks who'd anticipated attending weren't able to, but those who did, at least by my reckoning, somehow survived. There was cheese and there was meatballs (alas, no caviar), and long tall glasses of wine up to h'yar. Yes, we did have that and more. I think it's safe to say that no one left the premises hungry or thirsty.

We had a fun Halloween horror trivia contest — 13 questions about horror movies, books, and stories. I made most of the questions pretty easy for the layman, but a few of them required a bit more than casual horror knowledge. At least a couple of people correctly answered the question "Which 1982 horror classic featured the famous line, 'You've gotta be fucking kidding me!'" Go Suzy and Joe!

Now, I started out as the Front Man from Squid Games, but after a while the heat in there began to get to me, pretty seriously, so I changed into last year's slightly more casual costume, which still hung in our entryway closet (see below photo with Brugger). Temperature-wise, this provided some relief, and it also made it a hell of a lot easier to consume wine and vittles. In case I didn't mention it, we had lots and lots and lots of wine and vittles.

Some of us stayed up till the wee hours yakking about scary things, both real and unreal. Sadly, the real is overshadowing too much of the far more agreeable unreal. All in all, we had a fine time. Needless to say, the better part of this morning was spent on restoring the casa to habitable condition.

Horror trivia! Suzy, Joe, Beth, and Jamie won prizes.

This afternoon, I attended a presentation about the ghosts, legends, and cryptids of Martinsville and Henry County, given by Garrett Channel, who is the executive director of the Salem (Virginia) Museum. He provided a lively, very enjoyable talk that was perfect for the season. He related the legend of Sam Lion, a bit of local (very likely embellished) history, which I wrote about a few years ago (here). After his presentation, I talked briefly with him about my writing and interest in such creepy legends, and he told me he actually used my blog as one of his references. Well, I find that kinda cool, particularly since I use both the real and "altered" folklore of this area as a basis for many of my stories and books (most recently, The House at Black Tooth Pond).

As an added bonus, I ran into my seventh-grade American History teacher, Ms. Kerry Tillery, who lives up the street from us. She is a most wonderful person, and I'm so glad she is still around. It's always a pleasure to have the opportunity to talk with her.

"Castle Rock," I call it. I have a geocache here. This was supposedly a part of the original
"Sam Lion's Trail" of local legend.

Prepping!

Tomorrow—Saturday, 10/11—is our annual Halloween Party, and we're expecting a pretty good crowd. This week, we've spent a lot of time cleaning, buying supplies, cleaning, decorating, getting our costumes together, and cleaning. Come Sunday, we'll no doubt need to clean again. But at least the house will be clean before we dirty it all up again.

Brugger and I been well into our Halloween movies this week. We've watched Night (Curse) of the Demon, The Thing (2011), and The Thing (1982), which are absolute prerequisites before Halloween can come. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is also on that list, and I suspect we'll get to it in the next couple of days. We've also caught Evil Dead Rise, The Exorcist, Don't Breathe, Island of the Night of the Damned Doomed Big Heat (a.k.a. Night of the Big Heat, Island of the Burning Damned, and Island of the Burning Doomed (I wrote about it a long time ago here). Tonight, since it's finally available after all these years, we're going to watch Something Wicked This Way Comes. I don't think I've seen it since it was at the theater in 1983, and I recall really liking it way back when.

 

Oh, yeah, there's more stuff a-coming. Hope it's coming for you too. Hahaha,

A Slightly Belated Parkway Picnic

Traditionally, Brugger and I visit the Blue Ridge Parkway in October, as a gear-up to Halloween. Last month, the Parkway was closed after damage caused by Hurricane Helene, but at least in the area nearest us, the closing was brief. Still, our schedules were pretty hectic this past month, so we missed going prior to All Hallows. However, more or less on the spur of the moment, to decided to drive up yesterday to Villa Appalaccia and Chateau Morrisette, our two favorite BRP destinations. Sadly, the restaurant at Mabry Mill closed a while back — having breakfast there has been an autumn tradition since my childhood — and there are no definite plans as yet for it to reopen. I certainly hope it will.

The weather turned out perfect for the outing, and though the fall foliage is a bit past its peak, some beautiful color lingered in various areas. At Villa Appalaccia, we did our customary wine tasting, grabbed a bottle of their San Giovese, and had an excellent picnic lunch in the walled terrace a short distance away from the main building (which we always think of as "ours" because, well, it's usually empty except for us, which makes it ours). Then we made the very short truck over to Chateau Morrisette, did the customary tasting, and drank a single glass each of Red Mountain Laurel, which is one of their sweet wines — something we almost never do — but since we'd already had our lunch and some dry red, we figured the Mountain Laurel would make a good dessert. It did.

There were several Adventure Lab stages in some very familiar haunts along the BRP, so on our way back home, we stopped off to grab the stages and take photos at some of the overlooks. We hit them at a lovely time, as the setting sun painted lovely colors out in the valley.

I do hope we'll have a chance to get back up there before winter weather sets in. And for the love of God, for all our sakes, please vote Blue tomorrow.

"Sky of Thunder, Island of Blood" — FREE!

Sad that Halloween is over? We had a really nice one, so I sure am! So, I thought, why not offer up some free, monster-ific fiction? "Sky of Thunder, Island of Blood" is a short story I wrote some years ago, which originally appeared as an Amazon Shorts, which — sadly — no longer exists. This one is a thrilling World War II tale with a touch of the outré. The link below will take you to a Google folder where you can access either Epub or PDF files, whichever is your preference.

For the cover art, I picked up a royalty-free photo of a Bf109, took a photo of one of my Rodan monster figures, and did a little Photoshopping.

Hope you enjoy the tale!

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Download "Sky of Thunder, Island of Blood" FREE!

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Halloween Is in the Air

Yesterday, I trucked out to Fieldale, a few miles northwest of Martinsville, to set up some new geocaches — an Adventure Lab with five stages, and two physical caches — which afforded me a fair amount of trail hiking. The woods are just starting to look like fall, with a smidgen of color, which I expect will mature a bit by the end of the week.

The Fieldale Smith River Trail is my favorite local hiking spot, as it runs along the scenic Smith River for several miles, and there's lots of interesting terrain on either side. Several of my geocaches lurk out there, so after double-checking the coordinates and clues on my new ones, I took the opportunity to hike out to check on my older ones as well. Happily, all were fine. The best thing about the Fieldale trail is that it passes the old Koehler warehouse, known to me and those in the know as "The Spooky Place," which at one time doubled as the local Halloween haunted castle.

Today, to help establish the proper mood, while I was hiking, I put on my Amazon Music Halloween music playlist. This did the trick; Halloween is now officially in my blood for the season.

On the way home, I noticed that the local First Baptist Church was selling pumpkins, and since their pumpkin patch looked reasonably sincere (probably the best we'll get around here), I stopped in and purchased a couple of nice pumpkins. The Jack o' Lantern I've had out front for almost a couple of weeks is starting to look like a toothless old man, so the replacements are timely.

I hope your Halloween season is looking as awesomely grim as ours is.

A couple of the nearby haunted islands viewed from the Fieldale Smith River Trail

Appalachian Horror Story: The Witch of Ferrum Woods

A little while back, I saw the image above posted on Facebook, which immediately piqued my interest. Ferrum College is my old alma mater, about thirty minutes from Martinsville, out in the boonies of Franklin County. During my two years at the college, I frequently explored the extensive woodlands in the area, sometimes hoping to find interesting critters, such as snakes (which I often did), sometimes to indulge in certain substances of not-necessarily-legal status (at least at the time). In more recent years, as an aficionado of hiking in deep woods, I've returned to those old stomping grounds many times, particularly when fellow geocachers have set out new caches.

I had bought tickets for a 9:00 p.m. starting time, so about an hour in advance, Brugger and I hit the dark, isolated backroads that lead to Ferrum. Little about that drive has changed since I was a student there, forty-plus years ago. Once we arrived at the parking area, a short distance from the campus, we found ourselves a little bamboozled — as did several other folks who had arrived at about the same time. The instructions were to park and follow the lights to the registration tent... except that we could find no lights! Eventually, we decided to follow the nearby paved road into the woods, and there, finally, we spied a line of glow sticks along the roadside, which led us where we needed to be, about a quarter-mile down.

The event info indicated that hot dogs, popcorn, and drinks would be available, and since we suffered from the Great Starvation, we destroyed a couple of hot dogs while we waited. I got to talking to a couple of the folks at registration, one of whom was a local author, so needless to say, the conversation turned to writing. Several years ago, I gave a talk to one of the English classes, for which I received a respectable stipend, and I indicated that if such an opportunity should arise, I'd love to do it again. Although I didn't run into him at the site, one of the professors involved in the Friends of Ferrum Park group, who sponsored the haunted trail, was a gentleman whom I'd interviewed for the college newspaper back in the days when I fancied myself a budding journalist. It's nice to know that at least one faculty member from back when is still there and going strong. And the Friends of Ferrum Park's mission is one that is near and dear to my heart, for it is devoted to preserving the natural areas there rather than allowing needless commercial development to destroy them.

The backstory for the haunted event was that a couple of students had gone missing, and that weird, uncanny forces might have been responsible for their disappearances. Our hosts gave us the unfortunate victims' descriptions as well as "special" flashlights to help us find our way in the darkness. Our lights indeed occasionally revealed certain sinister entities lurking in the darkness. Some of them were indeed frightening — at least to our companions! At one point, I ended up behind them and inadvertently startled them. After some screaming, one of them whispered in relief, "Ah, it's just the horror writer." That kind of made my night.

While the trail setup wasn't all that sophisticated, it was sure as hell fun, and the decidedly creepy atmosphere helped scare up some much-needed Halloween spirit. I do hope this event will become a regular Halloween tradition.

Once safely back at our starting point, our party still intact — sadly, having found no trace of our missing hikers — Brugger and I returned to Martinsville (passing my favorite Spooky Place along the way) and stopped at Renewal Brewing, where we topped off the evening with a couple of brews.

This is Halloween, this IS Halloween...

Southern Nights, Northern Lights

It's damn near ironic that Ms. B.; our friends, Terry & Beth; and I returned from Michigan last week, where there had been talk that the Aurora Borealis, a.k.a. the Northern Lights, might be in evidence, particularly from the Upper Peninsula, where we spent a good portion of the trip. Sadly, the entire time we were there, atmospheric conditions failed to cooperate, and we never managed to view them. She's seen them plenty of times, but I have not, so it was a smidgen disappointing.

Now, the recent solar activity has made it so that the Northern Lights are showing up where here in Virginia and even points farther south. Now, they're not bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, other than perhaps as a bit of atmospheric haze; but cell phone cameras are frequently able to capture the light that our eyes can't.

This evening, Brugger and I drove out to nearby Forest Park Country Club, where we had a reasonably clear view of the sky with very little light pollution. We managed to get a few halfway decent shots of the Aurora, which was at least somewhat gratifying. One certainly doesn't see that every day here in VA.

Early in the evening, I spent some time putting out more Halloween decorations and carving a jack-o'-lantern. There will be more to come, but at least things are shaping up for the season. And we've shifted into high gear watching our regular Halloween-season movies. This weekend, we'll be partying at Terry & Beth's, the following at Joe & Suzy's, and following that, at our place. Busy times!