Stephen Mark Rainey's Blog, page 21

THE FORT — A Short Horror Film by Alan Lastufka

"Teenage best friends Erin and Tim have their own hideout in the woods. It’s an old reclaimed trailer nicknamed the Fort. And it just grew a new door…"
Writer/Publisher/Filmmaker Alan Lastufka's short horror film, The Fort, is due for release in October 2024. A Kickstarter campaign has been launched to assist with the film's funding.
Alan Lastufka is CEO of  Shortwave Publishing , which released my newest anthology, Deathrealm: Spirits , this past October. Support The Fort — A Short Horror Film Kickstarter Campaign Here

Man the Pumps!

An hour ago, we received a tornado alert on our phones, the wind came roaring, and the tornado sirens started blaring. That all seemed fairly short-lived, and the wind has let up, though the rainfall is prodigious. There's usually not a creek with waterfalls here. The basement is a bit flooded, and that takes a LOT of water. Usually, it stays bone-dry even with a decent amount of rain.
This weather system is all over the region and beyond, so I hope everyone is staying safe.

Guns of the Wasteland by Leverett Butts

Mainly on my long daily walks, I've been listening to Lev Butts's Guns of the Waste Land series on Audible. It's Arthurian legend set in the wild west;stylish, with beautifully drawn characters, set in a colorful, immersiveenvironment. Michael Hajiantonis's narration is masterful. The fourth andfinal part is due for release shortly. Y'all really need to check out the books,either in paperback or on Audible .

Lev is a hell of an author, and a while back, I met him on one of my trips to my old stomping grounds in Gainesville, GA (Tuesday, October 11, 2022 — "Sabbatical 2: Return to Georgia"). We hit it off nicely, and I consider him a valued friend and peer. I do hope we have a chance to get together again soon.

Guns of the Waste Land
by Leverett Butts on Audible

The Weird Library: Listen in the Dark — "Black Shuck Tavern"

"Black Shuck Tavern," by author Emma Gibbon kicks off the debut episode of The Weird Library: Listen in the Dark , Lovecraft eZine editor Mike Davis 's new podcast. The story is narrated by Bridgette Brenmark , who also created the art and soundtrack for the show. Listen to “Black Shuck Tavern” at
The Weird Library: Listen in the Dark

A Virginia Beach New Year's

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2023These past few New Year's holidays, Brugger and I have gathered withour regular partners in crime, Terry & Beth, and this year,friends Joe & Suzy joined the mix. This year, we had decidedon Virginia Beach as our destination and made reservations at the Dolphin Run condos on the waterfront. Since we were all heading from different places — andI had geocaches to stop for — each couple drove separately. Ms. B. and I leftabout 11:00 a.m. Sure enough... there were some cool geocaches to snag along theway. We hit a few spots of traffic, but overall, the trip turned out to be amostly pain-free six hours.

Once ensconced in our lodgings, we opened some wine for pre-dinner drinks. Come the dinner hour, we saw a few nearby restaurants, so we walked up to an appealing-looking place called Waterman's Surfside Grill , but the wait time — about an hour — struck us as a bit much. So we ended up walking another partial block and found Mahi's  at the nearby Hilton Hotel. They specialize in sushi, and I ended up with some of the best dead fish I've had in ages... maybe ever.
Then we returned to our lodgings and — scandalous, I know — we opened some wine. Our revels, debates, and mud-wrestling lasted fairly late. Brugger and I took a nice, late-night walk on the beach. Then there was some heavy-duty bed-crashing. The Dolphin Run Condos by night

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2023 After plenty of coffee, I set out walking after geocaches. Found a few physical hides and stages of several Adventure Lab (virtual) caches. I ended up hoofing it about two and a half miles, which is fairly typical of my daily walks back home. The wind behaved brutally for much of the distance, so I was still rather glad when I made it back indoors.
For lunch, our gang decided to give Waterman's another try because the menu had appeared appealing. This time, we were able to get seated quickly. One of their daily specials was an Angus burger with brie and applewood-smoked bacon, and it hollered at me. No drinks but water for me because I'm certain there will be no shortage of such refreshments this evening. The burger was very good, a bit shy of great. Still, it's been ages since I've had a burger, so it hit the critical spot.
To my dismay, I discovered that our power back home had gone out. Apparently, it was a widespread outage in Martinsville, as people all over the city were posting about it. It lasted a couple of hours, and I don't know what caused it, but at the moment, all seems well again. We certainly did not want the cats and their sitter to get too cold!
Writer/editor/Crossroad Press CEO/good friend David Niall Wilson was apparently in town, and we'd had an idea we might try to get together during the afternoon, but circumstances didn't come together for it. However, come April, we'll be seeing each other at the upcoming AuthorCon III in Williamsburg, so we'll have a good time there to anticipate. 
There is a walkway along the beach that runs just below our eighth-floor balcony — the "boardwalk," it's called, although it's not so much boards as concrete. It's been all done up with a holiday light show, so, during the evening, a huge parade of vehicles rolls by to go through the show. It doesn't bother us at all, though now and again, we venture out to the balcony to hurl insults at the crowd and look at some of the visible lights.
Several of the gang were out and about for the afternoon, so they picked up vittles for dinner, including a couple of rotisserie chickens for the main course. Joe made us a lovely Italian concoction of beans and escarole to go with the bird, and so we were set. Once well-fed, we settled in for an evening of wine, games, and generally acting up. Crazy white people! The opening of the light show below our balcony: "Welcome to VA Beach!" SUNDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2023 I'd hoped the weather might be a bit less blustery this morning to go walkies, but while the sun blazed brightly, that air remained frigid. So... no. I got some writing done. Finally, at about 11:00 a.m., the temperature pushed up to the 40-degree mark, and I decided to head on out. Joe & Suzy had a lunch date with her sister, who lives nearby, and the rest of us planned to eat leftovers, so I reckoned I could walk as far as I wanted to, and we'd be on our own time until later this afternoon. I went a full two miles outbound, grabbed a traditional cache and the stages of a couple of Adventure Labs, and I had just reached my farthest goal when Ms. B. shot me a message. Apparently, the gang had decided to check out lunch options than leftovers, and could I please get back pretty soon? Hoo boy... long way....
Fortunately, I walk pretty fast.
Our lunch destination was Firebrew Bar & Grill down by Oceana Naval Air Station, where Terry and Joe had been stationed back in our nation's earliest days. Terry and I started with a couple of bloody marys (quite good) and ye women opted for wine. Possibly the wrong thing to do because we're having a big New Year's Eve dinner, but I went for a half-rack of baby back ribs, and damn... they were delicious. There was a cache nearby, so I grabbed it... and ran into a local geocacher in the process. We had a brief, enjoyable conversation.
From there, ye women went shopping, and Terry and I headed down to Oceana to meander around his old stomping grounds. For me, the real treat was getting to view a fair number of "antique" Navy aircraft up close and personal. Due largely to my model-building days, which ranged from my wee childhood until post-college, I recalled the names and types of the majority of the jets. Fun stuff! F4 Phantom F2H Banshee F14 Tomcat The Lunch Bunch
For New Year's Eve dinner, we had reservations at Mermaid Winery, up at the northern end of Virginia Beach. It was a three-course dinner with choices of pork belly, scallops, crabmeat-stuff lobster, filet mignon, and an assortment of sweets for dessert. They served really good wine with dinner — not their own, which turned out to be fortunate because Kim and Terry sampled some of theirs and came away with expressions that were not at all pretty. Great atmosphere and fantastic food made the overall experience a great finish for the year.
Back at the condo, we sat up playing tunes and making merry. Brugger entertained us with nonstop dancing from the time we arrived until we crashed, well after midnight.
2023 has left the building... Our Gang at Mermaid Winery for dinner The final moonrise of 2023 A LOOK BACK AT 2023 Without question, 2023 has been one of the most eventful years of my life. It was my first full year of retirement and included a major move back to my old homeplace in Virginia. In Greensboro, Ms. B. and I went through some of the worst household issues ever, first and foremost being the downright monstrous expense of replacing our sewer line ( "Ain't That the Shit!" ). Once we decided to move to Martinsville, we simultaneously went through the processes of upgrading our Greensboro house to sell and upgrading Pleasant Hill to move. What a long, expensive, labor-intensive job ( "I'm Getting Too Old for This Shit!" ). Fortunately, we got a good price on the Greensboro place, and while there are still some things we need (and want) to do in Martinsville, the house and town have turned out to be — unlike Greensboro has become — a comfortable, peaceful place to settle.
Early in the year and into the summer, along with all the physical labor, I was immersed in editing Deathrealm: Spirits , which came out in October from Shortwave Publishing . As with any anthology, it was an involved process, but overall, I reckon things came together as smoothly as I could have hoped. It's a beautiful book that includes superb work from many of the biggest and best names in the business. I hope you'll avail yourselves to it if you haven't already.
One of the hardest events to deal with this past year was the death of my good friend and regular geocaching partner, Rob Isenhour. We had well over a decade of experiences together, and whenever our (mostly) weekend geocaching group, The No-Dead-Weight Irregulars, manages to get together (sadly, not as frequently these days, since we are far more spread apart), the gap that Rob left behind seems massive. We do so miss him.
Having turned fairly old, this year has hit me with a few health challenges — none all that severe, but numerous and just serious enough to become real, if mostly temporary impediments. This last round of dental difficulty ( "Fun & Games with Tooth Extractions" ) was the icing on the medical cake for this year. I can't say I approve, but at least I've mostly mended.
All in all, I can safely say this year has been another positive, if bumpy step forward in the walk into the unknown. I suppose, to put it in the immortal words of , it's better (at least sometimes) than being slapped in the belly with a wet trout.

Scary Christmas and Happy Horrordays!

CHRISTMAS EVE MORNING... I got up fairly early, well before Ms. B., and made my usual Christmas Eve morning slapjacks. Tradition, don't you know. On a whim, I took a photo of the cast of the 1974 original Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla , the lot of whom are hanging out on the shelf in my office. Then I did a little Photoshop job to post as a Christmas greeting. And as you can see, these guys are sure having a great time!
Brugger and I had ordered a bar set a while back as a Christmas present to each other, so we spent most of the afternoon hammering it all together. It's really quite lovely, and I made an extra run to the liquor store during the afternoon to insure we had sufficient spirits to stock it up. We put it to good use during the evening, as friends Charles and Samaire came round for treats. We ended up going till the wee hours; a most enjoyable little gathering.
An absolutely lovely Christmas Eve at Casa di Rodan
CHRISTMAS MORNING... Quite early, our houseful of housecats set to hollering impatiently to get their gifts from Santa, so that was all she wrote for dad getting any more sleep. The afternoon weather forecast wasn't looking promising, though the temperature was lovely, so once Ms. B. was up and going, she and I took a pleasant walk around nearby Lake Lanier. Then she started dinner cooking — a big ol' pot roast in the crock pot to make shredded beef to go on jalapeno pasta a friend gave us a while back. Wacky people taking a Christmas morning walk around Lake Lanier
Friends Terry & Beth recently picked up a brand-new huge-screen TV for themselves, so they very kindly donated their old one to us. Brugger and I spent the early afternoon getting it all set up. Then I made mulled wine. Allison originally intended to come round during the afternoon, but she had gone to visit her mom in Greensboro and their festivities ran a bit late, so we'll be seeing her at some later time. Mid-afternoon, Kimberly and I opened our presents to each other, and there were good things. A new S.H. MonsterArts Gigan figure is a particular favorite, and he's now up on the shelf with the rest of the daikaiju figures that currently haunt our house. I took a photo of him and futzed around with the scenery. After all this, Brugger set to work building a chess pie for tonight's dessert.   The cats made out like bandits, by the way.
Our shredded beef on jalapeno pasta with roasted brussel sprouts turned out fantastic — amped up with a bit of Smoky Bourbon Ghost Pepper that Santa put in my stocking. And Brugger's chess pie for dessert was out of this world. For our second dessert, we watched Destroy All Monsters on the big-screen TV, which came purty near duplicating a fun theatrical experience (my most memorable Destroy All Monsters experience is detailed here: "A Random Godzilla Story," September 7, 2014 ).   And so ended another lovely Christmas Day. Christmas was my parents' favorite holiday, and I always find myself a bit wistful, since I am the last of the family I grew up with. I tend to not dwell on that fact, but at Christmas, it's easy — and, for me, desirable — to reflect on what a wonderful family I did have and to express my love and appreciation for my current family: Ms. B., my daughter, and, of course, our four lovable yet terrible catses. I could hardly ask for more. L: There's nothing like relaxing with a hot cup of coffee and a bear hard on your trail.
R: My new coaster has bigger feet than your coaster.

A Happy Horrorday Freebie — "Masque of the Queen"

A FREEBIE!
Submitted for your approval: a sampling from my short story collection, Fugue Devil: Resurgence... a tale of eldritch horror titled “Masque of the Queen.” This one originally appeared in In the Court of the Yellow King (Celaeno Press, 2014), a volume of stories inspired by Robert W. Chambers’ “The King in Yellow” — a play that brings madness, despair... or death... to anyone who reads it.

“Masque of the Queen” follows a young actress slated to play Queen Cassilda in an off-Broadway production of “The King in Yellow.” Unaware of the play’s dreadful reputation, she finds herself desperate to escape the clutches of something intent on dragging her into a realm of madness and horror.

It’s downloadable as a PDF or ebook (mobi or epub file) from my website.

Check it out here: “Masque of the Queen”

Christmas Comes to Supper Club

Throughout the year, our good friends, Joe & Suzy andTerry & Beth, get together with Brugger & me for aregular, (almost) monthly dinner & drink gathering we simply call "Supper Club." We alternate hosting the gathering at our respective residences, but Terry& Beth pretty much have dibs on December, since it's Beth's favorite time toentertain. Last night was this year's Christmas Supper Club.
As it happened, friends Natalie and Scott, of the No-Dead-Weight Irregulars geocaching team, were both available for a day of geocaching (an all-too-rare event these days), so we met in Winston-Salem yesterday morning, hiked and drove, and drove and hiked, and found a good many caches. Then we split up and I buzzed over to Kernersville to Terry & Beth's place. It wasn't long before our dinner gathering was complete, and out came the wine.
So, so much wine, including several of the bottles that we brought back from our Pacific Northwest/Alaska trip back in the fall.
Beth's dinner, as always, rocked rockets. Onion tarts, ham & cheese sliders, BBQ chicken sliders, veggies, cheeses, and other small plate fare, plus eclairs and chocolate for dessert. Much later in the evening, we went out among the natives to gawk at the neighborhood's impressive Christmas decorations. It wasn't really a caroling outing, but some in the area might mention that they heard somebody belting out the happy strains of "Timothy," by the Buoys (1971), which is easily the best song about cannibalism ever to hit the American Top 40. Okay, it may not be a Christmas carol, but it's kind of about feasting and celebrating, and we were starting to get hungry again.

A Supper Club Christmas

Throughout the year, our good friends, Joe & Suzy andTerry & Beth, get together with Brugger & me for aregular, (almost) monthly dinner & drink gathering we simply call "Supper Club." We alternate hosting the gathering at our respective residences, but Terry& Beth pretty much have dibs on December, since it's Beth's favorite time toentertain. Last night was this year's Christmas Supper Club.
As it happened, friends Natalie and Scott, of the No-Dead-Weight Irregulars geocaching team, were both available for a day of geocaching (an all-too-rare event these days), so we met in Winston-Salem yesterday morning, hiked and drove, and drove and hiked, and found a good many caches. Then we split up and I buzzed over to Kernersville to Terry & Beth's place. It wasn't long before our dinner gathering was complete, and out came the wine.
So, so much wine, including several of the bottles that we brought back from our Pacific Northwest/Alaska trip back in the fall.
Beth's dinner, as always, rocked rockets. Onion tarts, ham & cheese sliders, BBQ chicken sliders, veggies, cheeses, and other small plate fare, plus eclairs and chocolate for dessert. Much later in the evening, we went out among the natives to gawk at the neighborhood's impressive Christmas decorations. It wasn't really a caroling outing, but some in the area might mention that they heard somebody belting out the happy strains of "Timothy," by the Buoys (1971), which is easily the best song about cannibalism ever to hit the American Top 40. Okay, it may not be a Christmas carol, but it's kind of about feasting and celebrating, and we were starting to get hungry again.

The Everyday Walkies

One of the absolute highlights of having moved back to my original homeplace in Martinsville is that the neighborhood is so conducive to walking. There are lots of woods, beautiful homes, big hills (which I make a point not to shy away from), and some very nice folks. When I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s, Martinsville had a large industrial and commercial base — primarily furniture and textiles — which kept most of the town employed, and with a remarkably high standard of living. During those days, there were more millionaires per square mile in Martinsville than anywhere in the United States. Sadly, those big employers are long gone, and for many years, Martinsville was damn near a ghost town. The place is still largely a shadow of what it once was, but there are enough entrepreneurs and creative individuals who are dedicated to bringing a new renaissance to town that have helped reverse the negative trend. And there's still some old money floating around that has provided a bulwark against the influx of too many ghosts.
So, back to my original point, I walk two to three miles every day, usually mid-morning, and apart from occasional weather-related cancelations, I have managed to keep to the schedule religiously. Combined with a couple of weeks of barely being able to eat, thanks to complications from having a tooth yanked (see Fun and Games with Tooth Extractions," December 14, 2023 ), I've lost several pounds. Whether I can keep them off is the eternal question, but it would be nice to remain shed of some of that extra weight that just plain exercise doesn't excise.
Sometimes I walk in the woods, as there are a few decent trails around, some official, some less so. I own a plethora of geocaches in the area, and I try to keep them well-maintained. I've found a few entertaining decorative items in nearby yards, clearly indicating some creative residents (see photos). And the long walks are great for listening to audiobooks, which have about become my primary means of "reading," since my eyes don't hold up for long spells of usage the way they used to. I've gotten through Ian Fleming's entire James Bond 007 series, Stephen King & Richard Chizmar's Gwendy series, John Scalzi's Daikaiju Preservation Society, Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey , Peter Benchley's Jaws , William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist, Mark Frost's Secret History of Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier , F. Paul Wilson's The Keep, and I'm currently listening to the second of four books in friend/fellow author Leverett Butt's Guns of the Waste Land series. Many of these are "re-reads," but they're books I've been looking to revisit for the longest time, and what an enjoyable opportunity to get back to them it's been.
Here's hoping a tolerable winter, walking-weather-wise. About to embark on a chilly-weather excursion A closer look, and you might see a few hundred turkey buzzards gathered around Lake Lanier, just down the street from home. Another view of the lake