Stephen Mark Rainey's Blog, page 27

Midland or (Damn Near) Bust!

Our typical view forward (from a standstill) for a disgusting percentage of our 750-mile drive to Michigan Thursday, August 3–Friday, August 4
Kimberly B.’s cousins in Michigan had planned a family reunion for thisweekend, and so we decided some time ago that we would attend. With flightsbeing crazy expensive, we opted to drive, as we have several times in the past.What we hadn’t done was drive to Michigan at the height of highway constructionseason. Our plan was similar to our previous road trips here: leave homeand head to Ripley, WV; stay the night at the handy-dandySuper 8 Motel there; and then drive the rest of the way the followingday. Ordinarily, this makes for a 12- to 14-hour trip, including occasionalstops. Thanks to countless construction holdups, the inevitable accidents, andmiles-long traffic jams courtesy of too many motherfucking people, we ended upwith a damn near 18-hour drive.

Bloody exhausting. At least I managed to find a handful of decent geocaches along the way, and we listened to an audiobook (Casino Royale) and some fun 70s and 80s music to mitigate the frustration. It rained most of the way on Thursday, but at least it wasn’t blinding. Friday’s drive felt like the endless traffic jam from hell since we easily spent as much time crawling (or motionless) as we did moving at a clip. After a particularly egregious delay just north of Ann Arbor, Brugger suggested we stop at a nearby Mexican Restaurant and have an early dinner (along with a margarita for good measure). That was just enough to help us mellow out, and, finally, we made that last couple of hours to her folks’ place in Midland without undue delay.

Saturday, August 5
The family reunion was to kick off at noon, so at 11:30 a.m., Kimberly, Del, Fern, and I set out for the backcountry around Loomis, MI, about a half hour from Midland. I’d met only a couple of her cousins before, so for me, this was mostly a gathering of strangers, but the decent food and company made for a relaxing enough event.

This date is my dear, late friend “Old Rob” Isenhour’s birthday, so a while back, friend Scott (a.k.a. Diefenbaker) and I organized a geocaching event to be held today to commemorate his life and myriad contributions to our geocaching community. At the time, I didn’t recall our commitment to Ms. B’s family reunion. So, since I couldn’t attend Rob’s birthday event in person, Scott arranged for me to pipe in with a video call at 2:00 p.m. As the reunion drew to a close, I hoofed it down the long dirt road to a find nearby geocache, and at ground zero, I attempted to make the call. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t go through. Fortunately, once we got back to Casa di Brugger, the call worked, so Ms. B. and I were able to virtually attend the event for a time. It turned out to be the biggest gathering of local geocachers in years, featuring many old-timers who haven’t been active in years. That warmed my old heart since Rob had been such a noteworthy figure, both in my life and in our community.

Old Rodan on the hunt A right purty view from GZ

For the evening, Ms. B.’s longtime friend, Linda, formerly of Midland, and her daughter, Hayley, who were visiting from Illinois, joined us for drinks and dinner at Whichcraft, a nice downtown establishment featuring Michigan-made spirits of all varieties. As it turned out, this was also the weekend for Midland’s annual River Days celebration, which drew a sizable crowd downtown. Happily, we managed to find easy parking, relatively mellow surroundings, and more refreshments at nearby Grape Beginnings, a fine local winery/wine bar that Brugger and I make a point to visit whenever we’re here. Linda and Hayley proved excellent company, and we ended up closing down the wine bar. Toward the end of the evening, we bore witness to what I would call the most spectacular fireworks display I’ve ever experienced. For a full half-hour, the myriad explosions lit the sky without even a few seconds pause. Apparently, River Days provides quite the blast here in Midland.

Sunday, August 6
I haven’t been a churchgoing soul for many years, but Del & Fern invited Kimberly and me to join them for the morning service at Midland Nazarene, and so... off to church we went. Theirs is what I would call a “modern” kind of service, with a band, contemporary music, and prerecorded video messages (which I found ironic since these focused on building personal connections) in addition to traditional churchy things. In the end, to quote the infamous Dr. Franklin Ruehl, it was better than being slapped in the belly with a wet trout. How about that?

The weather was drizzly and dreary all day, but Kimberly and I ventured out to grab lunch for the family from KFC, followed by a second outing to a downtown knick-knack shop she likes and then Live Oak Coffeehouse for some hot (or in her case, cold) refreshment. I stopped to hunt a nearby cache, but by all indications, the bloody thing was missing. It rained real water on me.

As is our custom when we don’t have other plans, Ms. B. and I spent the eveningrelaxing with the folks, mostly watching various TV shows in the family room.This was also better than the wet trout treatment.
Monday, August 7
This evening’s plan was for me to make dinner — meatloaf, at Del & Fern’s request — which meant I needed to go shopping at Meijer . However, I couldn’t bring myself to go shopping at Meijer without first going geocaching. So, I set out on this somewhat dreary morning (which, happily, turned undreary within an hour or so) to hunt some of the local hides I hadn’t yet found. I had mixed success. A couple of very tough ones eluded me (both of which I’ve hunted before; they eluded me then, too); several others I found without difficulty. All this amounted to about three miles of hoofing it on a comfortable morning, so I’m a happy cacher. Then I went to Meijer and picked up the dinner stuff (and some sushi for lunch, which was pretty awful; I should have known better than to buy Meijer sushi).
During the afternoon, I received the preliminary print file for Deathrealm: Spirits  from Shortwave Publishing , so I spent a good while proofing it. I got pretty far with it, but soon it came time to prepare the evening dinner. It turned out danged good. Then... oy...! Migraine! Sure enough, it’s that time of year, when the weather begins to shift toward the next season. Today’s drop in temperature and low pressure no doubt triggered the damned thing. So, the evening turned out less comfortable than I’d hoped, but at least the headache wasn’t as severe as many that I’ve had in the past.
Much to our dismay, word from our housesitter is that Kim’s kitty, Ralph, who suffered congestive heart failure some time ago, isn’t doing very well. With the meds he’s been taking, he’s enjoyed almost normal health, but at this point, he may just be running out of time. Very, very sad. In any event, we’ll probably be leaving Michigan a day earlier than we had intended.
Tuesday, August 8
Our housesitter gave us a somewhat reassuring report this morning, but I think we’re still going to head home a day early. There’s nothing we can really do from here anyway, so we’ll have to enjoy our remaining time as best we can. Thus, after breakfast, I set my sights on the nearby community of Sanford, where a goodly number of caches awaited my attention. One of them was at a neat little covered bridge at the Sanford Centennial Museum , a cache I had hunted before — as my attempted 14,000th find — but it turned out to be missing at the time. It has since been replaced, so this morning, I was finally able to stake my claim. I also went after a trio of Adventure Lab caches, two of which were at the museum; I hiked and hunted along the Pere Marquette Rail Trail  for a couple of miles; and I found caches at a couple of neat old graveyards. Once done, I put in three miles of hiking and logged a total of 26 caches. Not too shabby.
Once back at Casa di Brugger, I did a little updating on this blog and continued proofing the Deathrealm: Spirits dummy. For dinner, Ms. B. and I headed to d’Alessandro’s Italian Restaurant , which we’ve enjoyed several times on past visits. And again, very pleasant tonight. Manicotti with Bolognese sauce for Ms. B. and Angel Hair with Bolognese per me. We accompanied this with a delicious Bocelli Sangiovese. Until this, I never realized the great Andrea Bocelli came from a winemaking family. I approve of both his voice and his spirits.
From this morning — a few of the sights around Sanford: Wednesday, August 9
I set out bright and early this morning on yet another geocaching quest,this time bound for Freeland, a little community a few milessoutheast of Midland. I had picked up a handful of Freeland caches in yearspast, but today I managed to put a pretty good dent in the total. A couple ofgraveyard caches had caught my eye — both of which I had previously visited onhunts for older caches. Sadly, I had not been successful on those hunts becausethe caches were missing, and, even more sadly, I had no better luck today — andI’m pretty sure it’s because these newer hides, too, have gone missing. Still, Ihad a mighty fine time, and I added another 14 to my total find count, which nowstands at 14,420.
Kimberly and her parents went antiquing, and it turned out they, too, ended up in Freeland after a run to Saginaw. I had already arrived back home before they hit Freeland, though, so our paths would not have crossed. I could have accompanied them and done some caching in Saginaw as well as Freeland, but I figured I’d still end up in some antique stores, and I didn’t really have that kind of spirit in me today.
For dinner, we opted for Japanese, at Fuji Sushi, which we’ve enjoyed on previous occasions. Now, I understand it’s all economics, but I sure miss the days of sushi restaurants serving a wide variety of fish and seafood on their sushi plates. Like most nowadays, Fuji gives you two pieces of a select few varieties, instead of a single piece of numerous varieties. I prefer the latter. That said, the selections were delicious, and I found the salmon skin handroll quite heavenly.
For our final evening of this Midland trip, we enjoyed the usual family gathering in the family room with game shows and cooking shows providing the entertainment.
This trip has not been without some unusual stressors. Our kitty Ralph isn’t doing well. We had a bit of a scare that we might have expensive appliance issues back home, but I think the issue has been resolved, hopefully for the long haul. We’re very close to getting our Greensboro house sold, but some of the scheduling on the last legs of the journey has proven problematic. I’m sure it’ll get sorted out. But sometimes, I tend to be the nervous sort. And Ms. B. has been more than typically stressed out.
I sure as hell hope our drive home is less of a pain in the ass than the drive up here.
From this morning — a few of the sights around Freeland: On the hunt in Pine Grove Cemetery Pick a hole. Any hole. A little covered footbridge at Memorial Park A lovely day at West Side Cemetery

Deathrealm: Spirits: Full Author List Revealed!

Deathrealm: Spirits, a new horror anthology edited by Stephen Mark Rainey, picks up where Deathrealm magazine left off over 25 years ago. This volume features 20 new ghostly stories and poems by some of the best to have ever written in the genre.

The complete Deathrealm: Spirits author list is (in alphabetical order)…

• Linda D. Addison
• Meghan Arcuri
• Larry Blamire
• Maurice Broaddus
• Heather D. Daughrity
• Timothy G. Huguenin
• Brian Keene
• Ronald Kelly
• Joe R. Lansdale
• Kasey Lansdale
• Eric LaRocca
• Patricia Lee Macomber
• Elizabeth Massie
• Bridgett Nelson
• Errick Nunnally
• Jeff Oliver
• Jessica Amanda Salmonson
• Richard Thomas
• Tony Tremblay
• David Niall Wilson

Check out Deathrealm: Spirits (including pre-ordering) at Shortwave Publishing

The Canterbury Nightmares Is in the House!

My contributor copy of editor David Niall Wilson’s The Canterbury Nightmares , featuring my story, “The Secret Place: A Knight’s Tale,” is in thehouse. As one might infer from its title, the anthology is inspired by the workof Chaucer. It’s now up for pre-order from Crossroad Press in ebook, trade paperback, and hardback.

“ The Canterbury Nightmares is a new anthology of terror tales, allof which combine the essence of Chaucer’s pilgrims on their journey to a shrinewith the apparent climax of the recent global COVID-19 pandemic. These storieswere born in a time when personal connections were few, breathing the air in agrocery store felt unsafe, and the country all but dissolved into divided andseemingly irreparable factions.

“The Canterbury Nightmares: Eleven travelers head out to visit the Grand Canyon, all motivated by their own powerful, personal reasons. All have suffered profound losses; all harbor secret but consuming agony. An old man taking a long-promised journey with his wife. A congregation that has lost its way. Individuals of different backgrounds and cultures, all dealing with grief, loss, and isolation. In The Canterbury Nightmares, you will be led not only to the soaring precipices of the Grand Canyon but also into deep, dark, unimaginable recesses.”

Table of Contents:
“The Old Man’s Tale” – Steve Rasnic Tem
“The Liberation of Brother Buffalo” – Michael Boatman
“Think of the Family” – Ai Jiang
“To See Her in Sepia” – Scott J. Moses
“The Preditor's Tale” – Terence Taylor
“The Wife of Wrath’s Tale” – John B. Rosenman
“The Secret Place: A Knight’s Tale” – Stephen Mark Rainey
“The Sacred Clarion” – S.A. Cosby
“The Tour Guide's Tale” – Anna Tambour
“Every Form of Person” – J.A.W. McCarthy
“Vending Machine Girl”– Eric LaRocca

Pre-Order The Canterbury Nightmares from Amazon.com here

Deathrealm: Spirits—Table of Contents TBA

The complete Deathrealm: Spirits anthology table of contents will be revealed on Tuesday, July 25...

So far we've only teased four contributors: Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Keene, Elizabeth Massie, and Eric LaRocca. There are 16 more incredible authors in the lineup!

Deathrealm: Spirits, edited by this old dude, releases from Shortwave Publishing (trade paperback & ebook) in October 2023.

Some years ago, I put together a comprehensive retrospective of Deathrealm magazine, which — if you are brave and daring (or perhaps masochistic) — you can find here.

 

What a Waste

On Valentine's Day, 2020, Ms. B. and I were going out to dinner when a very impaired young fellow named Austin Mabry smashed into my car while we were sitting at a stoplight. He was immediately arrested on the scene, and I was called to be a witness at his court appearance. He didn't show up.

Since then, he has apparently faced numerous other drug-related charges, and the local police have been looking for him for a while. A short time ago, they found him dead in the crawlspace under a building not far from here. Doesn't sound like foul play; I suspect an overdose.

By all indications, he was the consummate waste of flesh. Still, I can't help but find it tragic for someone that young to be so fucked up. And now gone. Of course, this shit happens every day, but having experienced this kid up close and personal, that twinge of sadness isn't so abstract. He wasn't really a "kid," but for me, it's hard to think of him otherwise.

February 14, 2020: A Smashing Valentine's Day

Damned Rodan's Chicken Dijon

Ms. B. and I eat a lot of chicken, and I have quite a few recipes, most resulting from trial and error while trying to reproduce (or come close) to some dish I've had at a restaurant or friend's place. Now and again, I find a recipe online and follow it with varying degrees of faithfulness (usually, I go all kinds of nuts with such things, and I'm pretty sure that what I come up with is usually better than if I'd simply followed the recipe to the letter.

Last night, more or less on a whim, I decided to try my hand at Chicken Dijon, which I'd never made before. I found a base recipe (where, I'll never remember), and fucked around with it until I came up with what turned out to be a winning formula. Now, most of my recipes are for fiery things (some of my Thai-based concoctions have on occasion been almost too much for me), but not always. The Chicken Dijon certainly wasn't loaded with heat, although it did have a pleasant little kick.

Feel free to try this (or fuck around with it to your heart's content).

WHAT YOU NEED:
• 3 slices bacon
• 4–6 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 lb.)
• 2 c angel hair pasta (4 servings)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 3 medium carrots, cut into chunks
• 1/4 c fresh thyme leaves, plus more for garnish
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 4 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1/3 c white wine (I used Vermouth, since it was the nearest thing at hand)
• 1 c chicken broth
• 1 c half-and-half
• 2 tsp granulated sugar
• 3/4 c frozen green peas
• 1/4 c capers
• 4 to 6 Lemon wedges

WHAT YOU DO:
1) In a large skillet (I prefer cast iron), cook bacon until very crisp. Remove when done and crush into bits. When the chicken and sauce are a few minutes from done, cook the angel hair.

2) Add chicken, skin-side down; season to taste with salt and pepper and cook in the bacon fat on medium-high heat until skin is gold and crispy, about 8 minutes. Flip and cook for 5 minutes more. Transfer to a plate.

3) Add butter, onion, garlic, carrots, thyme, coriander, and red pepper flakes. Cook on medium-high heat, stirring frequently and scraping up any brown bits on bottom of pan. Stir in mustard, wine, chicken brother, half-and-half, and sugar. Cook until mostly reduced, about 10 minutes.

4) While ingredients simmer, cut chicken and skin from bones into bite-size pieces.

5) Reduce heat to medium and return cut chicken to pan. Simmer until sauce has thickened, about 10–12 minnutes. Add peas and capers and let simmer for another 3–4 minutes.

6) Plate the angel hair, and squeeze the juice from the lemon wedges directly onto the pasta. Ladle the chicken and sauce onto the pasta and garnish with thyme and crushed bacon bits.

Et voilà!

On Writing for $$$

A thread on the Horror Writers Association Facebook page prompted me torespond, so here it is in a nutshell, somewhat edited.

Would I write if I didn't get paid?

Sure, I'd write, but it wouldn't be the same. True professionals write passionately, with discipline, and have an eye toward publishing and making money (if not necessarily a living at it). Getting published and making money requires a dedicated drive that goes hand in hand with writing. There are plenty of good editors, agents, and publishers in the business who get the best out of writers because they are equally passionate about presenting the best they can find. Big houses, smaller but prestigious presses, indie publishers... there are so many avenues that writers can pursue without simply giving their work away or hiding it in a closet. Going through that process can work wonders on one's writing skills, determination, motivation, all that good stuff.

It's all about personal goals. You want to write all your demons out of your head, whether anyone ever sees it? That's a hobbyist, and that is absolutely fine; a lot of hobbyists reach a level of satisfaction and achievement that is enviable. But I'd wager that most of us who've made — and make money — in the business will crank out what we have to crank out to keep us unfucked in the head. I may be far from a household name, but I've been active as hell in this field for going on 40 years; for all this time, writing what unfucks my head, making some money with it, and knowing other people are going to read it (whether they like it or not is a whole nuther thing) is still an unbeatable treat — as is editing pro-paying books and presenting work by many of the best writers working today.

It's all about personal goals. That's the ticket.

Movin’ On

Casa di Rodan, 1994–2023
After nearly three decades of living in the same house in Greensboro, NC,it has finally come time to bid the old place adieu. Casa di Rodan (1994–2023) is now cleanedout except for some decorative items and a few pieces of furniture left therefor showings. Brugger and I are more or less settled in my old family house inMartinsville, VA (although the place is still very much in a state of transition— and for cats, a state of confusion). We have a host of reasons for making thismove, but the single most significant is the Great Sewer Line Debacle of 2023 , from back in March. Because of that single, massive expense,something had to give.

After inheriting my childhood home when Mom died in 2020, I had hoped to keep both it and the Greensboro residence for as long as possible. However, after spending so much money on that accursed sewer line, holding onto both was no longer financially feasible. It wasn’t all that difficult for Brugger and me to determine that keeping the Martinsville house (which Mom called “Pleasant Hill” but that I officially dubbed “Ground Zero”) made the most sense.

And so it is.

I love the prospect of occupying my old childhood home full-time, though I can’t say I don’t have mixed emotions about the whole business. I moved with my ex-wife into the Greensboro house back in 1994, and we lived there together until our separation and subsequent divorce well over a decade ago. For the next ten years, the cats and I lived in the house as a happy family unit. In 2021, Brugger and I married, and we all became a happier family unit. We immediately set to refurbishing the whole house, which proved to be a long, extensive, and not inexpensive job. Despite the house being relatively small and somewhat cramped, we figured we were set there for a long, long time.

No.

Especially during the solo years (well, solo with cats) and the days with Brugger there, I lived some mighty happy times. Hell, even my ex-wife, Peg, and I shared some enjoyable moments in the old place. My tenure there is the longest I’ve ever lived in one place, so I guess I can’t help having developed some attachment to the dwelling. Still, as the negative aspects of staying there have piled up, Ms. B. and I look forward to moving on to this next stage of life, however long it lasts. I’m not that young, and, well, even at the best of times, younever know how things are gonna shake out.

So, there it is. Huzzah. Brugger and I still have many friends in, and solid ties to, NC’s Triad, so it’s not like we’re going to be strangers to the area. Just to the old house, I reckon.

It’s out with the old and in with the new (or older with a facelift, as it were). Onward and upward, and all that. Or wherever life sees fit to lead us.

Ground Zero

007 Reloaded on Audible

Thank you, friend and fellow author Ian McDowell for pointing me in the direction of 007 Reloaded on Audible. Not long ago, Ian posted positive sentiments on the audio production of Moonraker, Ian Fleming’s third James Bond 007 novel (1955), specifically actor Bill Nighy’s narration. Intrigued, I decided to purchase the audiobook on Audible. In the past year or so, due to my all-too-frequently overtaxed eyes giving out on me when attempting to read for any length of time, I’ve taken to heart my wife’s suggestion to listen to audiobooks. Having lately been putting in far more than customary mileage on my automobile, audiobooks have been just the ticket to make driving considerably more pleasant.

I’ve been a 007 fanatic since I caught Diamonds Are Forever at the theater in January 1972 and then proceeded to read all of Fleming’s novels, most of which lurked in my dad’s den bookcase at the time (and have recently been somewhat ceremonially returned to that hallowed spot). During my teens and early twenties, I read all the books at least twice, some far more than that. My favorites of them are From Russia with Love and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (of the movies, both of those rank highest as well). Although I’ve read the later 007 offerings of Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Anthony Horowitz, and others, I’d not read any of the original Fleming novels in decades, so the prospect of experiencing a reputedly excellent audio production appealed to me.

Ian McDowell did not err in his praise. Although Moonraker doesn’t occupy the highest tier on my personal favorites list, narrator Bill Nighy — whom I rate most highly as an actor — kills the performance, and in fact readily elevated my appreciation of the source material. At that time, I knew nothing about the audio series. By way of a little research, I learned it came out in 2014 and featured a host of accomplished actors as narrators, including Dan Stevens, Damian Lewis, Hugh Quarshie, Hugh Bonneville, Jason Isaacs, David Tennant, Martin Jarvis, and Kenneth Branagh, as well as veteran 007 film actors Rory Kinnear, Rosamund Pike, and Toby Stephens.

Happily, on the most recent Amazon Prime Day, the audiobooks were made available at wonderfully discounted prices. So, I purchased most of the series, excepting the story collections For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy & The Living Daylights and Other Stories — which I most certainly will once I have finished listening to the novels. I suspect that won’t be very long, since I’m currently nearing the end of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

There’s not a clinker among these. Each narrator brings his (and her) unique vocal interpretation of the prose. In the enjoyable interviews that follow each production, many of the actors profess to have never previously read the books they narrate, and many apparently consciously avoided mimicking the vocal styles of the actors who played the characters they're reading in the movies. My personal favorite narrators are probably Nighy, Damian Lewis, Jason Isaacs, and Rosamund Pike. I still look forward to the vocal performances of Martin Jarvis and Kenneth Branagh (as well as Samuel West in For Your Eyes Only and Tom Hiddleston and Lucy Fleming in Octopussy & The Living Daylights and Other Stories).

The merits and shortcomings of Fleming’s original material aside, I’ve found these performances consistently invigorating treats. The audio form can be dicey in less-accomplished hands (or voices, as the case may be); it took me a while to warm to audiobooks in general largely because some of the narrators I’d experienced never seemed to hit all the marks. That is anything but an issue with this collection of Bond novels, so these, individually as well as a bunch, rate five out of five Damned Rodan’s Dirty Martinis. If you’re even marginally interested in the world of James Bond 007, whether books or films, I would say this audio series is absolutely for you.

Check out 007 Reloaded on Audible here.

Dark Corners of the Old Dominion — Cover Reveal

Cover Reveal: Dark Corners of the Old Dominion, due in September from Death Knell Press. This one features my very scary tale, “Doom at Dragon's Roost.”

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.

Pre-ordering info is coming soon!

Table of Contents:
• “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

Check out Dark Corners of the
Old Dominion here.