Stephen Mark Rainey's Blog, page 40

Penny Dreadful's “Terror at Collinwood: The Leviathans“ — with Rick Lai & Mark Rainey

The exquisite Penny Dreadful talks to author Rick Lai and me about Dark Shadows on her “Terror at Collinwood” podcast. This episode: “The Leviathans”!
“The deeply fascinating but oft-maligned Leviathans arc is the focus of this episode. Acclaimed authors Stephen Mark Rainey and Rick Lai visit the podcast to discuss and analyze this Dark Shadows storyline, while also looking at its inspirations. Other topics include Mark’s official work on the Dark Shadows Big Finish audio plays and the Dark Shadows novel Dreams of the Dark , and Rick’s intriguing essay on the Leviathans as well as some of his fictional tales that incorporate nods to Dark Shadows .”
Check it out here: Penny Dreadful’s “Terror at Collinwood: The Leviathans”

Coming Soon! Ameri-Scares Georgia: The Haunting of Tate’s Mill

Coming soon from Crossroad Press... My next novel in Elizabeth Massie’s Ameri-Scares series — Georgia: The Haunting of Tate’s Mill.

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In the 1950s, Lake Sidney Lanier was built in northern Georgia. Since then, hundreds of deaths on and around the lake have given rise to legends that spirits of the dead haunt the area. Teenager Aaron Tate, who lives near the lake with his parents, doesn’t believe in ghosts. But after he witnesses a jet ski accident on the water, he begins to experience many strange things. At night, weird lights float through the woods near the lake’s edge. An eerie voice in the darkness calls to him. He begins having nightmares that involve a strange woman from the past.

Aaron meets a girl named Suzette Sellers, who has moved into his neighborhood. They become friends and, together, resolve to learn the truth behind the frightening events. Aaron learns that his family home was built on the site of an old mill that belonged to his ancestors. Suzette’s house stands on land once owned by a woman named Lula Cheshire—a woman who was rumored to be a witch. And Aaron discovers that his great-great-grandfather, Charles Tate, might have had a strange and secret relationship with Lula Cheshire.

When events in Aaron’s life begin to mirror those of his great-great-grandfather, he wonders: do ghosts truly exist? What if Lula Cheshire really was a witch? And has the long-dead woman’s spirit returned from the grave to wreak vengeance for some crime his great-great-grandfather, Charles Tate, committed against her? He and Suzette must learn the truth—and send Lula Cheshire’s spirit back to the grave—before death comes to claim them both....

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I’ll post updates about the release, ordering information, etc., as they happen. Each Ameri-Scares novel is based on or inspired by an historical event, folktale, legend, of myth unique to that particular state. You can see the currently available books in the series on Amazon.com here.

Happy Diversion

Today, our usual Sunday morning geocaching outing consisted solely of the Old Farts — Old Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott), Old Rob (a.k.a. Old Rob), and Old Rodan (a.k.a. me). Our initial plan was to see if we could snag a few in Mebane, about 25 miles down the road, and then a few in Hillsborough, another 15 miles or so farther on. However, just as our aging gang was hobbling out of the house, notifications popped up for a series of six new hides in Burlington, which is several miles closer than Mebane. So, we altered our course and diverted to Burlington Springwood Park, which is a fairly large — and this morning, a very busy — facility. By the time we arrived, around 10:00 a.m., there were already several softball games in progress on the ballfields, and a disc golf tournament was just getting going. Muggles coming, going, in, out, up, down, and all around....
Undaunted, we parked the Rodan Mobile and set out on foot after the caches — five traditionals and one mystery cache. Each traditional contained information necessary to unlock the final mystery cache. The heat was hot, we hiked about three miles, and we had trouble finding a couple of the caches, so by the time we found the entire bunch, the evil day star was on the verge of getting the better of us. In the plus column, we met a family of cachers, whose team name — Phersjm — we knew from their many geocaches in the area, but this was the first time our paths had ever crossed in the field. Actually, our paths crossed twice, which was nice.
Happily, the No-Dead-Weight Irregular Old Farts scored six of the almost-maybe-kinda-sorta coveted first-to-find honors. And we met a very friendly black rat snake, who slithered by to check us out for a bit. He let me get quite close to him to take a few pictures, which I appreciated.
After all this, we headed on over to Mebane, where we found four more caches and an excellent lunch at Catrina’s Mexican Restaurant , which has become one of our favorite lunch destinations when we're caching over that way. Great food, and an extensive selection of it. The Rodan Mobile arrived back at Casa di Rodan about 3 o'clock and disgorged a bunch of weary, sweaty, filthy-dirty old men. Well, I'm not saying dirty old men, except, well, maybe, there's Scott....
Bye for now. Dude just keeps on slithering out of the greenery. He's easily a six-footer, if not more. "Hello, Mr. Man, I am ready for my close-up."

A Bouquet of Viscera by Bridgett Nelson

Bridgett Nelson’s debut fiction collection, A Bouquet of Viscera, presents a set of horror tales that range from the darkly fanciful to the most deeply, personally disturbing. There's not a single tale that doesn't hit most or all of the right notes. Many of the stories draw upon her real-life experience in the medical field to build a believable — and usually unsettling — backdrop. Apart from a scant handful of issues that a little editing would fix, Nelson's prose is assured, powerful, and immersive. Standout stories include "Aura," "Cooked," and "Jinx"; and their companion tales are scarcely less noteworthy.

The cover, by Lynne Hansen, couldn't capture the overall feel of this collection any better. Good stuff all-around.

Check out A Bouquet of Viscera at Amazon.com here.

Haunt of Southern-Fried Fear by Ronald Kelly

Many years ago, Ronald Kelly established himself as a horror author to be reckoned with, and with Haunt of Southern-Fried Fear, he’s put together a collection of some of his most fun stories. Most of these tales will offer a few laughs — but these are uneasy laughs. Chuckle while you squirm. In his time, Kelly has written many far more “serious” tales, but few that induce that lovely little adrenaline rush that accompanies so many scenes of victims meeting their ghastly fates (some of whom deserve what they get; others, not so much).

Kelly's somewhat crude little illustrations, which accompany the stories, add a lovely nostalgic, EC Comics flavor that is rings very true to those of us who grew up on those old gory horror pubs. Southern-fried fear indeed!

Check out at Haunt of Southern-Fried Fear at Amazon.com here.

Cannoli

So, one of the world’s most adorable little cats wandered around to the old homestead in Martinsville, where my daughter is living temporarily. Kitty is a very young, fixed male, about 8 months old by our reckoning. He appears healthy and is exceedingly friendly. We’ve posted notices about him, but no one has come forth to claim him. Allison named him Cannoli. For now, he’s pretty much a resident. If anyone in our area — Martinsville/Henry County, VA to the Piedmont Triad of NC — recognizes him or is interested in adopting him, please shoot me a message.

It’s a Party! FUGUE DEVIL: RESURGENCE Book Release

Old writer dude and Samaire Wynne, owner of Black Raven Books For me, this was a most anticipated day — the release party for Fugue Devil: Resurgence  at Rioja! A Wine Bar , in Greensboro. Some weeks ago, Ms. B. and I visited Rioja, as we are often wont to do, and got to talking to Jake Assaf, the owner, about my upcoming book. He suggested we have a book release party at Rioja, and this struck us all as just about the best idea ever. Books! Wine! Food! Party! Many happy peoples! Wine! So, we settled on June 4 as the fateful day, and there has been plotting ever since. Jake, owner of Rioja, took this photo of Ms. B.
and me just before the festivities commenced.

Samaire Wynne, good friend and the owner of Black Raven Books, came down from Martinsville, VA, for the event. My daughter, Allison, was in town, so she came too. I made up a bunch of appropriately themed tickets and scrounged up some door prizes, which included a couple of bottles of wine and a number of my earlier books — including Blue Devil Island, The Monarchs, West Virginia: Lair of the Mothman, and others. Things were scheduled to get started at 4:00 p.m., and — sure enough — the traffic flow began right on time. Before we knew it, Rioja was completely filled up, and we had wine, food, and books flowing all over the place. Naturally, I was hoping we'd have a good turnout since it meant significant sales for both us and for Jake, and we were so not disappointed. As far as I could see, Jake was hopping great guns the entire time, and we sold bundles of books. Everyone in the place seemed to enjoy themselves, and Ms. B. and I got to see many friends, old and new, from just about every sphere of personal influence — former officemates, geocachers, writers, artists, supper club mates, friends of friends... you name it.

After all these years and a lot of books, this was the first release party I've put on, and it will definitely go into the record books as successful. Now, whether I'll be fired up about doing this kind of thing for future books, who the heck knows? But for Fugue Devil: Resurgence, a big ol' party was just the ticket.
After the event, Brugger, Samaire, Allison, friends Terry & Beth, and I headed over to nearby World of Beer  to snag some dinner. The place was a madhouse, at least at first, and we spent most of the next three hours waiting for drinks, waiting for food, waiting for service in general. We enjoyed the food, but the experience was far from fully satisfying, especially since the place cleared out quite a bit long before we were ever served. I've generally enjoyed the place, so I'm sure we'll give them another shot. I really hope they'll do better because, as near as we could tell, they could have and should have done better this time around.
So, a little sad we ended on a less-than-stellar note, but the high from the book event isn't going away anytime soon. 'Twas indeed lovely. Devaluing a book for friend Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott) Friends Mark and Kelly... Do they know what they're in for? Probably not.... Chad has already given the book a look. Tina has not. Shiny happy people... or something The crowd moves in. Friend and former co-worker Heather happy to have snagged a copy. Little does she know....
Photo by James Lyons Door prize tickets

It’s a Party! Fugue Devil: Resurgence Book Release

Old writer dude and Samaire Wynne, owner of Black Raven Books For me, this was a most anticipated day — the release party for Fugue Devil: Resurgence  at Rioja! A Wine Bar , in Greensboro. Some weeks ago, Ms. B. and I visited Rioja, as we are often wont to do, and got to talking to Jake Assaf, the owner, about my upcoming book. He suggested we have a book release party at Rioja, and this struck us all as just about the best idea ever. Books! Wine! Food! Party! Many happy peoples! Wine! So, we settled on June 4 as the fateful day, and there has been plotting ever since. Jake, owner of Rioja, took this photo of Ms. B.
and me just before the festivities commenced.

Samaire Wynne, good friend and the owner of Black Raven Books, came down from Martinsville, VA, for the event. My daughter, Allison, was in town, so she came too. I made up a bunch of appropriately themed tickets and scrounged up some door prizes, which included a couple of bottles of wine and a number of my earlier books — including Blue Devil Island, The Monarchs, West Virginia: Lair of the Mothman, and others. Things were scheduled to get started at 4:00 p.m., and — sure enough — the traffic flow began right on time. Before we knew it, Rioja was completely filled up, and we had wine, food, and books flowing all over the place. Naturally, I was hoping we'd have a good turnout since it meant significant sales for both us and for Jake, and we were so not disappointed. As far as I could see, Jake was hopping great guns the entire time, and we sold bundles of books. Everyone in the place seemed to enjoy themselves, and Ms. B. and I got to see many friends, old and new, from just about every sphere of personal influence — former officemates, geocachers, writers, artists, supper club mates, friends of friends... you name it.

After all these years, this was actually the first book release party I've put on, and it will definitely go into the record books as super-successful. Now, whether I'll be fired up about doing this kind of thing for future books, who the heck knows? But for Fugue Devil: Resurgence, a big ol' party was just the ticket and then some.
After the event, friends Terry & Beth, Ms. B., Allison, and I headed over to nearby World of Beer  to snag some dinner. The place was a madhouse, at least at first, and we spent most of the next three hours waiting for drinks, waiting for food, waiting for service in general. We enjoyed the food, but the experience was far from fully satisfying, especially since the place cleared out quite a bit long before we were ever served. I've generally enjoyed the place, so I'm sure we'll give them another shot. I really hope they'll do better because, as near as we could tell, they could have and should have done better this time around.
So, a little sad we ended on a less-than-stellar note, but the high from the book event isn't going away anytime soon. 'Twas indeed lovely. Devaluing a book for friend Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott) Friends Mark and Kelly... Do they know what they're in for? Probably not.... Chad has already given the book a look. Tina has not. Shiny happy people... or something The crowd moves in. Friend and former co-worker Heather happy to have snagged a copy. Little does she know....
Photo by James Lyons

A Graveside Chat with Samaire Wynne

Author — and now publisher — Samaire Wynne is known for writing compelling fantasy novels, particularly with those in her Mad World series, Romanov series, Titania Academy series, The Paladin Princess series, and others, via her own imprint, Black Raven Books. A few years back, I discovered, much to my surprise, that she had moved, not only to my old hometown, but very near my house! So for this Graveside Chat, we’ll talk about what Samaire is currently up to and what’s coming down the pike.

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GC: Tell us a bit about you — where you come from, where you're going, and what inspires you as both a reader and writer.

SW: I come from a California Marine Corps family based in San Diego. I am currently an east coast resident and I write fantasy and horror. What inspires me as a reader is an exciting story. If that story can make me squirm, all the better.

What excites me as a writer is exploring new corners of favorite genres. I love delving into the modern unknown areas of old fables. Remarkably, I have had some success at this, mainly in exploring the present day explorations of ancient faerie myths.

GC: You've written quite a few fantasy novels, particularly series novels. Are you drawn more to writing series than stand-alone novels?

SW: Yes, I prefer to write in series format. Mainly because I create long stories and there would be no other way to present them to the reading public. Each book is 80k-120k words. Each series has 8-15 books planned. These are long, involved stories full of magic and adventure. It takes a lot of storytelling to explore each corner of these worlds, and do them justice. I leave no stone unturned, my readers demand this and I am happy to oblige.

GC: Who are your favorite authors? How have they influenced your work?

SW: My favorite authors are the fantasy authors that like to make their readers at least mildly uncomfortable. The pinnacle of these is Neil Gaiman, who has honed his art to perfection. He and his stories have heavily influenced my work. His stories give examples of the kind of books I love to both read and write, and he himself, as a person, has strongly influenced both me and my writing. Neil has on numerous occasions encouraged me and uplifted me, sometimes through incredibly terrible times in my life. His advice — to write, keep writing, and pour myself onto the page — has helped me more than any other. His personal touch and how he cares have meant more to me than most other things, and he has never let me down nor given me bad advice.

GC: You've written for young adults as well as for us old folks. Do you find writing for a younger audience appreciably different than writing for... shall we say... more seasoned readers? In your YA work, do you tackle controversial topics or imagery? Do you plan to write more books for your YA readers?

SW: I tackle tough subjects in all my books. Bravery and courageous action are what propel my stories forward. I tackle life and death threats, environmental threats, threats to nations and threats to small beings. And in my last series, I tackle a threat to the entire planet. I find writing for a young adult audience very satisfying, because this audience can handle huge dangers and momentous journeys.

When I write for adults, I concentrate more on immediate perils to the characters, and their interactions with each other. Adult stories pull you in, and focus you on the people going through the experiences. They are a more personal experience.

GC: Insert your own question here. Whatever topic, have your say. Anything you want — or have wanted — to share, go for it!

SW: My question for readers: How do you support your favorite writers?

My answer is: Support your favorite writers by buying their books, reviewing their books, and following their recommendations to other books and authors. Expand your horizons to other genres, it can lead to fantastic discoveries.

GC: Thank you, Samaire!

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Visit Samaire Wynne’s website at
www.samairewynne.com

The Fugue Devil, Marky Stevie, and Signing Cooks

In May 1974, my hometown newspaper, The Martinsville Bulletin , ran a profile about me and my affinity for monstrous and other scary things. At the time, I had sold what was to be my first published “story” — actually a filmbook of Godzilla vs. the Thing — to The Monster Times , and the first issue of my fanzine, Japanese Giants , was in the planning stages. The article, by writer Gail Dudley, was later picked up by the Associated Press and published in newspapers all over the US. How fun was that?
Over the years, I’ve maintained a lot of connections with my old hometown, including having notices appear in the Bulletin somewhat regularly, particularly when I have writing news to share. A couple of weeks back, in the Sunday edition — almost exactly 48 years after that first article — the Bulletin ran a nice profile written by Monique Holland, who came out to interview Samaire Wynne and me about Fugue Devil: Resurgence , now in release by Ms. Wynne’s Black Raven Books imprint. You can check out the article here: “ New Book Fictionalizes Martinsville in Supernatural Horror Short  Story Collection ”
Now, I’ve never had a single profile run in any newspaper that got all the facts right; some have been fairly egregious, others have been mere quibbles. Fortunately, Ms. Holland did a nice job overall, though the gaffes, unfortunately, involve Ms. Wynne’s statements more than my own. The online version, linked above, at least does not call me “Marky,” as the print/digital version does (see below). This, I’m pretty sure, was not Ms. Holland’s fault. (As a complete aside, back in my Chicago days, 1983–1987, several of the young women in my department at the office took great pleasure in calling me “Marky Stevie,” and I can’t help but wonder if they somehow channeled this epithet to a copy editor at the Bulletin. I wonder this simply because I know for a fact that these maybe-no-longer-quite-so-young women still take great pleasure in giving me good-natured shit. I’ve been known to return the favor.)
It is fair to say that copy editing has never been the Bulletin’s forte. Back in the early 2000s, when my books The Last Trumpet and Balak came out, I did a signing at one of Martinsville’s bookstores. The Bulletin ’s headline read, “Local Author to Sign Cooks on Saturday.” After that one, I sent a little cartoon with a caricature of me brandishing a pen and chasing a terrified-looking chef, but the paper didn’t run it.
Note: The Bulletin allows readers a handful of free articles before asking you to pay, so you can probably access the link with no paywall. Also note: Do not look for cooks in the current article. You won’t find any.