Beware the Ferrum College Kraken! It's fair to say that my college days, in the late 1970s, found me at the pinnacle of experimentation with anything and everything that wasn't part of my prescribed conservative, middle-class, sometimes overly protected upbringing. I spent the first two years of college at Ferrum, a relatively small, Methodist-sponsored, at-the-time junior college set in the mountains of Franklin County, VA, about 30 miles from Martinsville, my hometown. Since I lived on campus, free of the shackles of small-town conservatism, for me, drinking, drugs, and debauch ..read more

It is with the greatest sadness I bid farewell to my longtime friend and geocaching partner, Bridget Langley-Broadwell, known in caching circles as Suntigres. She and I met at a geocaching event back in 2011, and before long, we were caching together, oftentimes with numerous other geocachers in a regular group. Bridget and my wife, Kimberly, got to be good friends as well, so we frequently got together for dinners and even non-geocaching outings (heavens, I know). Bridget met her husband-to-be, Gerry Broadwell, in late 2016, I believe it was, and he became part of our regular ..read more

Coming up on Saturday, April 27, 2024 — a booksigning event at Imagination Lavender Farm in Martinsville, VA,1–3 p.m. Besides me, there will be a slew of local writers, so if you're in reasonable traveling distance, you otter come around, say hello, and buy my books (not to mention any others that strike your fancy). As far as I know, I'll be the only author of scary things, and you KNOW you need scary things. Of course, if you don't like scary things (what's wrong with you?), there will be all kinds of traditional, uplifting, non-scary things as well. Hope you'll stop by. Directions below ..read more

Old Dude and Ms. B. at the Gross-Out Contest. No, we were not the stars. Brugger and I just returned from a fantastic weekend at Scares That Care AuthorCon III in Williamsburg, VA, and I probably won't finish this blog tonight because I'm about to drop. Scares That Care is a charity organization put together by a group of horror professionals to help individuals in specific dire circumstances, and AuthorCon has become the biggest gathering of horror writers and artists in the country, if not the world. Primarily via the conventions, the organization has raised an impressive amoun ..read more

Artist J.B. Lee is a prolific painter/illustrator with an impressive portfolio of scary images, influenced by horror authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, Joseph Payne Brennan, and others, as well as such classic horror/science fiction TV series as The Outer Limits, Thriller, One Step Beyond, and others. J.B. kindly agreed to talk about his work and provide a number of his creations to be posted here.   AGC: You are clearly a devotee of some of the most seminal television science fiction/horror shows of the 1950s and 1960s — specifically, The Outer Limits, Thriller, and One Step ..read more

IT'S ALMOST HERE! This weekend — Friday, April 12 – Sunday, April 14 — Brugger and I will be at Scares That Care Presents AuthorCon III - Williamsburg, set up at the Crossroad Press table in the Promenade area. I'll have many books available, including Deathrealm: Spirits. Lots of the contributors will be present, including Heather Daughrity, Brian Keene, Ronald Kelly, Eric LaRocca, Patricia Macomber, Bridgett Nelson, and David Niall Wilson. SATURDAY at 12:30 PM — I'll be doing a reading, along with author P.D. Cacek. If that's your lunchtime, bring it along. Just don't fling food at us (unl ..read more

Geocaching is not solely about hunting hidden containers and scribbling your moniker on a log sheet. Geocaching is intended to be an environmentally friendly activity, so, in keeping with that concept, geocachers periodically get together at what's known as CITO ("Cache In, Trash Out") events, where the focus is on cleaning up litter. This morning, friends Tom & Linda (a.k.a. Skyhawk63 & Punkins19) hosted a CITO event near their place in Browns Summit, NC, along a stretch of rural road that they adopted in honor of Tom's parents. Brugger and I got up early and headed down to the ..read more

Team Old Farts and Friends: Old Rodan, Less Old McTwin, Old Skyhawk, REALLY Old McTwin How nice it was on Saturday evening to hear my phone gonging over and over to notify me of a passel of new geocaches being published somewhere near me. How much nicer to discover they were at Jamison Mill Park, not far up the country roads along Philpott Lake, which I consider one of my favorite settings on Earth. So, yesterday morning, I got up with the sun and headed out to see if I might manage at least a few first-to-finds before lunchtime, since I had an Easter dinner engagement with old family ..read more

A little update about Scares That Care presents AuthorCon III - Williamsburg — starting two weeks from today! I'll be set up with Crossroad Press in the main promenade area, with plenty of copies of Deathrealm: Spirits (note that many of the contributors will be at the con if you're keen on getting autographs) and many of my other books on hand. I'm scheduled for a reading on Saturday (4/13) at 12:30 p.m. If you're hungry at that time, just bring your lunch! (I can't promise you won't lose it during the reading, though.) P. D. Cacek is sharing the time slot with me, so please come see/l ..read more

The last time I saw Jim Moore — Necon 2022 in Lowell, MA I learned yesterday that friend and fellow writer James A. (Jim) Moore has passed away. He'd been fighting and winning over cancer for several years, but now his fight has ended. Jim was one of the most beloved writers—and human beings in general—I've ever known and for excellent reason. Jim was a man of great humor, commitment to friends, and exceptional generosity. I didn't know him half as well as so many of my peers; I only ever got to see him at conventions, and I haven't been a regular con-goer for a long time. S ..read more