I’ve been pondering the nature of friendship lately. In these turbulent times, it seems that virtual connection is pretty much all we’re going to get without risking the health and safety of others. It’s unsatisfying, but seeing people’s faces on a computer or phone screen and chatting with them is vastly preferable to attending their […]

For a great many people I know, Hallowe’en is their favorite holiday of the year. Autumn weather, trick-or-treaters, leaves crunching under your feet and a hot beverage to chase away the chill are just some of the many delights of the season. COVID-19 has changed the way we do things, so in most municipalities trick-or-treating […]

With Hallowe’en bearing down upon us, in past years it’s always been time to think about candy. For T and I, thoughts run along the lines of “what can we get to give out that’s good, but that isn’t so tempting for us to eat?” The problem, of course, is that we realize we really […]

In February, an idea was pitched to me about an anthology of stories set in the world of the Werewolf: the Apocalypse role-playing game. I was interested; previously, I’d written a story for an ebook called Darkened Streets (https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/294150/Darkened-Streets?term=Darkened+Streets) set in the same group of worlds that included the Werewolf setting, but focusing on stories […]

It’s almost Hallowe’en time again, and I’d like to take a moment to talk about one of my least-favorite Hallowe’en symbols: the Wicked Witch. Much-maligned in folklore, witches suffer from bad press at the hands of an aggressive and ruthless enemy. As far back as there have been humans, there were wise women (and men) […]

I’ve always wanted to go to the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. For one thing, my dad and brother Tom had both been, and raved about it. For another, there’s a distant (very!) family connection to the place, so as soon as we could afford it, T and I made the journey. Since we live […]

Thank god it’s — wait, what day is it again? Eagle-eyed readers of this blog will no doubt have noticed that I’m having a tough time following through on moving New Blog Post Day to Tuesdays. Like everyone else, horror fatigue and cabin fever have both caught up with me, and, truth be told, I’m […]

When I was much younger, I discovered a fascination for beer cans and the brewing industry. Don’t ask me why: I don’t know. The fact is, I don’t even like beer, but following my dad through the liquor store to get a bottle of something, I stumbled across a refrigerated beer case with a dazzling […]

Observant readers will have noticed that this blog did not appear on schedule Monday afternoon. Several things conspired to prevent this, but first, I wanted to mention that I’ll be moving my regular blog day to Tuesday from now on. Getting up and running on a Monday morning can be a challenge, so I wanted […]