Clay Griffith's Blog

I think I know when my childhood ended. It was 1969. It started when Spider-man wrapped up one of the more peculiar and outlandish storylines of the Stan Lee/John Romita era – the Stone Tablet saga. It was everything late ‘60s/early ‘70s science fiction/fantasy was – rooted in the real world, sparked by human greed and frailty, and ultimately, it was irredeemably tragic. Spidey fought for several issues to unravel a mystery, which he did, but ultimately he couldn’t save the day in the sense that he couldn’t save a miserable angry man from destroying himself out of hubris. And I never really thought about it before a few days ago, but after Amazing Spider-man #75, my childhood began to grind to a halt. It wasn’t because of that story, but something happened.I read comics for another year after Spidey watched Silvermane dissolve into nothingness, but the same thing that happened in all the comics I loved in pretty rapid succession. Captain America #119. Thor #171. Avengers #71. Daredevil #57. X-Men #63. Fantastic Four #94. All in 1969. All these were the last 4-color days of my childhood. I stopped buying comics in 1970 and didn’t read another one until I wandered back into the hobby around 1974. I read monthly comics off and on until the mid-1990s, and I still pick up new stuff occasionally and revisit old favorites. So those issues in 1969 certainly weren’t the last comics I loved, but in a way, they were they last comics I lived.Comic books were the most formative creative part of my childhood. The depth of my love of Spider-man and the Fantastic Four, Cap and Thor, among others, is impossible to overestimate. Every issue of Spider-man I read up to #75 was like a newspaper to me. I don’t mean that in a lunatic way that I thought Peter Parker was a real guy, but he was real enough to me. I didn’t think of it as a book or a story. I was reading the events of his life. The same with Cap or DD or the Fantastic Four. Individual issues weren’t better or worse than others. They had to be what they were because that’s what was happening in Spidey’s life. And I was part of it. Month after month.For some reason, though, after those benchmark issues, the books became just books. Fun books, some of them great, some not. There was art I liked and didn’t like. But suddenly I was just reading stories about these characters; I wasn’t experiencing their lives with them anymore.It was, of course, pretty standard for 10-year olds to drift away from comic books and into other things. But those issues that marked the end of my breathless attention to these characters weren’t the end of my comic book life. I kept reading for more than a year after the shift occurred. I didn’t realize a change had occurred at the time. After all, none of those favorite books went through major upheavals after the issues I mentioned. From before to after, they had the same creative teams and same basic storylines.I can look at the covers of those books and recall the years of transformative joy living through the previous issues, and the growing sense of distance reading the latter ones. As I got older, childhood joy was replaced by a more mature appreciation of the storytelling power of the medium and respect for the creators who produced the work. There were some legendary runs I read later that came close to replicating my childhood: Wolfman/Colan on Tomb of Dracula, Claremont’s X-Men, Miller’s Daredevil, Roger Stern’s Dr. Strange, Simonson’s Thor, Moore’s Swamp Thing. But even those indisputable classics still don’t hold up in my heart to what might now be considered just a mediocre issue of Spider-man or Thor from 1968.I’m sure every comic book reader has the same story. No doubt every fan can name an era that is the most meaningful when those stories felt real to them and those characters were the most important things in their life. And I’m sure they’re right.My life reading and even creating comics has its roots in a desire to recapture the power of being an 8-year old on a summer afternoon reading comics in the backyard. I would finish an issue and read it again. And then again. And then I’d ride my bike to the store to see if the next issue was there. But it wasn’t so I’d come home and read it again in case I missed something the first three times.

The end of the beginning… First off, I’m an old-time Marvel guy. From the time I could read, and even before, I loved Fantastic Four and Spidey and Cap and X-Men and the whole Marvel gang. That doesn’t mean I judge Marvel movies by how close they adhere to my vision of the comics; it just means I love this material. It built my childhood and shaped my adulthood. When the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) started with IRON MAN, it mined material from comics that were firmly part of my memory. I knew these characters and I knew their stories. INFINITY WAR is the end of that. As such, I love parts of INFINITY WAR. I like other parts of it. But some of it, not so much. Here’s what I love about AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR – One – Thanos is great. He’s the best part of the movie. His story matters. It’s unusual for a villain to matter in a Marvel movie. I can think of only a few. Loki in THOR. Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane in IRON MAN. And Killmonger in BLACK PANTHER.The rest, no big deal. Red Skull. Robert Redford. Dark Elves. Hela. Whiplash. Guy Pearce of AIM. What’s his name in Dr. Strange. Dormammu. Yellowjacket. Abomination. All pretty forgettable. Two – The Guardians of the Galaxy are great. Quill and Gamora. Gamora and Thanos. Even the guest-star stuff with Thor is entertaining.Three – Iron Man is great. Robert Downey Jr. still blows up the screen whenever he’s on it. He is the core of the Marvel Universe.So what’s not great? Three big things: One – Dr. Strange. I’m not a big fan of MCU’s Dr. Strange. Unfortunately, he’s really important to the movie because he owns one of the infinity stones. Aside from how boring I find him, they established in his own movie that he can use the time stone to create an infinite loop and re-fight a fight for eternity until he wins. That’s how he beat Dormammu. Maybe I missed something, but why can’t he do it this time? Two – Vision and Scarlet Witch. Much of the movie’s emotional thread winds through this couple. That’s a problem because we barely know them. It’s not enough to say they’ve been together for two years and throw in a melodramatic “stay with me” scene.Remember when they first show the Guardians? Quill is jamming to Rubberband Man. No one else in the ship cares except – pan down to Gamora – and she is quietly singing along. Bam! That one shot establishes their relationship. They are simpatico. They are in love. Vision and Scarlet Witch don’t have – can’t have – that simple moment. And that’s a problem because the movie hinges on us caring about their love. Three – The whole “we don’t trade lives” theme. Heroes trade their lives all the time, or at least they’re prepared to. Iron Man was willing to sacrifice himself at the end of the first AVENGERS. Cap sacrificed himself at the end of THE FIRST AVENGER. Hell, even pre-Cap Steve Rogers jumped on a hand grenade he thought was live. The big difference here (I guess) is that it wasn’t just Vision’s sacrifice. Scarlet Witch would’ve had to sacrifice too; she had to kill Vision. Okay, I understand standing up for the value of even a single life. If we surrender that without a fight, the villain wins anyway. Tell that to all the dead and injured in New York and Wakanda. More important than that, I understand if they kill Vision and bust the yellow stone in the first hour of the movie, the movie is over. So whatever. Plot device. Move on. Sort of like the lame excuse why Hawkeye and Ant-man weren’t available. It’s a movie. It’s a story. Stuff has to happen because it has to happen. Despite these problems, I like INFINITY WAR. It’s a miraculous juggling of storylines. Terrific set-piece fights. Good dialogue. Satisfying meet-ups of characters from different parts of the MCU. I would’ve liked more of a celebration of the Big 3 – Iron Man, Cap, and Thor. Iron Man and Thor get a lot to do, but Cap gets short shrift. He gets a nice reveal at Waverly train station, and Thanos gives him a “what the hell, this guy is tough” look just before he whomps the Jesus out of him. On a personal note, I was excited to see the fight in Edinburgh. I’m sure the producers of this movie thought “Where can we set a fight featuring an emotionally complicated woman with great mystic power and her distantly dignified but striving-to-be-human boyfriend? Oh, I know! Edinburgh. Just like that great VAMPIRE EMPIRE series we read!” I was lucky enough to avoid all spoilers going in, but none of the deaths or appearances surprised me. I suspected Loki would get it. I thought Thor might get it too (or another of the Big 3). I had a strong suspicion Red Skull would show up, but didn’t know how. I figured they’d do a scene where they’d run Hulk in like he did to Loki, but Thanos would stomp him. I also thought they might add Warlock, but I’m glad they didn’t and I guess they’re saving him for the next GUARDIANS (I hope). I still suspect they’re going to insert the Fantastic Four when they do the universe reboot. Maybe Marvel will get the X-Men too, but I hope not. The mutants work better in their own universe. My great fear is that when they do reboot the MCU (post-Robert Downey, post-Chris Evans, post-Chris Hemsworth), it won’t hold up.But that’s just my growing sense of melancholy sparked by this movie. Heck. It’s just the MCU leaving me behind. I started to realize that when I saw the post-credit sequence. I know it’s Captain Marvel, but it’s not my era Captain Marvel. She came along in the last decade or so when I wasn’t reading comics. I hear she’s fantastic. I could certainly read the collections, but that’s not the point. It’s a new day and it feels like a last hurrah for the film versions of my fan life. No matter what, I hope the new movies mean the same thing for those of you who saw the Captain Marvel sign on Fury’s phone and got the same “Oh cool!” jolt I felt when they first mentioned S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers Initiative in IRON MAN. It’s impossible to overestimate what comics, particularly Marvel comics, meant to me growing up. This last decade of the MCU has been pretty amazing for a guy like me. Not sure what the next decade will be. Like the end of INFINITY WAR, the future is unknowable dust. All that’s sure are the memories of heroes I used to love.

There are SPOILERS here!!! Don’t read this if you’re going to see Dr. Strange and don’t want to know what happens in Dr. Strange.I LOVE Dr. Strange.The comic, I mean. That’s why this is a ridiculously long review of a comic book movie. I love the Steve Ditko originals. I love the Thomas-Colan and Englehart-Brunner eras. I LOVE the Stern-Rogers-Smith period. I haven’t read much since then, but I love the Dr. Strange I know.I LIKE Dr. Strange.The movie. It’s an enjoyable piece of the Marvel Studios tapestry. It is like a solid gangster picture from the 1930s. It is a fun western from the 1940s. It is a good sci-fi/monster movie from the 1950s. It is a successful example of a genre.The actors are fine. Benedict Cumberbatch is good as Dr. Strange. He is charming, as always. The guy is on screen probably 90 percent of the movie, and he carries it off effortlessly. Everyone else is fine. Tilda Swinton does a breezy confident Ancient One, sort of a positive-thinking motivational speaker of magic. She could easily be stalking a stage at an annual sales conference with a little microphone strapped to her head telling you to tap your unlimited potential. I wish they had gender-switched Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mordo rather than the Ancient One (or both of them for that matter). Ejiofor is fine, but a female Mordo might’ve given the opportunity to create a little more texture to the movie. Mads Mikkelson is nothing special as the throwaway villain Kaecilius. It’s not his fault; Marvel movies typically (and surprisingly) have very shruggable villains.The skeleton of a great story is there (thanks to Steve Ditko), but it goes very much by the numbers. The same stuff we’ve seen before, just with different weird costumes and cool powers. I felt like I was watching a movie created by a team of talented storyboard artists and FX designers who then gave the outline to a screenwriter for a single pass with the instructions: “Put in some running gags and a character bit in Act I that pays off in Act III. And get it back by Tuesday.”The Stephen Strange character arc is basically the same as Robert Downey’s Tony Stark, but with magic rather than armor. An arrogant, self-destructive genius who learns the value of helping others. He has a girlfriend who loves him even though he’s a jerk; she helps him out sometimes but basically stands there looking confused. He has a variety of humorless sidekicks to snark off. And he has a wacky loveable cape instead of Tony’s wacky loveable robotic assembly arm.The visuals are terrific. The SFX are great, just like they had been in Inception.It moves fast, clocking in under 2 hours. Didn’t want more than that.So the problems?Stephen Strange is an action placeholder, not a compelling character. Judging him against his comic book movie colleagues, he doesn’t have the oomph of Tony Stark or Steve Rogers or even Thor. His story arc focuses on his quest to find magic to cure his hands, but the magic cures his selfishness instead. The big moment is when he decides to dedicate his magic to protect the helpless and fight evil rather than heal his shaky hands and go back to his lucrative surgical practice. Really? That’s a tough choice? You’re telling me that a brilliant, inquisitive guy could for one instant witness the miracles at the Ancient One’s magic camp and go back to his old life? The only other choice he might more reasonably make is to realize that magic could be the path to heal ALL illness in the world. But apparently that thought never occurs to the Sorcerer Supreme, or anyone else. Selfish sorcerers.Oh, and it’s nice that Dr. Strange gets promoted to Sorcerer Supreme after like a week with the Ancient One. I’m sure that seems fair to all those other students who busted their butts for years learning kung fu and magic spells in the Nepalese cold.More problematic for the movie is that Strange’s relationships with the other characters aren’t very satisfying. The best Marvel movies manage solid character relationship threads or moments: Tony and Pepper, Steve and Bucky, Dr. Erskine, Agent Carter, Sam, Natasha, etc…, Thor and Loki. In Dr. Strange, the girlfriend story goes nowhere and teaches him nothing. Mordo never really provides him with anything other than a snap personality assessment (that amounts to nothing in the plot) and a fistfight partner. In the comic, Baron Mordo has the job they gave to Kaecilius in the movie; he is the Ancient One’s student-gone-bad. Not sure why they felt compelled to create a new student who went to the Dark Side, only to make Mordo go bad too for the sequel. Should’ve just used Mordo as a rival-turned-villain and let Wong be Dr. Strange’s partner.Most disappointing is Strange’s sterile relationship with the Ancient One. The movie never presents a touching mentor/student moment between them. She is kooky and distant at first, and then Strange finds reason to distrust her. Neither her death nor her parting wisdom have the impacts they should.Now, the Cloak of Levitation. Very clever and fun. But what the hell good is it? During the fight with Kaecilius when the cityscape is twisting all over the place, Dr. Strange tumbles off buildings and falls. Hello, Cloak of LEVITATION. Why isn’t his cloak keeping him afloat? Maybe the cloak is levitating just enough to prevent him from plummeting to his death? Then why doesn’t Mordo go squash? He can’t fly. Do his flamey boots save him? I kept waiting for Strange to grab Mordo and save him from falling. But both of them dropped what appeared to be hundreds of feet at very fast speed, and just came down a little hard, like they’d jumped off the front porch. But then the superpowerful Ancient One dies in a fall. What the hell? Did I miss something? If you’re going to give a guy a Cloak of Levitation, you can’t just make it levitate when it’s convenient to the story.And the Eye of Agamotto. So this thing can change time? Time travel as a plot fix is a really slippery slope to go down. Doesn’t that give Dr. Strange the way to fix any problem now? Just go back in time and replay it until you get it right?Now, as a Dr. Strange fan, it is fun to see the cloak and the eye and the Sanctum Sanctorum, and the Staff of the Living Tribunal, and the Wand of Watoomb (that’s the thing Wong uses in the final fight, but you may not have known that and that’s part of the problem). Those little Easter eggs are cool for comic fans, and there are tons of them in the movie, but they add nothing to the plot or the characters.And finally, the Dread Dormammu. He is one of my favorite villains. While they did a nice job of replicating Steve Ditko’s LSD-like rendition of the Dark Dimension even though there is no Clea and no Mindless Ones, Dormammu is disappointing. In the comics, he’s a super-cool flame-headed human-sized (generally) villain. All ranty and powerful and snooty. The giant vibrating head that is movie Dormammu just doesn’t work for me. Although I understand the movie’s need for the super-evil, extra-dimensional demon thing to be bigger and scarier than the ineffective Kaecilius and his cultists whom Strange has been stomping for the entire movie. So to people who are not Dormammu lovers, the Dread One probably works just great.Maybe it sounds like I didn’t like Dr. Strange. But I did. Really. When it pops up on tv in the future, it will be very watchable. I’ve seen Iron Man and Cap and Thor and Hulk countless times when they come on. I would happily add this to the rotation.You go into these movies expecting fast loud entertainment with generally likeable characters, a few laughs, and a couple of “oh cool” smiles if you know the comic source material. From that point of view, Dr. Strange is fine. It meets those expectations and it will make a boatload of money. If that’s where we are with these movies, it’s a success.

Part of the October Frights Blog Hop celebrating all things that go bump in the night.Join Paranormal & Horror Authors in this 5-Day EventOr Why the 1970s Were Awesome!We are comic book people. Susan and I both read comics growing up. We met because of a comic book. We write comics. And our newest novels are comic book-related; they are tie-in novels for the FLASH and ARROW tv shows, based of course on DC Comics characters. So we have a long lineage of comic books in our family.Like most people, when we think of comic books, we think of superheroes. However, comics weren’t always dominated by muscular guys and gals in colorful tights. Back in the 1950s, monster/horror comics were a big deal. There were tons of goofy monster comics featuring throwaway stories starring Kroom or Droom or Spoor or an endless parade of outlandish gigantic creatures. There were also the darker comics such as Tales from the Crypt featuring murderers and slashers and zombies and bloodthirsty ghouls preying on unwitting dopes and scantily clad dames.Those lurid tales contributed to a hyped-up backlash against comics that nearly killed the industry. A few do-gooders believed the violence and depravity of horror and crime comics were forming a generation of juvenile delinquents. Comic book publishers feared being legislated out of existence so they formed their own Comics Code Authority to regulate content. Horror and crime books largely died off, but superheroes made a big comeback in the 1960s, particularly the new Marvel heroes such as Spider-man and the Fantastic Four.By the 1970s, though, the superhero boom waned. Comic book companies were looking for the next wave. One of the answers, at Marvel anyway, was a return to monsters. However, the Marvel Monsters were different from the old behemoth-of-the-month or gruesome splatter comics of the 1950s. First of all, the Comics Code Authority was still in place, so these horrors were relatively tame. They were “horror” comics only in the sense that they had monsters in them.Marvel had learned from their superhero revolution that readers preferred continuing characters in serialized storylines much like soap operas rather than anthology books or series consisting of stand-alone stories. So Marvel took classic monsters (vampires, werewolves, mummies, zombies, Frankenstein’s monster) along with the traditional tropes of the horror genre (cemeteries, castles, swamps), and combined them with the successful elements of a superhero story. These books were structured like serialized soap operas and the stories were more about protecting the innocent and the struggle for redemption and salvation, rather than grim tales of bloody vengeance and gore-soaked destiny. The books also played off contemporary entertainment trends and popular public figures to jolt the old monsters into the modern, swinging 1970s.Marvel threw every popular monster type against the newsstand wall to see what might stick. Most didn’t. There were tons of misfires that lasted a few issues and then vanished: the Living Mummy (created by Steve Gerber, Rich Buckler) and the Golem (created by Len Wein, John Buscema) to name a couple.These didn’t have any staying power, but there were others that had more oomph. Some were just weird. Others were genuine winners.BROTHER VOODOO (created by Len Wein, Gene Colan). Although it didn’t last too long, this book was an interesting twist on the new Marvel horror/superhero star. Brother Voodoo was inspired by the popular “blaxploitation” film trend of the era and walked a line between voodoo horror movie and urban crime story.SON OF SATAN (created by Gary Friedrich, Herb Trimpe, Roy Thomas). Another of the great horror/superhero mashups of the period. Inspired by the demonic possession craze spawned by The Exorcist, Son of Satan tells the story of Damian Hellstrom, the actual son of Satan (Damian’s mom had a one-night stand with the wrong guy). While his comic was usually pretty lame, I personally love Son of Satan with an outlandish and completely undeserved fervor. Aside from Tomb of Dracula, about which I will gush later, Son of Satan is my favorite Marvel book from the 1970s.This raises another point. Even though we think of ourselves as more advanced and progressive than we were in the 1970s, it’s hard to imagine a publisher would print a book titled Son of Satan these days out of fear of the backlash. In fact, when the character got a new book back in the 1990s, it was called Hellstorm, which was totally bogus because that’s not even his name!Now that we’ve discussed some of the awesome weirdos like Brother Voodoo and Son of Satan, we can get to the big guns of the Marvel Monsters.WEREWOLF-BY-NIGHT (Gerry Conway, Mike Ploog, Roy Thomas). Never one of my favorites, but entertaining enough and it managed to sustain a pretty limited concept over many years in the hands of various writers. It also introduced one of Marvel’s more mercurial heroes, Moon Knight. And the earliest issues are worth reading if only for the sweet sweet art by Mike Ploog.While we’re talking about Mike Ploog’s art, I’ll mention THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN. It had some interesting concepts that never quite hit their stride, and it suffered from an ever-changing creative team. But the early issues are Ploog-drawn and beautiful.MAN-THING (Gerry Conway, Gray Morrow, Roy Thomas). Yes, his name sounds like a porn film, particularly when considering the unfortunately titled annual Giant-Sized Man-Thing. This dude was a straight-up monster, a lumbering swamp creature who didn’t talk or think. But he wasn’t a bad monster; he just didn’t want to be bothered. So, of course, someone was always bothering him. He was similar to DC Comics’ Swamp Thing, but Swampy became more of a full-fledged character and Man-Thing retained the shambling muteness of mobile nature. Steve Gerber (creator of Howard the Duck) did write some pretty trippy stories using Man-Thing as the springboard, stuff that was really more attuned to the world of indy comix. But give Marvel credit for letting Gerber get weird. And there are issues with terrific art by Frank Brunner and Val Mayerick.GHOST RIDER (Gary Friedrich, Mike Ploog, Roy Thomas). This is the Marvel horror character that you’re most likely to know because he has appeared in movies and on television. Apparently one day Gary Freidrich, Roy Thomas, and Mike Ploog (creators of Ghost Rider) said: “Hey, you know, Evil Knievel is real popular and The Exorcist is real popular. Let’s combine the two!” So here’s Johnny Blaze – motorcycle daredevil who makes a deal with the Devil and ends up spending every night with his head turning into a flaming skull. Over time, Ghost Rider became a pretty mainstream superhero. Again, he was never one of my favorites (face it, he’s no Son of Satan), but he did spend some years in the 1990s as one of Marvel’s best-selling characters. Again, when he started out, he had super-cool Mike Ploog art that made up for the goofy concept of a motorcycle daredevil with a flaming skull. Wait, did I say goofy cause that’s awesome!Now we come to the cream of the crop, the top dog, the head of the class, the king of . . . the best horror comic Marvel produced in the 1970s, and one of the best comics produced anywhere ever!TOMB OF DRACULA.This is the story of Count Dracula trying to expand his empire of the undead in the modern world pursued by a team of vampire hunters descended from the same crew that dispatched him in the original novel. The first year of the book was uneven because of rotating writers and artists, but soon it acquired one of the legendary creative teams of all time, and they stayed with the book until it was cancelled with issue #70. Writer: Marv Wolfman (yes, that’s his real name). Artists: Gene Colan and Tom Palmer. These guys are the best. THE BEST.The book had an over-written pulp sound to it, which served its neo-Victorian sensibility. It was like a Dracula movie from Hammer Studios, but bigger and wilder and much more personal and emotional. Individual issues were often repetitive with lots of stalking and biting and last-minute escapes and Dracula threatening everyone in sight. But taken as a whole, the 70-issue run of Tomb of Dracula is one of the greatest achievements in comic book history. The Count appears in every issue, and often carries his own personal storylines, including getting married and having a son. However, the supporting characters are the heart of the book. Wonderful characters, famously including Blade the Vampire Hunter (who you may remember from movies too) and my personal favorite, Hannibal King, vampire private eye. There are epic story arcs and terrific single-issue tales. It never gets scary, but some of the stories are disturbing, and many of the best are playful and humorous to relieve the constant overwrought melodrama.And the art! THE ART! If you can name a sustained artistic run on a comic book series better than Colan/Palmer on Tomb of Dracula, you are lying! I can’t overestimate what this comic meant to me in the 1970s, and beyond.In the shadow of color monster books like the magnificent Tomb of Dracula, Marvel tried to compete in the black & white magazine world dominated by Warren Publications and their books Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella. Marvel had mixed success. The format avoided the Comics Code Authority so they were able (theoretically) to do more adult stories, but that really just meant nudity and graphic violence. My parents really shouldn’t have let me read them because there were naked ladies all over the place! Some of the stories were great. Some were mediocre.They did some stories that wouldn’t fit anywhere else. Check out this luscious page from artist Alan Weiss with 16th Century Dracula fencing with Solomon Kane!However, even before the 1970s ended, the Marvel Monster revolution ended. The books were dropped one-by-one as the gimmick lost steam. Ghost Rider was the only one that really thrived long term. Dracula. Werewolf. Frankenstein. Man-Thing. Brother Voodoo. Even Son of Satan. All vanished into the mist-shrouded graveyard of cancellation. The characters showed up in other books as guest stars, but their days of dominance were done.It was the 1980s and superheroes roared back, particularly mutant X-Men superheroes.The 1970s were over.Adieu, Son of Satan. I’ll miss you.​​​​

Part of the October Frights Blog Hop celebrating all things that go bump in the night.Join Paranormal & Horror Authors in this 5-Day EventI’m a mountain girl, born and raised. I lived in the Catskill Mountains and the Adirondacks. Stories of ghosts and strange hauntings permeated my childhood.From Sleepy Hollow to the Montrepose Cemetery to Spook Rock Road, ghosts have lived and died in the cradle of the Hudson Valley. Apparitions stride through the lanes and whispered woods as if it were perfectly natural.But now I live in North Carolina and the mountains here hold just as many wonderful tales of brown lights and demon dogs. Clay and I travel at least once a year up to the Blue Ridge Mountains and one can’t help but be haunted by the strange happenings there.We’ve been lucky enough to stay at the wonderful Grove Park Inn where the Pink Lady resides. The hotel was built around 1913 and the story goes that a young woman fell to her death from the fifth floor balcony of her room. She manifests as pink mist, though sometimes the faint view of a pink ball gown can be seen. Generally she’s a good natured spirit that appears mainly to children, sometimes even caring for them while they are sick. Though there’s a mischievous side to her as well, including the tickling of feet. Scary to be sure.However, the town of Valle Crucis hosts a strange demon dog that wanders a churchyard cemetery road along Highway 194. Covered in black fur with burning red eyes and as large as a full grown man. It guards the territory between two streams that meet at right angles in the mist covered valley. Be sure to make it across the bridge or the beast will take you!Then the Phantom Choir of Roan Mountain sings a sad tale, though none can tell if the voices are angelic in nature or tormented screams. One story goes of a man back in the 19th century heard terribly howls in the midst of a rainstorm and took shelter in a cave. Suddenly spirits manifested beside him covered with the marks of torture, screaming their lament. The man passed out in fear and when he roused his clothes were bleached white.And lastly, there are the famous Brown Mountain Lights. In the evening autumn hour, mysterious orbs rise from a low ridge. They levitate for a few moments before falling again into the darkness of the mountain. No one knows their origin though plenty are surmised. The Cherokee have long known of the strange lights and claim they are the souls of women looking their husbands who died during the war between the Cherokee and the Catawba.To me every mountain remains steeped in mystery. Dark ancient ground that still defies civilization. I will forever walk the mountain trails knowing there’s always a chance that I will meet something or someone unexpected.

A blog post in support of #HoldOnToTheLight SF/F Authors and Fans for Mental WellnessSometimes your writing has lessons that you didn’t grasp when you were writing. Lessons for yourself that no one else might understand, or needs to.One day not long ago, I posted a story on Facebook about a time when my father had surgery. He was suffering from dementia, and when he came out of anesthesia, the surgeon pointed at me and asked my dad, “Do you know who this guy is?”“My brother,” Dad replied confidently.“I’m your son,” I said.My father looked confused. “Why don’t you want to be my brother?”Someone commented on the Facebook post: “I loved that story inVampire Empirebetween Dmitri and Gareth!”What? I used that story in a book? I didn’t even remember until the reader pointed it out.InVampire Empire, Dmitri was the father to our hero, Gareth, and a leader in the vampire war against humanity despite his misgivings about the war’s wisdom. When the reader first meets him inThe Greyfriar, the once-great Dmitri is already mentally unstable and under the care or control of others.The inspiration for Dmitri was no secret. During the time Susan and I plotted and wrote the first book, my father was dropping into dementia. His memories slowly faded and his grasp of reality dispersed. He went from living alone, to assisted living, to skilled nursing. He grew emotionally and physically frail. He was easily confused and alarmed, but not so much that he couldn’t dial my number on the phone. For years, calls came at all hours, sometimes every few minutes. Eventually his frantic calls were compounded by others from the facility or nursing home. I ran between my house and his room at all hours of the night or day, took time off work to calm the latest disturbance, spent hours in the emergency room or hospital.After years of steady decline, my father finally died. Frankly, it was a relief. That’s a terrible thing to admit, but it’s true. I wasn’t glad my father was dead, but he hadn’t been my father for years and I was just thankful the long nightmare was over for everyone.After what we’d been through, it was a natural thing to add a character in the throes of dementia to our writing. I knew how those characters acted and talked. I found their mental acrobatics fascinating, sometimes humorous, and often poignant.When I started thinking about what to do for this blog post, I planned to write a piece about how I used my experience with dementia to inform our books. However, Susan kept insisting that the point should be that I had written Gareth and Dmitri’s relationship to come to terms with the difficulty of my own situation.I laughed and dismissed the idea: “They were nothing like me and Dad. Gareth ran away from his father. I only wish I could’ve run away.”Oh.Gareth avoided the burdens of caring for his father, but his decision to run away had nothing to do with Dmitri’s mental state. He had noble reasons: he hated the brutality of his kind and nurtured a fascination with humans that alienated him from his fellow vampires. In fact, Gareth often lamented the loss of his father whom he loved and admired, and hated that his father fell under the claws of his ambitious younger brother.To be clear, I didn’t decide to become my father’s primary caregiver because I feared sinister siblings seizing our vast family empire. My brothers are good guys and they helped as much as they could. It was just the luck of the draw that I lived a few minutes away from my father. It was sensible for me to be the point of contact.Much of my personality came from Dad. I got my love of books, movies, and writing from him. While my mother was determined and hard working, Dad was easy-going and laid back. He wasn’t exactly ambitionless, but certainly not a driven man by any stretch. I’m the same way.However, long before my father’s illness, my mother suffered a stroke and I watched him care for her every single day without question or pause. For years, he devoted himself to nothing but her, and never thought of doing otherwise.So when he needed help, I helped him as best I could. What else could I do? That was how I was raised.The idea of running off to an isolated castle in Scotland to live with cats must’ve held some allure even if I didn’t realize it because that’s what I made Gareth do. But even though he performed an act I fantasized about subconsciously, apparently I understood the high cost of such an act, because I made Gareth pay it. He was tormented by abandoning his father and regretted the terrible events his absence precipitated.In retrospect, writing the story of Gareth and Dmitri was a subliminal way of reinforcing the lesson I already knew: Do the right thing or you’ll regret it. Just answer the damn phone and do what needs to be done.It’s not like an adventure story. Nothing melodramatic or heroic. No plots or schemes or clashes of ideology. The darkness is real enough though.That’s life.***“Sir, your robe.”“Oh, thank you, Carolus.” Dmitri slipped into the robe naturally and cinched it around his waist.Gareth moved to face him, tight-lipped. “My name is Gareth. Do you remember me at all?”The king nodded as he laid his arm across the prince’s shoulder. “I have a son named Gareth.”“That’s right.”“He is a good son. A bit bullheaded, perhaps. I taught him to think for himself, and he learned that very well.” Dmitri narrowed his eyes in thought, actual deep thought. He worked his jaw side to side in contemplation. “But he didn’t learn when to put the clan above himself. Sometimes you can be right, but you still have to give way to others. That can be a terrible undoing. I don’t know if he ever grasped that.” Then the king smiled generously. “But I’ve always been proud of him. Will you tell him so, if you see him today?”Gareth stared deep into his father’s gaze, seeking a hint of recognition, a flicker of the past, some shadow from their time together. Dmitri’s eyes were honest, even charming, but they were deep chasms with no horizons. There was nothing in them to assuage Gareth.The prince paused to find a steady voice. “I will.”Dmitri looked wistful. “I miss him. I miss seeing him.”“He misses you as well.” Gareth looked at the floor as he adjusted the king’s robe. His chest ached that his father hand no idea how often Gareth visited him. He then guided his father back to the bed and helped him to lie down again. “I must go, Your Majesty. I hope to see you again soon.”“Good,” Dmitri said. “You’ve been very kind.”Gareth cupped the back of the king’s damp head. Then he silently turned to leave.“Why don’t you want to be my brother?” Dmitri asked.Gareth smiled sadly. “I will be your brother if you wish it.”“Good. Everything is all right, then.” Dmitri drifted off toward a satisfied sleep. “Good night, Carolus.”“Good night, Dmitri.”The Rift WalkerVampire Empire, Book 2#HoldOnToTheLight is a blog campaign encompassing blog posts by fantasy and science fiction authors around the world in a effort to raise awareness around treatment for depression, suicide prevention, domestic violence intervention, PTSD initiatives, bullying prevention and other mental-health related issues. We believe fandom should be supportive, welcoming and inclusive, in the long tradition of fandom taking care of its own. We encourage readers and fans to seek the help they or their loved ones need without shame or embarrassment.Please consider donating to or volunteering for organizations dedicated to treatment and prevention such as: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Home for the Warriors (PTSD), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Canadian Mental Health Association, MIND (UK), SANE (UK), BeyondBlue (Australia), To Write Love On Her Arms and the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.To find out more about #HOldOnToTheLight, find a list of participating authors, or reach a media contact, go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/27674....

A blog post in support of #HoldOnToTheLight SF/F Authors and Fans for Mental WellnessOne day I changed.I know when it happened. The exact day.June 24, 2012.Five days before my 49th birthday.My mother died.We were close. Like best friends close. We told each other everything, shared every moment. She was my greatest cheerleader, my strongest motivation, my ultimate inspiration, my loving mentor, and my adoring mother. She was always strong and yet also kind and generous. Time was always made for her children, listening to us prattle on for hours if need be. Her legacy I carry with me always, her struggle to survive war torn Germany in a mad escape to the United States for freedom and safety. Forged in war like a Valkyrie, she never let that experience mar her positive outlook, her gentle grace, or her undying love for her family.Two years before that I lost my father. In a family of three girls, I was his tomboy daughter. He taught me how to fish and how to shoot a gun. He showed me how to change the oil in my car, how to hang drywall, how to caulk a sink. He also taught me to how to have fun. Not to take myself so seriously. He showed me it was okay to let others see you cry at sentimental movies.When I lost them both something inside of me was gutted. And something new emerged.This new person in my skin wasn’t a bad person. It’s just someone different. Someone I don’t know very well. I feel uncomfortable, like I’m a stranger even to myself. It’s difficult to be the dreamer I once was. It’s hard to focus and find some enthusiasm for whatever I am doing. Nothing feels the same.Everyday I wanted to be that person I was before, until I began to get angry that I wasn’t anymore.I hated everything I wrote. None of it held any emotional connection that I was normally so good at developing. Even when I tried, it read as false to me.How can I give a character emotion if I didn’t feel any?I’m not an expert on depression. I just know I am in the throes of something. I stopped doing what I loved to do. Reading, watching TV, exercising, church, nothing gave me joy or purpose anymore. I only kept writing because it was a job and I had deadlines. If it weren’t for those deadlines, or my husband Clay, I’d have stopped altogether.Events in life change us. It’s one of the hardest things we have to do and there’s no avoiding it. It’s going to happen. Whatever we are going through, we must struggle to accept what we become on the other side. Transformations are always difficult. Visceral and ugly. It insidiously begins to seep into all parts of our lives. No one likes change. We all fight it in one way or another, especially if it is forced upon us. But grief isn’t something that you can just shove aside. You don’t get over it. It’s with you always.Like a new skin.I still don’t like the new me very much. I’m quicker to anger, easier to shut down. The world is less beautiful and kind. I’m more jaded. But lately, every once in a while, I find myself wanting to read a frivolous book again, talk to people, and to go for a simple walk. I’ve even truly wanted to write again. Stories are slowly bubbling up from somewhere, sometimes about things less dark.I’m learning who this new person is, and how to make adjustments one day at a time. This is what life is about. Moving forward, accepting who you are now. Never forgetting, but enduring. I’m not that idealistic dreamer anymore, and that’s okay.Or maybe I still am. It’s just buried under this new skin, waiting.What happens when more than 90 sci-fi and fantasy authors start a conversation about mental wellness, mental illness, depression, suicide prevention, domestic violence intervention, PTSD treatment and related issues?We don’t know, but we’re going to find out.#HoldOnToTheLight is a blog campaign encompassing blog posts by fantasy and science fiction authors around the world in a effort to raise awareness around treatment for depression, suicide prevention, domestic violence intervention, PTSD initiatives, bullying prevention and other mental-health related issues. We believe fandom should be supportive, welcoming and inclusive, in the long tradition of fandom taking care of its own. We encourage readers and fans to seek the help they or their loved ones need without shame or embarrassment.Please consider donating to or volunteering for organizations dedicated to treatment and prevention such as: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Hope for the Warriors (PTSD), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Canadian Mental Health Association, MIND (UK), SANE (UK), BeyondBlue (Australia), To Write Love On Her Arms and the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.To find out more about #HOldOnToTheLight, find a list of participating authors, or reach a media contact, go tohttps://www.facebook.com/groups/276745236033627/.

  Christmas and New Years Eve are the times of year you most want to be with the one you love to snuggle by the fire or dress up and go out on the town. Our two series – VAMPIRE EMPIRE and CROWN & KEY – feature very different male leads. If you were comparing Gareth and Simon on a dating site, who would you choose?     GARETH, vampire prince of Scotland and masked freedom fighter vs. SIMON ARCHER, last mystic scribe on Earth and leader of the Crown & Key Society             Personality Gareth:

  ​Welcome to the first day of the Full Moon Blog Tour hosted by Broad Universe. Join us as numerous authors of Fantasy, Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Horror, and many more, bring you tales under the light of the moon.      Our new novel THE GEOMANCER will be released next week, continuing the adventures of Adele and Gareth in the world of Vampire Empire.   One doesn’t always associate the moon with vampires. Werewolves sure, but not vampires. They seem controlled more by the sun rather than its nightly

Come join us tomorrow for a full week of Halloween fun with the Broad Universe folks. We will be showcasing great speculative fiction covering a wide range of offereings. Paranormal. High Fantasy. Horror. Space Opera. And many more! Each participant listed below will offer a glimpse behind the veil of the moon as well as a chance to win some great prizes.         You can enter for the main prize each day for the entire tour. Prizes are: First prize: a $75 gift voucher on your choice of Amazon,[image error]