In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff โ gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.
Some have come to open the gates. Some have come to slam them shut.
And now the dread night approaches โ so let the Game begin.
Author: Roger Zelazny Illustrator: Gahan Wilson Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Gaslamp Publisher: Avon Books Publication Date: September 1, 1994 Pages: 280
October 5th
Snuff does his rounds again. He tries to keep track in his mind of all the places where the players are gathering, but his inner map is proving increasingly hard to organize. He meets Greymalk who informs him that a man was torn apart in the city the night before, as if by a giant hound. Snuff pleads innocence, for both himself and his master. Together the two familiars go in search of a snake who may have more information.
With the snake’s help they begin to piece together more of the players. From the snake’s masters, a pair of occultists, to the mad monk, to the druid, from the witch to Jack, from the Count to a new arrival. This newcomer was first detected by the presence of a hump-backed familiar bringing ‘materials’ to a doctor in a strange house that appears to have a lightning storm on the inside. Mad laughter is heard in the air and Snuff adds the place to his mental map. It will bear watching.
I’m really enjoying the interplay between Snuff and the other familiars. Friends are being made and foes identified, and although we are still no closer to knowing what it’s all about, the cast is gathering fast now. And at the end of the day, when Snuff returns home, he finds a strange paw print. Has someone else joined the game?
Boo-graphy: William Meikle is a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.
He has books available from a variety of publishers including Dark Regions Press, Crossroad Press and Severed Press, and his work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and magazines.
He lives in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company.
When heโs not writing he drinks beer, plays guitar, and dreams of fortune and glory.
The Green & the Black — A small group of industrial archaeologists head into the center of Newfoundland, investigating a rumor of a lost prospecting team of Irish miners in the late Nineteenth century.
They find the remains of a mining operation, and a journal and papers detailing the extent of the miners’ activities. But there is something else on the site, something older than the miners, as old as the rock itself.
Soon the archaeologists are coming under assault, from a strange infection that spreads like wildfire through mind and body, one that doctors seem powerless to define let alone control.
The survivors only have one option. They must return to the mine, and face what waits for them, down in the deep dark places, where the green meets the black.
Meghan: Hi, Eric. Welcome to Meghan’s (Haunted) House of Books AND our annual Halloween Extravaganza. It’s a pleasure to have you join us here today. What is your favorite part of Halloween?
Eric: Years ago I started to decorate my yard with recreations of famous horror movie characters. While the project has grown to an almost annoying level of work, the reaction of the trick โr treaters is worth it. Added to that, is the reaction of the neighborhood and people who have seen previous years as they begin to drive by the house to see if Iโve started to set up.
When my son was in school, the way his friends or classmates would let their parents know where he lived was to tell them he was at the โscary houseโ. Everyone in Elementary and Middle School called our house this.
One time when I was getting my wifeโs sewing machine fixed in a little shop about 30 minutes away from my house, and one town over, the guy taking my information stopped and looked at me when I gave my street address. He said, โYou know that house that does the Halloween stuff โฆ that place is so cool. My kids make me start driving by there the first week of October to see if itโs up.โ I offered a smile and said, โYeah, thatโs my house.โ
Itโs great to see all the parents, teenagers, and kids stop and take pictures and discuss their favorite scary movies.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?
Eric: My favorite tradition when my son was younger was taking him trick โr treating. Now though I think my favorite tradition is one I hated just 10 years ago โ carving pumpkins. My family and friends get together the night before and everyone carves a pumpkin to display at my sonโs Godparentsโ house. I hated doing it in the beginning but Iโve embraced it as I look for unique and obscure stuff to carve now. Everyone always did cute and popular characters but I wanted to make sure horror movies were represented and started doing 2 or 3 every year to get more stuff out there. I enjoy seeing which ones get the biggest reaction.
Meghan: If Halloween is your favorite holiday (or even second favorite holiday), why?
Eric: Halloween was always special to me. Itโs one of the few times my dad and I could come together over the horror genre. He hates anything scary but he loved coming up with awesome and terrifying costumes when I was younger. Plus thereโs something magical about Halloween: the costumes, the sense of adventure when you head out to trick or treat, and the sense of the unknown that comes with it.
Meghan: What are you superstitious about?
Eric: Just about everything. Iโm a โknock on woodโ kind of guy. I like to think Iโve mellowed out on superstitions as Iโve grown older, but Iโm sure my wife would say Iโve gotten worse.
Meghan: What/who is your favorite horror monster or villain?
I think Vincent Priceโs performance of Nicholas Medina in The Pit and the Pendulum is one of my favorite singular villain performances; although if we were being fair to the characters, he was much more the victim than the true villain. Yet in the end, Price is diabolical as he embraces his madness and takes actions into his own hands.
In more modern films, I find choosing a favorite monster like picking a favorite child, just impossible. If I had to rate the big 4 it would be Jason, Freddy, Michael, Leatherface, but that doesnโt mean I love any of them more or less than the other. Iโd throw in the Thing and the Jeepers Creepers monster as favorites, but Iโm not sure Iโd have the same top monster if you asked me tomorrow.
Meghan: Which unsolved murder fascinates you the most?
Eric: 6 & 8 are connected. When I was younger I had a fascination with serial killers. I read as much as I could and watched all the specials as I tried to understand what made these people tick. Now, Iโm not sure I care but one killer has always intrigued me. Jack the Ripper.
I read everything I could get my hands on when I was a kid. I worked through the clues, and enthusiastically tried to solve the case โ when I was 10. Now I am still interested, watching movies and documentaries on the subject whenever I have the time. But I stopped really researching it. I may have to go back and see if, with some distance and more life experience, I can piece it together.
Meghan: Which urban legend scares you the most?
Eric: I was always terrified of the people living in the sewers. When I was a kid, like 6 or so, I saw a TV ad for a Hill Street Blues episode when a group of homeless come from the sewers and take a police officer. They hold him underground and then cue the ominous music and fade to black. Since I wasnโt old enough to watch or really care about the show, I never found out what happened to the guy. So in my imagination, they tortured, cooked, and ate this guy. So thatโs the one that haunted me for a very long time.
Meghan: Who is your favorite serial killer and why?
Eric: So as I mentioned in 6, Iโm not sure I have a list of favorite serial killers, but I do find the whole idea of Jack the Ripper to be fascinating. The setting, the conditions, the back story, and the brutality all add up to an amazing story.
Meghan: How old were you when you saw your first horror movie?
Eric: I remember seeing the last 5 minutes or so of Friday the 13th Part 2 on TMC. I was watching it while I was supposed to be watching cartoons or something. I think I was 7 or 8. It was both terrifying and thrilling to experience.
The first full-length horror movie I watched by myself was A Nightmare on Elm Street. I was home alone; my parents were at a party nearby. I think it was a premiere and I was 9ish. In my blog, I went over a list of movies that werenโt horror but were scary that my father showed me at a young age. I believe these may be the movies that helped me develop a love for the horror genre. So I wasnโt all that bothered by violence or nudity at this pointโฆ or so I thought. Freddy and the idea of someone coming for you in your sleep really rocked my world. The scene where Tina is killed was the kicker, and I had all the lights on in the house and every stuffed animal I could find piled around me. I made sure our Doberman was sitting with me for the rest of the night until my parents got home. Funny thing, I finished the movie and had no trouble going to sleep. Most importantly, I was hooked.
Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?
Eric: The Exorcist is the one that freaked me out the most, but I was 10 or 11 when I read it. My mother played a part in this particular book freaking me out. I was up late reading, into the good parts and I decided I needed some water. My mom and I were the only ones home as my father was off on a business trip. My bedroom was at the end of an L-shaped hall. I left my room, walked the turn (where my parentsโ room was), and turned to walk to the end of the hall where there was a door that opened to the rest of the house. Because it was so late, I was trying to be quiet. As I turned the knob to open the door, my mom put her hand on my shoulder, totally unaware of what I was doing or what I had just read.
It always surprised me that no one called the Base Police that night as Iโm sure I screamed louder than I ever had before or ever would again. If the door wasnโt in front of me, I may have just run and kept going until I couldnโt run anymore. Of course, my mother is the kind of person who screams at anything that shocks her or startles her, so Iโm sure she yelled as well. Iโm just happy I didnโt piss myself, lol.
Meghan: Which horror movie scarred you for life?
Eric: Iโm not sure any scarred me for life. Off the top of my head, I can think of 3 that left an impression on me in the theater. I saw Event Horizon in a newly constructed super theater. Now when you go to the theater you expect a totally immersed experience. That wasnโt always the case, in fact, Iโve been to theaters where there 1 working speaker โ and we liked it fine. But in the 90s big movie houses started popping up with huge screens and so many speakers, Marshmello would be jealous.
The reason Event Horizon left an impression, other than itโs awesome, was the use of sound throughout the speakers. It added a new level of unexpected pleasure to the horror experience.
The second movie that comes to mind is The Strangers. It stood out because of the way the director and editor were able to add to the tension and build a tangible sense of dread throughout the theater. I mean, it tells you at the beginning how itโs going to end, and yet they still do an amazing job of putting you on the edge of your seat.
The last movie is the Blair Witch Project. I saw this one opening night with 3 friends in a packed theater. Iโm not sure there was one open seat by the time it started. Sometimes with a full house, youโll get a couple of people who throughout the film pull your attention away, not this night. It was one of those unique experiences where the entire theater bought into the experience. It was amazing. Everyone laughed, gasped, jumped, and lost their minds at the exact time; most important, they did it at the correct times. And the endingโฆ so perfect for that environment; it ended, the room exploded in loud voices and screams of horror and everyone ran to leave the theater. It was like someone had announced a bomb threat, thatโs how fast the place emptied.
You donโt get that at home. Hell, you rarely get it at the theater, but when you do it is such a sweet memory.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween costume?
Eric: I hate dressing up now. Iโm a fuddy-duddy as the kids like to say. I loved costumes as a kid and I even won for scariest costume when I was 10. It was a pain, literally, to get in and out of, but it was pretty cool. I was wrapped like a mummy, but my face looked like all the skin had been burned off and it was just red muscle and flesh. I also dressed up as a werewolf once, and that was a cool costume.
That said, my favorite costume was my sonโs first Halloween. He was a big kid and already walking when the time came. In fact, he was so big heโd outgrown the 18-month old costume I got him the year before thinking heโd be a cute gorilla. So we went to the store and got him an alligator costume. It had a long tail, I think it helped with balance, but with my son, it just added to the memory of how cute he was as it swished back and forth as he ran down the hall all dressed up to trick โr treat.
The next year he was a dragon and I was a skeleton knight and his mom was a witch. I think that was the last time we dressed upโฆ at least themed.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween-themed song?
Eric: Itโs probably Time Warp from Rocky Horror or This is Halloween from Nightmare Before Christmas. That said, Iโm a big music fan and like most of the themed or monster stuff.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween candy or treat? What is your most disappointing?
Eric: Favorite is Snickers or Twizzlers. Iโm a big guy so Iโm not really disappointed with any candy choice, but my least favorite would be Mounds or Almond Joy.
Meghan: Thanks again, Eric, for stopping by. Before we go, what movies and books should we stay awake on Halloween enjoying?
Eric: There are so many to choose fromโฆ movie Iโd say Trick โr Treat as #1, then Iโd go with Halloween 3 or 2. Just depends if Iโm in the mood for a slasher movie or supernatural.
Lastly, when I was a kid we didnโt have all these ways to watch things. Most people didnโt own a lot of VHS tapes, and there were no streaming services so when holidays approached you would know that one of the big 3 networks would play some of the old (and create new) classics. Usually, it would be a few days before the big day and many times they would be on back to back depending on who had the rights and what else was being shown. 2 that I enjoyed when I was a kid and make a point to still watch today are Itโs the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown & Garfield In Disguise Halloween Special. And so with that, Iโll leave you with words of wisdom from everyoneโs favorite fat cat: Candy, Candy, Candy, Candyโฆ
Boo-graphy: Eric Butler is an Army brat who now calls Texas home. A lifelong fan of horror and pop culture, he finally decided to sit in front of a computer to share all the stories rattling around his head. He lives with his incredibly patient wife and teenage son in a house overrun with Huskies and cats.
Donn, TX — Thereโs a place in Texas the locals avoid at all cost, where the lost go missing and the damned reside. You wonโt find it on any map, there are no road signs to guide you, and once there, may God have mercy on your soul. For when the scarecrow awakens, the harvest of the living begins.
Welcome to Donn, TX Gateway to Hell
1952 On the back roads of Texas, Debbie grows ill and her husband, Jerry, stops at the only motel theyโve seen for miles. He hopes a little rest will help calm her stomach, but in Donn, TX, there can be no rest once the harvest begins.
1969 Frank is back from Vietnam but struggling to reconnect with the world he once knew. Jane is convinced a road trip to Houston will help them both find the connection they are missing. First, they need to drop off her younger sister and her best friend at the university, and then the honeymoon the war put on hold can finally begin.
Except now they are lost on the back roads, and each mile brings them closer to Donn. If only they hadnโt exited the highway โฆ
But now itโs too late; for the harvest is nearing its end, and the scarecrow requires its due.
In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff โ gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.
Some have come to open the gates. Some have come to slam them shut.
And now the dread night approaches โ so let the Game begin.
Author: Roger Zelazny Illustrator: Gahan Wilson Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Gaslamp Publisher: Avon Books Publication Date: September 1, 1994 Pages: 280
October 4th
Another day begins with Snuff doing his rounds, firstly in the house. One of the ‘things’ is still mouthy and insulting. It offers Snuff a bribe – a redhead? A collie? but Snuff has heard it all before.
He heads outside to expand his round. On this occasion he comes across an old man with a scythe, with a nervous squirrel as companion. We also discover that the chaser who Snuff gave a nip the day before was the rotund companion of a dour detective. I think we can all guess who that must have been, but whether the dynamic duo are players in the game is as yet unclear.
The day ends with Jack performing a midnight ritual which initiates a strange magic and affects Snuff in ways he is unable to fully articulate. We wonder about Snuff. He has mentioned that he prefers being a watchdog to what he was before, in the place from where Jack summoned him. What could that have been? Was Snuff human in a previous incarnation? Or perhaps even some kind of demon? We can only hope for answers at this stage, and wonder who else might join in the game.
Boo-graphy: William Meikle is a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.
He has books available from a variety of publishers including Dark Regions Press, Crossroad Press and Severed Press, and his work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and magazines.
He lives in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company.
When heโs not writing he drinks beer, plays guitar, and dreams of fortune and glory.
The Green & the Black — A small group of industrial archaeologists head into the center of Newfoundland, investigating a rumor of a lost prospecting team of Irish miners in the late Nineteenth century.
They find the remains of a mining operation, and a journal and papers detailing the extent of the miners’ activities. But there is something else on the site, something older than the miners, as old as the rock itself.
Soon the archaeologists are coming under assault, from a strange infection that spreads like wildfire through mind and body, one that doctors seem powerless to define let alone control.
The survivors only have one option. They must return to the mine, and face what waits for them, down in the deep dark places, where the green meets the black.
Meghan: Hi Ben! Welcome to Meghan’s (Haunted) House of Horrors. What is your favorite part of Halloween?
Ben: The weather and the colors of Autumn. I love that crisp cinnamon smell in the air. Most of my fiction is written during the winter. I love taking walks in the woods and just taking it all in. I always looked forward to visiting my relatives in Tennessee. My uncle would take me for walks into the hollow behind his house. My imagination was operating on all 8 cylinders then, and it does now. I was able to bring that same hollow into my latest horror novella, Hollow Heart. Of course, my uncle called it a โholler.โ
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?
Ben: It was handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters but, sadly, thatโs come to an end. Now itโs re-reading my favorite horror novels. Also, I love dressing up as one of my favorite horror creatures. I plan to dress up as The Hell Priest this year, and I have a friend who does special effects. I canโt wait to see what heโs capable of. Hopefully, a few buddies of mine and I can get together and read short horror stories to one another.
Meghan: If Halloween is your favorite holiday (or even second favorite holiday), why?
Ben: Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. As a child, we could dress up and go to school as our favorite monsters. I always tried to scare the hell out of my classmates. You canโt do that on any other holiday or regular day, for that matter. Itโs also a time of renewalโout with the old, in with the new.
Meghan: What are you superstitious about?
Ben: Talking about fiction Iโm currently writing. Thatโs the only thing. Iโm sure this is disappointing. LOL
Meghan: What/who is your favorite horror monster or villain?
Ben: Thereโs a lot! I think it would be a tie between Pennywise, The Hell Priest, Charlie Manx, and Frankenstein. Freddy isnโtโand hasnโt beenโscary, at least to me, for many years. Ditto Jason Vorhees and the other slashers. I love some of the other Universal movie monsters, too. But Dracula, at least for me, isnโt very scary anymore.
Meghan: Which unsolved murder fascinates you the most?
Ben: The murders of Jack the Ripper. Why? Because weโll never, ever, ever, know who committed those murders. Itโs left up to the imagination. Iโm not a conspiracy theorist, but I think Alan Moore was on to something with his amazing graphic novel, From Hell. Big fan of Alan Moore.
Meghan: Which urban legend scares you the most?
Ben: I donโt believe in the supernatural, so none. Howeverโฆ people try to mimic urban legends as well as perform hoaxes. I had a friend in middle school that almost convinced the school the Jersey Devil was roaming the halls. Ha! I guess this comes close: I had a friend in high school that pulled one hell of a prank on me. He even got some of my friends in on it too. He took my Lovecraft books out of my drawer, burned my drawer, and placed a bible in their place. I literally believed thatโฆ for about a day. Then a friend called with a guilty conscious and told me about it. With friends like thatโฆ
Meghan: Who is your favorite serial killer and why?
Ben: Jack the Ripper. Again, weโll never know who did it. It leaves the imagination wide open, and thereโs tons of conspiracy theories based on him/her. Who knows?
Meghan: How old were you when you saw your first horror movie? How old were you when you read your first horror book?
Ben: I was six-years-old when Hellraiser was playing one night on cable. I only made it ten or fifteen minutes in before shutting the TV off. I couldnโt sleep for two days after that. Thankfully, I didnโt need therapy. But it was the taboo of it, as well as me needing to face my fears that got me through the film. After finishing it, I was still scared to death, but my imagination was operating on a whole new level. Barker is a genius.
I was ten-years-old when I read The Dark Half by Stephen King. I remember not really getting it and realizing I wasnโt old enough yet. I took the book to my mother and asked her a ton of questions. She helped me out a bit but said that one twin absorbing the other fetus in the womb was impossible and, therefore, the book was silly. A month later, a co-worker told my mother that she had the same thing happen to her when she was in the womb. She came home very scared, and said that whoever Stephen King was, heโs a weirdo, sick, twisted, and demented. It was love at first sight! I have him to thank for getting me hooked on horror.
Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?
Ben: That would be tie between Stephen Kingโs IT, The Shining, and Jack Ketchumโs The Girl Next Door. The former due to it being one of the best horror novels ever written, at least in my very humble opinion. The concept, the characters, the world, and how IT could be anything. The Shining had me actually believing in ghosts for a few years. Thatโs how well that book is written. The movie is good, but the book is so much better. The Girl Next Door has amazing characters, an amazing world, but, oh, manโฆ that poor girl. Itโs based on a true story, which shows what human beings are truly capable of. I had a very, very hard time reading the book towards the end, for obvious reasons. But you canโt put it down. Youโre there, like the other kids, bearing witness to true horror.
Meghan: Which horror movie scarred you for life?
Ben: That would be a tie between Hellraiser and Alien. With Alien, Ridley Scottโs vision, as well as Gigerโs art and creature scarred me. The life-cycle of the xenomorph hits us on a sub-conscious level, too, which, when you think about it, you canโt get more disturbing than that. The sequels just didnโt hold up to the original.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween costume?
Ben: The Hell Priest because itโs so damn hard to do! Ha! Thatโs why Iโve enlisted a friend who does special effects for a living. He told me it will take about four to five hours just to get my face and head finished. Itโs going to be hard to pull off, but I love a challenge!
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween-themed song?
Ben: I dislike gothic music, but every Halloween I love cranking up Type O Negative. My favorite song would be Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-all). I have no idea why, but when Halloween hits, itโs gothic music time for Ben!
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween candy or treat? What is your most disappointing?
Ben: Favorite treat would be a Snickers bar. I hate candy-corn. Whoever invented the latter should be drug out into the street and shot. Iโm biased because I bit into one once and cracked a tooth. The pain was instant and immense. Not a good Halloween that year!
Meghan: Thanks for stopping by Ben. Before you go, what Halloween reads do you think we should snuggle up with?
Boo-graphy: Ben Eads lives within the semi-tropical suburbs of Central Florida. A true horror writer by heart, he wrote his first story at the tender age of ten. The look on the teacherโs face when she read it was priceless. However, his classmates loved it! Ben has had short stories published in various magazines and anthologies. When he isnโt writing, he dabbles in martial arts, philosophy and specializes in I.T. security. Heโs always looking to find new ways to infect readerโs imaginations. Ben blames Arthur Machen, H.P. Lovecraft, Jorge Luis Borges, J.G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick, and Stephen King for his addiction, and his need to push the envelope of fiction.
Hollow Heart — Welcome to Shady Hills, Florida, where death is the beginning and pain is the only true Artโฆ
Harold Stoe was a proud Marine until an insurgentโs bullet relegated him to a wheelchair. Now the only things heโs proud of are quitting alcohol and raising his sixteen-year-old son, Dale.
But there is an infernal rhythm, beating like a diseased heart from the hollow behind his home. An aberration known as The Architect has finished his masterpiece: A god which slumbers beneath the hollow, hell-bent on changing the world into its own image.
As the body count rises and the neighborhood residents change into mindless, shambling horrors, Harold and his former lover, Mary, begin their harrowing journey into the world within the hollow. If they fail, the hollow will expand to infinity. Every living being will be stripped of flesh and muscle, their nerves wrapped tightly around ribcages, so The Architect can play his sick music through them loud enough to swallow what gives them life: The last vestiges of a dying star.
In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff โ gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an upcoming ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.
Some have come to open the gates. Some have come to slam them shut.
And now the dread night approaches โ so let the Game begin.
Author: Roger Zelazny Illustrator: Gahan Wilson Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Gaslamp Publisher: Avon Books Publication Date: September 1, 1994 Pages: 280
October 3rd
The day begins with Snuff and Jack on a nighttime expedition for ‘materials’. Snuff has fetched Jack’s blade along so we guess the business is a bloody one, but the job isn’t a total success; they are chased and Snuff has to give a chaser a ‘nip’ before they get free and away.
Later, back at Jack’s place, Snuff does his rounds of the other known parties, seeking information. He finds a broomstick at Jill and Greymalk’s place. He is interrupted by something that rustles and chitters in the trees and identifies itself as a familiar of a new player, the Count. The bat tells Snuff that all the players on the field are now in the business of gathering ‘materials’ for what is to come.
The game is growing in size daily. As yet we don’t know what these ‘materials’ are or what they are for, but the conversation with the bat brings up two new, important concepts, that of Openers and Closers in reference to the players. We can guess that these might be opposing parties in the game but we still don’t have a clue what’s going on.
However, the plot is, as they say, thickening nicely.
Boo-graphy: William Meikle is a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with more than thirty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries.
He has books available from a variety of publishers including Dark Regions Press, Crossroad Press and Severed Press, and his work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and magazines.
He lives in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company.
When heโs not writing he drinks beer, plays guitar, and dreams of fortune and glory.
The Green & the Black — A small group of industrial archaeologists head into the center of Newfoundland, investigating a rumor of a lost prospecting team of Irish miners in the late Nineteenth century.
They find the remains of a mining operation, and a journal and papers detailing the extent of the miners’ activities. But there is something else on the site, something older than the miners, as old as the rock itself.
Soon the archaeologists are coming under assault, from a strange infection that spreads like wildfire through mind and body, one that doctors seem powerless to define let alone control.
The survivors only have one option. They must return to the mine, and face what waits for them, down in the deep dark places, where the green meets the black.