Hi peoples — I'm stopping in after a very long time away. Particularly over the past year, time constraints have forced me to prioritize my online activities, and I've curtailed quite a few of them. I do remain active on Facebook and try to keep my blog regularly updated. I'm glad to see that the return of Labyrinth to my website was announced here, and I sincerely appreciate the kind words so many of you have offered. I do hope those of you who've recently discovered it will enjoy it. Fair warning: It never progressed past the first draft — I doubt it ever will — so what you get is the first and only draft. If I had the time and some hope of it ever seeing professional publication, I'd love to go back into it and give it a full polishing, add some back story, flesh out the characters a bit, etc. Perhaps when I'm retired (although I have determined that I will be able to comfortably retire sometime after I'm dead). Again, my thanks for so many gracious comments, both here and via email.

Thanks much for the birthday wishes. Had a fine one indeed. Working on some new scary stuff, which is keeping me very busy.

The stairway at the north end is a relatively recent addition, so said the guide I was talking with — for the very reason that, in order to conduct tours, there had to be a second route to the ground in the event of fire. Interestingly, there is no sprinkler system in the house; there are nozzles that emit gas, which smothers the oxygen and thus a fire, which would hopefully minimize a fire's collateral damage.

I spent a most enjoyable weekend in Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow (recounted here) this past weekend; was at Lyndhurst most of the day yesterday and got to talk to a couple of staff members at some length. One of them told me the estate manager(s) had lobbied long and hard to get Burton/Depp to consider filming the new DS movie at Lyndhurst, but they had been unsuccessful—sadly, as it would have been my first choice of filming locations. She was quite enthusiastic about the whole DS business and was thrilled to find out about the Big Finish audio dramas. Conversely, one of the other staff members (an older gentleman who'd been there for quite a few years) indicated the Lyndhurst staff strongly disliked the DS gatherings since "the fans take over the whole place" and some were inevitably unruly, to the point of going up in the tower (which is illegal). I suspect this recounting is one to be taken with a grain of salt, particularly since, in my experience, DS fans are among the most mature and most "mellow" that I've been associated with.

At any rate, it was a beautiful weekend at Lyndhurst, and sure got me in the Halloween spirit. (I watched both movies just before the trip to make sure the spirit was alive.)

I saw the Trilogy of Terror sequel way back when. Lysette Anthony is pretty good in the stories; in the "Amelia" sequel, she plays the sister of Karen Black's character, if I remember right...but otherwise, it's exactly the same story, down to the detail; more a remake than a sequel, really.

The most disturbing story is the second one, I believe it is, where the little dead kid....

[spoiler]returns as a demon to avenge himself on his mother (Anthony).[/spoiler]

I've written contributed a blog entry about writing for DS at Elder Signs Press, which you can check out here:

Endless Shadows

Enjoy. 

I really enjoyed Inception; one of the best movies I've seen in quite some time. JGL is excellent in it.