Thanks for the kind thoughts. I'm as anxious as anyone to find out how it comes across when it's actually performed.

Let's see, the fest is east coast this year, right? NJ, I think? That may be possible. My travel plans (and budget) are largely dictated by the missus's health; I love to have things work out this year.

The audio drama I wrote for Big Finish, starring David Selby and Lara Parker, is now available for pre-order.



Visit Big Finish or my Web site for more details.

We can say MB and Midnite used their mystical mojo to make it happen. We 'uns didn't have a thing to do with it!

Thanks awfully, old chaps.

I'm hoping this will not be too long in hitting the streets.

Path of Fate is a stand-alone story, though it takes place within the continuity established by the other Big Finish audio dramas.

Note that in the word "geocaching" above, I included a link to http://www.geocaching.com, which explains the sport in detail.

OzGuff isn't from the immediate vicinity, so I've never met him personally. Our paths will probably cross one of these days, though. The photo is from a playing card set that features photos of NC geocachers. Here's mine: http://justbeeme.com/rodan.jpg

A skunk would be one of the more mundane threats I've encountered to date. Out on the trails, I frequently myself facing black widows, copperheads, feral pit bulls, ticks, hornets, mosquitos, briers, poison ivy, sinkholes... all the usual stuff one finds when spending a lot of time in a somewhat less-than-urban setting.

On the other side of that, I've also been hiking two to five miles a day, lost ten pounds, quit smoking, and discovered tons of intriguing places, including underground tunnels, mountain overlooks, Hell, hidden iron mines, and lots more. I've seen more of Greensboro, NC, in the last six months than I've seen in 20 years of living here. There are also plenty of easy-to-find urban hides, which involve little personal risk and/or physical effort. Depending on where you are, there's just about something for everyone who's interested in it.

Pardon the extensive non-DS rambling, but that's just a bit of geocaching for you. I will tell you this -- a couple of my geocaching adventures did provide the inspiration for scenes in Dark Shadows: The Path of Fate audio drama, due in a couple of months from Big Finish.

I'm not particularly fond of Coppola's DRACULA, one reason being that it borrows too heavily from DS, rather than its ostensible source material. Another reason is that, for all its spectacle, it all looks like it takes place on an elaborate sound stage, which for this film seems inappropriate (though that aspect, perhaps, is a different animal altogether). In many respects, Dan Curtis himself did DRAC better than Coppola, although his version still misses too many marks to be altogether satisfying. (For what I consider the all-time the best version, check out the 1978 BBC production of COUNT DRACULA, starring Louis Jourdan; it's closer to Stoker's vision than any other, with added bonus that the shot-on-video and eerie musical score resonates of DS more than any other.)

I don't -dislike- Coppola's DRACULA to any great degree. Gary Oldman does a fair job with the material, and some of the cinematography is superb. Nothing against paying homage to DS, but when I watch DRACULA, I'd rather see -DRACULA-, rather than something inspired by something that was inspired by DRACULA.