Saturday, January 3, 2009

Welcome to the Scribe of the Eastern Shore Blog!

I want to thank Doug Arvidson for urging me to start this blog. While he thought it would be a great tool for me as a writer, I think it has more potential as an alternate forum away from some of the other Eastern Shore blogs. A lot of them concentrate on politics, and while there is nothing wrong with that, sometimes things get a little heated and at least one blog got in trouble in Salisbury, so that's why I am asking for civility. Also, I am welcoming everybody here, because I think everybody's point of view is unique and valuable, whether I agree with it or not. So, whether you voted for Obama and Kratovil or McCain and Harris, you are welcome. If you are a Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Wiccan, or atheist, you are welcome. If you believe in ghosts or not, Bigfoot or not, UFOs or not, you are welcome. If you like history, especially military history, pulps, comic books, science fiction, alternate history, horror, or not, you are welcome.
Let me give you a little background on me, then it's time for comments. First, I was born here on the Eastern Shore in Somerset County, Maryland. After graduating college, I knocked around several jobs before working for the State. As most of you know, Maryland State employees are getting some furlough time. I was around during the last round of furloughs, and it beats being laid off, like a lot of the folks I interview on the other side of the desk from me. I feel really bad for them, because some of them have never had to ask for assistance before. Anyway, that's my day job, and because I get to help people in need, its very rewarding most of the time, but the paperwork is mind-numbing at times, even with computers.
What I do in my spare time is write. I have been writing since I was in high school, but up til the late 1990's, most of what I wrote was either published in fanzines or low paying small print run niche magazines for wargames or treasure hunting. Luckily, around the year 2000, I got tapped by Steve Rawling to write for his new magazine. Against the Odds (www.atomagazine.com). He liked what I was turning out, so I got some extra assigments. After five issues, he decided to offer me editorship, and so I got to edit the magazine and still write a regular column eight years later. It has been a definite learning experience and the editing has helped my writing tremendously.
OK, this is getting long winded. Anyway, on the strength of my work for ATO, I got my foot in the door at Cambridge Books, right here on the Shore in Cambridge Maryland, where I spun a book about treasure hunting on the Eastern Shore. It got picked up and copies of Treasures of the Eastern Shore have been sold all over the country and even in Europe. My next book, Mysteries of the Eastern Shore, was a bigger hit because it was full of paranormal encounters with ghosts, Bigfoot, UFOs and more that I had come across over the years. I had so many ghost stories left over that in 2008, I came out with Ghosts of the Eastern Shore, and it has been very popular.
In addition to my Eastern Shore series, I also wrote a vampire novel Crimson Need, set around Salisbury, and co-wrote Images of America: Wicomico County, available from Arcadia Books. Right now, I am working on a couple of novel ideas, plus gathering more ghost stories for another in my Eastern Shore series. Anyway, here I am, I'll try to post daily, and I welcome your thoughts, comments, and anything else you want to discuss.
Right now I am up to my ears in Paranormal research. I am looking at the whole UFO phenomenon and whether it is distinct from other paranormal events like ghosts, demons, and fairies, or is a modern manifestation of an ancient problem. Another manifestation of this business is Bigfoot. Real or not, people are seeing things and I am trying to figure out what's really going on here? Aliens, angels and demons, denizens of Atlantis or Mu, or just people's overactive imagination combined with hoaxer and disinformation from the government to cover up clandestine operations? What do you think?

2 comments:

  1. Hi, Andy: Glad to see you're up and running with this blog. I enjoyed your first entry and look forward to keeping up with it.

    I don't usually blog every day, though now that I'm retired, I might get to it more often (I still have to travel a lot). I like to include a photo(s) with each blog as a "hook" and it's easy with today's digital cameras or even using old photos via a scanner. With ghosts, UFOs, etc. the possibilities are endless.

    I'm interested in ghosts and the paranormal as well as UFO's but from the perspective of the skeptic and, in fact, I subscribe to Skeptic magazine which strives to poke holes in all of the above experiences. I'll bring a couple copies to the next meeting I can attend (Feb? I might be in New England dealing with aging parents).

    As you can see at my blog, Book II of my fantasy/adventure trilogy will come out this spring.

    Best wishes for the New Year,
    Doug

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  2. Thanks for the kind words, Doug! I am actually interested in the Skeptical Inquirer's angle on things. My late friend Milford Webster was a subscriber and I used to balance SI's work against over the top UFO magazine articles.
    Andy

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