This Week in OTIS
We did it. An entire year of the OTIS Club. An entire year of member support. An entire year of
perks. An entire year of weekly newsletters—52 straight (proof).
Thanks so much, OTIS Club Members. Means a lot to me.
For only the second time in those 52 issues, I’m opening this issue up for
both every OTIS Club membership tier and non-members (the last time we did that
was #7). For
nons, This Week in OTIS is about the OTIS stuff happening in my life—trips I
took that week, plans for upcoming trips, the docket for OTIS articles, book
news. The kind of stuff I’d tell you if we met for drinks after work.
For instance, on OTIS this week, I finally got to an oddity I’ve wanted to
write about since the beginning of OTIS: The Adams Memorial. In fact, I couldn’t stop writing. Expect the second half this week,
where I delve into the spooky part of its story. I also posted a reaction to
the news that Baltimore’s Poe-themed eatery the Annabel Lee is closing. Sad, that. One more for the dead OTIS list.
On the OTIS Map (my personal, interactive map of oddities I’ve visited or want
to see), I logged South Dakota sites. Members at the $5 level and above can
access the map. When we started the club, I had ~1,000 sites, mostly in New
England and New York. Now we’re at ~2,000 sites across the country, and every
week the map grows as I focus on another state.
For South Dakota, the highlights for me were a
graveyard for insane Native Americans, a mammoth dig site, and a couple of
ghost towns. This week? Nebraska.
Friday and Saturday, Lindsey and I drove 1,030 miles in 30 hours across New York and Pennsylvania. We saw Mark Twains sites, a Civil War POW site, paper mill and dam ruins from a deadly tragedy, and a reptile zoo with animatronic dinosaurs (see photo at the beginning of this section). I’ll post an overview of the trip soon, although I haven’t decided if that’ll be an OTIS post or a newsletter one. I also took video, so it might be time for an OTIS video. Odyssey-Level Members, expect a detailed itinerary this week (it’s one of their perks).
Last week, members got a sneak peak of the cover for my middle-grade
spooky fiction book Death and Douglas.
The full unveil is imminent. I’m hoping this week, but we’ll see. The book
comes out September 5.
Meanwhile, OTIS hits ten years old on June 1. OMG.
My Worst Appearance |
It was July of 2012. The New York Grimpendium was streeting in three months, and I was asked to give a talk on New York oddities. At an amusement park.
I knew it was a bad idea to
accept the invite. Knew it in my bones’ bones. But how could I turn down the
chance to say I’ve given a book talk at an amusement park?
It’s not because I was afraid
of a small turnout. At that point I’d done a few of those (and still do). But
they are usually at libraries and are intimate and fun.
This was at an amusement
park. Where people look for thrills. No way was this a good idea.
The amusement park was Darien
Lake, 30 miles west of Buffalo. So it was a bad idea that would take about 14
hours of driving, round-trip.
But, again, how could I turn
it down? Especially since they were covering costs, lodging, and park tickets?
That’s not to say I didn’t
push back. I did. Their take was that they were doing a science fiction-themed
day of strange activities, and I’d fit right in. In hindsight, they were
obviously having trouble filling an activity quota.
Eventually, after half a
dozen emails, I capitulated. It was too weird a situation for me not to.
So I brought a friend to bear
witness to my shame. To salvage the trip in advance, I planned on stopping at
some oddities no the return trip.
We arrived, spent the night,
and the next day saw the venue. It was more suited to a magic show than a book
talk, but at least it wasn’t a crate on the midway.
But the other problem? It was
outdoors. Did I mention most of my talks are multimedia presentations via a
projector? That doesn’t do well in broad daylight? Right.
It was fun at first. There
were Star Wars cosplayers and a life-sized remote-controlled R2D2, and I was able
to put off talk jitters by having blaster practice with stormtroopers.
Then it was time for my first
of two talks and, as I feared, no one was there. I mean, tons of people were at
the park, but, well, you know. It’s one thing for people not to show up at a
talk. It’s another for thousands of people to witness nobody showing up for
your talk.
Eventually, the organizer
grabbed another staff member, my friend, and two random, impressionable
bystanders. And I did my book talk to them…at 175% speed amid the screams of
roller coaster riders and while kids with cotton candy stared at us as they
walked to their next death-defying experience. All in front of a screen that
was almost opaque in the blinding sunlight.
Afterward, I gave the two
bystanders free books, talked to them about the oddities of their hometown, and
then me and my friend jumped on a roller coaster, despite a suddenly looming
thunderstorm.
When it was close to time for
the second talk, I approached the organizer and said, “Let’s cancel.” She
immediately agreed. We pretended it was because of the impending rain.
It was an embarrassing
experience, but I did get my photo taken with Boba Fett, and on the way back
visited Kirk Douglas Park and Hill Cumorah, where Mormon founder Joseph Smith received the golden
plates that jumpstarted his religion.
When I phrase it like that it
sounds like my best book talk ever.
From the OTIS Photo Archive
July 2010 — Since I told you about my worst
appearance, how about one of my favorite ones? It just so happens to have been
my first ever book talk. It was two months before the debut of my first book, The New England Grimpendium, and my
publisher asked me to give a talk at a book festival in Woodstock, Vermont. I
gave the talk in front of about 50 people. Afterwards, I learned what it’s like
for people to line up to talk to me and get my autograph. Such a blast. This
photo is of Lindsey and I right before the talk. I’d just met my publisher in
person, and this is the first time we’ve seen the book in print. This was also me
pre-LASIK, and at the tail end of my chemo treatments. You can see how thin my
eyebrows and beard stubble are.
Oddity News
1. An insane asylum turned into a public library in London. LINK
2. New Jersey couple thinks they’ve found the signature of
serial killer H.H. Holmes in a family Bible. LINK
3. So-called “Alien Megastructure” star starts acting funny
again. LINK
4. Viking exhibit in UK focuses on massive invasion. LINK
5. Construction workers find hidden vault in Rhode Island
State House. LINK
6. Medieval tomb trucked to safety in Turkey. LINK
7. Neil Armstrong’s lunar sample bag heading to auction. LINK
8. Disney World’s Avatar
attraction opened by James Cameron himself. LINK
9. Rare white moose video’d in Newfoundland. LINK
10. Lost cemetery found thanks to Google maps. LINK
11. New Mummy
movie a good opportunity to discuss real mummy issues. LINK
12. Ghost barge grounds ashore in Florida. LINK
13. MASS MoCA has a giant new art building for giant new art.
LINK
14. The “dancing skeleton” of Russia. LINK
15. Germany gets large statue of Karl Marx from China. LINK
OTIS Miscellaneous
In this section, I usually
talk about whatever movies or shows I’m watching or whatever books I’m reading.
This is also where we do the OTIS Club giveaways.
For this issue, I’m going to
pitch the club. If you dug this newsletter, you can get one issue a month for
just $1 a month. Two issues for $3 a month. all of them for $5 a month or more,
plus each tier has its own set of additional perks…and every one gets an
autographed membership card. Give it a try for a month. You can always cancel and send me hate mail after.
