Geron Kees

I recall the film, too, though it's been a lot of years since I last saw it. Maybe it's time again? Pyewacket, I suspect, has been a key mischief maker in all his or her incarnations!

Oops. Yes, Blinken is the same as Ethelbert. That would seem to be a continuity error, and one that should have been caught. I decided that 'Ethelbert' was just too ridiculous and changed it. Or, changed everything but the initial reference to it! I'll need to fix that, but by now everyone that is reading will be confused! Thanks for pointing that out!

"Look at the town!" Kippy whispered, as the truck moved along main street. Charlie was already doing that. The town seemed to be laid out much like the Kinniston they knew back home, but there the similarity ended. The buildings here were much like Carl Wolfbridge's house in appearance, grim and scary looking, the rows of shops looking to have a definite tendency to lean outward towards the street in a manner that Charlie found threatening. The facades were grim and gray, yet the windows we

Ooh. I wish I had thought of the BYOS angle! I can't say anything about Horace just yet. Too early in the story!

Sparks are usually fun to look at!

I remember the Bette Davis movie. Interestingly, I am not particularly drawn to any one of the supernatural subjects. I just enjoy reading about all the weird stuff in the world. And there is a lot of it! I'm envisioning the guy's new business, Third Planet Inquiries, as a sort of springboard from which they can dive into all sorts of stuff, and maybe bring some of their friends along with them. I guess if the Charlie Boone series is to keep going on, it might as well be able to go in even more directions than it has thus far. 🙂

Stunned in a good way, or stunned in a bad way?

Learning is a curve. Usually, the farther along you get, the more obvious the curve becomes. Charlie is starting to see what is in front of him now. Now I just need Max to dress in Shaolin monk's robes, pretend he's blind, and say stuff like, "You have done well, grasshopper!"

I can see Rhea Perlman as a witch! A good bad witch! Um...just don't tell her I said so!

The best kind of alternate universes are diverse! 🤓

Well...I won't say.

Halloween always feels like it has to be a little more, somehow. And fun! Blinken lives in the part of the universe that links every other part, and so remains constant. Keerby can contact Blinken from anywhere, because where Blinken is, it's all the same! Jimmy Hoffa was known to have called boojums nasty names behind their backs. I guess the stories finally got back to them! 😄

I know you don't want straight answers to your wonderings! I have always found the most enjoyable fantasies to be set in perfectly familiar surroundings. And if it has to be set in an alien environment, make it friendly enough that it FEELS familiar!

I've heard that one. It's close enough to what I meant!

It took several moments for the hubbub to die down. "You're saying that the town's phantom was once Brewster Kinniston's familiar spirit?" Charlie asked, when the noise level had subsided to where he could be heard. Carl nodded. "Quite an accomplishment, too. Pyewacket is, by far, the most powerful familiar that any of our people have ever attracted." Kippy gaped at that. "There are other familiars here?" "Oh, several. All small, and not very powerful." Carl's eyes crinkled.

I did mean Amy, and I was referring to stories yet to come!

It was already said that the phantom did not manifest itself every single night. I guess it depends on how sensitive Rhea and the others were to the phantom's presence, and whether or not they felt it every minute of every day. But they did not know he was gone.

Cats seem to make the most obvious familiar for a witch. And yet, it has not stopped them from taking over our houses and hearts. I don't know what that says about people, but I sure know what it says about cats!

Stands to reason that if Charlie and the guys have some skwish, others could have it, too! I've been wanting to investigate that angle for some time now!

I KNEW I could count on you, Ivor!

I'll bet you have a town of witches near you, and you don't even know it!

Much better to have readers who like a story than hate it!

Seems I have seen that old movie! 'Bell, book, and candle' actually refers to a method of excommunication used by the Roman Catholic church, introduced by Pope Zachary sometime in the 8th century. It was saved for especially egregious sinners, like those accused of witchcraft, or marrying family members. Shakespeare referred to the practice in King John, when Philip of Faulconbridge says that "neither bell, book, nor candle shall drive me back, when gold and silver beckons me onward!" Something like that. The Rolling Stones even used the phrase in their song Winter. Bell, Book, and Candle was a Broadway play by John Van Druten before it was a movie with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. And before you accuse me of being a know-it-all, I didn't know most of this before I did the research to write this story!

If I lived in a town full of witches, I'd keep it quiet! If the story got out, think of the crowds that would appear!

The good doctor knows he is safe! 😃 The first Charlie Boone tale was posted in 2015. They were 14 then. It's been five years! If the stories were not tied to holidays, and so the passing of years, I could have allowed them to remain ageless. But it didn't seem fair not to let them grow up some and experience the world (and the universe!). But as with all adventurers, 'growing up' is a matter of perspective. Especially for the male of the species, for whom growing up often simply means that his toys get better and that he is more apt to share them with others.