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Well, I would give links to the Chronicle update for this week, but the editor didn't send me the updates, so I couldn't make them.

* sigh *

But, I do have something else.

Here's the article I did on Joe from last week.

Science Fiction Writer Shares Calhoun Memories

Joseph Haines moved to Calhoun County in 1974, when he was in the third grade. Now, thirty years later, he spends much of his time in a fantasy world.

Of course Haines, who recently moved from Seattle to Lakewood, Ohio, spends time in the real world, working for an insurance company. He lives with his wife and cat in the suburbs outside Cleveland. However, for more than 15 years now, he has also been working as an author, creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for his short stories.

“Only other people call my stories science fiction, fantasy or horror,” he said. “I call them stories. They’re stories where weird thing happen, but they’re stories.”

It may seems that the dark worlds created in Haines’ mind are a far cry from the world he remembers as home, but the stories he writes carry a theme so many of us encounter.

“Most of my stories are about failure, and living with failure,” he said.

Haines lost his father when he was three years old, and his memories of Calhoun County circle around the people who made a difference in his life.

“Don Underwood became a father to a boy without one, and taught him a great deal about what it took to become a man,” said Haines. “Jack Downs provided both a sympathetic smile and a firm hand on the shoulder when needed. Both were teachers at Calhoun High School, and their influence didn’t stop when the books closed.”

“I credit these two men for the person I became,” he said.

Haines remembers, after moving into town “from the old house out Boogerhill way,” walking from the white house behind the post office, along the brick wall leading to Grantsville grade school.

“We had a game,” he said, “you walk on the wall and jump the gaps” which opened for the stairs to climb to each house.

“Not once did someone come outside and scold me,” he said, “I guess that’s another part of the charm I remember: in Grantsville, it was understood that a boy would be a boy.”

Haines played both football and basketball on Calhoun’s eighth grade teams, doing his best to “emulate Doyle Hupp and Tim Davis’ exploits in both arenas.”

“I remember when they retired Tim Davis’ basketball jersey,” he said. “I’d never even heard of such a thing, but in the eyes of a young boy, there wasn’t anyone who deserved it more than Tim.”

He recalls the high school band was once a “powerhouse.” “We went to national competitions and destroyed other schools in state-wide competitions,” he said. “I’m sad to hear that budgetary constraints have put a crimp in the program. It was always a source of pride for Calhoun County.”

Haines also remembers that he hated English.

“English was my worst subject in high school,” he said. “I hated to read.”

And then one teacher at the high school made him read. “She got me to read C.S. Lewis and do a book report on Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” he said. “I started to understand that literature wasn’t about words, it was about life.”

Haines went on to get his degree in English Literature from Clarion West, and has been actively writing ever since. He has been working in the sceince fiction and fantasy realm for fifteen years now, and his latest story, Ten With a Flag published by Interzone magazine marks his first appearance in a major magazine within the sci-fi genre.

Haines admits, “writing is not a career for the impatient.” He has spent time as a police officer, a restaurant manager, a professional bodyguard and a title officer.

Haines is also modest. His stories have appeared more than a dozen print and online magazines, including Nevary, Fables, Kenoma, Alienskin, Flash Me, Thirteen, Nocturnal Ooze and Heavy Glow.

His blog (web log) entitled, “Edge of the Abyss,” has had over 166,000 visits since launching in 2003.

Haines lives with his wife, Catherine, “his sunshine,” and his cat Gryffyn. Calhoun readers can find some of his stories online by visiting: www.twilighttimes.com and www.fromtheasylum.com. Old friends can see his blog at www.journalscape.com/jphaines/.

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Oh, and by the way, I just my hit counter just passed 10,000 today. Thanks for stopping by.

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Want to know more about DeLaHaye? Visit her web site at WV Travelers , or her online store at Impecunious Impressions, or read her weekly column at The Calhoun Chronicle.