Cate: Please welcome Stan Hampton, Sr. to my special Halloween
celebration. Stan, please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Stan: Well, since I didn’t provide my “official bio,” the important
things are I’m a Choctaw from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a divorced
grandfather to 13 grandchildren, and I serve in the Army National Guard. I hold
the rank of staff sergeant. I’m studying anthropology, and photography this
semester. And, the job market being what it is in Las Vegas, NV
(plus I’m middle aged), I’m also unemployed, and living in 2-year VA
transitional housing for homeless veterans.
Cate: What do you love most about Halloween?
Stan: Raiding my grandkids goodie bags for Kraft Caramels. They love
me, so they don’t complain too much. And caramel apples. I love caramel apples.
Cate: Have you ever had an unusual experience you couldn’t explain?
Stan: Wellll...I once worked at a photo lab here in Vegas. As you know,
color printing and processing requires total darkness. The color print room was
at the end of a long corridor, along which there were numerous smaller rooms
for various purposes. The color print processor was in a small room off of the
center of the corridor. I was working alone one night on a lengthy print job
that a customer needed early the next morning. I exposed my sheet of paper,
rolled it up, and walked down the corridor to the processor room. Halfway to
the processor room, as I passed one of the small rooms, the hair suddenly stood
up on the back of my neck, and a chill went down the back of my head and down my
spine. Not figuratively, but literally! I put the paper in the machine, and
walked out of the corridor into the well-lit, main photo lab. After I few
moments I returned to the corridor, turned all of the lights on, and went back
to the print room—all of the while praying that the lights wouldn’t suddenly go
out. I turned the equipment off, and went home, leaving the print job
incomplete. The next morning I told the lab chief why I didn’t complete the job;
he looked at me, just nodded without expressing any criticism or disappointment,
and called the customer to say that the job would be finished before noon. You
see, numerous people had told me early on that they believed the photo lab was
haunted. Mostly they said there was sometimes a feeling of not being alone in
that corridor. Once in awhile, when the dim, colored safelights were on, they
might catch a glimpse of a moving shadow. I never paid much attention to their
claims. But that day, in spite of a paying customer being disappointed at not
receiving a promised job on time, no one criticized or ridiculed me, especially
the lab chief.
Cate: *shudders* Creepy indeed. What frightens you the most?
Stan: Well, maybe the night, especially when there’s a feeling that
something unknown is nearby. Not that I’m admitting to such a fear, but maybe…
Cate: Ever gone on a ghost tour? Or ghost hunting on your own?
Stan: Nope. I wouldn’t know how to do that. I think I’d like to, but
after the photo lab, wellll…
Cate: Any favorite Halloween recipes you’d care to share?
Stan: I don’t have any, other than the idea of melting a bunch of
caramels in a pan, and dunk and twirl a delicious red apple in it until it’s
covered with wonderful, beautiful, sweet, melted caramels!
Cate: Yum. :) Tell us about your latest release, and where readers can find it
online.
Stan: Well, “An Incident on MSR Tampa” isn’t my latest release. It wasreleased earlier this year by Musa Publishing.
But it does take place on Halloween night, in southern Iraq. And,
let’s see. It’s about a gun truck crew escorting a supply convoy from northern Kuwait to Baghdad.
Except, the gun truck doesn’t get there. Let’s just say that as man pushes the
envelope on technology, perhaps we might encounter things that we don’t want to
encounter.
Cate: Care to share a blurb or excerpt? (suitable for general
audiences, please)
Stan: Sure. First, the blurb, then the excerpt.
Halloween Night, 2006 – a resupply convoy commanded by the
Air Force and escorted by Army gun trucks, is leaving Kuwait for Baghdad.
The lonely desert highway north is MSR Tampa, a bloody highway along which for
years the convoys suffered insurgent attacks. And on MSR Tampa there is a
particular wooded bend that no one speaks of, though many know of its haunted
reputation, a reputation given new life by a gun truck crew testing a new
generation of enhanced night vision goggles…
Sergeant
Travis Harland peered through the helmet-mounted, experimental Enhanced Next
Generation/Night Vision Goggles, called Cyclops, at the bright, fuzzy,
greenish-white glow of the Iraqi desert. Isolated homes and small villages swam
out of the darkness before disappearing into greenish-black static that
reminded him of a haunted landscape. From time to time he was rudely jolted
when the Cyclops bumped against the side ballistic window of his growling HMMWV
gun truck that led the supply convoy up Main Supply Route Tampa,
bound for Baghdad.
A bright
shaft of greenish-white light swept across the dunes and clumps of brush to
their right before locking onto a small dusty mound further ahead. A metallic
voice sounded in the earphones shoved under Harland’s already tight fitting
Kevlar helmet.
“-at the
one o’clock, a hundred yards ahead,” the Gunner, Specialist Paul Bonner, said.
Harland
sighed. A gun truck wasn’t built for comfort, especially when the Gun Truck
Commander was tall and thin, as he was. Being thin didn’t provide much of a
cushion for sitting, especially on army seats. And communications glitches
didn’t help his mood either.
“Bonner!
You hit the off-switch again, you fucking idiot. Say again.”
“Pile of
sand and rocks at the two o’clock, fifty yards ahead. Throwing a glo-stick,”
Bonner said. A bright fluorescent stick tumbled through the dusty, windy night
to land next to the pile that was already so well marked by glo-sticks from
previous convoys. Glo-sticks warned of a sometimes suspicious feature for
following vehicles.
The
Driver, Private First Class Lee Stewart, veered into the left lane, away from the
pile...
Excerpt
Sergeant Travis Harland peered
through the helmet-mounted, experimental Enhanced Next Generation/Night Vision
Goggles, called Cyclops, at the bright, fuzzy, greenish-white glow of the Iraqi
desert. Isolated homes and small villages swam out of the darkness before
disappearing into greenish-black static that reminded him of a haunted
landscape. From time to time he was rudely jolted when the Cyclops bumped
against the side ballistic window of his growling HMMWV gun truck that led the
supply convoy up Main Supply Route
Tampa, bound for Baghdad.
A bright shaft of greenish-white
light swept across the dunes and clumps of brush to their right before locking
onto a small dusty mound further ahead. A metallic voice sounded in the
earphones shoved under Harland’s already tight fitting Kevlar helmet.
“-at the one o’clock, a hundred
yards ahead,” the Gunner, Specialist Paul Bonner, said.
Harland sighed. A gun truck wasn’t
built for comfort, especially when the Gun Truck Commander was tall and thin,
as he was. Being thin didn’t provide much of a cushion for sitting, especially
on army seats. And communications glitches didn’t help his mood either.
“Bonner! You hit the off-switch
again, you fucking idiot. Say again.”
“Pile of sand and rocks at the two
o’clock, fifty yards ahead. Throwing a glo-stick,” Bonner said. A bright
fluorescent stick tumbled through the dusty, windy night to land next to the
pile that was already so well marked by glo-sticks from previous convoys.
Glo-sticks warned of a sometimes suspicious feature for following vehicles.
The Driver, Private First Class Lee
Stewart, veered into the left lane, away from the pile...
Cate: What inspired you to write about the theme?
Stan: First, I’ve always had an interest in the supernatural, or
paranormal. Second, the first just seems to be a natural partner to the horror
of war. Third, I’m fascinated by the leaps and bounds that technology has been
making in the past 10, even five years. That inspired me to think, “What if…?”
Cate: Anything else you’d like to share?
Stan: Not that I can think of. Just, thank you for having me here
today. Happy Halloween!
Cate: Thanks for joining in the fun, Stan! Read Stan's bio below - and buy his book!
