Robert McCammon’s college friend Carl Carter posted this story on his now-defunct blog back on October 21, 2013. It is presented here as he wrote it.

Raw Day 21: Chasing the ghost

Published | By Carl

It was 1 a.m., 1974, and three of us were huddled somewhere in Smith Hall on the University of Alabama campus, waiting for Dr. Smith.

He was long since dead, of course. It was his ghost we were there to see. The stories about him have multiplied and continued over the years about thumps in the night, books flying across empty rooms and various other manifestations. Rick McCammon, Bill Sikes and I were there to get proof. I was features editor of the Crimson-White. Bill was our photographer.

Rick, as a lot of people know, was my friend from high school, Rick McCammon, better known these days as the prolific horror novelist, Robert R. McCammon. But fame would come much later. On this night, he was just editor of the C-W. He’d always been fixated on the weird stuff. As mentioned earlier in this series, we had been ushers at the Plaza Theater in Birmingham’s Roebuck Shopping Center, with Catch-22 showing on our one screen. During the film, the ushers alternated between standing guard at the exits and sweeping popcorn off the carpet. Rick always managed to be in the theater for the gory scene where a guy gets shot up in an airplane and his guts go spilling out. Rick was always far too interested in that scene.

So it didn’t strike me as surprising that he’d drag us down to Smith Hall one night. It’s a big, old, spooky building that, among other things, houses the university’s Museum of Natural History. If I were a ghost, it’s where I’d go at any rate. The main purpose of the legend, I eventually figured out, is to give student journalists something to write about every October.

So there we were. Bill’s camera, loaded with Tri-X film, was on the tripod, aiming in no particular direction. (Just where DO you point a camera for a ghost who could show up anywhere? And for that matter, which of the scores of rooms do you set up in? We didn’t worry about such details. We felt sure Dr. Smith would accommodate us.)

We got there soon after dark and waited. And waited. And waited some more. About 1 a.m., I decided I’d had all the spooks I could stand for one night.”

“I’m done,” I said. “You guys can can tell me all about it and show me the pictures tomorrow.” And I went back to my apartment.

I heard about it all right. I was barely out the door when Dr. Smith appeared. To be more precise, a little blue light appeared, formed an arc and vanished. There were no pictures, of course, but Rick was beside himself. Over the years, I’ve seen several accounts from various interviews he did over the years.

Funny how the ghost didn’t show until I left, and how they didn’t get a picture.

Rick wrote a good story about it, and it served him well over the years. Any horror novelist worth his salt – and Robert R. McCammon is a very good one – needs a good ghost story to pull out now and then. And who am I to say it didn’t happen just the way he tells it?

When I asked Rick about it at the time, he replied, “It absolutely did happen that way! I have told that story over and over and always told it exactly the same way…because it did happen!”

Last year, the staff of Crimson-White posted an article about the former C-W editors, including Robert McCammon.

სინქრონული თარგმანი • Salome Japiashvili translated Robert McCammon’s Boy’s Life into the Georgian language. She’ll be live on Facebook on Wednesday, October 21, 2020, to discuss her translation. The event starts at 11:30 AM EDT/10:30 AM CDT. Salome leaves the videos on her page afterward, so if you miss it live, you can watch later here.

Those of you who’ve listened to the Matthew Corbett audiobooks know what an amazing narrator Edoardo Ballerini is.

Edoardo has launched a contest that includes free giveaways of four Poe stories narrated by him. “The Raven” is free. Free access to the others is achieved by sharing the post. You’ll also be entered into a contest to win codes for your choices of any three audiobooks narrated by Edoardo.

One of the stories is “The Fall of the House of Usher,” which would make for a great prelude to a reading of Usher’s Passing!

To download “The Raven” and enter the contest, click here.

Cemetery Dance has updated their production page to include this information about their limited edition of Usher’s Passing:

This book is rolling along at the printer, and here is their most recent update: “The text and both jacket editions are in the press lineup to be printed.” We’re hoping to have the Limited Edition by the end of December if all goes well, but January is possible depending on the printer’s schedule.

The limited edition was announced in 2018 and has been long sold out, though I’m sure copies will be available on the secondary market once it has been published.

If you haven’t seen them, Cemetery Dance has posted the interior art pieces by Vincent Sammy on their Usher’s Passing page:

Usher’s Passing at Cemetery Dance

On December 1, 2020, Australian audio publisher Bolinda Publishing will release Robert McCammon’s Mister Slaughter, complete and unabridged, as a 2-disc MP3 CD set and a 16-disc Audio CD set. The recording is the Audible production narrated by Edoardo Ballerini. Bolinda previously released the audio productions of Speaks the Nightbird (MP3 CD), The Queen of Bedlam (MP3 CD), and Freedom of the Mask (Audio CD and MP3 CD).

The sets can be ordered from Amazon AU (MP3 CD / Audio CD). They can also be ordered from Book Depository in the UK, with free worldwide shipping (MP3 CD / Audio CD).

Back in September 2019, Cemetery Dance announced a new illustrated anthology, Seasons of Terror, that would include an adaptation of Robert McCammon’s short story “The Man from London,” which originally appeared in The Hunter from the Woods.

The next month, Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced a trade paperback edition of the book. Gallery Books originally scheduled the release for March 31, 2020, but the pandemic pushed back its release until March 23, 2021.

Gallery Books has now pushed the release date even farther out. Amazon and other retailers are now showing a release date of November 1, 2021. There is currently no announced release date.

2022-01-31 update: Some UK sites are now showing a release date of June 30, 2022, for the Gallery Books edition.

For full details about the books, click here and here.

The release schedule is dictated by Gallery Books. The Cemetery Dance editions will be released around the same time as the Gallery Books release.

On October 1, 2020, Australian audio publisher Bolinda Publishing will release Robert McCammon’s The Queen of Bedlam, complete and unabridged, as a 2-disc MP3 CD set. The recording is the Audible production narrated by Edoardo Ballerini. Bolinda previously released the audio productions of Speaks the Nightbird as an MP3 CD and Freedom of the Mask on Audio CD and MP3 CD.

The set can be ordered from Amazon AU. It can also be ordered from Book Depository in the UK, with free worldwide shipping.

Dave Overland has released a song called “Band of Brothers” that’s about his friends and him. The lyrics are based around and use Robert McCammon’s poem from the beginning of Boy’s Life. You can listen to it on Spotify and YouTube. Check it out!

Back in 2009, Finnish jazz musician Timo Heikkinen recorded his interpretation, called “Boy’s Life.” You can listen to it and other reader-created songs on the Fan Audio page.