"I do have a slight allergy to tree pollen, but this seemed to be a vine, not something arboreal," he says, lowering his hand closer to the feline, and he might smile a little, clearly pleased. There might be red marks on his skin, where the vine squeezed him, but no sign of blood.

"As a matter of fact, I have seen some of the strange and eldritch beings of which I've written," he says. "I have sighted ghouls in some long-forgotten cemeteries in Massachusetts, and as a youngster, I saw a satyr in a wooded area behind the family house."