Chris is just that guy... For over 20 years he has been walking the streets of Salem, MA with a quart of milk, a six foot long DR. Who scarf, and is a reformed chocolateholic. It was said if you have been in Salem for over 15 minutes and you have not met Chris, something is wrong.
He has been poking around looking for tunnels along the eastern seaboard and has found many of them. Robert Irvine even was filmed with him walking through some for his show Kitchen Expeditions. Someday the Discovery channel will air it, after all they filmed a whole season and travelled the world to do so. His research on the tunnels have been used by Janet Evanovich and Phoef Sutton to write Wicked Charms, Carol Perry in her Witch City Mysteries, and The Liberians TV show. Along with his travels he stops here and there to lecture on them. His research has generated the books Salem Secret Underground: The History of the Tunnels in the City and its sequel Sub Rosa. The first is about how and why the tunnels were built in Salem with an expose on the houses that are connected and the second is how these smugglers have shaped our nation and our daily lives. Currently he is working on books about the tunnels in Newburyport Ma, Boston MA, and Williamsburg VA.
Chris has also been Dance Painting throughout the nation at music festivals behind bands. On a smaller scale he has illustrated 12 books. He is also a regular contributor to the quarterly Arkham: Tales from the Flipside. Inside its pages you will find The Sinclair Narratives featuring everyone's favorite immortal, Henry Sinclair, and his reincarnated third-generation Viking ragtag crew. Sinclair is the famous explorer who sailed to Salem a 100 years before Columbus, created the Oak Island mystery, his son built the Roslyn Chapel after his return to Scotland, and brought Templar treasures to the new world. Murder on the Common is Arkham's first novel featuring Henry trying to solve the murder of Captain Joseph White. It was the most infamous murder of the 19th century involving the most powerful senator and supreme court justice. A murder that influenced Edgar Allan Poe's Tell-Tale Heart and Parker Brother's Clue.
His latest illustrated work is Tales from Mr. Pelinger's House. The first tale features the Foster siblings sneaking into an abandoned house to find the mysterious ship captain Mr. Pelinger who disappeared within the tunnels of Salem a 100 years ago. Once inside this strange house with its own wormhole that is bigger inside than out they meet Sitting Bull, the Stoned Elephant, and General Custer within the Intergalactic Roadshow and a dangerous game of Snakes and Ladders. The second tale sees the Foster siblings return as contestants in a game show pitting America against England with Teddy Roosevelt and Queen Victoria as the celebrity guests.
This year Chris will be traveling and blogging his adventures looking for community within America. He will be posting the great locations he has found, great local musicians, venues, people, and more. Follow him on his journey! Why not on his mother's side he comes from a long line of Viking explorers and his father's side...the same with side voyages through Ireland and Lithuania. He is also descended from an English traveler who gave up the second largest newspaper chain in England to print movie posters at the dawn of Hollywood. One day he will write the mysterious adventure of Edward Hulton.
For some of his flute music click here.
For some cool illustrations click here.
