Sometimes Fiction and Life are Tied For Strange

When a new zombie anthology opened for submissions 
late last year, I wrote a story I hoped would fit the bill and sent it off to the editor (keeping fingers crossed).  The story takes place in a remote area of Laos/Vietnam, and the climax takes place deep inside a gigantic cavern system larger than any currently known.


Today, Yahoo News runs a National Geo story about a husband and wife team who have discovered a massive cavern system along the Laos border near the Annamite Mountains below Hang Son Doong large enough to house a city block of NYC skyscrapers.  It has thin clouds, its own jungle and a river system.  


No end to the cavern is visible.  


I wonder what else might be lurking down there, hmmm?


http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110103/ts_yblog_thelookout/explorers-discover-spectacular-caves-in-vietnam;_ylt=AliBnuGhumfPGsxy4_Lsnjms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNxYTJwZTZnBGFzc2V0A3libG9nX3RoZWxvb2tvdXQvMjAxMTAxMDMvZXhwbG9yZXJzLWRpc2NvdmVyLXNwZWN0YWN1bGFyLWNhdmVzLWluLXZpZXRuYW0EcG9zAzUEc2VjA3luX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDZXhwbG9yZXJzZGlz


So that's way cool, but kind of freaky.  


I published a story in the late Algis Budrys's Tomorrow SF about a Midwestern couple who buy an old mansion and begin expensive restorations, only to discover it's haunted, only to discover that the basement isn't inhabited by ghosts but the semi-human descendants of trapped miners from the 1880s.



Then in 2005 my family and I watched the British horror film, "The Descent."  Set in the Appalachian Mountains, a band of women cavedivers encounter semi-human creatures living deep underground.  (Not enough story similarities to go Harlan Ellison on anyone, wink wink.)


Creepy.  But....I love it!!