Author: Foggy Point Light

“I’d still like to take a look,” said Dan, “after all, I came all this way.”  From “Foggy Point Light”, by Jeff Burns, page 28.

I was very blessed to have Jeff as a friend and adopted brother for 43 years. He and I experienced so many wonderful times together and we were blessed to have grown together through the tough times. I am beyond grateful for the time God allowed us to be friends and brothers to each other. 

Curiosity about how things worked, operated and exploring his multitude of interests in his life, required Jeff to say the words many times that his character Dan said above in the first book of the “Foggy Point Light Trilogy”. He traveled, along with his loving family, many miles to explore his passions, including his love of lighthouses. It was through these travels and much time spent writing, that he was able to complete two of the three planned books in the trilogy. Jeff had already started writing the final book of the trilogy, “Project Vortex”.

Early in the morning of January 3rd of 2022, Jeff, being a born again Christian, heard the Homecoming Call from his savior Jesus Christ to enter Heaven. While the suddenness of his passing due to Covid caught those of us who loved and cared about him off guard, we are grateful for the comfort of Jeff’s faith in God and know that we will be together again as promised in the Bible. 

There are so many stories that need to be shared to properly honor the life that Jeff lived. This blog will be posting many of those stories under the title of “Shining Memories of Jeff”. Shining was chosen not just because of the lighthouses Jeff loved, but also because when Jeff entered a room, he would bring brightness to the room and to those in the room. He was also gifted at making people laugh, but he could also make the complicated things, like Pascal or Cobalt computer languages brighter for those of us who just saw complicated darkness. He was such an intellectual, but had an amazing dose of common sense and humor, that he could relate to anyone. That mix of personality traits came through very well in his writing. 

For almost 33 years, Jeff was married to his devoted wife Julie. He was also father of one son, TJ, who Jeff helped to create a YouTube channel called TJElevatorfan, which has over 16,000 subscribers and 19,000,000 views. Family was a priority for Jeff.  Julie recently shared this sentiment about their time together, “I miss Jeff more than words could ever express but thankfully memories of the time we did have together will continue to keep him forever in my heart.”  TJ also shared these heartfelt words about his father, “Dad may no longer be living on this earth but his light continues to shine through my memories of him. I will miss him until we meet again on Heaven’s shores” 

There are many more “Shining Memories of Jeff” that will be shared here on the Foggy Point Light Blog. The memories shared will allow you to remember that particular moment with Jeff if you knew him or allow you to experience the story of a Christian life well lived if this is your first introduction to him. Stay tuned to the Foggy Point Light Blog as we present the “Shining Memories of Jeff” Series. 

Please keep Julie and TJ Burns in your prayers. 

Scott Raines, October 23, 2022 

“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”  Ephesians 2:8-10 (NLT)

Video tribute of Jeff’s life prepared by his son, TJ Burns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tATEvrGGqC8&t=205s

Welcome to 2020! I hope everyone is doing well as many folks all over the country are staying home to stay safe from the Coronavirus. Remember, if you’re home and have nothing to do, you can always order copies of Volume 1 – Foggy Point Light and Volume 2 – Ripples, Return to Foggy Point Light.  They’re available in all of the major eBook formats, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble Nook, and Amazon Kindle, so you can enjoy a completely “contactless” purchase and begin reading the same day on your favorite device!  Go to www.foggypointlight.com where you can order from your favorite book distributor.

On todays post, I’d like to highlight our YouTube channel, Foggy Point Light YouTube. We have a collection of nautical themed videos including South Bass Island and Fairport Harbor along the shores of Lake Erie. During the last few days, we’ve added several new videos including Marblehead Lighthouse (shown below) and Summersville Lake Lighthouse which was also from the same trip.

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Summersville Lake Lighthouse has the distinction of being West Virginia’s only lighthouse, which isn’t too surprising since the entire state is in the mountains. It’s actually at a campground but the campground does have a lake! At the time, I was learning drone photography, so both Marblehead and Summersville Lake lighthouses include drone video on the channel. Check these out as we fly around both of these picturesque lighthouses.

From time to time, we’ll include bonus videos which may not necessarily have a lighthouse or nautical theme. For fans of “The Waltons” TV series which began in 1972 and aired for 9 seasons, we visited Schuyler, VA, home of Earl Hamner, Jr, the creator of “The Waltons”.  I filmed drone videos showing the house that Earl Hamner, Jr. grew up in and the church that he attended as well as John and Olivia’s Bed and Breakfast which opened in October 2019.  John and Olivia’s (pictured above) might look a little like the Island Charm Bed and Breakfast featured in Volume 1 of Foggy Point Light. Since it’s in the mountains of Virginia and not on an island, you might have to use your imagination to hear the sound of the seashore echoing at the edge of town.

I hope you enjoy our YouTube Channel and if you have a favorite video, please be sure to let us know.

2019 is here at last! I hope everyone had a good New Years Eve however you might have celebrated. We celebrated at home, just me, my wife, and son. We did what we usually do for New Years Eve, we recapped the previous year then had a lighted ball drop in our den in front of the Christmas tree. This year we did something a little different and substituted a lighted starburst that we picked up during the year at the Incredible Christmas Place in Pigeon Forge, TN. If you’re curious and want to see what we do, this video should be out on my son’s website, www.tjelevatorfan.com sometime later tonight or tomorrow. You can also see ball drops from previous years on that site as well.

2018 has been a pretty fun and eventful year for us. The second volume of the Foggy Point Light Trilogy was released early in the year and I’ve been busy working on the third volume, Project Vortex. That one’s coming along well and should be released in late Spring of this year. A lot of the first part of this one takes place in the future, so you’ll get to see a lot of the characters that you’ve come to know in the previous two volumes as much older. It also introduces many new characters as well, many who are children and grandchildren of characters in the previous volumes.

We’re actually planning a trip up north sometime this year, probably in the Spring, where we’ll be going to Pennsylvania. There are several good lighthouses that we’re planning on stopping at along the way as well, so stay tuned for that. Hopefully there will be some that I’ll get to climb. That’s always a fun part of visiting them. I’ll plan on posting some videos from that trip on the Foggy Point Light YouTube Channel.

I’ll close this post with a sincere Happy New Year to all of my readers.  Thanks for coming along with me, Dan, and all of the others as we continue to explore the mysteries of Foggy Point Light.

Thinking back, how many of you worked as an intern during your senior year of college? Probably a few, since this is fairly common. Now, think back a little further. What kind of a company car did they give you when you started your new job as an intern? Was it a luxury sedan, or something more compact? Maybe you’re thinking about now, “What company car?”

If you didn’t have a company car, or even a plush office, maybe you were interning at the wrong company! Mark Duncan had both of these. Today, September 24, 2018, was Mark’s first day on the job at the Chandler-Langtree Institute, and what a first day it was! While much of the day was spent just like you would imagine at most companies, in orientations and getting his security credentials, the end of the day was anything but ordinary. When he got ready to leave for the day, he was given the keys to a brand new Honda Accord, license plate number CLI-247. This is definitely the company to intern with! And it only gets better! Get your copy in either paperback or ebook version (Kindle, Apple Books, Nook) to find out about his second day, when he’s shown his new office.

While Mark’s story technically began last week on September 18, when he attended the lecture with Dr. Langtree, his first day at work was today, September 24. We’re now entering the time period where Ripples: Return to Foggy Point Light was set. Most of the events take place between now and October 28, 2018, so you’ll want to get your copy today and read along as Mark and Angela’s story unfolds, leading up to the final exciting climax.

During the week of July 4, we travelled to Ohio and stayed in Youngstown.  During the day, we travelled to southern Lake Erie around the Sandusky area and saw 3 of the Lake Erie Lighthouses, South Bass Island, Marblehead, and Fairport Harbor. South Bass Island could only be reached by ferry across Put-In-Bay. You can take the ferry ride with us on the Miller Ferry at Ferry Ride Across Put-In-Bay. The South Bass Harbor lighthouse can be seen on the point of the island to the left as we approach. We did take some pictures of the lighthouse, but it wasn’t open for tours on the day that we were there.

One of the most interesting lighthouses that we saw, however, was the Fairport Harbor Lighthouse Museum. This lighthouse, pictured below, is the most like I would picture a real-life Foggy Point Light. While the lighthouse tower used to be attached to the house, it actually sits beside it right outside the door to the museum today. I climbed up the spiral staircase to the top and captured the view shown beside the lighthouse.

Fairport Harbor lighthouse is next to the keepers house which is a two-story brick building like the Green Island Light Station in Foggy Point Light. The lighthouse tower has a focal plane of 102 feet, which is roughly the same height as the Green Island Light Station’s 105 feet. It also looks similar to how I’ve had the Green Island Light Station pictured in my mind. While it is on Lake Erie instead of the Atlantic Coast, similar structures can be found as harbor lights along the Atlantic. Since the Green Island Light Station lights the entrance to the Cape Fear River, it could look a lot like Fairport Harbor. Take the journey to the top with me as I climb the spiral staircase at Fairport Harbor Lighthouse and imagine climbing to the top with Dan and his family in Foggy Point Light.

Exciting news from the world of Foggy Point Light! The latest edition of Foggy Point Light Volume 1 is now available on Amazon, as well as iBooks. Both the paperback and Kindle editions are available. While this isn’t a new book, but an update to our first book which was released back in 2016, it does have a few nice additions. This latest edition has a slightly redesigned cover as well as the series name, “Foggy Point Light Trilogy – Volume 1” printed at the top. It also includes a new Prologue which takes readers back to the very beginning with Greg and Tim back in 1974, as well as added chapter names. For my readers that have already purchased the first edition, I hope to have the prologue available on the website at www.foggypointlight.com soon, so you won’t miss out on that update.  This is also the first time that this volume has been on iBooks, so readers that enjoy that platform can now download both Volume 1 – Foggy Point Light and Volume 2 – Ripples: Return to Foggy Point Light right from their iPhone. It should also be available soon on Barnes and Noble, both paperback and Nook versions, and Books-a-Million as well.

I hope to have the first chapter of the next volume in the series, Project Vortex, available for preview on the website in the near future as well so that readers can experience a small sample of the next chapter in the continuing saga. This next book will be the third and final volume in the Foggy Point Light Trilogy and should finally resolve the story of Dan and his family, as well as introduce many new friends as well. It’s still scheduled for release in early 2019.

Remember that I can be contacted through the contact page of the website at any time if you have questions or comments, or you can leave comments on any post in this blog as well. And be sure to subscribe to this blog to stay apprised of future updates and happenings.

Thanks for being a loyal reader as we continue the adventure together.