These are plants at the bottom of a lake, but look closely at the one on the right — it looks like a skeleton clinging to something.

I got a very special treat recently—I95 Rock’s Ethan Carey, who’s probably just about the only other person as obsessed with Candlewood Lake’s creepy legends as I am—cited a blog post of mine on his blog here:

http://i95rock.com/those-that-stayed-behind-beneath-candlewood-lake/ and here: http://i95rock.com/dont-panic-stories-of-a-candlewood-lake-monster-are-simply-urban-legends/

It’s great to know these legends are being shared—it’s what keeps them alive. The original post about all of the legends is here: https://wordpress.com/post/kristipetersenschoonover.com/9576 or where it was originally published at the New England Horror Writers blog here: http://nehw.blogspot.com/2016/08/legends-of-candlewood-lake-guest-blog.html

I have plans, eventually, to put together an entire short story collection based on these urban legends, but at the moment I only have a few pieces. The good news is that the drowned souls legend to which Carey refers does have a short story based on it: it’s called “Rightfully Mine,” and it appeared in Sanitarium Magazine Issue #49—which is out of print, so if you’d like to read it, just send me an email on my Contact page and I’ll send the story straight to your Inbox!

Me (left) and my brother Chuck swimming in Candlewood Lake. This was taken in either 1981 or 1982, so I would’ve been 10 or 11.