Blog Archives
Here’s a little spooky story I found…
Just in time for the Ides of March, here’s a little real-life spooky tale I found by Howard Mittelmark, author of Age of Consent (definitely get this novel if you like ghost stories!) and How Not to Write a Novel.
I get a charge out of these real-life shorts; I think each of us has probably had something inexplicable happen to us. Stuff like this is where ghost stories come from.
Read “A Scary Halloween Story” here: https://theawl.com/a-scary-halloween-story-a0cd9034855#.xktehhcee
BAD APPLE, SCARY SCRIBES, AND SENSITIVES…I’LL BE ON PARAROCK TV’S PM LITES TONIGHT AT 9 P.M. ET!
After just having finished a rockin’ Very Paranormal, Eh? Christmas Special, I’m thrilled to announce I’ll be talking with Dawn Short on ParaRock TV’s P.M. Lites tonight at 9 p.m. ET! We’ll be discussing my new novel Bad Apple, my new podcast, Scary Scribes, which debuts on the Paranormal, Eh? Radio Network in January 2012, sensitives, and a whole lot more!
You can tune in and listen live at http://www.pararocktv.com. If you miss it, the show’ll be archived, so stay tuned for links!
GhoStory Guru: “The Pool People” by Alison Lurie
It’s easy to get chills reading a ghost story that’s set in an abandoned house, a dark forest, a haunted castle—one of the keys to the great ghost story is setting. But a talented writer can give his reader as many shivers in Key West as he can in Transylvania through word choice.
At this, Alison Lurie’s “The Pool People”—about a Key West woman and her not-so-nice mother-in-law who treats the help pretty badly—excels. Lurie’s taken everyone’s concept of paradise and shadowed it up to prove you can still get the spook factor in a sunny environment. Read this and I can guarantee you’ll think twice before taking that dip in your friend’s pool.
“The Pool People” is found in Lurie’s 1994 collection, Women & Ghosts. Click on the picture to purchase.
GhoStory Guru: “The Face on the Garden Wall” by Edward Lodi
Lodi’s tale of overgrown gardens, old maids and creepy statuary is a ghost story classic: it addresses the common theme of sexual frustration in the most elegant and subtle of ways. Take the sibilance, for example. When read aloud, there’s a consistent hiss we associate with serpents—a keen allusion to Eve’s tempting in the Garden. Makes sense: this Massachusetts manor’s garden is a twisted Eden. A stroke of genius. Don’t miss this one.
“The Face on the Garden Wall” can be found in Till Human Voices Wake Us…The Lost Ghost Stories of Edward Lodi, which was published in 2009 in a limited run of 400 copies. It’s a beautiful volume, and should be on every ghost story lover’s shelf. The original price was $27.50, and there are a couple near that in stock through Amazon Marketplace here: http://amzn.com/1934400157
GROOVIN’ ON GHOST STORIES, GUILT AND MORE IN APEX REVIEW’S INTERVIEW
Apex Reviews posted its interview with me as its April 11 edition of Above the Fold.
You can read the full interview—and watch Skeletons in the Swimmin’ Hole’s book trailer if you haven’t seen it already—by visiting here: http://www.apexreviews.net/Above_The_Fold_-_4_11_11.html
Writing, Disney fans, ghosts and Norman Mailer: UBER RADIO NETWORK INTERVIEW NOW POSTED!
Me in the studio, on the air with P.M. Lites' Dawn Short.
So what did I do on Cinco de Mayo? I had a great time talking everything from ghosts and Disney Parks to the Norman Mailer Writers Colony and the real reasons behind being a writer with Dawn Short on Uber Radio Network’s P.M. Lites.
The show not only covers the paranormal, but a wide range of other topics. No matter what Dawn’s talking about, P.M. Lites is pure magic! It airs every Thursday from 9 to 10 p.m., and I encourage every listener with eclectic tastes to check it out. For information on the show, click here: http://www.uberradionetwork.com/shows/pmLites.html To listen live, visit http://www.uberradionetwork.com.
The program aired live and Nathan was nice enough to record it, so you can listen right from this blog by clicking the link below:
...and in case you were wondering, it's true: I never do a radio show without a glass of wine. Or possibly two...
GhoStory Guru: “Fat People” by Alison Lurie
Has that diet got you down? Maybe you need to develop a healthy fear of food.
It can be done—thanks to Alison Lurie’s ghost story “Fat People.” Lurie has taken an every day struggle that most of us have experienced—the desperate diet—and cooked up something terrifying. One of the ways she achieves this level of terror is making her dry-humored, frank heroine, Ellie (“The salads all started to have sour low-cal dressing, and there was never anything but fruit for dessert: watery melon, or oranges cut up with a few shreds of dry coconut on top, like little undernourished white worms”) someone with whom we can identify: she’s the dieting side of all of us, that voice we hear in our heads. Read this and you definitely won’t put that donut in your mouth.
“Fat People” is found in Lurie’s 1994 collection, Women & Ghosts. Click here to purchase: http://amzn.com/0385518315
LAST MINUTE—I’M LIVE ON P.M. LITES INTERNET RADIO SHOW TONIGHT AT 9 PM EST!
I’ll be a guest on the internet radio show P.M. Lites with Dawn TONIGHT from 9 pm to 10 pm EST on the Uber Internet Radio Network. You can listen to the show live when it goes on air right from the Uber Radio Network page here: http://www.uberradionetwork.com/
Join us if you can—I’ve got to go get ready.
MISS MY TWO-PART PARANORMAL, EH? INTERVIEW? NOW IN ARCHIVE!
My two-part interview with Terry Konig of Paranormal, Eh? Radio—and the very first episode of the show’s Rapid Fire Fan Questions—are now available! They aired March 15 and 16.
In Part One we talk Poe; in Part Two we talk Skeletons in the Swimmin’ Hole and haunted Disney. And who would I spend 24 hours with in a haunted house (besides Nathan)? Find out and hear the answers to some pretty cool fan questions. You can listen to them at the links below, or directly from this site. Have fun!
Links
Part 1
Part 2
Rapid Fire Fan Questions
http://paranormaleh.podomatic.com/entry/2011-03-16T17_56_20-07_00
Listen Right Here
Part 1 (Episode 9)
Part 2 (Episode 10)
Rapid Fire Fan Questions
