It's my favorite time of year, Halloween. So lets take a look at some of the Most Haunted Cities in
America, plus A Vampire’s Unlikely Alliance, set in the wilds of Colorado. A Spooktacular Halloween read!
Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cauldron. Take
your choice of a bat wing Chocolate Chip or Pumpkin, or Peanut Butter cookie from
the plate, and let's find out a little about my book A Vampire’s Umlikely
Alliance. But first take a peek at the Most Haunted Cities in
America!
Most Haunted Cities in America
It's autumn the cool fall days are perfect for a walk on America's dark
side. With the approach of Halloween, it's natural for our thoughts to conjure
up ghosts, goblins, and all things that go bump in the night. Bloody
battles, shady shanghaiing practices, cities built over burial grounds, and
natural disasters have left behind an unsettled past in towns throughout our
country. What better place to start than....
Salem, MA
Salem is best known for the witch trials of 1692 where mass hysteria led to
more than 200 people being accused of practicing witchcraft, and ultimately 20
innocent people were executed. The tragedy has led to Salem becoming synonymous
with witches and the city has embraced their history by preserving artifacts in
museums and offering tours to educate visitors. The Witch House, The Salem
Witch Museum, The Bewitched Statue and Witch Trials Memorial to name a
few. Yep, it's on my bucket list to spend Halloween in Salem MA. How about you?
Galveston, Texas
When the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 struck, some 8,000 lives were
lost—about 6,200 more fatalities than in New Orleans' devastating Hurricane
Katrina. Galveston's was the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history, and
ghost hunters say most of the town's spirits linger in its storied harbor and
Victorian mansions. If that doesn’t give you goosebump, I don’t know what will,
unless of course it’s Marie Laveau, the voodoo queen. Which brings us to...
New Orleans
Not much, it seems, separates the living from the dead in New Orleans.
Because the town is below sea level, tombs sit above ground in the 42
cemeteries within city limits. Ghosts from the War of 1812 still hang around
the French Quarter. And visitors to the grave of a prominent 1800s voodoo queen
continue to leave offerings and ask for help.
Savannah, Ga.
Savannah may look like a sweet Southern belle, but she keeps a dark secret.
The city was built, literally, on its dead. Homes and buildings sit atop Native
American burial grounds; roads cover forgotten cemeteries of slaves and
colonialists. Over the years, bloody battles, massive fires, yellow-fever
epidemics, and hurricanes have taken hundreds of lives, leaving behind
unsettled spirits.
Chicago
It was here, on Valentine's Day, 1929, that seven men were lined up against
the wall of a garage at 2122 North Clark Street and gunned down by Al Capone
and his Prohibition-era gangsters. Strange mists, screams, and machine gun
sounds have all been experienced at the site; other local gangster hideaways
and crime scenes are also said to be haunted.
Portland, Ore.
Beneath the cobblestoned streets of Portland's Old Town lies the legend of
the Shanghai Tunnels, passageways that swirl with dark tales and hauntings. As
the story goes, men who came to Portland to work—sailors, loggers, cowboys, and
others—were "shanghaied," or kidnapped through trapdoors in saloons,
smuggled through the tunnels to the waterfront, and sold to sea captains.
Athens, Ohio
This Ohio University town is home to the Athens Lunatic Asylum, a mental
institution open from 1874 until 1993 and known for its lobotomy practices. Now
a university-owned property called The Ridges, the building has its share of
haunted stories, say many amateur researchers: disembodied screams, apparitions
that walk the halls, and a ghostly bloodstain on the floor. Throughout campus
there are several haunted dorms, sororities, and fraternities.
Last but not least on my most haunted cities list I'd be amiss if I
didn’t mention Cripple Creek, Colorado. Mining District of Colorado is
extremely rich in history and it is also touted to be one of the Most Haunted
Places in the United States. On Highway 67, at the base of Pike’s Peak,
southwest of Colorado Springs, Cripple Creek sits at an elevation of 9,500
feet. There are mine shafts, head frames, miner’s cabins long abandoned
tumbling down. A lonely stone fireplace may be all that’s left of a miners
home. Standing among the rubble might cause the hair on the back of your neck
to stand on end. A brief visit to one of the abandoned cabins still standing,
gives you a window into what it was like back in the late 1800’s or early
1900’s. Can you imagine a more inviting place for ghost to spend
Halloween?
Speaking of Halloween, what says halloween better than a Vampire? #99cents Sale! A VAMPIRE’S UNLIKELY ALLIANCE–Not
what you’ve come to expect from a Vampire Tale!
Join Stefan and Brandy on an exciting Romantic Fantasy
that begins in Glacier National Park, winds through Australia. Stefan is a Native American vampire, former assassin
for the Vampire Council. In a twist of fate, he now DJ’s the midnight shift for
a small radio station in Whitefish, Montana, on the edge of Glacier National
Park where his secret is safe until...
Born in Ireland, Brandy now works as a park ranger
and trail guide in the park. During a full moon, Stefan and Brandy’s paths
cross in a near physical collision on a trail. Their attraction is immediate
and undeniable, almost as if fate demanded it.
Their union was foretold long ago in Irish folk tales where vampires and
gryphons, warlocks and demons, witches and faeries must work together for the
good of man and magic kind. Is a trip to Ireland the key to unraveling secrets
and returning the magic?
