SUPERSTITIONS AND SPOOKY OCCURRENCES - MARGARET TANNER

SPOOKY OCCURRENCES - MARGARET TANNER

Here in Australia celebrating Halloween is not as popular as it is in the US. In fact, for people of my generation, we virtually didn’t celebrate it at all. The present generation are starting to get into it though, and I have noticed Halloween masks and costumes in many of the shops.

I write historical romance, no ghosts in my stories, but there are some strange, unexplained things that do happen in my novel, Lauren’s Dilemma. The really weird thing is that these occurrences or ones very similar did happen, according to my grandmother. I can remember as a child her telling my sister and I about some of the strange happenings to members of her extended family.

One of her stories dealt with a young cousin who was terrified of water and could not swim.  She was a sleepwalker and one night she disappeared from her bed. The parents went in search of her and found her swimming around in a water hole on their farm. The father jumped into the water to get her, the mother screamed out, and the young girl woke up and drowned before her father could rescue her. When she was awake the girl was afraid of water and couldn't swim, but when sleep walking she could swim quite well.

 My grandmother used to say, it was bad luck to bring peacock feathers into your house.  Another of her superstitions was regarding the wattle bush. It was said to bring bad luck and death if you brought it inside. The wattle bush, which is covered in small, bright yellow fluffy balls, flowers in early spring. It is very bad for you if you suffer allergies like hay-fever or asthma. Grandma used to call wattle the death flower because if you brought it inside your house, someone would die.  Needless to say we never picked it.

 Thinking about this as an adult, I worked out that it was a superstition based on fact, even if my grandmother didn’t know it. If you were an asthma sufferer in the 1890’s with no proper medication, if someone did bring in a bunch of wattle and put it in a vase on the sideboard, it could, and probably did trigger an asthma attack.

 Now back to Lauren’s Dilemma. This story is set during the 1^st World War. Lauren’s childhood sweetheart, Danny, is killed at Gallipoli (in Turkey) in 1915. She mourns him but eventually marries another wounded soldier, Blair Sinclair, and they go to live on an isolated cattle property.

 On a couple of occasions, when Lauren (Laurie) has been in danger, she thinks she hears Danny calling out to her, and on these occasions she can always smell the herb thyme. Thyme grows wild on Gallipoli.

“One afternoon in November of 1918, Laurie was in the homestead alone. Her father and Blair had gone into town for supplies, and baby Daniel was taking a nap. The windows stood wide open in the sitting room to let in the early summer breeze. As she sat in an armchair she drifted between sleep and wakefulness.

“Laurie, Laurie.” She opened her eyes and Danny stood near the fireplace. He was in uniform. His head was bare, his brown curls just as windblown and unruly as she remembered.

“The war is over.” He gave a boyish smile. “You can be happy now.”

“Laurie, great news.” Blair dashed into the room and pulled her to her feet. “I heard it in town. They've signed an Armistice at last. The war is over.”

“I know.” She did a little jig.

“What! How could you?”

“Danny told me. He was here a minute ago.”

“Laurie!” Blair was shocked as he stared into her over-bright eyes. “There's only us in the room.”

“He stood over there, by the fire. I know it sounds crazy, but I saw him.”

She smiled. Her face suddenly took on such a serene beauty the breath caught in his throat. She blew him a kiss. Laughing, he reached out and pretended to catch it.

After Laurie left for the nursery to attend little Daniel, Blair suddenly became aware of the bittersweet smell of herbs wafting around the room. Some instinct drew him toward the fireplace. There on the hearth lay a sprig of thyme.”

 

 

http://bookswelove.net/authors/tanner-margaret/

 

http://www.margarettanner.com/

 

LOST TREASURES by Shirley Martin

PURCHASE FROM BWL STORE

Gold!  My latest romantic fantasy, "Magic Mountain". centers around a hidden cache of gold. Princess Olwen must find the treasure to ransom her brother, held hostage by a neighboring warlike country. Olwen has read of a hoard of gold located in a country far away. She's determiined to find the treasure to free her brother.

But do such treasures exist in real life? No telling what you can find with a metal detector....

In 2009, Terry Herbert parked his car and walked across the road, where he opened the gate to farner Johnson's field. Metal detector in hand, Terry Herbert was looking for treasure, having first obtained the farmer's permission. Walking up and down the field, swinging his metal detector, he heard a buzzing sound. Digging into the soil, he found what at first appeared to be a brass object. From then on, the metal detector buzzed oontinuously, and he found more objects, not brass but gold!  A fortune in gold! Over time, he found 3,500 objects, 75% of which were gold. Jewels shone through many of these artifacts, gems that turned out to be garnets. There were no feminine or domestic artifacts found, only masculine, military objects and religious artifacts. .

Both the treasure hunter and the farmer knew this hoard was not theirs to keep. Terry Herbert's cousin contacted the Birmingham Museum, and soon a representative came to examine the artifacts. The treasure now had a name, the Staffordshire Hoard, for it was found near Staffordshire.

But how and why did the treasure come to be buried in the field? For the answer to that, we must go back almost two-thousand years.

The Romans conquered the island of Britain in the first century A.D., defeating the native Britons. (Celts.) Their rule lasted for several hundred years. But as the barbarians on the continent encroached on the borders of Rome, the Roman legions withdrew to help protect the Empire.

As the Romans left the island, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes moved in, having crossed the English Channel from what is present-day Germany. They brought with them their language, customs, and pagan religions. By the 7th century A.D, they had established their own kingdoms on the island. One of these kingdoms was Mercia (meaning "boundary":). King Penda of Mercia was a pagan warlike ruler who spent much of his time and energy battling neighboring kingdoms near and far.One of the kingdoms he preyed on was Bernecia, whose king was Oswiu, a Christian. In desperation, King Oswiu promised an incredible store of treasure and gifts for the price of peace. King Penda spurned the offer; only a battle would satisfy him.

Oswiu dedicated the treasure to God, should he win the battle. In 655, in one final, cataclysmic battle, Oswiu defeated Penda, who was killed. Oswiu kept his prmise to God, and this is how the treasure came to be buried in Mercia.

We owe this history to the Venerable Bede. (672-735.)

As found  nearly 1,400 years later, nearly all of the artifacts were bent or broken. This situation prevails in other treasure sites. Historians believe the custom relates to a religious ritual.

Tales of other treasure sites in England might pique our interest. In the epic tale of "Beowulf" we read of the hero's fascination with the treasure hoard guarded by the dragon. After Beowulf kills the dragon (not Grendel, another one), he lies dying of his wounds incurred in the struggle with the dragon. He implores his loyal thane, Wiglaf, to bring the treasure to him:

     Away you go; I want to examine
     that ancient gold, gaze my fill
     on those garnered jewels; my going will be easier
     for having seen the treasure, a less troubled letting-go
     of the life and lordship I have long maintained.

It's virtually impossible to give an exact replication of this old English (8th-9th century) epic. Many letters have accent marks over them,and we often see the "a" and "e" against each other with no space between. So the following is an approximation:

     Bio nu on ofoste, paet ic aer-welan
     gold-aeht ongite , gearo sceawige
     swigle searo gimmas,  paet ic oy seft maege
     aefter maddum-welan min aletan
     lif ond leodschipe,  pone ic longe heold.

Alas, it's doubtful if such a fortune could be found on the North American continent, unless the Spanish conquistadors missed a few places as they plundered the Axtec and Mayan empires. But who knows?  Now, if I just had a metal detector...

"Lost Gold of the Dark Ages" was my sourcbook for this article and my inspiration for writing "Magic Mountain."

Please check out my website:  www.shirleymartinauthor.com   I write historical, paranormal, and fantasy romances. My books are sold at Books We Love,Amazon, Smashwords All Romance ebooks, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, the Apple iStore, and other sites where ebooks are sold online.




   

Life's Path by Eleanor Stem

Me in a past life

What makes us chose certain things in life, or walk down a particular path? I married my high school sweetheart after some thirty odd years, but it took a long time for us to reunite. Apparently, he had things to do, and I know I had things to do. I married a completely different person, had two children by him. It was a difficult time. I was glad when he suddenly left. 

Back in high school, I told my sweetheart I wanted to write, but life got in the way, like the unhappy marriage and subsequent divorce. After almost a decade, I went from a homemaker to being suddenly thrust into the business world. 

Because of what I went through and the resulting memories, I loathed the area I lived in with the crime and heat. Suddenly, women started to knock on my door who said they thought my ex-husband would marry them after the divorce, but didn’t. “If you want revenge,” more than one confided, “I will help you.” 

Life experiences force us to learn. I wanted nothing to do with revenge, even though my ‘ex’ had one helluva mean streak. He played ugly mind games, manipulated others, and lied. I knew to seek revenge would only lower me to his level and harm my spirit. At any rate, he didn’t care how his actions affected me. Any karma he garnered, he would have to work out on his own. I would not help him. 

I said, “No thanks” to those women and closed the door. I changed my phone number, had it unlisted, then when it became too difficult to bear, I sold everything, lock, stock and barrel, and moved. During a weak moment, the ‘ex’ gave me permission to take my children out of the country for a year. This generosity didn’t last, of course. 

Me at the psychic's

The preparations to leave took a solid six months. I went to a psychic who told me we would live on a hill and I would find love. 

I retained a few things and sent them to my brother across country. Once school was out for the summer, I packed the boys in the car and followed my goods to my brother’s house. From there we flew out of the country. 

I made an effort to separate myself from the hurt, the betrayal. The long distance helped a great deal. The boys and I settled into our new home, far from the strife of rejection. I finally started writing that book. 

If one is on their correct life path, experiences come effortlessly, as if dropped from the sky. It was that way for the preparation to leave and relocate. The area in which we moved was in a recession. People were out of jobs. For lack of housing, grown children lived with their parents. Within a week, we found and moved into a furnished house located on a hill, the owners of which were on a year’s sabbatical in the country I had just left. Our paths had coincided. 

 I did what I had wanted to do all my life—write. The boys could run and play as I had done when a child, and as my parents demanded of me, I told them, “Return when the streetlights come on.” 

Yes, I may have run away, but the experience was liberating. I was no longer reminded of my ‘failings’, how ‘stupid’ or ‘slow’ I was. I could concentrate on my novel. I immersed myself in the past, walked the cobbled lanes, and fell in love with my hero.  

After a year, the boys and I moved back, but we went to the area my brother and his wife lived. I had started healing from an abusive marriage. I went to work, and my boys went to new schools. Life moved on and I eventually ran into my high school sweetheart. We are now married. 

My high school sweetheart & me

So what does this mean?

My high school sweetheart and I were meant to be together, but it took a while. Before we could be with each other, I had to put closure to a few past life experiences. One was the relationship with my first husband in a difficult marriage. Where I had once treated my spouse poorly, this life I was treated poorly by the same entity. I did not want to make this a cyclical matter (what goes around, comes around) scenario, just wanted closure to the bad Karma I had created. I forgave ‘ex’ but I’ll never give him another chance. I’ll never be with that spirit in another life. 

My high school sweetheart and I did what we had to do between high school and our empty nest years. I dance through life now because I truly hope the bad slate from a past life is scrubbed clean. As hard as it was, I feel my spirit is much brighter for it.  

~~~~~~~
Many thanks to Wiki commons, Public Domain

 

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