Ghosts and Hauntings by Stuart R. West

Well, it's Halloween again, the spookiest time of the year. So put the cat to bed, stick the kids outside and grab a nice cup of hot chocolate. Let's chat about ghosts.

Do I believe in ghosts? Not really. But it blows my mind how many grounded sensible people do. Not too long ago, friends of my wife's parents (the names have been changed as per their request) relayed a tale with such conviction it's hard to dismiss out of hand...

Some years back, "Bob" and "Iris" bought a three-story house in Denver, Colorado, so old it had a water closet on the third floor. At first, things were fine. But it wouldn't be much of a ghost tale if things remained that way, of course.

One day, Bob had been tasked with watching their toddler son. With the son safely asleep in his crib on the second floor, Bob tended to business on the first level. Footsteps trampled over his head. He barreled up the stairs. The baby was fine, still asleep. No one else in the house. But the footsteps continued on the third floor. After a thorough check-through, Bob was satisfied there was no one on the third floor. (He sorta accidentally blew a hole in the attic roof with a shotgun, but this part of the story wasn't quite clear. Make of that what you will!)

When Bob's brother and family visited, they also heard footsteps in the night. And they hadn't been told anything about the prior occurrence.

As in all poltergeist-related hauntings, things started small (missing items, a bottle of spice vanishing while Bob's back was turned, the water closet flushing in the middle of the night) before escalating. Hanging pictures were relocated to walls in different rooms. Once Iris searched her closet for a pair of shoes and only found one. When she turned away, she heard a solid clunk. The missing shoe now sat next to its partner.

Most troubling was the day they heard a loud scrape on the second floor. The young boys' bunk-beds had been moved to the center of the room. And the sheets had been carefully cut, an "L" shape meticulously trimmed through both of them. This occurrence kept happening, no doubt pleasing the Denver sheet manufacturing industry.

Fed up, Iris read somewhere to rid a house of a poltergeist, you had to confront it. Up she went to the second floor landing. Shaking her fists, she screamed, "Stop it! Stop it right now!" Silence. Suddenly a bucket worth's of water dumped down on her. No sign of water marks, stains, drips on the walls, the ceiling. Nothing.

First thing she did when she came downstairs is tell her husband, "We're leaving."

Brr. Now, I don't know about you, but that's a pretty spooky tale. At first I admit to being skeptical. But the narrator told it with such sincerity, I had to give it consideration. And his wife backed him up, filling in missing details.

Another friend of mine told me he once had a childhood ghostly encounter in a graveyard. But he won't talk about it. Says I'm not ready.

Honestly, I'm torn if I'd like to experience a spectral visitation. On the one hand, it excites me, gets my writer instincts pumping. But I also know I'd end up shrieking. Watching a 240 pound man shriek is probably not high on everyone's to-do list. Very unbecoming.

The irony is I'm drawn to writing about things spooky and spectral. I suppose I'm living vicariously.

In my book, Ghosts of Gannaway, there're many hauntings, curses, ghosts. Perfect for Halloween reading. But, honestly, with all of the supernatural shenanigans going on in the tale, there's nothing truly scarier than  mankind's capacity for evil and malice. Come for the ghosts, stay for the human characters.

I'm interested, folks...have you had any ghostly encounters you'd like to share?

Ghosts of Gannaway available now in paperback.

And the ebook is available at a limited sale price of .99! Perfect Halloween reading!

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Crazy Travelling Woman by Nancy M Bell

Welcome to October! Autumn is my favorite time of the year. I love the colours and the crisp edge to the air. Last night a tiny sliver of waxing moon hung in the clear deep blue sky. It seemed the whole world was silent and holding its breath, even the wind was still.
Since last month, I've been to Hawaii on a cruise ship. It was a very nice trip and the islands were spectacular. Walked on lava that flowed from Mauna Loa very recently (in earth terms) and visited a newly created black sand beach. It was pretty surreal - not to mention really hot!

There are some truly special and sacred places on this earth that have nothing to do with organized religion but only with the earth herself. Iao Needle on Maui is one of those places.

On an entirely different note, I won at the Casino on the ship and actually came home with money! Yay me. Go Lucky Lemmings! A down note was that over 100 people on the ship got sick with norovirus. Not Doug or I, thank goodness. But it made for some interesting times. When we docked at Hilo there were 5 ambulances that met the ship, and in Maui another 3. When we docked in Vancouver at the end of the voyage, there were 2 ambulances. We survived the "Plague Ship"! LOL First time I've ever run into sickness on a cruise, never washed my hands so often in my life.

Now I've been home for a week or so, I'm back volunteering at the animal shelter and getting ready to head off to Surrey for the Surrey International Writers Conference. I love this conference and have attended for quite a few years. Always inspiring to get together with other authors and have the opportunity to pick the brains of some wildly successful authors during their workshops. A highlight is always Jack Whyte's Master Class where 12 lucky people get to have Jack critique 3 pages of their work. It's sold out every year and if you don't register on the very first day, and right away at that, the class is full already. I'll have tons of news from this year's conference to share with you next month. This year is a first for the "Unconference" where attendees were invited to send in a proposal for a 15 minute talk on a subject they have expertise in. I'm happy to say my ABC's of Horses was accepted, along with fellow author and friend, Suzanne de Montigny I will be presenting on Friday afternoon for my 15 minutes of fame. It will be great to hear what other Unconference presenters have to share.

Are you ready for Christmas yet? Well, Books We Love is! Five Christmas themed novellas will be released on November 1, 2015 and only available for a limited time. I'm thrilled to say that my A Longview Christmas will be among them. This is a short story set on Christmas Eve and featuring the characters from Storm's Refuge and the upcoming Come Hell or High Water, all set in Longview Alberta.

Till next month, be happy, be healthy

Casting Your Characters - Libra - Janet Lane Walters

The Libra hero or heroine.
Sun represents the inner self. A Libra desires balance in their life. Often have difficulty with decisions since they can see both sides of an issue. They have a love of order and justice, peace and harmony. They are courteous, pleasant and agreeable. As a rule they are even-tempered. They are sensitive to their surroundings and the conditions of their friends. They are peacemakers. Libras have objective foresight. They can marry young and sometimes more than once.

Ascendant or the face shown to the world. With this as the rising sign the hero or heroine could be quick to anger but easily appeased. There is a love of justice, neatness and order. Libra ascendants are usually sunny people who like laughter. They have compassion. They dislike unclean work and discord. They are humane. They like to go places and do things.

Libra Moon - the emotional nature. With a Libra moon the hero or heroine is inclined to unions and partnerships. They prefer to work with others. They are affected by the emotions of others. They are fond of pleasure and make friends easily. A love of luxury can be a downfall.

1. 

Jenessa is Aries, a nurse, union advocate and likes a good fight. 

Eric is Libra, Director of Nursing, and believes in compromise. 

Can these two find a way to uncover the underhanded events at the hospital? They’re on opposite sides but the attraction between them is strong. She’s a widow who fought to save her husband’s life during a code. She feels guilty because the love she and her husband shared had died before his death. He assisted at the code but he feels guilty since he was the one who was responsible for the short staffing the night her husband died. 

Now they face falling in love and trying to solve the problems between the nurse’s union and the president of the hospital’s Board who wants a take over of the hospital by his hospital group. Is their connection strong enough to survive?

Meet Beatrice Lulu Eberhardt by Roseanne Dowell

I’m Beatrice Lulu Eberhardt. Some of you know me from my niece, Callie Johnson. Callie’s the new Chief of Police of our little town. I first appeared in her book, All in the Family.

Callie doesn’t know it, but she’s my favorite. She got annoyed with me sometimes because I tried to fix her up with a nice young man, well several nice young men. I didn’t want her ending up an old maid like I almost was. If Ed hadn’t come along – well I shudder to think what my life would have been like. Callie didn’t much care for any of the men I introduced her to. Praise God, she finally met a nice young man on her own.

But that’s neither here nor there. This story isn’t about Callie. It’s about me. That’s right, me and pretty much no one else. I’m a bit of a sleuth. Some call me nosy or a busy body, but honestly, I’m only trying to help. I don’t mean to interfere.

It all started when Ed and I bought a cabin. It’s a beautiful place with its own lake, Ed loves to fish. We thought it would be fun to have a place just for us, away from everyone. You may not remember I’m from a large, crazy family. Crazy in a fun-loving way, of course. So Ed and I wanted a place to relax. Not that it’s turned out that way, we’re seldom alone. Guess it’s because we genuinely like people. So now days when we go up there, someone always comes along, usually Ethel and her husband, Greg. Ethel’s my sister, by the way. I have two other sisters, also – Charlotte – we call her Lottie – and Lillian. Lillian is Callie’s mother, and we have a brother, Clyde, but we don’t see him as often.

Anyway, we bought the cabin, and Ed and I went up there to clean it up. No one had been in it for years. Cobwebs filled more than the corners I’ll tell you that. I could have spray painted them for Halloween. It was going to take days, if not weeks, to clean it. But Ed promised we could fix it up, and Ed never breaks a promise. That’s one of the things I love about him.

So there we were looking around, figuring out where to start, and Ed decided to build a fire to take the chill and damp out of the air. The place smelled musty, the way empty houses smell after being locked up for a long time.

Well there I was, thinking about where to start when I heard a strange clattering noise. I thought Ed fell or something. I turned around and much to my distress, an arm was lying on the fireplace hearth  – well what was left of the arm, bones and tattered flannel from a shirt I assume. Although I’ve been told never to assume anything.

If you want to know what happens next you’ll have to read about it in All’s Well That Ends Well soon to be released from  Books We Love.

If you haven’t read All in the Family – Book 1 of the Family Affair series - you can find it at Books We Love. Just click on the book and it’ll take you to the buy page. It's on sale for 99 cents.