I am meeting so many wonderful people while driving the Southern highways this month. And nearly everyone has a ghost cat story to tell me, including my co-presenter at the Nashville's Southern Festival of Books, Camille Moffitt Headley. Camille's delightful family attended the festival and her mother verified the experiences of a family ghost cat.
Camille also showed photographs of ghostly presences in and about the haunted cave on the old Bell Witch plantation. These photos appear in her book, Bell Witch: The Truth Exposed. It was wonderful to see these images in large format. And it was wonderful to co-present with Camille, who has made a serious investigation of a previous overlooked haunted site in America.
If you are interested in haunted places in the South, this cave qualifies in trumps. Ghosts are so surely present that even the owner refuses to enter the caverns alone.
People I've met on the tour have been sharing many ghost encounters with me, and others are kind enough to take the time to email me complete run-downs of their ghost experiences. I am literally darting in and then back out of my house this weekend. As time allows I will share some of these intriguing ghost encounters with you (once permission is granted).
For now, I am off to Myrtle Beach, Charleston and Savannah. How fun is that! I'll wrap up the week at the Aiken SC County Library on Friday, October 24. Library appearances are my favorite because 1.) there is time to leisurely share stories with people, and 2.) we get to talk loud in a library. :-)
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Nashville Dog Ghost
If it's Sunday, I am doing laundry for another week on the road. While in Nashville, I got to meet Stephen Doster, author of the inventive and wonderful novel, Lord Baltimore. Stephen had recently experienced a dog ghost while driving home in Nashville.
A dog, he told me, moved into the road in front of his car. Then disappeared. Poof! It was just gone.
Of course, he was braking as fast and as hard as he could to keep from hitting the dog, which, Stephen said, was definitely no longer there. Or anywhere else.
Driving on, but much more slowly, a real dog then wandered into the street in front of Stephen's car in the same block. He easily avoided running into the real critter because the ghost dog had caused him to be going so much more slowly than he usually would.
The ghost dog and the real dog were different breeds, different colors, and different sizes. If occasionally ghosts have a purpose in mind, this Nashville ghost dog certainly did.
A dog, he told me, moved into the road in front of his car. Then disappeared. Poof! It was just gone.
Of course, he was braking as fast and as hard as he could to keep from hitting the dog, which, Stephen said, was definitely no longer there. Or anywhere else.
Driving on, but much more slowly, a real dog then wandered into the street in front of Stephen's car in the same block. He easily avoided running into the real critter because the ghost dog had caused him to be going so much more slowly than he usually would.
The ghost dog and the real dog were different breeds, different colors, and different sizes. If occasionally ghosts have a purpose in mind, this Nashville ghost dog certainly did.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
House of Ghosts - Gastonia S.C.
'Hi, Just a quick note to say I really enjoyed your presentation on ghosts at the Gaston County Library here in Gastonia. I thought the woman who said, "There were so many ghosts around our house they couldn't all get in," was really funny, but I could identify.' -- Marijoyce Porcelli
Gastonia was so much fun! About 50 people gathered and the ghost stories I heard couldn't have been better --- or more real.
I'm off to Knoxville Tennessee in the morning for a quicky TV nooner and then a visit to Carpe Librum Booksellers on the Kingston Pike. If you're in the area, check my schedule (at link upper right side on this page: Places I'll be in 2008) and drop by!
Then it's off to Nashville from there and onto Mississippi, Louisiana, etc. I'll be away from my computer and unable to post. I promise, though, that I'll be hearing several new ghost encounters along the way and I'll bring them all home with me.
Marijoyce, who wrote the note above, is an accomplished writer herself and has been sharing a couple wonderful family ghost stories with me. I'll tell more as time allows (if she doesn't mind) and my little Ghost Cats of the South tour winds to an end on Halloween.
Gastonia was so much fun! About 50 people gathered and the ghost stories I heard couldn't have been better --- or more real.
I'm off to Knoxville Tennessee in the morning for a quicky TV nooner and then a visit to Carpe Librum Booksellers on the Kingston Pike. If you're in the area, check my schedule (at link upper right side on this page: Places I'll be in 2008) and drop by!
Then it's off to Nashville from there and onto Mississippi, Louisiana, etc. I'll be away from my computer and unable to post. I promise, though, that I'll be hearing several new ghost encounters along the way and I'll bring them all home with me.
Marijoyce, who wrote the note above, is an accomplished writer herself and has been sharing a couple wonderful family ghost stories with me. I'll tell more as time allows (if she doesn't mind) and my little Ghost Cats of the South tour winds to an end on Halloween.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Quirkiest Book of the Week!
Asheville is one of the few places left where the filling stations keep running out of gasoline.
If I can find gas, I'll be driving down Black Mountain soon on my way to the Gaston County Library in Gastonia, North Carolina, this evening to share ghost stories with the Friends of the Library there. It's our debate prep.
Opening my email, on my way out the door, I just discovered that Ghost Cats of the South was named Quirkiest Book of the Week by the august Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Yay!!!!!
The paper did, though, seem to confuse the fact that, while I collect real-life ghost encounters and other living history, I also write stories. Oh well. That's what I get for having more than one interest in life. I think they were expecting a recitation of ghost sightings, instead of fully-developed stories based on the living folklore of the South.
Still, Quirkiest Book of the Week is quite a thrill for both of me.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
On the Road to Newberry S.C.
I'm driving down the mountains today on my way to the Oktoberfest in Newberry, South Carolina, to share a few ghost stories at Books on Main and listen to a little polka music. Autumn is the time for ghosts and I can feel them moving near.
Jean, in New Orleans, recently told me about a ghost cat who lived in her house in 1966-67. This cat let people know that his name was Jonathan. And she's still not sure how he did that. It was like he could talk, she said, but he wasn't actually talking. You just sort of knew what he wanted to say.
More when I get back.
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