Paranormal October: Looking Across the Veil with Angela Scavone

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What a fun ghost story today by Angela Scavone! What's better in October than an old village, dressed for the season and a ghostly appearance on Halloween? Angela shares a story about her experience one time on the day the veil between worlds is at its thinnest. Have you had any experiences like this?

I hope you enjoy her spooky story and make sure to enter the Giveaway at the end of the post :-)

When the Veil is Thinnest

by Angela Scavone

Halloween is said to be the night when the veil is lifted between the living and the dead worlds yet most believe it is just a celebration for children and adults alike to dress as their favourite characters and eat as much candy as possible.

Whatever the tradition or the folklore, I believe the veil is lifted on Halloween that only some can see or feel.

Let me tell you a story…

On Halloween day in 199-something, a friend of mine and I decided to start Christmas shopping. We were both off of work that day and decided it was the perfect time to start. We travelled out of town to a small village that boasted great little shops that were full of unique gift ideas. All the shops are set in old houses along a main street, each of the houses were easily a hundred years old and was fully decorated for Halloween.

 We moved along main street from shop to shop until we came upon one of the last houses on the block, it was set back off the street and had an eerie feeling to the outside of it. We chalked it up to the age of the house and the spooky decorations. Not wanting to miss a unique gift idea we entered despite our feelings, once inside the eerie feeling persisted and became stronger.

The woman that owned the shop pointed us to the upstairs saying that there were Christmas treasures to be had up there.

At the top of the stairs was a long hallway with two doors on either side, each door was a room that held items for different seasons. The Christmas room was at the end of the hallway, it was a bright room because of the two windows on either side. We entered and began to look at the items on each of the display cases, I went to one side of the room and my friend went to the opposite side. I looked down at one of the little Christmas items and suddenly the room became very dark, like someone had closed heavy curtains over the windows, the air became very heavy and I could feel a presence in the room watching us. I turned quickly to my friend across the room and she was staring at me with the same frightened expression that I’m sure I had. We didn’t say a word to each other but literally ran from the room, almost knocking down two older ladies chatting in the hallway. I ran down the stairs and I was met with the owner at the bottom of the stairs.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Someone was murdered here many years ago, however the ghost only visits on Halloween and only to certain lucky people, who always come running down the stairs.”

I’m not sure what was in that room or what would have happened had we stayed but I’m pretty sure that ghost was not happy we were shopping for Christmas during their Halloween visit J

Angela lives in Ontario, Canada sharing her home with her father and her two much-loved pups (and one evil cat).  She currently works for the Board of Education behind the scenes supporting and analyzing student data, however, in her spare time, apart from her avid love of storytelling, she likes to read, spend time with family and friends and concoct dairy free recipes from scratch. Sometimes she wins some and sometimes she loses some – tofu, banana and peanut butter pudding we are looking at you.

Links:

Website: www.angelascavone.com    

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/angela.scavone.52

Twitter https://twitter.com/busterwhyte

Good Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6683076-angela-scavone

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/busterwhyte/

 

A Journey Home by Angela Scavone

Angela’s latest release A Journey Home is about Stephanie Tyler, an air force captain, whose sole job is to fly overseas to war torn areas to retrieve bodies of fallen soldiers. While executing this difficult duty, a myriad of conflicting emotions makes Stephanie ponder how short life really is and to question her own ability to forgive. 

  

Buy Link:

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00W3UK05A/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d16_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=1ECR1S1MKJY50BF4CEC5&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2079475242&pf_rd_i=desktop 

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ABCDE

Paranormal October: Adventures of a Real Ghost Hunter by Lisa Kovanda

Paranormal October!

Paranormal October continues on my blog and today I welcome author Lisa Kovanda. Lisa is a real life paranormal investigator who has seen lots of ghosts. Check out Lisa's description of the day in the life of a real ghost hunter. And make sure you enter the Rafflecopter at the end of this post for a chance to win an audiobook copy of Lisa's book Flight Plan (as well as all the other prizes author's are giving away this month!). Enjoy :-D

Adventures of a Real Ghost Hunter

If you haven’t seen a television show or movie about ghost hunting, you must have spent the past decade in a coma, in which case, this post is the least of the things you need to catch up on. But, as a real-world paranormal investigator, I’d like to tell you how things in the trenches differ from what you see on TV or the big screen. The good, the bad, and the downright dirty truths.

First of all, they only skim over the tedious and sometimes backbreaking work of lugging equipment around—not to mention the fact that real-world paranormal teams aren’t handed the newest technology in exchange for promoting it on air—we pay out of our own pockets for that stuff, and none of it is cheap. My team specializes in private residences and businesses. Our goal is to help  people who are afraid in their own homes.

Television shows make it look like it’s non-stop action, but that’s not how it usually goes. Paranormal investigation is usually 99% boring, and 1% “Holy crap, did that just happen??” They also don’t show the tedious hours in front of computers after each investigation reviewing video and audio footage. For every hour of recordings, it take up to three hours to thoroughly analyze the results. That’s for each device, so it adds up in a hurry. We spend a lot of our time looking for man-made causes for the client reports. It can be life-saving if we discover faulty wiring, dangerous levels of carbon monoxide, or can attribute experiences to a crumbling foundation and house settling.

If you’re doing this for a thrill or entertainment, this is where I am going to suggest you find another hobby. Go on a haunted tour led by experienced investigators in you want to dabble, but if you get involved with true ghost hunting, you will run across real ghosts. No way around this, some people were assholes in life, and death does nothing to improve their personality. A few don’t know they’re dead. Others are fiercely protective of what they believe to be their property, and will do anything they can to get the current residents to leave. I’ve been hit, scratched, and forcibly thrown six feet across a room. There are also the exceptionally rare cases of inhuman entities like demons. In almost ten years, I’ve only been in one location where I even suspected something demonic, and that was determined by religious experts long before I arrived on the scene.

Yet I keep coming back for more. Why? The answer for me is simple. I lived in a haunted house long before ghost hunters were on every channel. I was terrified and thought I was losing my mind, and I don’t want anyone to go through that alone.

Here’s a link to my author page on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Lisa-Kovanda/e/B008AR7I64

I’m a Nebraska girl, by way of Tehran. I’ve lived a lot of life, and the best is yet to come. I write because only writing keeps me sane. I am also a paranormal investigator and a student of life.

I write fiction and non-fiction books, stories, and screenplays. My works include urban fantasy, horror, paranormal, and historical. People in my life tend to find their way into my work, so consider yourself warned!

Want to learn more? Follow Paracon at  https://www.facebook.com/paraconinvestigations  http://www.paraconinvestigations.com/  

Follow Lisa on Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisakovanda.author 

Website: http://lisakovanda.com/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lisa_kovanda

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A Ghostly Encounter at the Nootklatch Lodge by Leigh Shearin

Can you believe it's October already? The time of pumpkins and chilly nights. Of cider and costumes and ghost stories. It also happens to be my favorite month of the year.

This year I've invited authors to share their ghostly stories with us on my blog. When I sent the invite, I had no idea I'd have such an overwhelming response! And oh, the great stories that are pouring in. You're in for a treat this month!

Today I welcome author Leigh Shearin to the blog. She has a wonderful true story of her  ghostly encounter. And be sure to check out Leigh's most recent release, John Bloom and the Victory Garden.

"The Lodger"

by Leigh Shearin

Room #5 at the Nootklatch Lodge is haunted.

Awake at 2 am, despite a comfortable, clean room, I cursed menopause for the 689th time, and flipped over in a vain attempt to capture some Zs.

...and heard footsteps.

At first, I though my husband had slipped out of the massive king-sized bed and gone to the nearby bathroom. Made of some low-jiggle space-age foam, the bed was also so large, he would have had to telephone to let me know he was getting up. I turned my face over to look at the place he'd occupied, only to find him still wrapped in sheets.

It was then that my hackles rose.

Who's footsteps was I hearing? Ribbing myself, I started a mental checklist of possible non-paranormal sources for the noises I was hearing. We were in a first floor room; surely someone above us was just moving around, causing the floor to creak. The part of the Lodge we were staying in is constructed of enormous logs, so it made sense that some shifting and squeaking would happen. The sound wasn't really what I associate with creaky boards. It was more of a shuffle.

More desperate to sleep than I was to commune with the afterworld, I put the notion of wandering spirits out of my mind and began to doze off.

...and heard more footsteps.

Annoyed now, more than scared, I flipped over, slammed my arms down on the mattress and blew out an exasperated sigh.

"Cut it out, will you?" I said, feeling only mildly foolish for talking to an empty room. "I'm trying to sleep here. Can you please go away for a while and come back later?" I tried to be polite. I didn't want to irritate the specter, after all.

Nothing.

Growling with exasperation, I flopped down on the pillow and rolled away from the offending emptiness. Ridiculous, I scolded myself. Get to sleep. You've got a long day of driving tomorrow and if you...

    A push of energy stopped my self-lecture in it's tracks.

    That's the only way I can describe it. Almost a breeze, the sensation manifested itself between the nightstand and my head. Gooseflesh accompanied my now pounding heart as my eyes flew open, straining to pierce the darkness, trying to identify the cause of the feeling.

    Nothing.

I wouldn't say I was afraid. Alarmed, maybe, but fear wasn't a part of my emotions. Acquiescing to the presence,  and working to control my heart, which was going like a trip-hammer, I drew in a deep breath and closed my eyes.

"Okay." I whispered, "I hear you. I sense and recognize you. I know I'm not dreaming. You're welcome to stay, but can you please settle down and stop making noise so I can sleep? I'm really tired."

I imagined the phantom moving away, toward the window at the back of the room. Utterly undone, it took me an hour to start feeling drowsy. Eventually, I fell soundly asleep and woke with no immediate memory of the experience. Later that day, on the drive home, I had a vivid flashback, but hesitated to relate the story to my just-the-facts-ma'am, hard-driving husband. Still, I wanted his take.

"Our hotel room was haunted." I blurted. In for a penny, in for a pound, I thought. Braced for ridicule, I grinned over at Jeff, who was tensely navigating construction traffic.

"Yes," he said. "I know. I thought I heard something. Footsteps, wasn't it?"

Settling back in my seat with a gasp, I realized it was true. I wasn't crazy, hallucinating, or unconsciously grinding out ghost stories to lull myself to dreamland. Room #5 at the Nootklatch Lodge was haunted.

I had felt it with my own two eyes.

Leigh Shearin, Author

Leigh Shearin is farmer, baker, teacher, and lifelong dreamer.

Leigh earned a B.A. degree in Studio Art at Maryville College and worked as a graphic artist before earning an ASS degree in Culinary Art.  She has worked as a chef, baker and culinary arts instructor.  Most recently, she and her husband bought rural land and are developing Winterrest, a small farm in central New York.  Through all this, Leigh wrote stories and poems…some published; some tucked away.  

She is happiest living off the land and developed a passion for local and sustainable farms, farmers and practices, spending hours researching farming and learning by trial and error.  She is an avid supporter of Farm-to-Fork and “locavore” restaurants and plans to supply these restaurants with her own farm’s products soon.

Leigh writes fiction stories for middle-grade readers. Along with illustrator Kate Shearin, Leigh spins tales of self-sufficiency and independence, along with gentle agriculture education. Since historical fiction is also a lifetime interest, Leigh uses true stories of the past to bring inspiration and joy to modern-day children.

Leigh lives with her husband and children in rural central NY.  You can check out Leigh’s blog at www.winterrestfarm.weebly.com, www.LeighShearin.weebly.com, www.farmeatlove.blogspot.com

Social media:

www.leighshearin.weebly.com

Twitter: @LeighShearin

FB: Leigh Shearin, Writer

Instagram: Winterrestfarm

Check out Leigh's book here: http://goo.gl/3tHqej

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