T. M.'s House Happenings

   Yep, I live in a haunted house. At times, so many things happen around here that I grow complacent. If I'm busy when one of my paranormal residents appears and tries to get my attention, I'm as likely as not to just wave and keep on doing whatever I'm up to. I try to at least record a few events in the file I keep on the computer. However, to be honest, I probably only type up one out of every ten happenings here in the house and on our porch and lot.
  During the month of October, I expect ghostly incidents in my home. The Veil diminishes as the month progresses, becoming the thinnest of all on October 31. I'll admit, during October, I sometimes feel like I'm "living" with a whole crowd of boarders. This past Thursday alone: I walked into a living room full of mist. I glanced into my office and again, some heavy mist. When I passed through the dining room a while later and looked into the kitchen … you guessed it. The kitchen contained clouds of mist.
  This mist is an indication the ghosts and spirits are hanging around in our dimension. Most of the time, they don't materialize, only hover and let me know they're present. But at times, I'll see one of them. Their appearances take on various forms: full-bodied apparitions that make eye contact with me and sometimes wave or nod; a few seconds glimpse of a person walking through the house somewhere; a barely visible apparition floating past. Yesterday (Friday) we were working in the back yard. I glanced over beside the rear corner of the garage.
   "Wow," I said to hub. "You missed that."
  "What?" he asked.
  "There was a man back there." I pointed. "He was tall and wore a white shirt."
  Used to my "sightings," hub just shrugged and went back to work trying to get our riding mower started.
  I spent a few moments contemplating the man, but couldn't figure out who he might be. He appeared so briefly, I didn't get a look at his face. He was larger and taller than Howard, though, so it wasn't my long-time resident, who loves to wander around outside. Maybe just someone passing through during the thin Veil; maybe someone who will hang around a while. We'll see.
  I get touched a lot, and so do some of my guests. My ghosts and spirits don't try to communicate often, but occasionally, I do hear them. Sometimes we'll have a conversation; sometimes, I say, "Shush. I'm busy."
  Things get moved around, but the only occasion I recall when we actually witnessed something moving was when the flying glass candle jar barely missed my husband's head. Then we only saw the candle after it landed in the middle of the living room, not as it actually flew through the air. He heard it whiz past his head, and we both heard the thump when it landed on the carpet about eight feet from where it had been sitting on top of a stereo speaker.
   There are times when I know for a fact it's not my memory letting me down about something. I'll fully recall where I left something, then find it in a different place. Or, other times, I won't be able to find something I really need, say my car keys.
  I stop, put my hands on my hips, and say, "That's enough. Bring back my keys." Or whatever they've run off with. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the missing object appears right back where it's supposed to be. This week, Sis and I were in the kitchen. I was digging through one of the cabinet drawers.
  "Have you seen those black-handled scissors?" I asked Sis.
  "They aren't in the drawer," she said. "I was looking for them earlier myself."
  "They have to be. That's where I keep them."
  "I know, but they're gone." Then she walked over and said, "Well, let me look again."
  I stepped back and while she dug, I put my hands on my hips and stared around. "I need those scissors," I said. "Bring them back. Now!"
  A second later, Sis said, "Here they are!" She held up the exact scissors we had both been hunting for.
  That was one of the successful ninety-nine percent finds. The other one percent … well, maybe I did mislay something.
  The attitude of visitors to my house varies, but they usually show up wanting to see a ghost. However, as Aunt Belle says, "This ain't Dial a Ghost." We can't predict when someone paranormal will appear. When something does happen, reactions vary drastically. The visitor might think he or she wants to experience a ghost, but sometimes they haul butt out of here and never return. Others are excited and enjoy it.
  Once in a while Aunt Belle and I do sit down and deliberately try to communicate. She and I are usually successful. We've found the best way is to just let things happen, though. We get a surprise and have fun ourselves. Often while we're watching a DVD, we have a visit from beyond. Most of those times, we both see the same thing, and as far as we're concerned, that's all the evidence we need. I mean, how often do paranormal investigators get the proof of another person actually witnessing the same incident? We can both actually describe the appearance of the visitor down to the color of his or her hair and height and weight, as well as the clothing the apparition wears.
  I'll keep reporting things that happen, but it will only be a fraction of the incidents that fill my days. I'd never get any other writing done if I documented each and every single paranormal incident in my life. Plus I have a feeling that if I paid more attention to what goes on around me, it would fuel the energy they need and make them even more intrusive. I'm still among the living, so I want to be able to fully experience this side of my existence for now, thank you very much.
  If you'd like a few scary reads, my book of short stories, Grave Yarns, is great for Halloween.

 

 

 

Kindle: http://tiny.cc/8dhkv      
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95134
Nook:http://tiny.cc/cb25s
Kobo:http://tiny.cc/c40tmw
iTunes:http://tiny.cc/d90tmwh

  Grave Yarns is still free at Smashwords, until tomorrow midnight! Use Coupon Code VA85W. So, so sorry! For some reason, Smashwords dropped the coupon instead of keeping it free until tomorrow! Ugh, and sorry, also, Danielle, and thanks for letting me know. I reinstated the coupon, but it wouldn't let me renew the same code. Here is the new coupon code, which is (supposed to be) good until 10/28 at midnight: SR48X. 
  Here I am talking about my memory, and I did screw up. Grave Yarns is definitely free at Smashwords with that coupon code. But Dragon's Dishonor is also free and it's the one with the first coupon code: VA85W. Sorry for the mixup.
  Have a great Halloween and Samhain and All Hallows Eve. Enjoy any communication you get from beyond, and I'll see you next week. We're headed out Tuesday night to prowl a cemetery, so hope we get to chat with some other world folks.
   Boo!
  T. M.

Do Our Pets Have Souls?

 Anyone who knows me wouldn't have to guess at that answer as far as my own beliefs go. It's a resounding Yes! I've lost a lot of beloved pets over the years, and yes, I've seen them, or their spirits, afterwards. When anyone contacts me about their own experience concerning a possible sighting of a crossed over pet, I tell them their eyes did not deceive them.
  A while back, I got an email from my friend Carl. He and his wife, Judie, own the horse farm where Angela and I cast out the demon ("Carl's Country Farm," Ghost Hunting Diary Volume III). He gave me permission to tell y'all about this new-to-him experience in my blog.
  "Hi," he wrote. "A while ago I was in my office writing. When I got up to leave, I looked out my window and there, as clear as day, I saw my little cat Morris sitting by the golf cart, as he used to, waiting for me so he could ride. I looked again and he was gone. ???? Morris died late last year."
  I told him yes, he had seen his little Morris. His cat had come back in spirit to visit.
  There's a beautiful poem called "Rainbow Bridge," which I really love. I'm looking forward to the Rainbow Bridge when I cross over, so I can be reunited with all my beloved pets. It's always, always hard to lose one, even knowing I will see them again either here or over there. Still, it's comfort to know about the Rainbow Bridge.
  Carl mentioned he was in his office writing. He's an awesome writer! I don't usually read sci-fi, but Carl has a way of writing it that draws me in and keeps me on the edge of my seat. He's great at suspense. He's going to have a book out soon called The Wormhole Project. It's the first book of his planned trilogy, and our writer's group is already privy to the beginning of the next book, MPI, The Mineral Planet . I'll let y'all know when The Wormhole Project hits the ebook-shelves!
  Hope you are enjoying my Halloween story, Dragon's Dishonor. I'm still doing clean-up work from having my nose buried in writing for the last few months. My Yankee sister Sally and her husband Chuck are coming down for New Years. Even though they're coming to see us, not my house, I'm anal enough to want the house to look nice. Besides, it's good incentive to get a lot of things done that have been languishing. Plus, it's a cool excuse to go shopping for new stuff. J
  However, I do have a couple new stories for Volume V already started. My Muse is a demanding bastard sometimes. He won't let me alone until I at least get a few sentences down so he and I don't lose some great thoughts about a story. These are both on the dark side, and it's rather interesting to me how Mr. Muse works. I thought Dragon's Dishonor was going to be a dark story. But no matter how hard I tried, it turned out cute and uplifting. Well, I did keep the surprise ending, which no one has so far guessed. But after that, Muse turned to a couple dark paranormal incidents we needed to write. As long as I humor him, though, the stories keep flowing from my fingertips.
  Have a fantastic Halloween. We don't have many kiddos at our house. So I'm hoping to spend the evening over at my friend Angela's house, passing out candy to all the cute little Trick 'n Treaters — if she's able to navigate after her knee surgery. Knowing Angela, she will be right there, sitting on a chair and handing out goodies. She's already handling her blog from her phone, since she's recovering at her mother's and doesn't have a computer available. She's a very admirable lady. (Update: She got a laptop to use, so she's back on line in a better mode!)
  For my Wiccan friends, Happy Samhain.
  Boo!
  T. M.

Do Ghosts Go Visiting?

  Anyone who follows my blog or reads my true ghost stories already knows my answer is Yes.       In "Crossing Over" in Ghost Hunting Diary Volume I, a woman called us to look into things happening in her rental house, after she had moved to Texas from the Boston area. We found two ghosts in the house and helped both cross over. One of them, however, told us, prior to entering into The Light, that she had come to Texas along with this woman. The ghost went on to relate a story about her life a hundred years earlier, in the Boston-area house the woman's parents now occupy. After we concluded our investigation, her parents found actual proof of this ghost's life and her story. So far, that's the farthest distance a ghost I've actually met has travelled.
  Before I get into more about my title, though, I've been saving another interesting incident for my blog. We usually meet at my friend and fellow investigator Angela's house for the psychic development classes I teach on most Fridays. We initially met there a couple weeks ago, but Angela ended up having to take her daughter to the doctor. Sarah and I were the only other two class members who had made it that particular day, so we came on over to my house. We settled in the living room, on either side of the fireplace. We were again practicing meditation and soul travelling, and Sarah had continued to have a bit of a problem letting go to look around "out there." Until this class, anyway.
  What happened excited me as much as her.
  We don't communicate during the meditation/travelling, so when we concluded, I asked her, "Well? How did it go this time?"
  Instead of answering me directly, Sarah asked, "Do you have an older little lady ghost in your kitchen?"
  "As a matter of fact, I do," I said. "Did you see her?"
  "I did," she said. "I was able to at least let go and travel that far, into the next room. I saw her standing there, and I tried to touch her. But as soon as I did that, she disappeared."
  "What did she look like?" I asked, not because I didn't believe her. Sarah has been expanding her abilities very well the past few weeks. Rather, I wanted to get confirmation for both her and me as to whether she had seen one of my residents.
  "She was short and rather pudgy," Sarah said, and I nodded in agreement.
  I got up and said, "Let's go on into the kitchen."
  We did, and I asked, "Where was she?"
  "Over by your dishwasher," she said, pointing.
  "That's where she usually visualizes," I said. "But she travels around the kitchen when Sis and I are cooking or baking. She wears a full apron and has her hair in a bun."
  "Yes!" Sarah said excitedly. "And her hair is gray."
  "Yes, you saw her. There's no doubt," I concurred, and we were both really satisfied with that day's lesson.
  Back to the title question:
  Angela has been recovering from knee surgery the past week or so, and her recovery will be ongoing for quite a while. Therefore, her daughter gets to visit with Grandma, and Angela's husband took time off to help out. That leaves her resident ghost, Alan, at loose ends and without the attention he usually gets.
  "Is Alan at home?" Grandma asked when she called Angela one morning.
  "I haven't seen him for a while," Angela replied. "Why are you asking?"
  "Because I think he's over here. Someone keeps waking us up at night. They're pulling on the covers at the foot of our bed!"
  "What do you mean?"
  "Just that. I feel someone jerking on the covers down there. I wake up, but my granddaughter is sound asleep in her bed. There's no one else around, so it's got to be Alan. I thought he might be lonesome."
  "It's probably him."
  "But I just wasn't sure that ghosts were able to go visiting."
  "Oh, Alan visits all the time," Angela said. "He does go over to your house. And lately, he's been going over to Trana's pretty often."
  "Why is he going over to her house?"
  "We think that's where his girlfriend is."
  And the tales of Alan go on and on. Yes, he's been dropping by here more often lately. One day this week, I was wondering how I was going to squeeze in time to do my blog. I felt Alan here in my office, and he said: That's what I came by for, to see if you were working on it yet.
  Not yet, I told him. I don't even know what it's going to be about this week.
  Huh. I'll check back later.
  Off he went to wherever Alan hangs out. He's been around here enough to know I don't pay much mind to interruptive ghosts when I'm busy, and he knew he wouldn't get the attention he was seeking from me.
  I went over to visit Angela today, which is where I heard the Grandma story. While there, I was telling her how visible my ghostly boarders had been this past week. They get that way when Aunt Belle is coming for a visit, and I've been seeing full-bodied apparitions all week long. I rather expected this, also, due to The Veil continuing to thin as the month of October passes by.
  "Howard has been really visible," I told Angela. "I've seen him a half-dozen times this week."
  "He's been over here," she said.
  "You mean Howard's been visiting, too?" I asked, a bit astonished.
  "Uh huh," she said. "You know how we get those intuitive feelings?"
  "Yes."
  "I was having trouble wrapping my leg the other morning. Someone helped me, and I sensed it was Howard. He's the only ghost I know who has that type of knowledge."
  Since Howard was a doctor in life, I agreed with her. It was also very interesting to me to find out that Howard was roaming around like that.
  I never get bored in my haunted house. If I start feeling that way, one of my paranormal boarders will usually entertain me.
  What kept me busy this week, however, was trying to get a few of my books uploaded to Kobo, for readers to download to the Kobo e-readers. I'd previously distributed to Kobo through Smashwords, but turned out there's a recent conflict between those two e-publishers, which makes it more prudent to upload directly. Four books sat there languishing for over a week, so I was continuously checking them and exchanging emails with Kobo. Finally, the books made it onto the Kobo site and are starting to sell. Though Kobo is a Canadian company, they sell our e-books all over the world, so it's exciting watching those sales. After we got the bugs worked out, I even uploaded my new short story, Dragon's Dishonor.
  Here are the url's for the direct uploads to Kobo, although the rest of my books are still available for the Kobo e-reader through Smashwords:
Dead Man Hand: http://tiny.cc/bdp0lw
Ghost Hunting Diary Volume IV: http://tiny.cc/4lp0lw
Winter Prey: http://tiny.cc/m7d2lw
Dragon's Dishonor: http://tiny.cc/gbe2lw
Plus one romance, Town Social: http://tiny.cc/ppd1lw
  These five are also still available for Kindle and Nook, as well as other e-readers.
  I hope you are getting as excited about Halloween as I am. We're trying to plan a ghost hunt during the full moon near the end of the month. If nothing else pops up, we will go out to Dry Creek. I can't wait to see if we're able to "flashlight communicate" again.
  Boo!
  T. M.

Do Ghosts Pee?

  What a start to the day! Hub calls it Simmons/Murphy Law. Some days are just like that.
  Hub didn't sleep much, and he gave up and got up around four a.m. By six a.m., he was ready to lie back down for a nap. Of course, that woke me. I sat on the side of the bed and stuck my foot in the Crocs I use for slippers.
  "What the heck?"
  The right one was wet, a puddle of water pooled in it! I already had my foot in, so gritted my teeth and walked into the bathroom to dry off and clean the shoe out. Now, you'd think one of my animals did a bad; if they get a mad on at you, cats are known for things like this. But there was no smell, and believe me, I would have smelled cat urine — or dog urine, for that matter. No color stained the tissue I wiped my foot and the shoe out with, either, so it was clear water.
  I took care of this, then went to my office and turned on the computer. I drank my coffee as I read email and woke up — not that the cold whatever in my slipper hadn't given me a good start to waking up already. A while later, I went back into the bedroom, headed for the bathroom again. I didn't turn on the light, because hub was asleep. I tripped over one of our darned black dogs lying on the floor! (Today I bought nightlights.)
  That's not all yet. Back in my office, my elderly cat wanted up in the chair with me. She lunged … and missed, as she does sometimes now. But her claws didn't miss. They dug into my tummy, all four of them on one paw. And they are still long and sharp! Ouch!
  Go ahead and laugh. I know you want to. It's funny to me, also, on hindsight. It wasn't so funny during the pain.
  So where did the title come from? I wanted to know what was in my slipper. After hub got up again, I went back in and turned on the light. I even took the heavy-duty flashlight over to my side of the bed. There was not a sign of any water. Whatever had peed, if it was pee, or poured water, if it was water, had done it completely in my shoe, without spilling a drop.
  Maybe one of my ghosts didn't make it to the bathroom? Maybe one of my paranormal residents deliberately spilled some water to get my attention or as a joke? Your guess is as good as mine. It's been an interesting day, and that isn't all of it yet. As I sat griping to a friend in email about my horrible morning, Martha, the ghost who stays here in my office, came over. She started stroking my forehead and hair. I heard someone say, There, there, darling. That helped a lot, and the stress started alleviating immediately. That I know for certain was paranormal.
  The rest of my week was spent getting Dragon's Dishonor finished and up for sale. I love the way the story came out. I knew the beginning and the ending when the idea came to me. However, writing the rest was a lot of fun. Also, the cover Angela did is one an author would die for.
  I always try to do a short story for Halloween and Christmas, and I think y'all will like this one. Don't expect a book, though. As I say, it's a short story, about sixteen thousand words.

  It's up already up for sale at several sites:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009M5OZOG
BN: http://tiny.ccpbhqlw
SW: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/242423
  Keep an eye out for ghosts the rest of the month. The Veil gets thinner and thinner the closer we get to Halloween.
  Boo!
  T. M.