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I began writing years ago and most of the books I am publishing now I actually finished writing more than two years ago.  It takes a while for books to make it through the publication process.  It is therefore a strange coincidence that the release dates for my books seem to mirror my favorite television show.  This, of course, fills me with giddy glee.

American Horror Story is my favorite show and has been since I saw the very episode.  I make no secret of this.  The first season of American Horror Story was set in a haunted house in California that was known as Murder House.  It followed one family’s daunting experiences in this twisted house.  It also tells the diabolical history that lives in the shadows of this chilling house.  Ghosts of the wicked dance across the screen and made this season of American Horror Story utterly unique.  That same year I released my second Haunted book, Haunted Chattanooga, in it I go over the dark and terrifying haunted locations in Chattanooga.

The second season of American Horror Story was called Asylum.  This season was even more twisted than the first and all you could do was watch in horror as the history of  an evil asylum opens up before you. That year my novel, Circe, was released and it chronicled the haunted and twisted history of Searcy State hospital in South Alabama. 

This year American Horror Story delves into witchcraft with its third season, Coven.  The wicked witches in this season summon the dead, murder each other, and bury my favorite serial killer alive.  It is magnificent.  This fall, my latest novel is The Accidental Witch, which chronicles a clinical psychologists descent into a world of dark magic and sex after she receives a strange spell book in the mail, was released.

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I found this story in an old book.  The book, Ghosts in American Houses, was published in1955 and given to my grandmother in 1965.  Although this is a fascinating story, the only evidence of anyone mentioned in the story I could find outside of the story  itself was in old genealogical records.  I couldn’t find any information on the famous, cursed house.

According to the story,  Phillip Noland who lived in Loudoun County, Virginia in1750 and acquired a track of beautiful land.  Noland was a rich planter whom had married into great wealth.  Noland had a grand vision of building the most extravagant house in the South.  He saw his verdant land as the perfect setting for his dream home and began construction on it.  The house would be four stories of red brick and would possess every luxury a house of this scale could possess.  It would even have a ballroom.  The house was so beautiful, that early in construction it entranced General Anthony Wayne.   Wayne and Noland became friends and Wayne followed the progress of the construction of the house with great interest. 

Years passed, and the house seemed to grow no closer to completion.   In fact, it just seemed to drain the once wealthy Noland’s financial resources.  Noland’s own money dwindled and then the extravagant inheritance his wife left him dwindled until the only thing Noland had left in the world was the house that seemed impossible to complete.  Many thought the house was shrouded in some kind of curse because no amount of work or money ever brought the house closer to completion.  There was a Hessian prisoner camp near by the house and when several of the Hessians escaped, the were shot dead after being chased into the house.   It was said that these men left behind their ghosts in the house.  Their ghosts rattled around inside the unfinishable house torturing Noland to his dying day.  When finally Noland died, his ghost added to the general cacophony inside the house until Wayne died and joined them.

According to the author, the house was still unfinished when he wrote his book on haunted houses in the early 1950s.  It lay in disrepair.  Its ballrooms still laid exposed to the weather and the entrance hall, that was once lit by a glass fan, was still only partially done, waiting for the ghosts inside it to finish it.

Reposted from Ghost Hunters of Urban Los Angeles | Go to Original Post

GHOULA meets for cocktails in haunted places on the 13th of each month. “SPIRITS with SPIRITS” is a casual social gathering of regional ghost hunters and those that just like ghost stories. Open to all, from the curious skeptic to the passionate phantom pursuer. Make friends, and toast a ghost! Let’s put the “Boo!” back into “booze.”

All those who attend will receive a free (square) G.H.O.U.L.A. button. If you already have one, please wear it so others can find you, without asking the staff about our group. (i.e. LOOK FOR SOMEONE WITH A GHOULA BUTTON)

THE DATE: December 13th, 2013 (Friday the 13th)
THE PLACE: El Carmen
8138 W 3rd St, Los Angeles (Map)
THE TIME: 8:00pm to the Witching Hour

NOTE: This will not only be the last SPIRITS with SPIRITS of 2013, it will also be the last one for a while. GHOULA will be taking a break from this monthly ritual, so that we can focus on other events in the coming year. Rest assured though, we do plan on bringing SPIRITS with SPIRITS back in the future since there are still so many haunted bars/restaurants we haven’t done yet.

THE GHOST(S):

“What can a woman do after her husband loses an election for President of Mexico, is executed because of political upheaval, and she is exiled from her country? If you are Encarnacion Gomez in 1929, you move to Los Angeles and open El Carmen Restaurant, using family recipes.”
— The Los Angeles Times

El Carmen has a few notable distinctions aside from the grammatical error in its name (which should be “La Carmen”), and its reputation as Diego Riviera’s favorite local eatery…

El Carmen most likely invented the Mexican restaurant staple, the “Combination Plate,” when they offered what was called at the time, the “Mexican Blue Plate Special,” where patrons could mix-and-match smaller portions of any three dishes at a bargain price. They created a “build your own Taco” concept, where lettuce, tomato, cheese, and salsa were served separately, so the patron could put on as much, or as little, as they liked. Also, they were the first to mysteriously top their tostadas with French dressing.

At one time, the menus of this local hang-out boasted it was the “oldest Mexican restaurant in Hollywood.” Although we can quibble about whether its location is actually in “Hollywood” (which has no official boundaries), there is no debating that it is one of the oldest Mexican restaurants in Los Angeles (84 years old). When lines began forming (around the block) at their first location at the intersection of 3rd and La Brea in the 1950′s, they moved to their current location on Beverly Blvd. Today, that building has been divided with a wall, and El Carmen occupies part of the original dinning room (with a new entrance).

Around the turn of the last century, this simple taqueria became a world-class “tequilaria” (with hundreds of tequilas to choose from), and more notably it adopted a Mexican masked-wrestling theme. For those unfamiliar with the pop-culture surrounding this national sport, tons of (now cult) movies were built around the superhero-like identities of these masked wrestlers, pitting them against supernatural forces (aliens, monsters, vampires, etc.). But no matter what chaos threatened the world in these quirky films, there was always time for a musical number and a cocktail in a swanky night club.

Is it any wonder, that a bar that pays homage to these larger than life figures would also have a supernatural connection? El Carmen is said to be haunted by a ghost, who moves objects, either making things seemingly appear or disappear, or turning electrical objects on or off. Although this sneaky spirit has never been (visibly) caught in the act, it is believed that this invisible force is El Carmen’s founder, Encarnacion Gomez, popping in on occasion to check on things.

So, come out to Hollywood’s oldest Mexican restaurant, and have a cocktail while the ghosts roam (or the vampires, or the werewolves, or robots, etc.)… if you dare!

(for more info about this ghost, check out “Gourmet Ghosts” by James Bartlett…)

(to read about last month’s haunted location… )
(to see a map of previous SPIRITS with SPIRITS locations… )

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My new book, The Accidental Witch, is going on tour today.  To celebrate, I am doing an extra give away here.  All you have to do is comment below saying that you will rate my book on Amazon and/or Goodreads and I will send 3 commenters a free copy of my book and a $10 giftcard!  Good Luck!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/93700f1/” rel=”nofollow”>a Rafflecopter giveaway

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In a write up Haunted American Tours did on the Louvre they wrote, “Many believe that thousands of lost and crazed starving and tortured souls still walk the many gallery’s, looking for a way out.”   After spending one long day trying desperately to see the Louvre in it’s entirety I would say the lost, crazed, starving souls described here must have included me.  It took me almost an hour to find where to eat and I couldn’t find my way out of the Egyptian section.

Although the Haunted American Tours write up on the Louvre says that the entire museum is crawling with ghosts,  I only found one placard in the museum commenting on ghosts.  This placard was located in the lonely medieval section of the Louvre.  There are sections of this gargantuan museum that are so crowded, even in the off season, you can barely breath, but the medieval section or donjon of the Louvre is quiet, almost forgotten.   It is beneath the rest of the museum, hiding in it’s shadows.  There is no art in the donjon only the long buried history of the museum itself.

The first Louvre was a fortress built at the beginning of the 13th century by Philip II Augustus to defend the Seine below Paris against the Normans and English. It consisted of a thick cylindrical donjon (dungeon) surrounded by towered walls. This château, enlarged and embellished by Charles V in the 14th century, was sacrificed in the 16th century at the end of the reign of Francis I in order to make room for a new Renaissance structure of the same size. Only the west wing and part of the south wing of the projected palace, conceived by the architect Pierre Lescot and decorated with sculptures by Jean Goujon, were finished.

It is in the old donjon that there is a placard that clearly states that there are ghosts in the Louvre.  It tells about the multiple visitors and employees who have encountered ghosts in this once battle torn portion of the old museum. The placard explains that the donjon walls stood against the English and the Normans and saw battles on many occasions so the ghosts could be the ghosts of fallen soldiers or even those imprisoned in the old fortress walls.  Whoever the ghosts are,  it is clear that the older portions of the Louvre are haunted and if you are quiet you can almost hear them.  I think I even see a small orb at the top of a picture I took while I was visiting this haunted location.  It is in the picture at the top of this story.

Reposted from Ghost Hunters of Urban Los Angeles | Go to Original Post

GHOULA meets for cocktails in haunted places on the 13th of each month. “SPIRITS with SPIRITS” is a casual social gathering of regional ghost hunters and those that just like ghost stories. Open to all, from the curious skeptic to the passionate phantom pursuer. Make friends, and toast a ghost! Let’s put the “Boo!” back into “booze.”

All those who attend will receive a free (square) G.H.O.U.L.A. button. If you already have one, please wear it so others can find you, without asking the staff about our group. (i.e. LOOK FOR SOMEONE WITH A GHOULA BUTTON)

THE DATE: November 13th, 2013 (Wednesday)
THE PLACE: El Cid

4212 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles
(Map)
THE TIME: 8:00pm – 10:00pm

NOTE: This may be the penultimate “SPIRITS with SPIRITS.”

THE GHOSTS:

“…No logic. No reason. No explanation. Just a prolonged nightmare, in which fear, loneliness, and the unexplainable walk hand in hand through the shadows…” —excerpt from Rod Serling’s intro to “Five Characters in Search of an Exits” (Twilight Zone episode)

In the 1920′s, there was a popular prison-themed restaurant in Hollywood, where the waiters dressed like guards. When it closed, the space was converted into a theater. It was on this spot Ed Wood worked as an actor (and was paid in beer) before he directed “Plan 9″ (the worst movie of all time). By 1963, some young people took over the then run-down theater in the canyon below Sunset Boulevard, and forever changed the cultural landscape of Hollywood.

Fiery flamenco-enthusiast Maragrita Cordova and her singer/guitarist husband, Clark Allen, with help from fellow dancers Marta Amaya and Armando Media, and very little money created a home for Flamenco dancing and Spanish (not Mexican) cuisine and culture when they opened “El Cid.” It was named after a popular movie of the day, but more specifically it was chosen because of its limited number of letters (less letters meant a cheaper sign out front). Money was so tight in the early years, on rainy nights, patrons were given umbrellas because of the building’s many leaks. But what their approach to Dinner Theater lacked in frills, they made up for with their spunk and some potent wine concoctions named after Spanish dances.

60 years later, El Cid still stands below Sunset Blvd, and Flamenco is still performed there (on weekends), and perhaps one of the troupes original members still lingers on that historic stage…

Staff claims that when the theater is empty, and during the day, they will hear the phantom strumming sounds of guitar music, as if an invisible guitarist were practicing on the vacant stage. The ghostly musical notes are generally attributed to the spirit of Clark Allen, one of the founders of El Cid, who passed away in 2008.

Interestingly, in addition to his possible ghost haunting this building, Clark Allen has achieved immortality in a different way with legions of Sci-Fi fans for his role as the eerie bagpiper in a Twilight Zone episode entitled “Five Characters in Search of an Exit.” He played a musician stuck between ethereal planes in a netherworld. Could life (or rather the after-life) be imitating art?

Then again, maybe the ghostly guitarist is one of the many other musicians that have come through this space.

So, come out and enjoy one of this city’s most unique restaurants, have a drink, and listen for the macabre melodies of a former guitarist… if you dare!

(to read about last month’s haunted location… )
(to see a map of previous SPIRITS with SPIRITS locations… )

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The Moody Brick is an old plantation house in rural Alabama.  Its bricks positively drip with ghost stories and old legends.  The ghost stories there are so thick you’d have to shovel them away to see past them.   According to local legend, the original owners of The Moody Brick weren’t a very kind lot.   In fact, they were known for their cruelty.  They enjoyed torturing their slaves and their cruelty was so profound that it drew the attention of others.   The slaves there knew little peace until the Emmancipation Proclamation.   Although the proclamation freed them, in the South they were still slaves.  However, they were doe and it is said that they rose up in the middle of the night and killed their masters in their beds.   After, they fled into the night. 

The locals couldn’t tolerate this act, however, and they hunted the slaves down and killed them all.  They hung them from an oak tree in the front yard.  This is all according to local legend and this legend also describes the ghosts of the slaves and their masters wandering the grounds of the Moody Brick looking for solace.  The factual history of  The Moody Brick isn’t much more pleasant.  During the civil war, the building was taken by Union forces and used as a hospital.  The countless Union soldiers that died there are buried on the property.  The building has burned down and been rebuilt.  It has seen suicides and lynchings.  It sat empty and has now been redone and rumored to be filled with old ghosts and lost spirits.  Whether or not this is true, The Moody Brick intrigued me enough to set my novel, The Accidental Witch, in it’s old bricks.  I renamed it, but the place is almost the same.

The Accidental Witch cam out this week. 

GET IT ONLINE:
Kindle US http://www.amazon.com/The-Accidental-Witch-Jessica-Penot-ebook/dp/B00GG83WLE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1383666477&sr=8-3&keywords=the+accidental+witch

Bookstrand http://www.bookstrand.com/the-accidental-witch

All Romance eBook https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-theaccidentalwitch-1337231-140.html

OmniLit https://www.omnilit.com/product-theaccidentalwitch-1337231-140.html

Kindle UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Accidental-Witch-Jessica-Penot-ebook/dp/B00GG83WLE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383666722&sr=8-1&keywords=the+accidental+witch

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My new book, The Accidental Witch, was released today!  Yay!  Here is a little bit about this haunting book, set in a house based on my favorite haunted plantation, The Moody Brick.

Phaedra Michaels is a small town psychologist who is beginning to lose hope. Two of her patients at the local hospital in Dismal, Alabama have just killed themselves, she’s still reeling from her divorce and what turned out to be a disastrous marriage, and her father has died, leaving her without any notion of who her real mother is.

Just as Phaedra decides to commit herself to a serious drinking problem and an eating disorder, or two, a mysterious spell book arrives in the mail. Feeling desperate, Phaedra uses it to cast spells to save her fading patients. Suddenly, good things start happening.  Phaedra’s patients begin to get better and she even starts dating the sexy doctor from the hospital.

Phaedra is so happy she doesn’t notice the small things that start to go wrong in Dismal, or the dark creatures slithering out of the shadows near her house. When Phaedra finally realizes her spells have attracted every card-carrying demon from hell, she has no choice but to accept help from a slightly nerdy, 500 year-old warlock with a penchant for wearing super hero T-shirts and a knack for getting under Phaedra’s skin. Now, if only she could get the hang of this witch thing, she might be able to save her town.  

Click Here to Buy Now:    http://www.amazon.com/The-Accidental-Witch-Jessica-Penot-ebook/dp/B00GG83WLE/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1383674726&sr=8-5&keywords=Jessica+Penot 

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 As you might guess, there
are no shortage of hauntings reported in each of the five boroughs. Some ghosts
date back as far as the Revolutionary War, others are a product of more recent,
grisly deaths. Here’s our pick for 13 New York City haunts where New Yorkers,
dead and alive, still roam.

One – Algonquin Hotel

Two – The Dakota

Three – Morris-Jumel Mansion

Four – White Horse Tavern

Six – The “House of Death” at 14 West 10^th Street

Seven – Melrose Hall

Eight – Seaview Hospital and the New York Farm Colony

Nine: Brooklyn Public Library

Ten – Belasco Theater

Eleven – The Octagon

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Here is a look at my new book!


http://lachesispublishing.com/proddetail.asp?prod=TheAccidentalWitchE