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Writers'
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Do any of tese topics intrigue you like they do me? Click the one(s) you like, and email me! KING ARTHUR STUFF
State one of the topics in the subject line of your E-mail message. Please keep responses short. I reserve the right to edit for clarity and correctness. It's the old English teacher in me. If printed, your byline and website will be posted with your article. Joan is proud to announce the publication of The Shadow of Excalibur, Book 2 in her Arthurian trilogy. Please visit her books page to see the cover image and details. Those of you familiar with Book 1, Arturo el Rey, know that this urban fantasy saga begins with the idea: "King Arthur promised to return when we need him. How bad does it have to get?"
Think green! Try ebooks and save a tree or two. But if ebooks aren't your thing, you can probably find a print version of the title you want. Choices, Choices Check out the article about
ebooks in March, 2009 issue of Page Turners. Have a spine-chilling ghost story to tell? E-mail me and get it printed here! Both the following stories came from authors who contributed chapters to my anthology, Ghostly Tales from America's Jails.
GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGED Montana Ghost
Lights Montana's territorial prison at Deer Lodge is not the state's only place where things go bump in the night. The gold rush bred a violent past and a history fraught with spectral visits and many haunted places. One grisly murder and the subsequent hanging of Peter Pelkey in Lewis and Clark County was the catalyst for the well-publicized appearance of ghost lights in the Helena Valley. The lights appeared on the ranch of Charles Tacke, Pelkey's victim. They played around Tacke's ranch every night for several weeks in the spring of 1881 following Pelkey's execution. The spectacle drew crowds who drove their buggies out to park along the road and watch. The lights appeared, moving over the fence posts and corrals and in the barn and outbuildings. They moved inside Tacke's house, flitting from room to room as if looking for something. Some believed the lights were the ghost of Tacke, watching over his property. Others thought they were the ghost of Pelkey, searching for the money Tacke reportedly had hidden away. Still others maintained, with all the interest in the new electric lighting, that ghost lights had escaped from Thomas Edison's laboratory. Whatever they were, the lights eventually faded. Father Lawrence Palladino, S.J., Peter Pelkey's confessor, wrote in the 1920s that the lights were then, and remained to that day, a mystery to him. Read more about the ghost lights
in Ellen Baumler's Beyond Spirit Tailings, available in both print and
audio book form, on website: montanahistoricalsociety.com/pub/press/newbooks.asp
While in Gettysburg, PA, I stayed alone at The Farnsworth House, a bed and breakfast famous for the number of haunting experiences. After arriving, I strongly felt a woman's presence, warm and helpful, in the room with me. I mentioned to her aloud that I will be staying in this room and that I wasn't there to wish her harm or compromise her status in any way. On the first night, I heard what sounded like children's marbles on the hardwood floor above me. The clock read 12:30 AM. Was there an actual child playing upstairs at this hour? Or was it the sound of the young boy, reported to be present? The following night, I awoke around the same time, to the sound of a cracker being eaten by the foot of the bed. Because I was tired, I returned to sleep. I then fully awoke from a dead sleep to discover someone was sitting on the bed against me. I didn't feel frightened or nervous; however, I felt very vulnerable having just awoken. This spirit's energy was the same energy as the woman's the day before. Should I turn around and look? What would I see? I turned my head and although I still felt this energy against me I saw nothing but am indentation. I thanked this spirit for allowing me to stay here and returned my head back and went back to sleep feeling relieved. (Read also her chapter about the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, PA in in Ghostly Tales from America's Jails, soon to be released.) Novel
Spin-Off - Short Story Contest Write
a short story (up to 800 words). The story must include: Finalists:
The best 5 stories will be published on my website along with the authors'
bios (further chance for readers to know you!). The link to these stories
& bios will be published for an international audience in PageTurner
newsletter, as well as other places to be determined, and authors will
be encouraged to send friends and relatives to that link. (Author photos
optional) Submission
requirements: Debating about creating a website of your own? Revamping one you already have? Joan's article published in the Jan. '06 issue of ByLine magazine, "This Little Writer Had a Website " could be quite helpful. It was later reprinted in The Scribe, a monthly magazine published by The Writers' League of Texas. To read it, click Writer..Website. Ask the Book Doctor
Joan Upton Hall30 Wildwood Dr. #21, GGeorgetown, TX 78633, or email Joan. Demystifying
Writers' Demons© Do demons bedevil your writing? Similar, confusing words? Grammar, punctuation, or capitalization rules? Freelance editor, Joan Hall, will demystify the problem (primary reference: Garner, Bryan A. Dictionary of Modern American Usage. N.Y.: Oxford University Press). Address questions and comments by email to: jmuHall@aol.com. More problems like the one above are demystified in the booklet, 50 Writers' Tips. Find a few of them at "books, etc." and click "Samples" beside the cover on website: www.JoanUptonHall.com. Send READER'S INPUT RESTORING THE PAST What's showing at a theater near you? At least in Texas, you can find a whole list of vintage Texas theaters by going to the books page. Just click the cover of Grand Old Texas Theaters That Won't Quit. Many of the theaters listed there have a website link. Joan will offer a similar service for her two recent books on old jails.
Contact Joan at: 30 Wildwood Drive #21; Georgetown,
TX 78633
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