Giveaway alert: Heather Graham will give a print copy of her new book, The Unholy, to two people who leave comments by midnight 13 June!
Today I was thinking about the Queen Mary--and our ghost expedition.
I have great friends who manage an intriguing group--The Peace River Ghost Trackers. The night came about fairly oddly since Scout and Sprout are from the western side of Florida and I'm from the eastern side.We met first in St. Augustine when we did an investigation at the Spanish Military Hospital there.
It was intriguing for me. And if you know me, the fact that I frequently write in the paranormal arena makes me quite a skeptic--I mean, seriously, I hate the shows that show you people walking in a hallway with bright lights in their eyes who suddenly shout, "What was that?" or "Oh, my God, did you hear that?"
Please, really. I want to know the history; I want to know what has happened--and then what people believe has happened. So, at the military hospital, when I was staring at the screens, I was stunned to see a growing dark shadow. I asked one of the researchers to look; was I really seeing something?
Yes, he told me. I was seeing Scott's shadow as he set up a recorder.
I love this group because they're out to find out what is physical and normal and show it--then search below for what isn't.
I happened to be in California for work when I got a call from Sprout. It was a bizarre chance, she told me, but they'd arranged for a special private investigation on the Queen Mary. It was far, far away, but was there a chance I could show up? I was able to say, bizarrely enough, I'm already in Los Angeles.
Serendipity!
So the night came. It was our wonderful security guard, Scott, Sprout, Dennis, Shayne, Chynna, Chynna's actor friend Saxon Jones, and Shayne's lovely friend Desiree--who had just thought she was coming for dinner and was therefore wearing spiked heels!
But we set off. First, it's remarkable to see the ship--she's a grand old dame. But as we moved out of the occupied lobby and to various areas--several in the bowels of the ship--she became a great deal more.
One area of interest is the swimming pool. A child supposedly died there. But there was an under-the back-stairs-across-from-the-shower/changing-area that somehow seemed most creepy to me. Desiree walked around and felt the same sense of unease. But we moved on--only to discover later that there had been a murder at the pool--and the body had been discarded under the stairs! (I admit to being pretty surprised; I'd thought it was just a closed-in feeling of discomfort!
Chynna and Saxon took a wrong turn and wound up in the section used for entertainment-style ghost tours at times. It was filled with fake bones and corpses, etc., all for the show. But as they moved deeper, she realized--hm! They were alone. In the dark. They couldn't hear anyone else--and no one knew where they were. Had they been in the plot of a horror movie, they'd have definitely been toast! They were doing exactly what an audience would be screaming was stupid to do--since obviously, in a horror movie, that was when and where the first hapless, foolish couple got it!
The infirmary was heart-breaking. So many had died. There was a list of those who had perished of natural and other causes on the ship; surgeons' tools and an autopsy kit were on display. A man had been mortally injured by one of the water-proof doors in the hold--and died there in the infirmary. Illness had claimed many others.
At the end of our adventure, we all went to lie around and talk in the cabin we had taken--one reported to have a great deal of activity. Two of the meters had just been tossed on the bed. While three of us were stretched out here, discussing what we had seen and heard, the meters began to go crazy. We thought about electricity and cell phones, we moved everything. The meter still went up and down--and it seemed that they responded to questions.
Did they? I don't really know. But I did love the adventure aboard the Queen Mary!
Heather Graham has an author page at: http://www.romancebooksrus.com. Stop by and view her page!
BIO:
Heather Graham (Pozzessere) spent several years after that working in dinner theater, singing backup vocals, and bartending. After the birth of her third child, Pozzessere decided she couldn't afford to go to work anymore. She chose to stay at home, and, to fill her time, began to write horror stories and romances. In 1982, she sold her first novel, When Next We Love.
In the years since then, she's written over one hundred novels and novellas. These novels run the gamut of the romance genre, from historical fiction to category, from romantic suspense to time travel, and from vampire fiction to Christmas stories. She has been the launch author for Dell's Ecstasy Supreme line, Silhouette's Shadows line, and for Harlequin's mainstream brand, Mira Books. Her books have been published in twenty-plus languages.
Romance Writers of America presented her with the 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award, and has received the Thriller Writer's Silver Bullet for charitable enterprises.
Since 1999, she's hosted the annual Romantic Times Vampire Ball for charity. In 2006, she hosted the first Writers for New Orleans on Labor Day, with workshops and a dinner theater event to benefit the city and the libraries. Labor Day of 2007 made it an annual event. She is the founder of the Slushpile players and Slushpile band, entertaining with theatrical and musical performances with fellow authors including F. Paul Wilson, Harley Jane Kozak, Alexandra Sokoloff, Beth Ciotta, and Mary Stella as well her children and family members.
BLURB: The Unholy (Krewe of Hunters Trilogy)
A Hollywood shrine hides unholy deeds
The 1940s: Hard-boiled detectives and femmes fatale are box-office
gold. In one iconic scene, set in a deserted museum, the private eye
arrives too late, and the buxom beauty is throttled by an ominous
Egyptian priest.
Now: The Black Box Cinema
immortalizes Hollywood's Golden Age in its gallery of film noir
tributes. But the mannequin of that Egyptian priest is hardly
lifeless. He walks-and a young starlet dies a terrifying death.
Movie mogul Eddie Archer's son is
charged with the grisly murder. Eddie calls agent Sean Cameron, who
specializes in...irregular investigations. As part of an FBI
paranormal forensics team, Cameron knows that nightmares aren't limited
to the silver screen.
Working with special-effects artist
Madison Darvil-who has her own otherworldly gifts-Cameron delves into
the malevolent force animating more than one movie monster....
Available for pre-order: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0778313492/booktalkA/
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