Janice Seagraves's Haunted House

Hi, my name is Janice Seagraves. 

A lot of people read have ask me, “Is your house really haunted?”

The old house we used to live in seemed that way to me.

Since my husband and I first moved into the old house twenty-eight years ago, I’ve heard a little girl crying when I washed my hands in the bathroom. Which in itself isn’t anything unusual, however we live two miles out of town in the middle of what had been a grape vineyard but is now an almond orchard, and we have no close neighbors. I’ve lived here for twenty-five years and heard the same child sobbing. Reason would dictate that if this was a child, she would be grown up by now.

Once when my daughter was still a newborn baby, she started to cry. I was sitting next to my husband, watching TV. I sighed and started to get up, when I heard a woman’s voice saying very clearly, “Hush, baby.” I ran into the bedroom, and my husband ran outside. When I turned on the light, my baby was asleep, and no one was there. My husband came back inside and told me no one was outside. 

While my daughter was a baby she would sleep with us, I would feel the bed dip like someone was sitting down. I’d open my eyes to see if my husband was putting on his shoes, but my daughter and I were alone.

Over the years I, my husband and my daughter have seen a little girl ghost at different times and places in the house. One time while my daughter was sleeping with me, she screamed in the middle of the night. I jerked awake and turned over to check on her--that’s when I saw the little girl ghost sitting on my bed on the far side of my daughter, staring at me. Then she faded away.

When my daughter was little about three or so, she had an invisible friend named Jenifer or Jenny, which I later realized was our resident ghost girl.

Once or twice I’ve heard a scary voice saying my name and a chill would wash down my back. Thank goodness I haven’t had that after since our move. *shiver*

I’ve been woken up by the sound of my bedroom door being opened and when I wake up, it was closed. 

We’ve seen orbs. Mostly green ones and blue ones. I saw one in the bathroom and followed it in my daughter’s room, where it landed on the foot of her bed and disappeared. 

I have taken a few orb photos with our black kitty we used to have, and I have an earlier photo with a white something that went through my husband’s mouth. These photos were taken with two different cameras; one digital and one a 35 mm.

When my husband worked nights, sometimes I would see something under the fitted sheet moving back and forth. I thought maybe a mouse got into the mattress. My husband and I flipped the mattress over and I couldn’t find any mouse holes, so I have no idea what that was.

One morning, I was woken up by a child singing the song called the Lilac Tree. Both my husband and daughter were in the living room watching Saturday morning cartoons. And nothing they watched had a child singing.

I’ve been woken up by the smell of Brownies baking and thought my daughter was baking. When I went into the kitchen and no one was cooking. Boy was I disappointed.

One time when I overslept, I heard someone walking around my bed, saying, “Come on, honey, it’s time to get up.” When I sat up, no one was there.

My daughter told me one of her friends that spend the night had heard the bathroom door creak open and the sound of whispering. The friend asked my daughter if her parents were up. My daughter said no, and then they both went and checked the bathroom. No one was there.

My husband and I both heard the whispering voices before, right when we got home from shopping. We quickly open the front door to the house, flinging it open but the noises stopped, and no one was there. 

Just before we moved from that old house, I just laid down to go to sleep, I felt someone tuck in the tag on my pajama top. My bedroom door was closed, and hubby was working the graveyard shift and my daughter was staying the night at a friend’s house. 

I was alone. 

Or was I?

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Janice’s website: http://janice-seagraves.org/

Janice’s on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Janice-Seagraves/e/B0056D223Y/

https://www.amazon.com/Year-Cat-Janice-Seagraves-ebook/dp/B0748CP9JH/

Blurb:

Morgan isn’t expecting romance when she accompanies her friend for a week of skiing, but when she meets Jared all bets are off.

Jared has secrets that he doesn’t mind sharing with a special lady, and he hopes Morgan is that special someone. When his past and present collide it’s worse than he imagined, and he’s forced to fight for his life.

Excerpt:
“Morgan, open up.” The woman pounded on the door again.
Unlocking the door, Morgan stepped back so her mother could enter. “Mom, this is Jared. The man I’ve been seeing. Jared this is my mom, Alice Brookhaven.”
“Good day, Mrs. Brookhaven.” He held out his hand.
Instead of shaking his hand, she scanned him up and down. “No belt or tie.”
“Hardly anyone wears a belt and tie anymore.” Morgan snorted.
“What’s with his hair?” Alice stared. “Did you dye it that color?”
He ran his hand over his mane. “This is natural.”
“Orange?”
Morgan frowned at her mother. “It’s a type of red, Mom. Lots of Scotts are redheaded.”
Alice gave her a sharp look before turning back to Jared. “Did one of your parents have hair that color?”
“I donna remember.” His heart twisted at the thought of his parents.
“Are you an orphan?”
“Aye.” As the deep emptiness filled him, he slumped against the wall staring down. “That I am. I have not even a photo of me mum and da to know which of them had red hair.”
“Oh, sorry to hear that.” Mrs. Brookhaven stared at his bare feet then checked her daughter’s, too. “Were you both naked when I called?”
“Huh?” Surprised at the accuracy of her guess, he baulked. He didn’t want to tread on dangerous ground with this woman. Jared glanced at Morgan for assistance.
Morgan threw her hands in the air. “Oh, Mom, you didn’t give us much notice.”

 https://www.amazon.com/Year-Cat-Janice-Seagraves-ebook/dp/B0748CP9JH/

Romantic Suspense Author Kris Bock In Defense of Too Stupid to Live #RB4U

Romantic Suspense Author Kris Bock In Defense of “Too Stupid to Live”

Readers complain about characters – almost always female – who are TSTL: “too stupid to live.” Writers dread the accusation but also want to tell an exciting story, and excitement doesn’t come from a character who stays inside with the doors locked and calls the police at the slightest hint of danger. But how do you define stupidity in character behavior? When is a bit of carelessness, inattention, or reckless courage all right, and when is it going to cause people to roll their eyes or throw the book across the room?

I think this is actually a much more complex question than many people realize. A lot depends on personal history, personality, and even region. In my small New Mexico town, I don’t hesitate to go walking or jogging alone after dark. I have never once been harassed in this community. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but I’d worry more about drunk drivers and aggressive dogs on the loose than muggers or rapists. Yet I have lived in other communities where it would be considered “stupid” for a woman to go out alone after dark. (I’m not claiming I’ve never done it though.)

The issue has real-life relevance as well, in victim blaming – the tendency to assume that a crime victim has some responsibility for being foolish enough to get into a situation that led to the crime. That is usually untrue and always unfair, but it can make others feel safer because they wouldn’t be that foolish.

Heroic Stupidity

I also think it’s unfair that behavior which would be considered heroic in a man would be considered stupid in a woman. A man who hears a noise outside his house and goes out alone to investigate would often be called brave for protecting his family. A woman who does the same thing is called stupid.

Granted a man might be stronger or a better fighter than a woman, but it’s not a given. For either one, the behavior could be rational or stupid depending on whether they have a legitimate reason to suppose that the noise is coming from a stray cat or from a killer. In real life, many of us would assume the former, and we’d be embarrassed to call the cops to chase away a stray cat. But in books we know to suspect the worst, which means characters look stupider when they don’t expect horrible things. (Personally, I’m more likely to roll my eyes at a CIA agent who misses an obvious plot twist than an average person who doesn’t expect danger.)

In my romantic suspense Whispers in the Dark, my heroine recently suffered from an attack. She is not by nature fearful, but this has left her struggling to recognize when panic is legitimate and when it’s something to control. A couple of readers accused her of the dreaded TSTL behavior, though I’m not sure if they’re referring to the times when she controls her panic and keeps going, or when it overcomes her and she flees. In some cases, running away blindly is more dangerous.

Ironically, other readers have said that character rings true, because, in essence “she thinks just like I do.” She’s not a kick-ass action heroine. She’s an ordinary woman who finds herself in an unexpected adventure. She has a hard time believing she’s really in danger, or figuring out which direction it’s coming from.

How People Really Behave

In my romantic mystery What We Found, the heroine is walking in the woods with a man – someone she knew slightly in high school but doesn’t know well now – when they stumble upon a dead body. She assumes they’ll call the police, but he insists they don’t. He takes her phone away and threatens to get her boss (his father) to fire her if she reports this. His behavior throws her so much after the shock of finding a body that she doesn’t know what to do. She delays doing anything, and then a few hours later fakes finding the body for the first time on her own.

Many readers sympathized and even identified with this character. But one reader (a man, perhaps not coincidentally) left a review railing against her choices, because in his mind, if something like this happened, you call the police. You just do, no question. (Curiously, he blamed her, not the man who insisted she didn’t call.)

However, this book was actually inspired by a real experience where friends and I found the body of a murder victim. Of course we reported it, but someone high up in law enforcement mentioned that often people do not report crimes like this. That got me wondering why … all the reasons people might think it’s safer to ignore a crime than report it … and What We Found came out of that. So whether the character’s behavior was “stupid,” it was not unrealistic – it was more real than that one reader wanted to believe.

In real life, are we always smart? How many times have you regretted a choice? How many times do you see your friends making the same stupid choices over and over, even though you, as an outsider, are convinced they should do something different? Is it fair to have higher standards for fictional characters? Perhaps it is, if we expect books to be better than real life. Besides, experienced readers can see things coming in books in a way they can’t in real life, so authors have to work harder to surprise readers. But it seems that not everyone agrees on what behavior is TSTL.

Chances are most of us do “stupid” things frequently and get away with it. Fortunately, we don’t always get what we deserve!

Kris Bock writes novels of suspense and romance involving outdoor adventures and Southwestern landscapes. In Counterfeits, stolen Rembrandt paintings bring danger to a small New Mexico town. Whispers in the Dark features archaeology and intrigue among ancient Southwest ruins. What We Found is a mystery with strong romantic elements about a young woman who finds a murder victim in the woods. The Mad Monk’s Treasure follows the hunt for a long-lost treasure in the New Mexico desert. In The Dead Man’s Treasure, estranged relatives compete to reach a buried treasure by following a series of complex clues. Read excerpts at www.krisbock.com or visit her Amazon page. Sign up for Kris Bock newsletter for announcements of new books, sales, and more.