New Mystery with Lizzie Borden's Doctor! Pre-Order!

Yay! My new supernatural-flavored mystery,

The Haunting of Dr. Bowen, A Mystery in Lizzie Borden's Fall River

is now up for Pre-order! (Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and Print)

(click for full image)

It will release on August 4th - the 125th anniversary of the Borden murders!

It is a tie-in story to the infamous Borden murders featured in my first book, Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter.  No zombies in the new book, though! 

I started wondering, how would some of the people who came on the scene, like Lizzie's family doctor and neighbor Dr. Bowen, be impacted by the horrific murders? 

Was there something in Fall River that would prompt such actions? 

Was the town, or the doctor himself, being haunted by the past? 

Read to find out!

Praise for The Haunting of Dr. Bowen, A Mystery in Lizzie Borden's Fall River 

“Dr. Bowen's tale is a mystery wrapped in a love story and sprinkled with historical tidbits. A pleasure to read.” —Jean Rabe, USA Today bestselling author

“ C.A. Verstraete has an unstoppable imagination and she does one thing I admire the most. Research. This is not a long book, it's not a difficult read, but it's written in such a way that it absorbs its reader into the turmoil that is Dr Bowen's mind. The imagery in this book is brilliant, and… creepy!” —Rebbie Reviews

“History, mystery, and a whole lot of blood. C.A. Verstraete starts with Lizzie Borden

 and spins a yarn that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat.” —Joanna Campbell Slan, author of the Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series

Dying For Some Spirit

Hi all!  Please welcome today's guest author, TJ O'Connor, author of Dying to Know, Dying for the Past, and Dying to Tell. Take it away, TJ! 

 

Do I believe in ghosts? That’s a question many of my fans ask me (well, a few), and the truth is, even after writing four paranormal mysteries, I’m not sure. My profession is terrorism—not as a terrorist mind you, but a consultant—so hunting for facts and evidence is part of my work. After Dying to Know—my first paranormal mystery—was finished, I went in search of spirits.

I’ve always believed in the possibility of such things. Just like I believe in the possibility of extraterrestrials, sea monsters, and a functional government. Okay, so the first two are more probable. After starting my mystery series—the stories of a murdered detective who returns to solve murders—I decided to find out what the ghost-hunting craze was about.

Through life, I’d had my share of weird wooo-wooo moments. As a child, I lived in an upstate New York scouting camp. The first house we lived in terrified me. My brother and I spent sleepless nights hiding beneath our covers when something stomped around the attic and opened and slammed the attic door leading to our room. There was the never-ending attic light battle, too. After moving across the street, my father would send me across to that attic many nights to shut off the light. I’d swallow hard, run like hell up three flights of stairs, yank the light cord, and dash my escape. Most often, by the time I returned, the light was back on. My father, the kind and loving man that he wasn’t, was not amused.

For my wife’s birthday in March, 2011, I led a band of intrepid ghost-enthusiasts—including my family—to the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia. It was built in the mid-1800s and had been the home of thousands of mentally ill patients—ghost-experts say many remain. The asylum has been featured on every ghost-chasing show on the planet.

Off we went—in the dead of the winter (sorry), in the West Virginia mountains, in a four-story stone, unheated asylum. Whose idea was that?

We made our four-hour journey by caravan. But, during the trek, my son had paranormal encounters at Burger King, the men’s room, and the back seat of the car. He saw apparitions, moving objects, and heard threatening voices. All before we arrived at the asylum.

For eight hours, we trudged through the old asylum—video recorders, voice recorders, K-2 meters, EMF gadgets … everything but portable heat. It was 12 degrees and the wind whipped through the old 19^th Century tomb with hurricane force. If spirits were about, they earned the right to stay.

Before the sun came up, we’d found a ball that moved around a child’s play room, a kitchen with whispering voices, and foggy images and disembodied sounds on our recorders. I’d also found that I was almost alone. Half my adventurous crew retreated to the comfort of my Jeep’s heater and coffee.

Alas, you can’t find good spook-investigators anymore.

In the end, it was a wonderful trip. Everyone had experiences that made them chatter all the way home. My son, having been visited by the ghost of Burger-King’s-past had the most—shocker.

Ghost hunting is all in the spirit of things (again, sorry). If you believe, you shall find. If you’re unsure, you will find reason to consider possibilities. If you’re a non-believer, like my brother-in-law, you’ll spend the night grousing and come home only cold and tired.
 
What we experienced was a great birthday for my wife. I doubt any spirits followed us home, but after the trip, I believed a little more. I also developed a key character in Dying for the Past—my first sequel—a ghost-chasing private detective.

Mission accomplished.

For all you ghost-enthusiasts, hunt on. My mind still isn’t made up, but I continue to believe in the possibility. And for those who refuse that notion that the dead can’t come back and haunt us, just look at Capitol Hill—the truth is there.

How about the rest of you?  Do you have any ghost stories to share?

 

Tj O’CONNOR IS THE AUTHOR OF DYING FOR THE PAST and DYING TO KNOW, available in books stores and e-books from Midnight Ink. His third paranormal mystery, DYING TO TELL, will be released January 2016. He is currently working on a traditional mystery and a new thriller. Tj is an international security consultant specializing in anti-terrorism, investigations, and threat analysis—life experiences that drive his novels. With his former life as a government agent and years as a consultant, he has lived and worked around the world in places like Greece, Turkey, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and throughout the Americas—among others. He was raised in New York's Hudson Valley and lives with his wife and Lab companions in Virginia where they raised five children. Dying for the Past and Dying To Know are the first of eight novels to be published.  Learn more about Tj’s world at www.tjoconnor.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TjOConnor.Author

 

A Ghostly Collection at the Library of Congress

Collecting is a hobby that many of us enjoy, and amassing articles seems harmless enough...unless they happen to be haunted.

Unidentified Union Soldier, between 1861 and 1865.

The Library of Congress houses just such a grouping, the Liljenquist Collection of Civil War photography of soldiers in ambrotypes and tintypes. How compelling is the evidence that this collection came with ghosts? One of the scientists who does a variety of restoration work for the library refuses to be alone in the same room with the collection.

In fact, the people who processed this collection, when it was presented to LOC in 2010, KNOW that those images come with ghosts attached. The staff has talked among themselves about the interesting "happenings" in  the Conservation Division while the exhibit was being prepared -- photos cleaned, mounted, etc.

Furthermore, when 13-year-old Christian Liljenquist presented the family collection to the LOC, he referenced the strange sound of footsteps that accompanied the photos. When the Liljenquist family left the photos behind and friends occupied the Liljenquist home, the friends heard footsteps. When the photos accompanied the Liljenquists, the footsteps were heard in the Liljenquists' new home. In fact, you can hear Christian talk about the ghosts in this YouTube segment:

.http://www.ghosthuntingtheories.com/2009/04/object-attachment.html

You can learn more about the Liljenquist family and their remarkable collection here: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/633_lilj_measure.html

A little research on the Internet pulled up several references to ghosts attaching themselves to articles. Here's one of the more interesting: http://www.llewellyn.com/journal/print.php?id=2227

The more I think about this, the less surprising this is. I have a wonderful old quilt that I found in my grandmother's trunk. Whenever I feel particularly low, I wrap up in it. Somehow it soothes me. And all of us crafters know that every item we make, we imbue with love. So, aren't we imparting a bit of our own spirits? I think so.

Still...it does make me wonder...the next time I'm tempted to add to my collection of old baskets...I'll certainly think twice!

The Writing Life

Jess Lourey, Jan Dunlap and I made an appearance at the Normandale Community College in Bloomington (Minnesota) today. We sat at a table and rambled on about why we write mysteries, how we came up with our sleuths, the methods we use in plotting, and whether or not our characters resemble people we know. Attendance was a bit sparse -- community college students are more about books needed to pass courses than reading for recreation. Still, some good questions were asked, and each of us signed a few books. What I liked about the event was how we played off each other. One would say something that triggered a good thought in another. It was much better that there were three of us than if any of us had appeared alone. That doesn’t always happen, but it’s great when it does. I’d like to do something with the two of them again sometime.

One of the subjects was how writers today have to be two people. One is an introvert, able (sometimes driven) to work alone, with only a looming deadline for encouragement. The other is a gregarious and amusing extrovert, given to clever remarks and interesting conversation while on a book tour. Publishers today tend to focus on the big sellers and even mid-list authors are forced to arrange their own book tours, traveling on their own dime, getting no reimbursement except for a tax deduction. So it’s not just the appearance at a book signing the author has to do, it’s the scheduling, the cold calling of bookstore managers, the cheerful voice and cooperative manner put on when making arrangements. And when it’s all over, there is the lonesome room and the intimidating blank computer screen waiting.

But you know something? I wouldn’t trade my job for any other. I enjoy the book signings, meeting fellow authors and fans at conventions, even (sometimes) the challenge of setting up a signing. And when the muse is riding me, there’s nothing more fascinating than working out a complex plotline, watching the characters come to life on the computer screen, making it all come together in a grand climax.

Of all the activities involved in writing, I think I probably like research best. In fact, I have caught myself using research as a way to avoid writing. There is always one more thing to check out, one more fact to pursue, and the Internet seems too often a bottomless resource. I love talking to people face-to-face, I love getting into e-mail correspondence with experts in some field or other, I even love taking stitching classes. I guess somewhere in my ancestry is Rudyard Kipling’s elephant’s child, full of ’satiable curiosity. Of the several traits that make someone into a writer, I think curiosity is one of the elementals. How does that work? Why do people do that? What is it like to (fly, fire fires, do factory work, cope with an abusive boss or spouse, fill in the blank). We’re worse than the National Enquirer and National Geographic combined. If there are such things as ghosts, and they get to choose the places they haunt, I will be found at my old school, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, attending classes and reading obscure volumes in the stacks of the Union Memorial Library. Though the way books are going out of style, I may have to inhabit a computer -- do you think that might be possible?