Spook-A-Licious: Where the Boo-ks Devour You Blog Hop

Happy Halloween all! Ghosts and goblins and spooks, OH MY! Well, and wonderful, delicious candy. I’m so glad you came by to visit me! First, let’s cover a few rules for the hop and then we’ll have some fun!

THE RULES:
1) HAVE FUN!!!
2) INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS!!! SPREAD THE WORD!!!
3) THIS TOUR STARTS: Monday, October 17, at Midnight (Arizona Time)
THIS TOUR ENDS: Monday, October 24, at Midnight (Arizona Time)
Winners will be drawn and posted October 25th! ***
4) MEET AND MINGLE WITH ALL THE AUTHORS & BOOK PAGES! EXPERIENCE A NEW DESTINATION AT EVERY STOP! PARTICIPATE IN EVERY BLOG CONTEST AND BE ENTERED FOR CHANCES TO WIN MULTIPLE PRIZES! EVERY BLOG VISITED IS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!!
5) PARTICIPATION AT ALL BLOGS IS RECOMMENDED, BUT NOT REQUIRED. REMEMBER, THE MORE BLOGS YOU HOP, THE BETTER YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING PRIZES. EVERY AUTHOR & BOOK PAGE IS WAITING TO MEET AND INTERACT WITH YOU, SO PLEASE BE SURE TO SHOW THEM SOME LOVE!
6) DID I MENTION TO HAVE FUN? WHOO! HOO!! HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOO!***Authors & Book Pages have full discretion to choose an alternate winner in the event any winner fails to claim their prize(s) within 72 hours of their name being posted or after notification of win, whichever comes first. Anyone who participates in this blog hop tour is subject to these rules**

Halloween is full of myths and legends that either originate with the holiday or are just fun to tell. The headless horseman, Bloody Mary, Resurrection Mary…the list is endless. Some of my favorite true ghosts stories can be found in Leslie Rule’s Coast to Coast Ghosts and Ghosts among us. I’ve read these books over and over and if you like ghost stories, I highly recommend them!

For the blog hop, I thought I’d share my own personal experience with spooks. Several years ago, our neighbor, Joe, died very unexpectedly. He was like a father to me and I took his death very hard. A couple weeks after Joe’s death, strange things started happening in our home. We had our air conditioning on, set to about seventy, but it would get so cold in our bedroom you could see your breath. I started feeling like I was being watched while I slept and I HATED being in our bedroom. Our precious dog Derby even refused to go in our room and would stand at the door and growl. But surprisingly, our dog Tess LOVED our room and would whine if the door was shut and she couldn’t go in there.

But that wasn’t the strangest thing. First, I started hearing this screaming in my head very clearly in our deceased friends voice. Joe was angry and not afraid to express it. “I’m not dead! Would you people stop saying I’m dead! I’M. NOT. DEAD.!” This mantra plagued me for the better part of a month every time I closed my eyes. I was a mess and couldn’t sleep. I truly thought I was going crazy. More afraid everyone else would think it! So I didn’t tell a soul.

Then, the phone calls started. Our caller ID would read Joe and Liz’s name and number, but when we picked the phone up, no one was there, not even a dial tone. Even my unbelieving husband was a little freaked by that, but not as much as what happened next.

You had to know our neighbor. Joe was a character and he loved to shock people. For the longest time he had a very offensive message on their answering machine. Liz had finally had it with the message and people complaining, so she disconnected the answering machine and got voicemail, and she left the message (the answering machine had been unplugged for at least three years when he died).

Fast forward to roughly two months after his death. I picked the phone up to call and check on Liz. To my shock and horror, Joe’s old offensive message greeted me after four rings. I push the end call button and threw the phone and started to cry. My husband was looking at me like I was a crazy woman. When I told him what happened, he rolled his eyes and called himself. You should have seen how pasty white Tony’s face got. His hands were trembling and he let loose a few explicitives. We were both quiet for a few minutes, then Tony the nonbeliever decided someone had hooked up the answering machine again was all. I sighed in relief, glad to have a logical answer. Then I jumped up. “Liz! We can’t let Liz or their kids hear that. It freaked us out.”

Tony agreed so we jumped in the car and drove to their house. We walked inside and I excused myself to go to the bathroom. I knew where the old answering machine was and I didn’t want to alarm Liz. so I went to the room to unplug it without saying anything, only to find it wasn’t plugged in! I ran back to where Tony and Liz stood crying and hyperventilating. When I finally got out what had happened, Tony thought I’d lost it and goes to unplug it himself. Liz and I follow him and sure enough, the answering machine is unplugged.

We can tell Liz is shaken and we apologize for freaking her out and tell her what happened. Liz’s eyes got really huge and she started to cry. She then does plug in the answering machine…and it doesn’t work!

Still, I don’t say anything about Joe haunting me.

The following weekend, I went with Liz to a psychic party. I went for one reason and one reason only-Joe. I never said a word to the psychic. I sat down and he told me he was a psychic medium and asked me if I’d recently lost anyone that I wanted him to try and contact. I said yes.

The medium jumped back nearly knocking his chair over. “Whoa! Man, we just ticked someone off. Honey, I’m sorry, but alls I’m hearing is someone repeating over and over ‘I’m not dead’. Wow! Now he’s cussing at me. Honey, this person, wait…” The medium closed his eyes, then started shaking his head and opened them again. “Yeah, the only thing he’ll say is to stop saying he’s dead. He won’t even give me his name. Honey you have to help him cross over.”

Needless to say, I’m a mess. Liz, on the other hand, is annoyed and furious after her reading and is ready to go. On the way home, she tells me what a fake the psychic was that he couldn’t even tell her husband had been dead less than three months. Never even mentioned Joe to her. I become so upset she has to pull over. There are other people with us, so I don’t want to tell her what has happened, what’s BEEN happening. So I tell her I’m fine and asked her to come to my house after Tony goes to work.

Our readings were tape recorded, so instead of telling Liz what happened, I let her hear the tape and then I tell her what’s been happening. That I hear that same thing—I’m not dead—every night and it’s scaring me. I also tell her that I think the medium didn’t pick up on Joe being dead for her because Joe doesn’t think he’s dead.

It took some convincing, but with a lot of sage, praying, and telling Joe he needed to let go, he finally listened and I had peace again. Although I still miss him every day.

So, that’s my encounter with ghosts. Any of you have a story you’d like to share? Or a scary book you’d like to recommend? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment for a chance to win some great books.

For one lucky poster, I’m giving you your choice of THREE PDF’s from the list below. And for five other commenters, you get your choice of ONE PDF from the list!

1. Matrimonial Mayhem Anthology (contemporary romance)
2. Heartsight by Kay Springsteen (contemporary romance)
3. Lifeline Echoes by Kay Springsteen (contemporary romance)
4. Elusive Echoes by Kay Springsteen (contemporary romance)
5. The Picture by Stephanie Taylor (contemporary romance)
6. Lucky for Her by Stephanie Taylor (contemporary romance)
7. Double Crossing by Meg Mims (historical fiction)
8. The Last Wizard of Yden by S.G. Rogers (fantasy)
9. Wayward Soul by Kim Bowman (paranormal)
10. Ghosts in the Graveyard by Kim Bowman (Halloween paranormal) upon release
11. Emily Dahil CID Part I by Lindsay Downs (YA, mystery)
12. Trophies by J. Gunnar Grey (mystery)
13. Blackbird Flies by Chynna Laird (YA)
14. Legend of the Oceana Dragon by J.F. Jenkins (paranormal)
15. Vala: Agendas by J.F. Jenkins (paranormal)
16. Scent of a Witch by Bri Clark (Halloween paranormal)
17. Glazier by Bri Clark (paranormal)
18. Shawnee’s Creek by Stephy Smith (contemporary romance)
19. Rescued From the River by Stephy Smith (historical romance)
20. Lizzie and the Rebel by Stephy Smith (historical romance)

The blurbs for all of the above titles can be found on Amazon.com.

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the rest of the hop. Just follow this link Spook-A-Licious back to the list.