Signed Copy Giveaway and the Latest Updates
First, I want to thank everyone who has come to this blog, FB, Twitter, offered words of encouragement, bought my book or helped get the word out. Sales have been great and as of today, I’m still haunting the top spot with my publisher. Your support and responses have truly made my heart grow 3 sizes.
Since the NFL playoffs are going to be starting soon and I still have to get the beer for the day’s festivities, I’ll make this quick. My debut novel with Samhain, Forest of Shadows, is now available as a trade paperback. I’m all for the whole e-book thing. I 
know it’s the wave of the future…or more like the reality of the present. I even have a Kindle (as does one daughter, with wifey owning the lone Nook in the house). But man, there is nothing like the feel and smell of a new book. I know I’m not the only one who takes a good long whiff as I flip through the pages for the first time. Come on, you can tell ‘ol Uncle Hunter.
To celebrate the print release of Forest of Shadows, I’m giving away 2 signed copies to random folks who comment on this blog post. It’s that easy. “But what should I say in my comment?” Well, anything that comes to mind. Let ‘er rip, or be short and sweet. Winners will be announced Monday night, 1/16/12.
In other news, I finished the first draft of the sequel to Forest of Shadows, tentatively titled Double Walker. For those of you who already read FOS, I leave it to you to guess which character the follow up will focus on. We’re just 5 months away from the relase of my next book, Evil Eternal. Guaranteed to blow your mind. Last but not least, a short story of mine, Commandment Eleven, has been picked up by Dark Moon Books and will be unveiled in time for the World Horror Convention.
Okay, enough of Mr. Big Mouth. Comment away and good luck!
The Haunted Well at the Manhattan Bistro : Affirming the Eternity of the Soul
Sometimes, writing has its perks. A couple of months ago, I was asked to be on a radio show (Working Things Out hosted by the lovely Diana Navarro) that usually broadcasts out of a midtown Manhattan restaurant. For my interview, the venue was moved to Soho in a place called The Manhattan Bistro. What’s so special about the Manhattan Bistro? The small restaurant houses a well that dates back to the 1700’s and has been reportedly haunted since 1800. My perk? The owner gave us rare permission to go down after the show to see the well and do a little paranormal investigation! 
Right from the get-go, the Manhattan Bistro looked like a place out of time. The structure is far older and smaller than all the other surrounding buildings and stores. You can tell that the entire neighborhood has grown up around it. When I first stood across the street, it made me think of the Little Red Lighthouse living under the shadow of the George Washington Bridge.
A little on the background of the well: The unhappy ghost of Elma Sands has been seen and heard in and around the old, deteriorating well ever since her murder in 1800. It’s believed the 21 year old was killed by her well-to-do fiancé and stuffed in the well and was the scene of the city’s first murder trial. The fiancé was defended by Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton and the prosecution never had a chance.
So now we have the perfect locale for a haunting. A woman violently slaughtered and a crime without a punishment. People have been seeing her ghost rising from the well, ala The Ring, for centuries.
Three of us walked into the cramped basement to see the well. I’m not a tall guy, and my head almost touched the ceiling as we shuffled down the tight corridor that was straight out of The Amityville Horror. 
I was shocked to see that the well itself rose well over six feet out of the ground. The sandy stone has crumbled in some spots but carries the weight of history. We turned out all the lights. It was as dark as a tomb. After asking a few questions, we just let the silence take over. Pictures were flashing and my audio recorder was placed on the lip of the well. I didn’t feel anything supernatural around the well. Not even one tiny goosebump.
I asked, “Do you want us down here? Would you like us to stay or leave?”
We waited expectantly, the darkness covering us like a burial shroud. There was a knock on the ceiling, but I quickly realized someone had dropped something upstairs.
All and all, we left feeling that the well, this night, was benign. Poor Elma Sands was elsewhere, hopefully with her family or maybe out enjoying the sights.
Later in the night, I slipped back down to the well. This time, I didn’t feel alone, though whether it was due to the paranormal or just human nature when one finds oneself in a dark room standing next to a well that everyone has said is haunted is highly debatable. No matter the cause for my discomfort, it was worth it for the chill that danced down my spine. 
And that is why I write about ghosts, and why I run to the things that go bump in the night. Ghost hunting is an extreme sport, with one difference; the payoff is beyond comprehension. Affirming there are ghosts in our midst is proving the eternal nature of the soul, thus eradicating the fear of death. There aren’t many other human endeavors greater than that.
Hungry for more? Check out this video of the most haunted buildings in New York City.
Pick 6 Interview at Macabre Republic
I’m officially kicking off my blog tour, with a first stop at Macabre Republic. I had a fun time answering their Pick 6 questions, where I got to choose 6 out of about 40 different questions. It’s a pretty cool concept. Enjoy!
Suffering for my craft
I’ve been feeling celebratory, now that my book Forest of Shadows is just weeks away from being released (and it’s available now for pre-order). So, what better way to revel in my happiness than subject myself to a tattoo? Actually, the pain isn’t bad at all. Reflexology is far more painful. I swear. It’s horrendous.
It took me a while to come up with something ‘writerly’ themed, and my wife pointed out words I had recently used myself to put under the image; Never Give Up. So true. I’m a firm believer in the Cool Hand Luke theory of life. If you want to do something, just do the damn thing and never, ever quit.
Huge thanks to Darren at Rising Dragon Tattoos in NYC. He has a great shop and is a damn good artist. He now has a customer for life and I urge anyone in the area looking to get ink to go there.
The Captain America shield has been sitting on my arm for years and didn’t even get me a free ticket to the movie.
I have a question for anyone reading this. How many times do you get ‘stabbed’ by a tattoo needle per hour of work? Just curious. Hit the comment bubble to send in your guess, informed or otherwise.
Also, what kind of ink do you have?
Best Surprise Ever…I’m a Monster!
So I was in Barnes and Noble yesterday perusing the magazine rack when I spied the latest issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland. Now, when I was a kid, this was the greatest damn magazine ever. I didn’t get every issue that hit the newstands, but I treasured every single one that came into my possession. I still remember the cover with King Kong’s big ape face (the original, not the one with The Dude). That one held a special place amidst my comic book collection.
Imagine my surprise when I flip open the cover and see an ad with my book cover in it. I know that Samhain is going balls out to let the world know that they are the new place to get your horror fix, but I didn’t know I would ever see anything in a magazine that is nothing short of iconic for me and I’m sure loads of other guys my age (you know, kids of the 70s and early 80s). The little kid inside me has been smiling non-stop. This is the same kid who spent nights putting together glow in the dark Frankenstein and Dracula models, listening to reruns of spooky radio plays, and sneaking downstairs to watch Chiller Theatre.
Best of all, for those of you interested in being the first wave of readers of Samhain horror, and hopefully my book, Forest of Shadows, you can order now and get a 30% discount.
I just had to share. 
The Dig – Now on Kindle
That’s right, I finally figured it out. And I got my first Kindle this week. I’ve been having an Amazon time. The Dig is 99 cents and ready when you are. The management thanks you for your support. To learn more or download your copy, just click the cover image.
My Night on the Queen Mary
As a man who writes about the paranormal (with a strong leaning towards ghosts) and has had a profound experience with the paranormal (an old hotel, alone, Barcelona, future blog), I couldn’t resist the chance to spend one night aboard the famed Queen Mary during a recent trip to Long Beach, CA. I won’t go into the history of this magnificent ship here, but there are plenty of places to bone up on it. And there is an equal, if not greater, number of places on the web to view the various hauntings aboard the retired vessel. Just You Tube away and you can spend a perfect, quiet evening creeping yourself out. Here’s one of the most compelling ones out there, showing diaphanous white figures moving about a corridor.
Despite its title as one of the most haunted places in the US, I went aboard, alone, with little expectations. I wanted to tour the ship during the daytime on my own, have a nice dinner in one of their fine restaurants, and take a paranormal walking tour that night. It was the perfect ending to a long week in California. My first impression when I pulled my car into the lot was that this ship is huge! We’re talking making-whales-look-like-teeny-ants huge. Because of its age, for some reason, I wasn’t expecting something quite as grand or as wonderfully preserved.
The weather all week had been overcast and drizzly, so I was happy to finally see blue, and dry, skies. I checked into my room, quickly dropped my bags onto the bed and headed back out into the sun so I could walk the various decks.
Before I go further, I need to say that my room was at the end of a very long corridor, and for my stay, I believe I was the only person checked in for that section of the deck. OK, that was a bit unsettling, even more so when I realized it was one of the very same corridors that people have experienced sounds of footsteps, voices and even fully body apparitions.
OK, back to my day and night. I made a quick stop to the coctail bar for a drink and something to eat, then spent the next three hours walking in and out of every corner of the ship open to the public. If I was ever going to describe a location as stately, this is the place. You can feel the weight of history in every nook and cranny of the Queen Mary. The energy of the millions of lives that have come and gone aboard her wooden decks lingers like heavy smoke. That’s not to say that I had any odd ‘psychic’ feelings. I actually felt very much at home and enjoyed learning about the ship’s past. At one point, I purchased my ticket for the paranormal walking tour of the ship that went from 8-10pm. I wanted to make sure I was wide awake for the tour, so I took a nap, had a nice dinner looking out at the bay, and waited midship for the tour to begin.
Now the fun begins! We had a crowd of about 20 people ranging in age from about 14 to 70, and an almost even mix of males to females (for all you satistic hounds out there). Our tour was given by two men. One, who led the tour and did most of the talking, and the other whose job was to walk behind the crowd so no one got lost. He was also there to escort people off the tour if they got so frightened, they couldn’t take another step. The man was built like Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still and looked kinda like those doctors from the Twilight Zone episode where the woman wants to be beautiful, which we find out is looking like some sort of phantom human/pig hybrid. I thought, OK, they’ve already gotten people spooked and we haven’t even taken our first step. Bravo!
We walked down into the bowels of the ship. We’re talking 30 feet below the water. It’s cold, dark as hell and otherworldly. Our first stop is one of the mechanical rooms where a sailor was supposedly crushed to death by a steel door. The tour guide pulls out metal divining rods and says this is how the spirits like to communicate. After a bit of coaxing, he gets the rods to move when he asks certain questions. He even asked it if it could point to anyone it might want to visit in their room that night. Wouldn’t you know it pointed right at me? And I was hanging in the back talking to Twilight Zone guy, well out of the line of sight. We walked into another part of the room and stayed silent for a while. Odd sounds and banging started chirping up from different corners of the room.
I saw a brown blur race past the ceiling above these pipes.
The guides seemed surprised by the level of activity here and commented that they hadn’t heard it this lively in months. As most of the crowd was paying attention to a little maglight they had brought (to see if a ghost would turn it on), I kept my attention to the top level of the room, which was where I thought most of the noises were emanating from. I saw a flash of shapeless, almost see-through brown zip across the ceiling. Assuming it was my eyes playing tricks on me, I kept it to myself. That was until Twilight Zone leaned into me and said, “Did you just see something race across there?” Before I could answer, the woman in front of me said, “It was kinda brown, right?” I agreed. That was my first chill of the night.
Next stop was the place everyone was itching to see. The famous pool. People have seen and heard the spirit of a little girl and an older woman here. (On a side note, an episode of the original Charlie’s Angels was filmed here, before the pool was shut down for good). The atmosphere in the pool area was heavy and I kept waiting to hear a little girl’s voice call out from the beyond. That was not to happen.
After the pool, we went to the changing area, which is said to contain a vortex to the other side. I stood on the vortex and only felt slightly claustrophobic because the area itself is cramped with a very low ceiling. Nothing fun to report there.We ended the tour by going to a purpotedly haunted room where no one is allowed to stay. I only felt a bit of sadness in the room. Maybe it was because it looked so desperately alone, like an outcast. After the tour, everyone was encouraged to explore further. The ship itself is open 24 hours a day, so anyone can come on board and poke around. I decided to hit the hay and hope the ghost from the defunct mechanical room would find someone else to haunt. As I said earlier, I’ve already had a ghostly encounter in a hotel room, and I don’t wish to repeat it. I did wake up very early the next day and walked the ship again, this time without anyone else about. I figured if I was going to see a ghost, this was the perfect time. Sadly, it was not to be, but not from lack of trying. I spent almost 2 hours skulking about and sitting in dark rooms. I came up with nada. As I checked out and got into my rental car, I thought, Did I really witness a ghost in the mechanical room? I’m still not sure. Maybe I did. That’s enough for now. How many of you have been on the Queen Mary? Did you take one of the ghost tours? Come on and share your experience so we can all sleep with the light on. For more on the paranormal, here’s a link to Forest of Shadows.
