Spooky Talk and Late-Night Wandering...

I remember back in high school those nerve-wrecking days of giving a speech in front of the class. Without fail, a five-minute presentation seemed to use up all of my information within the first three minutes. Now it seems to be the opposite. I'm always hard pressed to condense a lecture into an hour or two. That was certainly true of my talk last night at Cuyahoga Falls Library. Even after skimming through some of the topics the talk stretched over the one hour time. Luckily, both staff and audience members have come to expect this.

I have to thank the library for having me back for a second time to discuss the paranormal. This was very different from my discussion of local hauntings. I covered a very wide range of topics: sexuality and psi phenomena, famous names from the Spiritualist movement, gay and lesbian ghost stories, haunted bed & breakfasts, the basics of investigating, and what is and isn't supernatural phenomena. Each of these could be stretched into a full hour without any trouble so covering all of them in the 60-minute span proved to be a challenge. But I felt it was important to give people a well-rounded experience.

At the end of my talk, there was an interesting moment for me. During the presentation, I showed a photograph of the tombstone of a friend who had committed suicide and mentioned how a possibly ghostly encounter with him afterward is mentioned in the preface of my book. A woman approached me afterward to say that she was familiar with it. Not only did she spend a lot of time in the cemetery in which his body was buried, she had known the family. He is buried beside his father who had been a detective.

Following the presentation, I headed out to the Cuyahoga Valley with a friend of mine for a little impromptu walk along the Towpath Trail at one of the haunted spots in the park. Just a short time after we arrived at the old canal lock I heard footsteps along the trail. There were animals in the water and the nearby woods making all sorts of noises, but this was the distinct rhythmic crunching of gravel slowly approaching. It faded away and there were no living people to be seen. Though it was a cold night, it was peaceful along the trail. My camera battery died quite quickly (not for paranormal reasons; they weren't new batteries) and we spent more time talking about a wide range of topics instead of actually looking for ghosts, but it was still an enjoyable experience.

It's been quite a month already. Some of my travel plans have been postponed but not all of them. There are still a few things I'll be doing before Halloween finally arrives in a few short weeks. Otherwise, life plods on.

Hitting the Frozen Air Waves...

Ohio winters can be unpredictable and depressing... and this year has failed to disappoint in those respects. Snow, rain, sleet, freezing rain, fog, bitter cold, mild warmth. We've experienced it all in northeast Ohio just within the past few weeks. And the dismal gloom of it all weighs on my mind far too often... yet I have managed to keep myself preoccupied occasionally.

For one, I've been getting some enjoyment out of my new iPod Touch (thanks to Yahoo and their Year in Review contest). I can now listen to podcasts anywhere I go, including my previous interview with Beyond Ghosts Interactive Paranormal and my recent talk with Island Ghost Radio. You can subscribe to both on iTunes and download the latest several shows. Click the image below too listen to the Island Ghost Radio interview (I'm in the second half hour).

And the radio show season seems to be kicking in for me! This coming Sunday, I'll be returning to the Kode n' Nyte Show on Nyte's Realm Radio. So be sure to tune in at 8:00 PM EST for all the alcohol-fueled insanity. And don't forget to have your teleshots handy! I'll be sticking around DJ Kode and DJ Nyte for a few days, hopefully to accomplish that investigation of their house without any glitches this time as well as a possible overnight investigation of a residence east of Cleveland. And who knows... I might be dropping by a haunted Cleveland gay bar on Saturday too!

I do have one other bit of good news to share. My book was reviewed in the winter edition of the American Library Association's GLBTRT Newsletter. I'm all for more libraries carrying Queer Hauntings, especially since buying isn't always an option for people in our dreadful economy. And if you wish for your library to carry it, just fill out a patron request at your nearest branch so they know to see about obtaining a copy.

This year could very well turn out to be an interesting one. I'm still in pursuit of more stories for the sequel to Queer Hauntings, so I welcome any input from anyone worldwide. And there is a good chance I might be doing some traveling over this year once more, but I won't go into detail until anything is definite. Of course, I have set my sights on making it to Australia in the not-too-distant future, so I'm making it my goal this year to at least have plans finalized before the year is over. It's a trip overdue for 15 years now... sometimes, life is too short not to throw caution to the wind and make all your dreams a reality. Yes, money is definitely an issue, but I do believe that with enough work and determination, you can accomplish anything.

And So It Begins...

It's officially October! You know what that means: Halloween is around the corner and everyone starts thinking about ghosts. Things for me become a nightmare. Not in the terrifying dream sort of way. More like everything happening all at once.

Last night was a presentation at the Sandy Valley Branch of the Stark County Public Library here in northeastern Ohio. For such a small, rural area, it was quite a turnout (over 30 people). I had an opportunity to see a few old faces I truly have missed and meet quite an interesting group of people. Technology wasn't on my side, and because of a bit of miscommunication (or lack thereof on my part) I was unable to show any projected images. My talk ended up being more of a lax meeting, going entirely from memory. What was supposed to be a one-hour lecture ended up lasting until the library closed.

But this was just one event marking the beginning of an insane time for me. Aside from the few investigations lately, there is so much slated for the coming weeks, I'm not sure how to wrap my mind around it all. Night hikes in the valley, a newspaper interview/event, a possible involvement with a production company filming about a haunted place in Ohio, taking part in another lecture with Western Reserve Paranormal, visiting family, and continuing work on my current book project. All this crammed into four weeks.

It's crazy! Crazy, I say!

After a decade, I should be accustomed to the slam every autumn, yet it still catches me off guard. Everything is always planned at the same time! I'll manage to muddle through, no doubt. But I'll be looking forward to November when the excitement wears down a little...

In other news, my wireless connection to the internet officially stopped working on my laptop, so I'm having to get creative for the time being with connection to the internet. Great timing, really. I think my best option is to get a DSL cable that's long enough to stretch and give up on trying to connect wirelessly. A new computer is not an option right now.