Books by Melissa Bowersock

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Book Launch Party - Part IV

I am happy to report that all the plans and preparations for the Friendly Ghost Party are coming together. The food has been ordered, the prizes are on hand, the ghostly pics and ghost stories are being added to daily; we're about ready to rock and roll! 


Reminders:

If you don’t already know, there are a couple of contests you can enter. One is on the Facebook event page (https://www.facebook.com/events/142948992566792/) where you can post pictures of anything ghost-related. We've already got pics of haunted places, ghostly images, weird animals, even cartoons and videos. Encourage your friends to “like” your post, because the one with the most likes at the end of the day (July 26) wins a Stone's Ghost prize package. 



The second contest is here on my blog. Here you can post a ghost story in the comments section on any of these Book Launch Party posts, and again at the end of the day, I will pick a random winner of a prize package. (If you don’t have any of the profiles in the dropdown box when you comment, just choose Anonymous, but please put your name in your comment so I’ll know who you are!) 

I’ll be tweeting the winners and other announcements throughout the day using hashtag #FriendlyGhostParty.

In addition, there is a giveaway going on at Goodreads starting today (wow--already 49 people have entered!). The winner will be chosen in the wee hours of July 27, so hop on over there and enter for the chance to win a free book.

Finally, to celebrate the new book, I will put the Kindle version of Stone’s Ghost on sale for just 99 cents for that day (July 26) only. And, just for fun, I’ll discount the Kindle versions of all my previous books as well. You can find them all from my author page at Amazon.

Check back here on July 26 for a full listing of the co-host blogs and all the friendly ghost food at our virtual buffet feast. We've got fun appetizers, yummy-looking main dishes, spooky drinks and the cutest desserts you've ever seen. And because all this would make a great Halloween party, we're going to have links to all the recipes. How fun is that?

Hope to see you all there!



12 comments:

  1. 49 signed up at Goodreads? Way to go. I wish you the greatest luck with your ghost party! I write of a haunted jazz club in my novels and the ghosts of famous writers drop into my blog to give advice on how to write -- so I am all into ghost stories! :-)

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  2. Roland, thanks a bunch--the number is 167 now! Your haunted jazz club sounds like a hoot, reminiscent of Midnight in Paris? If you can pull out a short bit from your book, paste it in here for a ghost story. You might win a prize!

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  3. My family had travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland to stay with my grandparents for a long visit. Actually, we were there 8 or 9 months. I’m the youngest of four girls and was staying in one of the bedrooms with my sister. I was about seven at the time and my sister, about 10. Since we had moved in, my sisters had claimed to have seen ghosts in the house. I, on the other hand, had seen nothing. One day, I was sitting on the couch in the lounge and my sister, mum and my grandmother all yelled out ‘Did you see that?’ They had all seen an apparition at the same time and confirmed it with each other. This ‘ghostly man with a hat’ had apparently walked straight past me and through the wall on the other side of the lounge. Again, I saw nothing! However, one night, I did have an experience. I was having trouble sleeping and having bad dreams. I remember tossing and turning and being frightened although I didn’t know why. Then, I felt someone’s hand grab my leg and pinch my skin really hard!!! It was real!! I screamed and leaped out of beg and jumped in beside my sister and begged that I sleep beside her. She protested and tried to kick me out, but I lay between the wall and my sister and insisted I stay. She relented. I guess she thought it must have been serious enough since I was covered in sweat and was crying. That, my friends, was terrifying. I’ll never forget it. (Kristine Van Dinther)

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  4. Kristine, thanks so much for sharing. Maybe the man was just irritated because you didn't see him? Scary stuff.

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  5. A couple of weeks ago, on the afternoon of July 4th, a musical carousel horse I have started playing suddenly, and wouldn't stop. I was fairly sure it was the batteries in it going bad, since it's one where you have to push the bottom to get it to play.B but I've also heard it said that when music boxes and such play suddenly, it's a loved one's spirit paying a visit. So I tried to think who might be visiting me, and figured maybe my aunt Carol, since it was a Christmas ornament and her birthday was around Christmas. So I said hello to her. However, the horse kept playing off and on all day and all the next day (Friday), until my brother managed to get the batteries out the following morning (Saturday). I also found out on that Saturday morning that my cousin Dawn (Carol's daughter) had died the day before (Friday) in a car accident. Quite a coincidence, I should say. I'm pretty sure it was just the batteries, but I also wonder if Carol knew something was going to happen, and if so why she would pick me, unless she thought I'd be more receptive since I am somewhat interested in the paranormal and enjoy watching shows like Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures. (Jeanne Owens)

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  6. Two weeks prior to my sister's car accident on July 5, I had been having panic attacks off and on, every single day, and couldn't for the life of me figure out why. I felt horrible when they hit, like something really bad going to happen, I just didn't know what. And they would hit me when I was walking, when I was trying to go to sleep, when I was relaxing watching TV or reading a book, or eating a meal, it didn't seem to matter. I didn't feel stressed, except when they hit, so I didn't know what to think. They got so bad that I went to Patient First on July 3rd because I was beginning to wonder if it was really my heart fluttering around, since panic attacks can be mistaken for heart attacks and vice versa. They ran tests and did an EKG and determined that, yes, I'd been having panic attacks, but the panic attacks suddenly stopped Friday night, July 5th, just as mysteriously as they had started up. And that was before we knew anything had happened to my sister. So I have to ask the question - was someone making me have those panic attacks to get my attention? (Elizabeth Hill)

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  7. I was lounging on the sofa in that twilight state, halfway between waking and sleeping, when I heard the back door close. Then, I heard my husband Howard’s size 13 shoes clomping through the kitchen to the fridge, and ice falling into his glass. Howard loved to work outdoors, even in the hottest Tucson weather, and was constantly running inside to cool off and get ice and chilled water. I was about to call out to him when I remembered. He was dead.

    I shot up from the sofa and started for the kitchen, but then paused. My mind told me it couldn’t have been him. He’d been dead almost a year, and yet some deeper, more intuitive part of me knew it was him. Those sounds were as familiar to me as the sound of his voice. I jumped when the phone rang. It was a neighbor. She must have thought I was crazy, raving about a visit from my dead husband. She insisted it was just a dream, but I knew it wasn’t. I was becoming more and more agitated, and decided to call the wisest person I know. When my sister answered the phone, I must have been screaming incoherently.

    “What’s wrong,” she asked.
    “It’s Howard. He was here just now. I heard him in the kitchen.” I told her.
    “Okay, you need to calm down. Are you okay? Are you scared?”
    “No.” I could never be scared of Howard.
    “Then why are you so upset?”
    “I don’t know why he was here. Do you think he needs something? I don’t know what he needs from me.”
    “Sis,” she said calmly, “I think the question is, what do you need from him?”

    In a flash of clarity, I knew she was right. I had summoned him back to me. The year since his death had been the most dreadful year of my life, and I desperately wanted him to come back and make it all right again. I thought of the last words I’d spoken to him. Holding his hand, I had told him “rest now. I know how tired you are. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be okay.” Brave words, but I hadn't been brave at all.

    The day of Howard’s ghostly visit to my kitchen was a turning point in my life. I saw that I’d been selfish and full of self-pity. Worst of all, I’d broken my promise to him. But now, I was determined to keep my word. I found my strength, picked myself up, and started to put the pieces of my life back together. It's not the life we had together, but it's good. There is still joy to be found, just as there is sadness, but every new day is a blessing. I feel his spirit with me always, watching over me, and I know I will see him again…but not in this life.

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  8. Thanks, Sheryl (not really so anonymous!), Jeanne, and Elizabeth. Great stories. Sometime tomorrow, I'll put all the names in a hat and draw a winner, so keep your fingers crossed!

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  9. Here is my supernatural (and true) scary story and I will follow it up with a happy and positive ghost story.

    I decided with a group of friends that it would be a great idea to play with a Ouija board but we didn't have the proper attitude and mindset to be responsible with the Ouija board. We didn't treat it with the proper respect and it returned the gesture. We were asking asinine questions and getting belligerent with the contacts that we were making. The lights began to flicker and then they just shut off! The breaker needed to be reset. Windows were shaking and the eeriest sounds were being made from outside. Truly terrifying! I'll never mess with a Ouija board again. We were getting very scary answers to the questions we were asking, too. Never again!

    My happy spiritual encounter was with my mom. I felt her touch my shoulder and I felt her kiss me on top of my head and say "I love you, I love you, I love you". It was a thing that she did to me. It was our thing and that's how I know it was her. That brought me so much peace!

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  10. Janet, thanks for sharing. Love the story about your mom.

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  11. My friend Anne and I made a two night stop in Sligo Town while traveling in Ireland in 2006 and we had reservations to stay at a lovely B&B in a modern home located just on the edge of the city center. There was a slight mixup at check-in as our gracious hostess explained that her son, who was minding the business while she was away the previous day, had given another traveling couple the room with two twin beds that had been designated for us. On discovering the mistake, she had moved that couple's belongings to a different room but, as they were out for the day, had left a note for them regarding the change and requesting they return the key to our room to ensure our privacy.

    We settled in, then went out for dinner and returned later to retire for the night. While it was still dark, I woke with a start out of a sound sleep with a keen sense that someone - a third party - was in our room. I was sleeping on my side with my face toward the window and away from the door to the hall and remember feeling reluctant to turn my head to see who it might be. I told myself that a member of the displaced couple might have entered our room by mistake, using the key they had been given the day before. I listened quietly for more evidence of their presence, some kind of sound, but heard only silence. Yet, the feeling that someone else was there was palpable. I don't know how long I was awake, but I eventually fell back to sleep.

    The next morning, Anne informed me that she had felt someone sit on the edge of her bed during the night and when she looked to see who it was, no one was there. She didn't feel threatened or scared, just the unmistakable gentle pressure of another's weight on the edge of her mattress. It was only then that I mentioned my own perception of an unseen presence while we slept, though I had been too afraid to look. We just shook our heads in wonder and the next night passed without incident.

    However, this was not my first encounter with the unseen in Ireland. On previous visits I had experienced physical manifestations, kinesthetic in nature, that defied rational explanation. On two occasions, those manifestations were identical but occurred in two different locations. I have learned since that the ancient Celtics referred to "thin spaces" - geographical places where the veil between the material world and the unseen is particularly porous, allowing for communication with the spirit world. Over time I have come to see my own encounters with that realm as a real gift of humility, grateful that they are a constant reminder that the "world" is actually much richer and much bigger than what I can know with the limitations of my rational mind.

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  12. Catherine, thanks for sharing such a great story! I have a feeling, with Ireland's long and very dramatic history, there are a zillion stories like this over there.

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