Do Ghosts Set Off Smoke Alarms?

For the past week,   our smoke alarms have been going off every night at 9:00pm.   Nothing has been on fire.  There has been no smoke.  The alarms just go off.  We live in a new house we purchased from the builder 5 months ago.  The smoke alarms are brand new, but every night the alarms go off.  This is a huge pain in the ass.   It is loud and wakes up the baby and it creeps out the kids.   Everyone panics and runs around like idiots.  You never realize how hard it is to stop those things from going off until you try to get them to shut up.  I knocked the things off of the ceiling and they still went off in my hand.  I mashed the button.  I took the batteries out.  If one goes off,  they all go off.  It is maddening.

This maddening smoke alarm behavior got me thinking about whether or not a ghost could produce this type of behavior in a smoke alarm.  My preliminary research showed that many people have this problem.   I found countless message boards where people have asked if a haunting could produce an alarm going off every night at the same time.   One person hypothesized the following on a yahoo message board, "If the theory about ghosts being a collection of energy is true, then yes, they could manipulate electrical equipment to do such things, powering if from their own energy."  This made sense to me.  This theory is supported by the large number of people that describe this type of  smoke alarm activity in haunted locations.    Stories like this one from Castle of Spirits http://www.castleofspirits.com/stories03/smokedet.html are prolific.    Another interesting smoke alarm ghost story can be found a http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=3449.  My husband used to work at the morgue and every night the smoke alarm went off  in front of the cooler where the bodies were kept at 3am on the nose.  It was like clockwork.  It went off for five or ten minutes and then went quiet.  It was more than creepy, especially when you are spending the night alone at the morgue. 

So, theoretically a passing spirit or ghost could produce the type of behavior we've observed in our smoke alarms here.  This smoke alarm behavior is made even more frustrating by the fact that it only seems to happen when my husband is gone so the only person that knows what they are doing with the smoke alarms isn't present.   I also wanted to investigate non supernatural possibilities for my faulty smoke alarms.   I did my reading and found that there are many things that can contribute to smoke alarms going off at the wrong time.  Many modern smoke alarms are also triggered by intense heat.  So, if it is very hot and your attic is excessively hot sometimes that will heat the ceiling and trigger the smoke alarm.  Also, if  hot steam from a shower rises up this could trigger the smoke alarm.  It is also always possible that the things are broken and need repair.  I could easily rule out the smoke alarm being broken by talking to my builder.  I could also rule out the attic heat hypothesis by going up into my attic and finding that it was not really hot up there.   That left the steam possibility.  My son does shower every night around nine and after examining his behavior, I think he was setting off the alarm by opening the bathroom door and releasing all the hot steam onto the smoke detector.  

Our house is not haunted, but that doesn't make the number of cases of smoke alarms going off without any reason less interesting.   I have never found an explanation for the alarm that went off at the morgue.   The alarm was a hospital alarm that was checked regularly due to tight hospital regulations.  It was in front of the cooler and the air around it was cooler than the rest of the hospital and since the morgue was in the basement there was no attic above it.   My husband and I still tend to believe that the phantoms of the dead locked up in that rancid smelling cooler drifted out late at night, setting off the alarm.

The White Queen of Chenonceau

During my castle tour of the Loire Valley, I listened to many audio tours and studied the history of each castle. There was no mention of anything supernatural. The tours contained only the facts. Interestingly, my son's audio tour of the castle of Chenanceau was quite different from mine. It was designed for young children and told a detailed account of the ghost that haunts the castle.

Chenanceau is one of more stunning of the castles in the Loire Valley. It is a beautiful Renaissance castle that stretches across the Loire-Indes River. It was constructed in phases and is a uniquely feminine castle. All of it's owners and occupants have been women and the castle itself seems to whisper this character. The castle was taken by King Henry II in 1517 for his mistress Diane de Portier. After the king's death, his wife Catherine de Medici, took the castle back from Diane and began the elaborate construction of the gallery that stretches across the river. It was completed in 1577.

It is this gallery that is haunted by the ghost of the White Queen. The White Queen was the wife of King Henry III. Following his murder, she retired to Chenonceau and clothed herself only in white. She spent the rest of her life mourning his loss. Even her bedchamber reflects her sorrow. It is black, painted with white flowers.

According to my son's audio tour, her ghost still wanders the halls of the chateau forever mourning her lost love. She is seen by many visitors as a white clad specter weeping in the hall. Many have also reported seeing images of her in pictures taken of the hall. I have included the pictures we took of the gallery. It may be my imagination, but I always think I see a soft white form by the window.

Amazon Giveaway!

Mark Hedder Won this giveaway!  Watch for your prize in your inbox!

It is give away time again!  A couple of times a year I giveaway free books and prizes to my readers.   This time I'll be giving away kindle copies of all of my books and a ten dollar gift card to amazon.com.  If you would like to win this lovely amazon gift basket follow me on Facebook or twitter and comment about it below.  I will pick one lucky winner!  Good luck! Here are the links!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessica-Penot/512746908786746?ref=hl

https://twitter.com/Jessica_Penot

 

 

 

Deep South Paranormal

 

I met Benny Reed at my first book signing.   He was a fan of my writing, so I loved him immediately.  I would have liked him even if he hated my writing, but I do love fans.   Interestingly, Benny was also part of DOA paranormal   http://www.doa-paranormal.com/.  He and his group were involved in a plethora of interesting investigations which had me intrigued.  He invited me to join his group several times and I am utterly depressed that each time he invited me I was always doing something else.  I had to work or have a baby or something distracting like that.   However, I was honored to be invited and I watched his group and their investigations from afar knowing they were awesome.

 Apparently, I wasn’t wrong about Benny being awesome because the SyFy network recently cast him to be part of their new show, Deep South Paranormal.  I love this show not only because it has Benny in it, but because it has a little bit of that Southern charm that makes Southern ghost stories so beautiful.   The South positively crawls with folklore and fables and old history filled with tragedy and plantations and white ladies and dark stories.  For example, episode 2 of Deep South Paranormal was filmed during an investigation of an old plantation rich with Southern history that couldn’t have happened anywhere else.   Episode 3 featured the investigation of a cotton gin in Prattville, Alabama.   The episode started with an old Southern remedy used to drive off evil spirits involving sucking the breath from frogs and storing it in glass vials.  I love these little Southern traditions and they make the show much more engaging.  The show does tend to play to Southern stereotypes, but stereotypes are what makes parts of the South fun. 

I don’t watch that many television shows.  I watch American Horror Story, The Walking Dead, Parks and Recreation,  Dr. Who, and Vikings.  I’m not a television fan overall, but I know I’ll be adding Deep South Paranormal to my list this season.  The show is great fun for any lover of Southern folklore and ghost stories.  Deep South Paranormal is on at 9 central time and 10 eastern time on the SyFy channel on Weds nights. 

http://www.syfy.com/deepsouthparanormal/about

The Haunting on Larrabbee Street



This haunting story has always been one of my favorites because it does not have a history. The haunting on Larrabbee Street has often been compared to the Amityville case, however, the house on Larrabee Street didn't have the history the Amityville house had. It is a haunting that is unexplainable. The spirit that haunted Allen and Deborah Tallman came from nowhere.
The Tallman's moved into the house on Larrabee Street in Horicon, Wisconsin in 1986. At that time, they had a little girl and a boy who was about 6 years old. Deborah Tallman was pregnant. The Tallman's loved their new home and began a fairly typical America life in their new home. Although they loved their new home, The Tallmans immediately began having difficulties in the house. They were plagued by a rash of sicknesses and their cat went crazy, climbing the walls and screaming all night. Deborah was close to her family and her family usually spent a considerable amount of time visiting Deborah. These visits began to decrease in frequency following the Tallman's move into their new home. Both Deborah's mother and sister indicated they felt sick in the Tallman home. They felt sick and suffocated.

It took more than a year for the haunting to escalate and culminate in the events that lead to the Tallman's fleeing their comfortable home. Deborah had her baby girl and the children began to complain more and more about things in their room. The little boy said that a hideous, diminutive, old woman would come into his room at night. The little girl was plagued by visions of monsters. The Tallman's grew more and more tired as their children kept them up night after night. Even their attempts at time away from home were thwarted when the babysitter saw furniture moving on it's own.

The children's nightmares could be brushed off as childhood fancy, but when Allen began to hear things and see things the Tallmans called their preacher. The preacher came into the home and told the Tallmans that their home was in the grips of something from the devil. He told them that the only way to dispel the evil that had been growing in their home was to go to church more. The Tallman's listened to the preacher to no avail. Things got worse. Windows in the basement relocated on their own, the refrigerator door remained open on it's own, the children continued to be visited by nocturnal terrors. Allen saw the garage catch on fire and when he rushed to extinguish the flame he saw a green eyed demon above the door. Allen even saw a full bodied ghost that rose from the floor in a a kind of fog and took form just long enough to tell him that he was "going to die."
Desperate, the family called the preacher again. The preacher came and told them to play church music all the time. The family listened. They listened and their was a brief reprieve before the entity came again. This time the entire family and the babysitter saw the specter just long enough to turn them all white with fear and send them fleeing into the night.

After the Tallman's left their home, the house became a local sensation and lines wrapped around the neighborhood with curious spectators hoping to catch a glimpse of some random terror. Many spectators claimed to have been successful in their desires. Many claimed to see snow blowers running up and down the driveway by themselves and furniture being flung around inside the house. Of course, none of these stories have ever been confirmed, but the stories themselves turned the Tallman house into a local legend that grew with time. Stories of the house being a gateway to hell and blood dripping from the ceilings proliferated and a media frenzy swept incidents out of control.

Despite this, and despite accusations that it was a hoax on the Tallman's part, the Tallman's have shown nothing but the desire to stay out of the spot light. They've turned down interviews and even rejected Oprah when she invited them to be her guest. They seem happiest forgetting the horror on Larrabee street.

Black Eyed Children

Black Eyed Children are the cause of much debate.   They appeared, as if from a vacuum, in 1998, and since that time the Internet has been crowded with stories of their appearance and activity around the world.  In 1998, a reporter named Brian Bethel was working in his car.  He was sitting in his vehicle alone at night and everything around him was quiet and dark.   Out of this darkness, two children emerged.   The reporter rolled down his window to talk with them.  The children told the reporter that they had been dropped off by their parents to see a movie, but they had no money and had begun the walk home.  The begged the reporter to help them and let them into his car with him.  The reporter was somewhat put off by the appearance of the children in the night and although his first impulse was to let the children in, something in his gut told him not too.   The longer Brian put off letting the children in the car, the more persistent they became.  Finally Brian peered into the darkness and noticed that the children had black eyes.   Their eyes were entirely inky black with no white or iris.  Brian became terrified and was driven by an overwhelming panic and need to run away.  The children sensed his fear and became even more aggressive in their pleas to enter the vehicle.  Finally, Brian abandoned the eerie children and went on to tell his story.

Since Brian's encounter, countless other stories like this have peppered the Internet.  One story I read on the Internet was told by a young man who skateboarding in the dark.  He was approached by two young children who claimed they were lost and asked if he could take them to his house and let them use his phone.  He offered his cell phone, but the children insisted they use his home phone.  The young man noticed the children's eyes and asked them why they were wearing contacts.  He then declined the children and went home on his own.  He was scared of the children and wanted nothing more to do with them.  When he looked out his window later that night, the two children were still watching him from the front yard.   Another story was told by a woman who was awoken in the middle of the night by two children asking for help.  They wanted to use the phone to call their parents.  The woman was overwhelmed by fear and didn't let the children in, but they stayed at her door for hours begging and pleading.

These Black Eyed Kids or BEKs  have stayed on the fringes of the paranormal and have remained so because no one really knows what to make of them.  Some people believe BEKs are part of an elaborate Internet hoax and that those telling the stories speak out on the Internet as part of this hoax.  There are others that believe the BEKs are the ghosts of lost children who wander the earth searching for safety.  Others believe they are lost souls trying to gain entrance to our lives.  Another theory states that the BEKS are demons trying to con their way into people's lives and yet another theory says they are vampires, who must get permission before entering to feed on their victims.  A final group of people argue that BEKS are the product of some bizarre alien human mating.  Whatever the truth is, the stories about these phantom, black eyed horrors are enough to send chills down your spine on the warmest nights.

The Spirit Gallery

Whenever I imagine a medium at work, I think of the mediums of the Spiritualist Movement of the turn of the 20th century.  I imagine women and men sitting at old wooden tables talking to the dead.  I also view mediums with skepticism.  I tend to think that in any money making venture there's always an angle and sometimes people stretch the truth for the profit.  I guess I am saying that I think most mediums are full of it and I've never seen a medium that's made me believe otherwise.

Last night however,  I joined medium, Tracy Farquhar, for a spirit gallery at the Lowe Mill and she managed to change my mind.  The Lowe Mill is an old Mill in a minor state of decay.  It has been revamped and turned into an art center.  There are concerts there and many artists have studio space in the Flying Monkey portion of the Lowe Mill.  Beloved Books is in a corner of the Flying Monkey and is one of those last corners of the world that still pays tribute to the written word in the form of purely paper books.  There are no kindles or nooks there.  There are only shelves of old books surrounded by paintings and chairs.

The Spirit Gallery was in Beloved Books and music from the concert below made the floor boards vibrate as the medium spoke.  Dogs barked in the distance and the sound of frolicking people surrounded the darkened book store.   Tracy Farquhar paced in the dark and  said that there were many spirits in the store with us.   She didn't ask any questions.  She just called out a name.  She said there was a Robert or Roger with us  and he was someone's uncle.  She said he died 5 years ago from something having to do with his brain.  She said she saw an old family house by the lake.  She said  Robert/Roger liked fishing.  It was at this point that I admitted that I did have an Uncle Roger who passed five years ago.  He wasn't my favorite uncle so I wasn't overjoyed to talk with him again, but I was intrigued by the accuracy of what she was saying.  She said the family house had just changed hands and that although it was still in the family it wasn't with us anymore.   The house was crumbling.  The foundation was sinking.  There was an old tree in the yard that Roger had buried something he valued by when he was a boy.   Roger saw me as a girl.  I was a little girl to him and he wanted me to remember him taking me someplace.  He also felt bad about some falling out he had with my father.  I thought she was talking about my biological father who had divorced my mother so they didn't talk anymore.  He also said he was worried about a girl, whom the psychic called my daughter.  I told her I didn't have a daughter.  She said it was a young girl who was or had been in school but was leaving because of social problems.  He wanted her to go back to school.  My sister did just drop out of college last semester because of problems with social anxiety, although I didn't tell the medium that.  I tried not to tell the medium much.  She continued to say I had some kind of foot or heal pain and he said I should take care of that. I do have plantar fasciitis and I hate taking care of it because that involves wearing ugly shoes, my nemesis. 

The medium moved on to another spirit and I was left vaguely stunned and trying to figure out how she could have possibly guessed all of that information.  I still can't think of a way,  I am assuming that she did somehow reach the spirit of my Uncle Roger.  I later learned that my step-father and my Uncle Roger had a huge falling out right before he died and that my Uncle had a favorite tree by our old family house where he built a fort and buried his treasures.  The psychic had known things I didn't even know.

The Spirit Gallery ended in many tears and people being reunited with long lost loved ones.  Lots of people were crying.  I was just stunned.  I guess if I believe in ghosts it isn't that much of a stretch to believe in a medium, especially in one who knew more about my family than I do.

The Origins of Easter

Happy Easter!  My favorite thing about our modern holidays is there strange origins.  They never come from where we think they did.  History is a strange thing.  Here is my story about another pagain holiday wrapped in Christian paper and decorated with years of traditions no one understands.

Holiday are off topic, but I love them.   Almost all our modern Christian holidays are just pagan holidays in different paper.  So many Christians won't celebrate Halloween because it is pagan, but the Easter bunny has nothing to do with Christ.   Where does the bunny come from?  It comes from the goddess Eostre.  Eostre was a European fertility goddess.  During the  Spring, her favorite Holiday, named for her, Easter, was celebrated across Europe.  Her totem animal, the bunny, was intrinsic  in the celebration of her holiday.   Easter was a fertility holiday and it isn't just a coincidence that estrogen, the hormone often associated with fertility and sex is also named after Eostre.  

Ancient Christians were quite brilliant.  They knew that if they wanted to convince the old pagans to convert they shouldn't ask them to abandon their old holidays and traditions, so the merely Incorporated their holidays into Christian beliefs.  So Easter was absorbed into the early Christian faith and linked to the celebration of the death of Christ.   So the totem animal of Easter became Eostre's totem animal, the bunny and other fertility rituals were also made part of the Christian Holiday.   Eggs, also associated with old fertility rituals, became part of holiday traditions.

By the fifteenth century, in many parts of Europe, it had become normal for children to build nests for the magic bunny to lay eggs in on Easter morning to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.  Over time, this evolved into the putting out of Easter baskets for a magic bunny to put chocolate eggs and other treats in.  So, the resurrection of Christ and the fertility rights of Eostre became one to make the holiday we celebrate today, which is a beautiful fusion of Christian and pagan.

The Phantom Lion

The Cincinnati Zoo is the second oldest zoo in the nation.   It was founded in 1875 and featured a small collection of animals.   The zoo grew quickly and is now rated as one of the top five zoos in the nation and features a vast array of animals.  The zoo is also known for its architecture and is listed as a national historical landmark.   It contains the oldest reptile house in the Western Hemisphere.  No trip to Cincinnati would be complete without a visit to this historic zoo.

The zoo is also  known for  another animal.   It isn't an animal you can see in any exhibit and most visitors don't see this famous resident of the zoo at all.   It is known to be haunted by a phantom lioness that wanders the ground following visitors and terrifying those who happen to catch a glimpse of her.  Those who have seen this ghostly lion describe hearing her footsteps behind them.  Many times these witnesses have been terrified because they thought the lioness was real.  Other witnesses have believed the lioness was about to attack them.  The lioness has been described as having glowing eyes that cut through the shadows and dark.   When she is seen, she runs towards the unfortunate visitor as if to attack them and then vanishes into the shadows she came from.   Although the living animals in the zoo may be the main attraction at this zoo, a chance encounter with this phantom would make the Cincinnati Zoo one of my favorite zoos.

The Grand Hotel

The Grand Hotel embodies all of the beauty and histroy that begins in the Victorian era for Mackinac Island.   In a sense, the island is trapped in this time.  It clings to the old things and puts them on a pedastle making them great.  The hotel is the center of everything beautiful and historic on the island.   It's long, white walls can be seen from the water on the ferry ride to the island.  It sits away from the rest of the chaos of the island, amidst green gardens.  There are no cars on the island and during my many visits to the island, I have travelled to the old hotel using many modes of transportation.  Whether you approach by horse and buggy, bicycle, horseback, or on foot, the elegant porch gleams in the sunlight as the first part of the hotel you see.  The hotel is a piece of my history as much as it is the island's.  My great grandfather worked at the hotel and his father before him.  My great grandfather proposed to my great grandmother in the old hotel.  I still have the ring he proposed her with. 

The land for the hotel was bought in 1886.  During this time the popularity of the island for a summer get away was exploding.  Tourists were coming from as far as Chicago to see the scenic beauty of this quiet island.  The Grand Hotel was built to cater to the wealthier tourists that came from afar to relax in peace.  It was during the construction of the hotel that an untold number of bones were unearthed.  Most of the bones were relocated, but it is said that some of these old skeletons still remain beneath the foundation of this luxourious hotel. 

In 1887 the hotel opened and it was a success from the beginning.  During the long summers every room was filled.  Of course during the winter, when the bitter Northern Michingan wind freezes the lake and burries the hotel in snow, the hotel was still mostly empty.  In the 1890's, the hotel's owners proudly announced that they had built the longest porch in the world around the beautiful hotel.   In 1895, Mark Twain came for a reading in the Hotel's grand salon.   The Hotel was often host to famous people and  a couple of movies were shot at the hotel.  The most recent film shot there was made in the 1980's and stared Christopher Reeves as a love struck playwright.  The film was called Somewhere in Time.

Despite all this activity,  the hotel has continuously been a source of paranormal activity.  As the hotel expanded, the orignal Fort Mackinac Island cemetery was moved to make room for the horse stables.  So the stables now stand on yet another collection of old bones. Those that have worked at the Grand report phantom footsteps and doors opening and shutting.  Guests staying at the hotel have reported feeling ill at ease, as if there is something else in the room with them from time to time.   The hotel groans at night and, although all old things groan, the noises from this hotel seem loader that they should.

A Photographic Journey Through Nashville's City Cemetery

Nashville City Cemetery is one of the oldest and largest cemeteries in Tennessee.  It was founded in January of 1822 and by 1850 11,000 souls were laid to rest in this beautiful necropolis.   The cemetery is home to many of Tennessee's prominent historical figures.  Two governors, 4 confederate generals, and many Nashville mayors now call this urban cemetery their resting place.   It is a pretty cemetery hidden between buildings and roads.   Its location is typical of an urban landscape and is unmarked by beauty or darkness, but the cemetery climbs out of this ordinary landscape and remains both lovely and serene.  

 

Movie Review: The Awakening

I try to watch all the haunting movies I can find.   Many of them follow a very similar story arc and I am rarely surprised by them.  Not that this is a bad thing,  I love ghost stories and I enjoy them in all their permutations.  However, it is nice to find a haunting tale that is a little surprising.  I found the awakening to be surprising.  

The Awakening is a mystery set at the height of the spiritualist movement in England.   It is just after World War I and the Spanish Flu and charlatans claiming to speak to the dead are prolific.  The heroine of this tale travels the country debunking fraudulent spiritualists and proving hauntings to be the machinations of man rather than manifestations of the dead.   Of course,  all this changes for our heroine when she is invited to investigate a haunting in a boys' boarding school.  Initially,  it seems that she will be able to quickly debunk the ghost story behind the boys boarding school, but as the haunting escalates, our heroine's wits begin to unravel and we often wonder if perhaps she is more haunted than the school itself.  

The Awakening does an amazing job of mixing the psychological hauntings of those who had survived World War I with the physical haunting of the school.  The ghosts of the soul are just as terrifying as the ones that wander the school and the combination of both creates a beautiful tension in all the characters.  I loved this movie in all its haunting beauty. 

How Valentine's Day Started with Naked Ladies and Dead Animals

It is time for my annual Valentine's Day Post.  This is my favorite post of the year because Valentine's Days origins are so interesting.  I hope you all have a happy Valentine's Day!

My favorite thing about holidays are their bizarre origins.  Most of our modern celebrations have roots in old pagan traditions.  Valantine's Day is no different.  Its pagan roots are just more bizarre than most. They are so strange I like to write about them every year.  I know it is slightly off topic, but naked people being flogged with animal hides is worth discussing in any forum. Apparently the ancient roots of Valentine's Day begins with the Romans. The Romans celebrated Lupercalia from Feb. 13 to 15. In Roman mythology Lupercus was the equivalent of the Greek god Pan who was known to be a sexy sort of fellow who promoted fertility. His holiday was a somewhat romantic kind of celebration. During Lupercalia the men would sacrifice a goat and a dog and then whip women with the hides of the dead animals. The women would line up naked in order to be whipped. They did this because they believed this ritual would make them more fertile. Afterwards, there would be lottery in which men and women would be paired up for a night of naked fun.


I know, you are now wishing we still celebrated Valentine's day this way. Enough with the cheesy cards. Where are the dead animals, whippings, and naked people? It was the Catholic Church that ruined the fun. Emperor Claudius II killed two Valentine's in different years of February 14th. Both men were martyred and the day derives its name from these two martyred saints. In the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I got confused and merged the two martyrs into one person and named February 14th after them. He also absorbed the romantic traditions of Lupercalia into the day in order to soften the pagan debauchery and retake the day for Christianity. Christianity has a long history of doing this type of thing. Christmas was taken from Roman Saturnalia traditions and Norse Yule traditions. By absorbing pagan holidays rather than forbidding them, ancient Christians were able to gain new followers rather than lose them.

Chaucer and Shakespeare can be credited with further romanticizing St. Valentine's day and turning it into the romantic, kissy holiday it is today, but I will always think back to better days when women ran naked through the streets being beaten with dead animals.

Kuntilanak: The Monstrous Ghosts of Those Who Die in Childbirth

The Kuntilanak is an extraordinarily malevolent spirit found in Malaysian folklore.  A Kuntilanak is the ghost of a pregnant woman who died in childbirth or died from complications resulting from pregnancy.  The Malaysian word  for a Kuntilanak is Pontijanak which means pregnant.  Kuntilanaks are usually seen either crying or laughing hysterically.  They are often found in old buildings and  and are sometimes said to kidnap and devour small children.  

The Kuntilanak usually appears as a beautiful young woman and this makes her more beguiling to her potential victims.  The smell of fragrant flowers follow them wherever they go.  They use their many charms to seduce men and they are often found by unscrupulous men looking for a good time.  Men find them wandering the side of the road and when the men pick the ghost up the men are rarely heard from again.   The Kuntilanak  also enjoy harming pregnant women and causing miscarriages.  Pregnant women are most vulnerable to Kuntilanak when they are traveling and the only way a pregnant woman can protect herself is to carry nails or scissors with her at all times. If the nail or scissors are driven into the base of the Kuntilanak's skull and left there it will drive the evil from the ghost and she will become a woman again until the nail is removed.

Ever the friendly ghost, when the Kuntilanak kills its victims it usually digs its fingernails into its victim's stomach and pulls out their intended's guts and gorges herself on them.  In the case of men, the kuntilanak often pulls off the genitals, the source of her unfortunate pregnancy and death, and devours those first.  Some argue the kuntilanak is more of a vampire than a ghost because it must feed on the living to continue its preternatural existence, but the images and stories of visitations of Kuntilanak's are more consistent with ghost stories than vampire stories.  Either way,  if you run into a lonely woman crying on the road or wailing like a baby it is probably best to carry a few nails with you because the kuntilanak sounds like a horrific ghost to encounter.  As someone whose been through a terrible childbirth experience,  I can understand where these nasty pregnant ghosts are coming from.  I certainly wanted to rip out someones guts halfway through my labor.

Insatiable: The Magazine of Paranormal Desires

I have been a fan of White Cat Publications for some time.  They have a wonderful collection of literary magazines for those who have a taste for the paranormal or the otherworldly.  I have even been lucky enough to write a column for White Cat for a while.   All of this is why I'm thrilled to have been given the opportunity to be the editor of the new White Cat Magazine, Insatiable:  The Magazine of Paranormal Desires.

Insatiable is primarily dedicated to quality paranormal fiction with a romantic or erotic twist.   I've spent my last week reading all kinds of submissions and I have to say that I am thrilled by the quality of the submissions to the magazine and I believe that this is and will continue to be an outstanding publication.   A magazine can only be as good as its writers and if I continue to receive submissions of this quality, the magazine will be amazing.  The first issue of Insatiable was fabulous and if you have any interest you should take a peak at:   http://www.whitecatpublications.com/?wpsc-product=insatiable-premiere-issue

Due to this change in my paranormal interests, periodically I will make announcements regarding Insatiable on this blog.   Insatiable magazine is currently open to submissions and I am now reviewing submissions.  If you are a writer who loves the paranormal, please consider submitting your work.  You can find submission guidelines at:  http://www.whitecatpublications.com/?page_id=1995