Please join me in offering a warm welcome to today’s guest author Jennifer Rainey. Jennifer writes paranormal romance. Today she’s here to talk about her latest novel The Beldam’s Eye and to share some of her real life ghost hunting experiences with us. Jennifer is giving away a ton of great prizes during her blog tour. First, she’s giving away two $20 Amazon GCs and five copies of Thoroughly Modern Monsters, her short story collection to randomly drawn commenters during the tour. In addition she’s giving away a grand prize to one randomly drawn commenter – that will be a $25 Amazon Gift card, a copy of These Hellish Happenings (her first novel) and a copy of Thoroughly Modern Monsters. Leave a comment to enter…then check out the rest of her stops so that you can leave a comment at her other stops as well.
In the world of The Beldam’s Eye, the existence of ghosts is acknowledged scientific fact, but of course, most people in our world are a little more skeptical. While watching horror movies may be fun, many can’t say they actually believe Casper may be lurking around the corner.
I occasionally attend paranormal investigations. I’ve loved of the idea of the dead walking among us since I was very young and when I turned about sixteen and all of those paranormal reality shows really started taking off, I was right there with every one of them. (Ahem, I still have a crush on Grant Wilson of Ghost Hunters fame!) A lot of people know this about me, and I’m naturally often asked if I believe in ghosts.
That’s a tricky question.
I do believe in ghosts, but I’m not sure I believe they’re the spirits of dead people consciously wandering around and attempting to communicate with the living. Then again, I can’t say with the utmost certainty that they’re not. I’m a skeptic, yes, but I am completely open to the idea of ghosts. I’m just looking for answers. I think there’s something there. I just don’t know what.
My most recent ghost hunt took place in Gettysburg at The Jennie Wade House. Jennie was the only civilian recorded to have died in the battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Before entering the house, our group of ghost hunters stood outside the door, listening to a local investigator give us the run-down on the house.
Suddenly, the cellar doors rattled violently, the padlock leaping into the air! It gave us all quite a start, but the investigator assured us the group in the basement was to blame. She told us, irritated, that she’d have to have a talk with her fellow investigators about the incident.
Upon entering the basement later in the evening and confronting those down there at the time, we were shocked that at the start of the investigation no one had been on the side of the basement with the cellar doors and that no one down there earlier had even heard the cellar doors! Baffled, we tried to determine who possibly could’ve made the doors rattle.
As we discussed this, my sister was holding K-II meter, a device which measures fluctuations in magnetic fields. The device had been entirely dead the whole evening until this discussion. Suddenly, it was flashing orange and red! It was as though whoever had be checking the lock on the cellar doors had returned to say “Yes! I was the one checking the doors!”
This is only one of many bizarre things that happened that night. Am I saying a ghost definitely rattled the cellar doors? No. But it’s still an experience that can’t be explained away (and one I learned later other investigators have experienced at that house).
When writing The Beldam’s Eye, however, I created a spirit world that was, in my mind, ideal. Spirits not only openly communicate with humans, they have relationships with them. They love them, they hate them, they coexist. One of my favorite aspects of this series is the romance between Erasmus Bramble, a paranormal investigator, and Aletheia Jones, the 1920s era spirit who haunts the building in which he works. There’s something terribly romantic about a love not only reaching between time periods like that, but between life and death.
Cover Blurb From The Beldam’s Eye
When Erasmus Bramble finds the recently-deceased Angus Heyer rummaging through his kitchen cabinets, he knows he has a unique case on his hands.
As paranormal investigators in rural Ohio, Ras and his business partner Antony Yeats tackle ghostly problems on a daily basis, from poltergeist exterminations to troubled spirits just looking for a shoulder to cry on. Angus isn’t looking for ghost therapy. He needs Ras and Yeats to help him retrieve a pocket watch stolen from him after death, a pocket watch that is said to be cursed: The Beldam’s Eye.
The skeptical Ras and Yeats agree to take Angus’s case, but they soon find themselves in over their heads, facing murder, theft and perilous dark magic. Is it all just backwoods superstition or is the curse of The Beldam’s Eye grisly reality?
An Excerpt From The Beldam’s Eye
A pillow with the words God Bless This Mess stitched across the middle immediately flew at his head. He ducked and charged into the wind tunnel that was supposed to be a guest bedroom. The windows were shut, but curtains billowed into the middle of the room and cutesy Americana-flavored decorations rolled across the floor like tumbleweed.
“Where is she?” Ras yelled over the roar of the wind.
“Over there in the corner!” Betty Ann answered.
Yeats immediately snapped a picture of the corner. The spirit box spat out a photograph, and he waited for the image to develop, throwing one arm up to protect himself from a flying quilt.
“Mrs. Walsh, you might want to wait downstairs,” Ras said. “We don’t want you to get hurt.”
Betty Ann was halfway back down the hall when Yeats yelled, “Ras, we’ve got a rogue here.” A portrait of Jesus Christ, the kind where the eyes were always on you, tumbled to the ground.
Ras dodged a potted plant and examined the image. Something that used to be a young woman in a red dress stood in the corner, her long back hair flying in all directions as though she’d been struck by lightning. The wind spirit’s skin was mostly chalky, save for just around her eyes where the flesh was bloated and black. Her fingers were smeared with dried blood.
She had no pupils, just black marbles where eyes should be, and yet Ras could still tell she was staring straight at the spirit box.
He could also tell she was pretty pissed off.
About Jennifer Rainey:
Jennifer Rainey was raised by wolves who later sold her to gypsies. She then joined the circus at the age of ten. There, she was the flower girl in the famed Bearded Bride of Beverly Hills show until the act was discontinued (it was discovered that the bearded lady was actually a man). From there, she wandered around the country selling novelty trucker hats with vaguely amusing sayings printed on front. Somehow, she made enough money to go to The Ohio State University for a major in English.
Website:
http://www.jenniferrainey.com
Blog:
http://independentparanormal.blogspot.com
Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/JenniferKRainey
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/AuthorJenniferRainey
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Great post. I would love to join in on a real life ghost hunt. I love the paranormal and such. They sound like great experiences. Thanks for sharing the excerpt as well.
I’m a believer. Loved the excerpt thank you. The stuff of nightmares.
marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
Thanks for sharing. That sounds scary.
bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
No problem! Thanks for commenting!
I’m always curious to hear about someone’s paranormal experience–whether I believe it or not, it makes for an interesting story!
vitajex(at)aol(dot)com
Same here! It’s always interesting to hear about other peoples’ experiences, regardless of whether not I think they have sufficient evidence. It’s fascinating.
I have a question for our readers too…
Readers…does knowing that an author has some real life paranormal experience influence your decision to buy or not buy their book? Why or why not?
The description of the spirit in your excerpt is quite a chilling one…
Something that used to be a young woman in a red dress stood in the corner, her long back hair flying in all directions as though she’d been struck by lightning. The wind spirit’s skin was mostly chalky, save for just around her eyes where the flesh was bloated and black. Her fingers were smeared with dried blood.
What can you tell us about this spirit…how she came to be a spirit…why she’s throwing things at the ghost hunters?
She’s not really as wicked as she sounds like she is, haha! It’s more that she can’t manage her energy. She died under particularly unpleasant circumstances and that’s made her a chaotic spirit in death. None of my spirits are completely evil; they may have been a bit scrambled by death, but they’re not evil. I like keeping them in the grey area.
Okay…I’m back to ask a few questions to keep things going. Stirring the pot…that’s my role around here.
Can’t you just picture me…black hat perched atop my head…gnarled fingers gripping a stirring stick…black cat perched upon my shoulder…as I keep things stirred up?
Ah well…maybe it’s the Halloween season slipping up on me.
For Jennifer…how much do your real life paranormal experiences (ghost hunting – running from spiders – etc.) have on the stories you write? Have any of your real life experiences directly inspired any of your books…or parts of books? If so, which ones?
My experiences have a ton of influence on my writing! The most notable is this: parts of The Beldam’s Eye take place in a haunted antique mall that is based heavily on a haunted antique mall in Columbus, Ohio. Little bits and pieces of many places I’ve visited or investigated have slipped into the writing.
That would’ve freaked me out, thanks for sharing your ghost hunting experience and your book. I am not sure about ghosts either, but after that kinda run in I might believe.
Thank you for commenting! Yeah, I can’t say that what I experienced was absolutely a dead person’s spirit interacting with us, but I also can’t say I 100% knew what it was. I definitely walk that line.
I would never, ever, go hunting a ghost on purpose. I hope I never encounter one. I don’t mind reading about them, however, because in my mind it is all fiction.
Your excerpt was really frightening.
Thank you! I’m glad the excerpt was frightening! LOL! While I don’t normally feel fear while ghost hunting, I totally understand why someone would. It’s a little weird, it’s the unknown.
Now what really scares me on ghost hunts… are spiders. Haha!
Love the subject. Ghost hunting is so exciting.
Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com
Agreed!! I’m glad you liked it!
Very interesting interview.
Thank you for commenting!
Wow – not that guest post gave me chills. I would never want to be a ghost hunter. I would have ran away the moment the cellar doors shook. That’s evidence enough. XD Thanks for sharing your daring experience!
chrysrawr@yahoo.com
Hi Christine,
I’ve often wondered what I’d do if confronted with something spooky.
There was one occasion which I mentioned in the comments on Feather Stone’s post a couple days back…
Basically we lived in a house which had an abandoned house on the property. The abandoned house had been used as a barn for a long time. I always felt a bit creeped out in the abandoned house. The feeling wasn’t bad until I went toward the steps that led to the upstairs. There seemed a force field of really negative feeling near the steps…a feeling of NOT being wanted there.
Though I was curious about what was up there the feeling of NOT being wanted there was very strong and I never did go up the stairs.
I don’t know what the feeling was. I don’t think ghosts are necessarily bad or have bad energy. It could be that something bad had happened upstairs or on the steps and I was picking up that energy…or could be there was some kind of entity there that didn’t want me there. In any case, I left well enough alone.
I am curious if others have felt similar sensations and what they did.
Jennifer, have you ever felt a strong feeling of not being wanted there in any of the places you have ghost hunted?
What a chilling experience that must’ve been! I agree with you, though; I don’t think these are necessarily bad spirits but that we’re picking up on something negative that has happened in an area.
I have had a similar experience at the Cincinnati Music Hall. Back stage is very, very eerie, and there’s just this feeling that you don’t want to be there! The story there goes that there’s the spirit of a young girl who will bother workers, but I don’t know much more about her.
How interesting Jennifer. I used to live in Cincinnati. Never heard this story about the Cincinnati Music Hall…but then I never went there.
I wonder what the tale is behind the spirit in the music hall. It would be interesting to research it.
Thank you so much for hosting me today! I had a wonderful time writing the blog post for this stop.
I’ll be online on and off throughout the day to answer any questions readers might have.
Thanks again!
Hi Jennifer,
Welcome to the blog. I’m glad you had such a good time writing the blog for this stop. The last three posts here have dealt in some way with the paranormal, so we’re really delving into it here on the blog.
I always find it interesting to hear what others think of the paranormal.
I’m going to get myself together a bit (have some caffeine) and then I’ll be back with some questions for you.
Wonderful! I completely agree; there are so many viewpoints out there on paranormal activity and it’s fascinating to hear them all. I’m really looking forward to seeing what everyone has to share here.
Thank you for hosting Jennifer today.