Pre Order Ghosts and Legends of Genesee and Lapeer Counties for the September 2 Book Release Party

 If you pre-order from this link your book will be available to be picked up and signed at the September 2 Book Release Party at Totem Books.

Ghosts and Legends of Genesee and Lapeer Counties 

Haunted America Series 

Roxanne Rhoads and Joe Schipani 

Release Date: August 29, 2022 

Book Description: 

Ghost stories and urban legends lurk throughout Genesee and Lapeer counties. 

A Clio man's spirit is thought to still reside in the junkyard office where he was murdered. For almost two centuries, the Flushing area has been fascinated by tales of the wealthy Brent family whose land is connected to numerous tales of murder, mystery, and ghosts. 

In Lapeer County, the Bruce Mansion's unnerving façade hints at the specters inside, and the land and buildings once belonging to the Lapeer State Home are plagued by haunting cries and ghostly activity. 

Join the authors of Haunted Flint, Roxanne Rhoads and Joe Schipani, as they take you on a tour of Genesee and Lapeer counties’ most haunted locations. 

To Pick Up The Book At The September Release Party in Flint Order Here

Real Haunted Places: New Orleans St. Louis Cemetery No. 1

Living in New Orleans, it is hard to pick one place to focus on since the city boasts an abundance of haunted locations! 

I’m going to go with St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 for the number of reported ghost sightings there. But also because the cemeteries here are so unique with their above-ground tombs (built as a result of the city being below sea level). They have an otherworldly look to them before you even hear about some of their ghostly legends.

 

St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is the oldest existing cemetery in the city and was established in the 1700’s. It was initially built to be away from the population as a response to concerns that disease was spreading from the city’s main cemetery in the French Quarter, but as the city grew, the area around it became more developed. It is now considered to be one of the most haunted cemeteries in the United States.

One of the cemetery’s most famous tombs belongs to Marie Laveau, also known as the “Voodoo Queen.” Many believe that by leaving offerings and drawing X’s on her tomb (now technically illegal) she will grant their wishes. Her spirit is said to haunt the cemetery, and people have reported being pinched or slapped near her grave. There are also reports of hearing drums and chanting, and seeing the spirit of Marie wandering the paths of the cemetery or appearing with her boa constrictor “Zombi” around her neck. 

Other ghost sightings are said to include that of Henry Vignes, a sailor who trusted the owner of the boarding house that he lived at with his important papers while he was at sea. Part of the entrusted paperwork included Henry’s family tombs, which the owner decided to sell in his absence! Henry died shortly after his return and had to be buried in an unmarked grave in the pauper’s section of the cemetery. Visitors have reported encounters with a tall blue-eyed man that inquires if they know where the Vignes tomb is. It is also said that his spirit has been caught on camera and that EVPs have been recorded of him saying, “I need to rest!”

Another regular is said to be the ghost of a young boy named Alphonse. Encounters describe him stopping visitors to introduce himself and ask for help getting home. However, he cries and disappears after being asked where his home is. He is also said to appear near the Pinead family tomb and warn visitors to stay away from it, leading to speculation that he met his demise at their hands. Other sightings report him taking flowers from some gravesites and moving them to what may be his own tomb.

Currently, visitors are only allowed to the cemetery with licensed tour guides because of numerous acts of vandalism over the years. It is on the National Register of Historic Places for its significant art and architecture. So, if you visit and don’t encounter one of the legendary ghosts, you will have many other things to feast your eyes on!

    

The Ghostwriter of New Orleans

Laura Michaud

Genre: YA, YA Paranormal

Publisher: Pelican/Arcadia Publishing

Date of Publication: 3/28/22

ISBN: 978-1455626243

ASIN: 1455626244

Number of pages: 192

Word Count: approx 55k

Cover Artist: Julie Buckner

Tagline: What if fate got it wrong this time?

Book Description: 

When a boy dies and becomes a ghost in his high school, he creates life-changing consequences for the entire student body when he communicates with his girlfriend by underlining passages in her favorite book in the library.  

But he finds that he also has a decision to make–accept his fate or take a dark path back and start a new life?

Amazon      BN     OctaviaBooks     Goodreads

Excerpt:

How many times have you forgotten to do something small? Shut a window before it rains? Take your phone with you? Do up a button on your shirt? Grab your homework on your way out the door? On the day that seals my fate, I forget to look over my shoulder.

Right before it happens everything is the same. I get the same rush of freedom that I always get in my stomach when I leave the school parking lot, hit the gas, and make a right turn onto St. Charles Avenue. The same line of live oak trees cast their tunnel of shadows over the street. I see their branches moving, so I turn the air conditioning off, roll my windows down, ignore the text messages blowing up my phone, and turn the Jimi Hendrix music (that I only listen to when I am by myself) way up. The sweat starts to pool up around the white collar of my school uniform, but the feeling of the wind across my face is totally worth it. What I do not know is that this is the last time I will ever do it.

I guess if you asked me what I do know for sure in those last moments I would say that I am a pretty fast runner, I am decent at guitar, and that Margot Cramer is the love of my life.

About the Author:

Laura Michaud grew up with her face in a book, so it was natural that she would spend some time in the publishing industry before becoming a children’s librarian and writer. A native of New York and New England, she has called the amazing city of New Orleans home since 2004. The Ghostwriter of New Orleans is her first novel.

https://lauramichaudauthor.com/

https://lauramichaudauthor.com/category/blog/

https://lauramichaudauthor.com/#join

https://www.instagram.com/lauramichaudauthor/

https://www.facebook.com/LauraMichaudAuthor

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4827347.Laura_Michaud

Vampire Musings: Articles and Short Stories Compiled by Bertena Varney

 

Vampire Musings

Join 16 vampire fans and writers from around the world for their musings on vampire music, movies, fun facts, and even mesmerizing short stories. This book will make you feel like you are in a room with friends discussing the various vampires that each of you love spanning from aristocratic vampires, to primal monsters, to the Twilight vamps. So, sit down in your comfy chair, turn on the vampire music provided in this book, pick up that Bloody Mary, and escape to a world full of vampires. 

There is a recount of the life of Anne Rice, reviews of books, movies, and television shows, a look at vampires as religious figures, romantic stories, and traditional stories of the vampire. 

Each of these stories holds intrigue for fans of creatures of the night. 

Contributors include: Audrey A’Cladh, Azurdee Garland, Bitten Twice, Bertena Varney, Carrie Rogers, Isabella Gibbons, Jacqueline Gibbons, Kathryne LeFevre, Kyle Germann, Mary Jackson, Matthew Banks, Phaedra Walker, Roxanne Rhoads, Selah Janel, Simon Bacon, and Stavros Cockrell.

These contributors range from a 12-year-old actress, to college professors, librarians, paranormal romance authors, and even those that live the life of a vampire.

The cover art was created by Stavros while showcasing the model Xamie wearing fangs from Kaos Kustom Fangs, LLC. The model is both alluring but dangerous. She is a great representation of the book and the various stories that are told within.

Amazon       Books2Read

#VampireMusings #Vampires #VampireFiction #DiscussingVampires #LetsTalkVampires #Fangs #VampireLore #VampireMovies #VampireMusic

Ghosts and Legends of Genesee and Lapeer Counties Events

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2022 AT 4 PM – 7 PM

 Totem Books 620 W Court St, Flint, MI 48503

Book Release Party for Ghosts and Legends of Genesee and Lapeer Counties

https://www.facebook.com/events/1201677600668459

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2022 AT 11 AM – 6 PM

A Festival of Oddities 2022

Eaton County's Museum at Courthouse Square

https://www.facebook.com/events/1012581606243103

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2022 AT 2 PM – 4 PM

R&B Books 12830 S Saginaw St F, Grand Blanc, MI 48439

Ghosts and Legends of Genesee and Lapeer Counties Book Signing

https://www.facebook.com/events/395271545709096

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2022 AT 4 PM – 8 PM

Baubles & Broomsticks 2022

Historic Downton Lapeer

https://www.facebook.com/events/263564329113719/

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2022 AT 4 PM – 9 PM (Tentative Time)

Ghosts and Legends of Genesee and Lapeer Counties Book Signing at Witches Night Out Fenton

Fenton's Open Book 105 W Shiawassee Ave, Fenton, MI 48430

https://www.facebook.com/events/1131311217428481/

Ghosts and Legends of Genesee and Lapeer Counties by Roxanne Rhoads and Joe Schipani

 

Ghosts and Legends of Genesee and Lapeer Counties 

Haunted America Series 

Roxanne Rhoads and Joe Schipani 

Release Date: August 29, 2022 

Book Description: 

Ghost stories and urban legends lurk throughout Genesee and Lapeer counties. 

A Clio man's spirit is thought to still reside in the junkyard office where he was murdered. For almost two centuries, the Flushing area has been fascinated by tales of the wealthy Brent family whose land is connected to numerous tales of murder, mystery, and ghosts. 

In Lapeer County, the Bruce Mansion's unnerving façade hints at the specters inside, and the land and buildings once belonging to the Lapeer State Home are plagued by haunting cries and ghostly activity. 

Join the authors of Haunted Flint, Roxanne Rhoads and Joe Schipani, as they take you on a tour of Genesee and Lapeer counties’ most haunted locations. 

 Pre-Order at Amazon 

https://amzn.to/3kjorrN 

How to Use the Tarot to Develop a Story with M.B. Strang #Tarot #StoryDevelopment

As a writer, I find the Tarot helpful with planning out stories. I have a lot of different decks, some I use for meditation, some I use for practical exercises like story creation. Choose the deck that feels right to you. 

I find it helpful to separate the major arcana from the minor. Use the major arcana, or even just the court cards, to represent the characters of your story. The minor arcana shows situations characters get into and, depending on the cards, can help suggest resolutions for those situations. If you want writing prompts, shuffle the deck and draw cards randomly, then use your imagination to connect the cards and build a story. If you already have an idea and need to develop it more, search through the deck, or decks, and find images that best represent your idea, then choose other cards to help you refine your concept. 

There are no hard and fast rules here. Use the images of the Tarot to spark your imagination. Sure, other art can inspire you, too, but Tarot decks are relatively inexpensive, come in a vast variety of artistic styles, and have 72 cards in each box. That’s a lot of potential inspiration in one little deck. The Tarot itself tells a story when you look at all the cards in order. You could even write stories about each suit. One possibility is to use the major arcana for character and minors for plot and situations, you could set aside the minor arcana and just use the major, or vice versa. Setting limits on how you use the cards will limit your creativity. The more you work with them, the more they will inspire you.

The following is an example of how to construct a story from a Tarot deck:

I drew some cards randomly, then went through the deck to find cards that helped make a sensible narrative. I rearranged the cards until I could see the story. Here are the cards I drew and chose: The Emperor, The Hierophant, 7 of Cups, The Tower, 5 of Pentacles, 5 of Swords, Page of Cups, Queen of Wands, Strength, 8 of Pentacles, 2 of Swords, King of Cups. I didn’t choose a card to represent the Main Character (MC), but you could if that seems helpful. So, the basic story here could be that the Emperor is the MC’s father. He is authoritative and influenced by the Hierophant and criticizes the MC for building castles in the air (7 of Cups) and not developing useful skills. The Tower and the 5 of Pentacles shows how MC is upset by this and leaves home. The 5 of Swords makes the MC question themselves. Maybe the 5 of S is a person the MC meets and decides they don’t want to be like. Then the MC meets the Page of Cups and the Queen of Wands who help the MC find the inner strength (Strength card) to develop their skills (8 of Pentacles) which allow them to fulfill the dreams represented by the 7 of Cups. The 2 of Swords represents the balance in the relationship between the MC and their father; it isn’t a perfect balance, but it’s an improvement in the relationship. The King of Cups represents the change in the father, who while he may not be happy with the MC’s choice of career, at least respects the skills the MC developed. 

This story still needs refinement, of course, and this could be done by drawing more cards for more ideas, or maybe there’s enough here in the cards already drawn, but I hope this shows how the cards can spark suggestions and how one idea can lead to another. This can be useful if you have writer’s block or just need a little nudge to get your thoughts flowing. Remember, there aren’t rules to this. The Tarot is a tool and I hope you enjoy using it to inspire your creativity.

Arrow’s Flight

Knights of the Pearl Order 

Book One

M. B. Sträng

Genre: Fantasy

Date of Publication: 02/17/2022 

ISBN-13: 979-8418478887 

ISBN-13: 9781005631352 

ASIN:B09SP9R1YX 

Number of pages: 277

Word Count: 99,600 

Cover Artist: M.B. Strang

Book Description:

An unknown menace moves through the polite society of Pearl’s Holding. If not caught in time, it will bring down not just the hallowed Knights of the Pearl Order, but also everyone who lives and works with them. The answer lies with a young woman of mysterious origins whose life has been touched by tragedy. To fulfill her potential, she must confront her past and discover a future more amazing than she’d ever imagined and find the inner strength to fly.

She’s not alone. A handful of Knights, a hearthmage, and their magickal companions all test their physical and magickal limits to make things right before it’s too late. Otherwise, dark forces will overtake the Knights for good.

Amazon     Smashwords

Excerpt:

Beads of sweat rolled into my eyes, and I used the back of my wrist to wipe my forehead as I continued to cut flesh from the lamb’s carcass. The task became difficult as my knife had dulled over the years, and there was no way to sharpen the blade. Scraping it over a rock seemed to make it worse, not better. Taking the animals thumped guilt into my heart, but I didn’t think that the people in the valley would miss them much and I was tired of eating fish. Only once had one of them ventured anywhere near my cave, but he never came close enough to find the bough-covered entrance. I hid, just like my mother said to do. The man soon left, but I’d stayed hidden for hours.

Rumbling filled my belly, and I sliced at the flesh with greater determination. Figuring out how to make fire had come naturally. As for the rest of it—what my parents could do, but I had not yet learned—well, Mama and Papa were not here to teach me. And besides, Mama said to keep it hidden. Some, especially the Brethren, would kill us for what we were.

“Mama said to hide.” I spoke out loud to myself. It had been a long time since I’d heard another voice, but at least I could hear my own. My cave was too far from the valley to hear the people there. The few times I ventured close to the hamlet, I heard their language was not my own native tongue. Suspecting I had lost some words, I spoke more often now, and practised all the languages I knew in order to not forget more, and so my throat wouldn’t lose the ability to speak. I talked to Mama and Papa, wishing they were here. I visited Mama out there in the woods. Just bones now. I had taken the arrow out of her ribs, broke off the shaft, and wore the arrowhead on a cord woven with her hair. It was my way of taking my mother with me, keeping her close.

Heat flushed my forehead. That had been happening more often lately. Despite the warmth in my brow, I shivered. Waves of dizziness washed over me. I finished with the lamb and cleaned the knife on a bit of parchment, one of several scraps I found floating down from the sky one day. A piece had drifted across my face, and I glanced up to see what appeared to be a book flying by. The dropped parchment was no less strange: ornate script scribbled all over in green ink. I had grown tired of trying to decipher the bizarre symbols, many of which different than any of the languages I had learned to read, and found other uses for the parchment pieces.

And now I used another sheet as a mop for my sweating head.

Sitting back on my heels, I clutched the arrowhead in my fist. Once more the events of that long-ago day forced themselves into my mind. That terrible day when a man appeared on the ridge. The sun behind cast him in silhouette, and we could not see his face. He wore the dull robes of the Brethren. They billowed, though there was no breeze. His limbs writhed and twisted and cloth rent as wings thrust out, the man’s body distorting until it resolved into a white wyrm, like a dragon but certainly not a dragon. A foul stench emanated from the beast, and I started to gag.

I saw my father struggling. I knew what he was trying to do, but he could not do it. I knew why my mother could not do it right now but why couldn’t my father? Before they had a chance to ready weapons, the wyrm flapped its leathery wings and issued a bone-jarring shriek. Lightning spewing from its terrible maw, past its narrow, gleaming teeth. That creature took flight, swooped down, snatched up my father in its talons, and carried him away.

“Teban!” My mother screamed my father’s name over and over that the word may reach his ears and give him hope. She fell to her knees, wracked with cries of anguish. Clasping me tightly, she held me for what seemed like a long time, both of us sobbing violently. At last, she gained control of her breath and said, “Quosa, I must go after him. I will get your father back. You must hide.” She stood, and shaking her head, she said, “It must be because of the signatures. That’s why he couldn’t—” Her words broke off as we saw another one of the Brethren approach. She screamed, “Hide!” as the man loosed the arrow that lodged in the middle of her chest.

About the Author:

M.B. Sträng has been happily married to Timothy for over 33 years and they are the proud parents of a Biologist who has earned a Master’s degree. M.B. recently worked at a domestic violence shelter, but now writes full time. She has black belts in two martial arts and occasionally teaches self-defence classes. She enjoys writing (of course), painting, drawing, sewing, and embroidery. At the age of 53, M. B. learned that she is autistic, and suddenly her whole life made sense. She fences with messers, longswords, sabres, and arming swords and bucklers fairly regularly at the Ann Arbor Sword Club, and is a Knight-Magister in the Order of Paladins. Arrow’s Flight is her first novel.

Web site: https://mbstrang.com/ 

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/MBStrangAuthor/  

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22242754.M_B_Strang 

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/M-B-Strang/e/B09SQCBZDT/   

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/TemperedBlade 

Please Help Send My Son to Disney with His Marching Band

My youngest is registered for a Disney/Universal Studios Florida trip for Spring Break 2023 with his Marching band.

I'm praying that we don't do a backward slide with COVID.

His last big school trip was canceled in 2020. He never did get to go to Washington DC. 

He'll be doing lots of fundraisers through school- candy bar sales and a Coffee Beanery fundraiser have already started with more coming soon (see below for Coffee Beanery ordering details)

In addition to his official fundraisers, you can always purchase from me which helps 100% pay for his trip. I have Patreon, an Etsy store The Bewitching Cauldron, a Zazzle store, my books on Amazon, and of course authors can always purchase book tours or social media packages from Bewitching Book Tours.

The tour company he is traveling with also offers an option for a direct donation to his trip.

For the Coffee Beanery Fundraiser, if you are local to the Flint, MI area and would like to place an order let me know, this will bypass the $10 delivery fee. Unfortunately, they have more varieties and flavors available to purchase online than they do on the brochure.

If you are not local but would still love some coffee please visit the fundraising website: https://www.coffeebeaneryfundraising.com/. 

All orders placed online will be shipped to your home for a $10 flat shipping fee.

In the top right corner click on shop a fundraiser and use this information to log in:

Email: pattit@beanerysupport.com

Password: coffeebeanery

At check out please enter "Flushing Band and Orchestra Fundraiser Robert Napolitano " in the “Add a note” section at checkout.

Thank you for contributing.