Colleen Collins's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-shining-by-stephen-king"
Paranormal Investigations: Ghost Hunting Haunted Hotels and Frank Sinatra
As we’re approaching Halloween, I thought I’d chat a little about paranormal investigations AKA ghost hunting. Do I believe ghosts exist? No, but I’d love to find evidence to prove me wrong.
I've visited three supposedly haunted Colorado hotels, including The Stanley, where Stephen King first starting penning The Shining. Heard some scary, freaky, ghoulish stories…but didn’t bump into any ghosts, unfortunately.
Below I’ve included excerpts (nonfiction & fiction) from two of my books that reference ghost hunting, as well as some ghostly links, including a link to the existing old-time radio recordings of Inner Sanctum Mysteries, with great titles like “The Skull That Walked,” “Death Has Claws,” and “Corpse for Halloween.”
And now, let’s kick off this spirited discussion of my visit to a hundred-year-old-plus building in downtown Denver, formerly a brothel run by the Denver’s infamous madam, Mattie Silks.
The Queen of Denver’s Former Red Light District…and Resident Ghost?
(Except from Secrets of a Real-Life Female Private Eye)
Seven or so years ago, I was writing a novel that featured a ghost character (Sweet Talking Guy). My fictional ghost lived during the late nineteenth-century silver-boom days of Colorado, and in my research I read where a famous madam, Mattie Silks, from that era was supposedly still haunting her old living quarters (called the House of Mirrors).
She ran multiple successful brothels, but her most famous was probably her House of Mirrors. A quote from Mattie on being a businesswoman:
“I went into the sporting life for business reasons and for no other. It was a way for a woman in those days to make money, and I made it. I considered myself then and I do now-as a businesswoman. I operated the best houses in town and I had as my clients the most important men in the West."
One spring afternoon, I visited the House of Mirrors, which had morphed into a bar/restaurant. The place was closed, but a friendly bartender let me in to walk around and look at spots where the madam’s ghost had supposedly been seen and possibly heard (whisperings and giggling on a certain staircase was one of the more popular). Did I see or hear any ghostly goings-on? Sorry to say, no.
But the bartender wanted to share his personal stories with me. Claimed that late at night, when he was alone cleaning up, sometimes the elevator would suddenly start working, its doors opening…and no one would be inside. And then there was the night when, alone again, an entire shelf suddenly fell off the wall.
I wish I could imagine ghosts in those happenings, but it seemed to me that both the shelf and elevator were in serious need of repair.
Ghost Hunting Frank Sinatra
In my upcoming release, Sleepless in Las Vegas (Harlequin SuperRomance, December 2013), my private-eye couple conducts a “ghost hunt,” which the tough-as-nails Vegas P.I. Drake Morgan thinks is about the most stupid case he’s ever accepted, but takes it because he needs the dough.
I set the ghost hunting scene at the Riviera hotel in Las Vegas, where people swear Frank Sinatra not only haunts the penthouse suite he stayed in for years, and which is named after him (you can rent the Frank Sinatra penthouse for $200+ a night) he’s hosting ghostly cocktail parties!
How could I not set a scene in the Frank Sinatra suite?
The below excerpt takes place in the penthouse suite with Val and Drake, where Val gives an inventory of their ghost-hunting equipment, which I thought would-be ghost hunters might find of interest.
(To read the full blog post, please go to http://thezenman.com/2013/10/ghost-hu...
I've visited three supposedly haunted Colorado hotels, including The Stanley, where Stephen King first starting penning The Shining. Heard some scary, freaky, ghoulish stories…but didn’t bump into any ghosts, unfortunately.
Below I’ve included excerpts (nonfiction & fiction) from two of my books that reference ghost hunting, as well as some ghostly links, including a link to the existing old-time radio recordings of Inner Sanctum Mysteries, with great titles like “The Skull That Walked,” “Death Has Claws,” and “Corpse for Halloween.”
And now, let’s kick off this spirited discussion of my visit to a hundred-year-old-plus building in downtown Denver, formerly a brothel run by the Denver’s infamous madam, Mattie Silks.
The Queen of Denver’s Former Red Light District…and Resident Ghost?
(Except from Secrets of a Real-Life Female Private Eye)
Seven or so years ago, I was writing a novel that featured a ghost character (Sweet Talking Guy). My fictional ghost lived during the late nineteenth-century silver-boom days of Colorado, and in my research I read where a famous madam, Mattie Silks, from that era was supposedly still haunting her old living quarters (called the House of Mirrors).
She ran multiple successful brothels, but her most famous was probably her House of Mirrors. A quote from Mattie on being a businesswoman:
“I went into the sporting life for business reasons and for no other. It was a way for a woman in those days to make money, and I made it. I considered myself then and I do now-as a businesswoman. I operated the best houses in town and I had as my clients the most important men in the West."
One spring afternoon, I visited the House of Mirrors, which had morphed into a bar/restaurant. The place was closed, but a friendly bartender let me in to walk around and look at spots where the madam’s ghost had supposedly been seen and possibly heard (whisperings and giggling on a certain staircase was one of the more popular). Did I see or hear any ghostly goings-on? Sorry to say, no.
But the bartender wanted to share his personal stories with me. Claimed that late at night, when he was alone cleaning up, sometimes the elevator would suddenly start working, its doors opening…and no one would be inside. And then there was the night when, alone again, an entire shelf suddenly fell off the wall.
I wish I could imagine ghosts in those happenings, but it seemed to me that both the shelf and elevator were in serious need of repair.
Ghost Hunting Frank Sinatra
In my upcoming release, Sleepless in Las Vegas (Harlequin SuperRomance, December 2013), my private-eye couple conducts a “ghost hunt,” which the tough-as-nails Vegas P.I. Drake Morgan thinks is about the most stupid case he’s ever accepted, but takes it because he needs the dough.
I set the ghost hunting scene at the Riviera hotel in Las Vegas, where people swear Frank Sinatra not only haunts the penthouse suite he stayed in for years, and which is named after him (you can rent the Frank Sinatra penthouse for $200+ a night) he’s hosting ghostly cocktail parties!
How could I not set a scene in the Frank Sinatra suite?
The below excerpt takes place in the penthouse suite with Val and Drake, where Val gives an inventory of their ghost-hunting equipment, which I thought would-be ghost hunters might find of interest.
(To read the full blog post, please go to http://thezenman.com/2013/10/ghost-hu...
