G. Michael Vasey's Blog: The Wacky World of Dr. Vasey, page 69

New Book Trailer

So last night I had a crack at making a video trailer for my new book – My Haunted Life – and I came up with this….

Let me know what you think…..

The book is available on Kindle and in paperback formats.

Right now the Kindle version is just 99 cents – but not for much longer!

Memories

Hazy and utterly imperfect

I still see your amazing face

But cannot recall your name

So many details have escaped me

Become just disjointed pictures

Jumping from frame to frame

Looking back more often now

Is it something about getting older?

Treasuring such moments

Like an old movie rerun

In that grainy black n white

Like a regressive hypnosis

Memories often have a quality

Unreal and sort of beyond the veil

Difficult to determine between

Whether real or just wishful thinking

Ethereal like some whispy gossamer

Or an insidious repeating dream

Memories

Pictures of a lifetime

Visionaries

A shifting paradigm

An Autumn walk Through Brno

 

As some of you know, I live in Brno. Brno is a city in the south of the Czech Republic, and it is closer to Vienna and Bratislava than it is to Prague. It is a city of more than 350,000 and that makes it a little bigger than my hometown of Hull, England, but not by much. I find that surprising really as, while Hull has the feel of a grimy, northern working class city, Brno is more like a picturesque, but industrial village.

A classic view of the City of Brno.

 

Brno feels smaller, more compact and is simply blessed by beautiful surroundings and topography. Where Hull is endlessly flat, stretching into the plains of Holderness, Brno is hilly. While Hull is made up of long streets of Victorian houses all joined together in endless monotony, Brno is a city reflecting its Victorian opulence with magnificent mansions and homes, now mostly turned into apartments. Don’t get me wrong, I do like Hull (yes – it is a surprisingly beautiful city in its own way) but Brno has something, well, unique.

Brno is a city of surprises. Almost all the houses and buildings have cellars here and some have courtyards hidden away down small passageways. as you can imagine, exploring the city, you constantly find new pubs, clubs, coffee bars, restaurants and so forth hidden in cellars or down small alleyways. It is also a city with many parks and greenery. This weekend, we went for a walk in the area that we live and discovered Wilson’s Forest for the first time.

We walked up through Kravi Hora where the Brno Planetarium is located stopping briefly to allow our daughter to play in the park.

Kravi Hora

Before making our way to the forest, which, at this time of year, is all the more amazing as a result of all the Fall colours. The walkways and small pathways criss-cross the park and are well used by joggers and walkers.

Wilson’s Forest walkway

 

The park is also at the top of one of the many hills in Brno and offers panoramic glimpses of the city along the way.

View of Brno from Wilson’s Forest.

As we walked back home, the autumn sun began to fall low on the horizon simply adding to the feeling of awe and magnificence of this amazing little city.

 

The Halloween That Wasn’t!

I lived in Houston, TX for nigh on 20-years and on Halloween, the doorbell would not stop ringing. Little kids by the dozen all dressed up roaming the streets with their parents collecting candy. When my boys were little, I would accompany them around all the local streets and I really enjoyed seeing how Texans celebrated Halloween. Decorations, candy, make up, fancy dress, they do it right. Some of the yard decorations were simply spectacular too.

I will be honest and say that some years being the cranky sod I am, by the 50th ring of the doorbell and 100th listening to ‘TRICK OR TREAT,” I had sometimes had enough. There were times when I opened the door and said “Trick”. The kids looked confused by this as no one had explained that while the general consensus was to offer a treat, one or two weirdos like me thought it funny to instead ask for the trick. Not one was prepared for this and, of course, they got their treat anyway.

I also thought it somewhat bizarre that such a religiously conservative state as Texas where ‘birth control’ remains a sin, God is mightily feared and very rich men preach hell ‘n’ damnation to thousands every sunday – often in a televised evangelical love fest of making the man in the pulpit significantly richer, would allow Halloween to happen at all. Many a time, I watched young evangelical backside scamper off across my yard as fast as their young legs would take them when I proclaimed that I was a Wiccan and surely Halloween is a pagan and Wiccan celebration. Bit of an interesting quandary I always thought.

However, here I am now in the Czech Republic where I have been almost a decade and Halloween just hasn’t caught on. There is some minimal evidence of it happening in stores, clubs and restaurants but not much. Our doorbell never rang at all last night and a quick look up and down our street showed no kids, no fancy dress and no decorations whatsoever. I really rather missed it.

Instead, in the Czech Republic something much scarier happens a little later. Yes, in the run up to Christmas (December 5th), we will be visited by innumerable groups of adults dressed up as St. Nicholas (dressed as a Bishop), an angel and a devil. The devil’s name is Cert (pronounced Chert) and he is much feared by all small children here. The event is called Mikulas (pronounced sort of as Mickularshe).They will quiz the children about how good they have been during the year and ask the child to perform some song or rhyme before presenting a small gift (usually pre-bought by the parents). The fear is that either that gift will be coal from the Devil or even worse – that the Devil will drag them off to hell. All year long little kids here are threatened with Cert for bad manners or behaviour…. Cert is much feared!

So this year, other than my new book coming out, Halloween was a bust. Instead, we patiently await the visit of Mikulas, Cert and Andel…..

My Haunted Life – Paperback

My Haunted Life – my new book is now available in paperback format as well as Kindle.

My childhood was a strange one. One of my first memories is of a little, blue man who emerged out of a mirror in my bedroom, shot me with a toy gun and then jumped out of the window into the backyard below. You might perhaps think that I imagined it, except for the fact that my parents actually heard the gunshot!

This book is a collection of events that happened to me. All are strange and all are true. When people say that “fact is stranger than fiction”– they weren’t joking.

It is a compendium of stories that really happened to me and those around me; some are creepy and others just bizarre. Reality is a strange and wonderful thing and this book tries to demonstrate that.

New Release….

G. M. Vasey:

A new book by Sue Vincent and Stuart France…. Don and Wen are back….

Originally posted on Daily Echo:

Doomsday: Dark Sage

Now available on Amazon

The piper of Shacklow

The fiddler of Fin

The old woman of Demon’s Dale

Calls them all in.

They said I was born of the Balefire, when the priestesses left the enclosure to open the womb of the land as the dark time fled. I did not know, not then.

She was of the Old People, small and dark, a plump figure hunched singing over the quern. He tended the goats and fowl and life was simple. I learned the ways of hut and hearth, playing in the dirt with the dogs, my feet always stained with the green of the grass.

I do not remember that they ever spoke my name. They called me little one or bright one because of my hair and smiled, and sometimes shared glances I could not read.

Grandmother shared our hut. She never moved from her…

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Psychic Attack

Today is Halloween and rather than post a true story today, I thought I would post an extract from my novel The Last Observer. I chose this extract as it is an account of a psychic account and somehow, it appeals to me as a Halloween story. Have a great Halloween and keep an eye out for the broomsticks – there may be some tipsy drivers out tonight!

The room was almost as big as his entire flat he thought as he lay down in the huge bed. His hand now throbbed and his face felt sore too as he rubbed it gingerly. For Stanley, reality had truly taken on a feeling of being unreal. In a matter of days, hours even, his cozy little world had turned upside down. He had even the target of a shooting! Despite this, simply being a few feet away from Jo had a strangely calming effect on him. “He really ought to be scarred shitless,” he thought to himself, yet he felt somehow serene, and above whatever it was that was going on. He was warm, cozy and…. Wait, he thought, I am really quite warm. He felt his own brow. Did he have the beginnings of a fever? He wasn’t sure, but it did feel awfully hot all of a sudden in the room. Stanley got up and checked the radiator. It was slightly warm. He opened a window and stood in the cold breeze but he was really beginning to feel uncomfortable hot. He took off the T-shirt he had been given and lay on the bed but this didn’t help at all either. He was simply beginning to boil. He stood up and tried walking around the large room but he didn’t just feel hot but suddenly terribly weak as well.

“Jo,” he called rather hoarsely as he also seemed to be having trouble with his throat. It felt constricted as if someone was being strangling him. He was beginning to panic a bit now as the room began slowly rotating and he had to hold on one of the posts on the bed. Something was seriously wrong and getting worse fast, he thought.

“Jo,” he tried to shout the word but all that came out was a strange rasping sound. The room was spinning wildly and Stanley felt faint and near to collapse.

“Stanley, think of the light,” said a voice close by. “Imagine Stanley the light around you.” A hand was touching his forehead and he felt himself pushed down onto the bed.

“Stanley, focus, listen to me Stanley,” said the voice. “FOCUS!”

Stanley was trying to focus but his throat was constricting, he was dripping with sweat and the room was spinning wildly, but there, in front of him every so often, as the room went around, was a vision of beauty. It was Jo. He must be dreaming. A bad dream, he thought to himself.

“FOCUS!” she screamed at him and then slapped him hard across the face.

He tried again. He tried to lock onto her beautiful eyes and to stop the room from spinning.

“Listen to me,” she commanded him. “Listen to me. You must imagine water.”

“Yes, give me water,” he managed to croak.

“No, it would kill you,” she said. “I said imagine water. Imagine you are like a fish surrounded by clear, cooling water. Imagine that you are breathing in the water through your gills and as you do, that the cooling water is taking the heat with it. You breathe in cool water and breathe out hot water as it takes the heat away.”

Stanley was struggling to make sense of this. “She wants him to be a fish and he was dying? Why?”

“Stanley, listen and focus. Concentrate. Breathe water. Breathe it through every pore in your body. Water surrounds you, cold, clear water. Breathe. Imagine.”

“Stanley was a fish,” he decided deliriously. He was a very large fish in a very large tank and through the glass, a beautiful woman was looking at him and speaking but he couldn’t hear the words. He could just see the mouth moving just like a fish might in a tank. Suddenly, Stanley was breathing water like a fish through his gills. It was cold; very cold. But it got hot quickly and he had to spit it out as it was burning his insides it was so hot. Surely, there wasn’t enough water even in his large tank to take all of this heat. He would boil alive.

“That’s it Stanley,” she screamed. “Breathe it in and be surrounded by the water.”

He breathed in and exhaled. Cold, Hot, Cold, Hot. His throat was beginning to feel better and he was definitely feeling less hot. The beautiful vision outside of the fish tank was holding his hands he realized. “Yes, he did have hands despite being a fish,” he marveled.

“Keep it going Stanley. Imagine water. Breathe the water. Don’t stop.”

Stanley was now imagining being in a river. Swimming in a mountain river and the water was foaming all around him rushing by as cold as ice from the melt waters further upstream. He was feeling more and more normal. His temperature was subsiding.

“Ok Stanley, good job,” said Jo.

He realized it was Jo. Somehow, she was swimming with him in the river. No, she was holding his hands so she couldn’t be in a river, and then he was back lying on the four-poster bed with Jo leaning over him holding both of his hands. Her face was determined, her grip was extremely tight, and his hand was hurting like hell.

“Ouch,” he screamed.

“Good. You are back,” said Jo.

“What the hell happened?”

“Relax a bit and keep thinking of the light around you Stanley; an aura of blue-white light protecting you. OK?” said Jo. “Sit up if you can.”

Stanley hauled himself up into a sitting position. “It’s Ok, I feel better now.”

This extract is from The Last Observer available from all good book sellers.

The Visitor

G. M. Vasey:

It is Halloween….. kids are scared and excited – some adults are too! To start with today, I thought I would reblog this poem, The Visitor, as it describes my childhood very well. Incidentally, it is also reproduced in My Haunted Life but was originally published in Moon Whispers….

Originally posted on The Wacky World of G. Michael Vasey:

It was some strange time in the morning

So early it was still night and without sunlight

The air was so cold and you could hear a pin drop

I shivered involuntarily and tried to sleep

But there it was again

The deepest of sighs rattling like a death breath

My blood ran cold

I strained to listen hearing the loudness of total silence

But there it was again

A scraping rustling sound scratching along the hallway

My heart palpitated

At any moment now that door will begin to open

At any moment now I will scream with all my lungs

And there will be nothing there

Nothing there at all

And I will lay and pray

That the morning sun rises soon illuminating my room

And ensuring that my ghostly visitor stays away

Throughout the day

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My Haunted Life – Just in Time for Halloween and Christmas

Yes, my publisher, William Collins Publishing, pulled off something of a minor miracle and got the Kindle version of my new book up just in time for Halloween. The paperback version may also make it today or tomorrow…..

It’s called My Haunted Life – a Compendium of Strange (But True) Stories of the Paranormal. It is a short collection of stories – true stories – about things that have happened to me, some of which have appeared on this blog. Go download it, or if a Kindle Unlimited subscriber – borrow it, and have some scary fun. Hopefully, it will make you think and wonder a bit at the creepy edges of life and reality.

It is available here at a very reasonable price indeed.

The Chess Piece

In the run up to Halloween, here is another true and strange tale of the paranormal. I will post a new strange true story each day so don’t miss them…

A friend of mine once told me this story on Halloween many years ago. It chilled me to the bone. Whether it is true or not, I am not sure although he swore on his mother’s grave that it was.

In the late 1970’s, the central cemetery in west Hull was a real eyesore. It was overrun with trees, bushes and weeds and it was used as a place for illicit activities. Most people gave it a very wide berth. Most of the graves in the cemetery are Victorian and grandiose monstrosities of a bygone era. Pretty damned creepy in fact. These days, the whole area has been cleaned up, tidied and is actually, worth a visit. However, back then, it was a place to be avoided if at all possible.

My friend walking home somewhat tipsy from the pub with a couple of other friends one night in the late 1970’s thought it might be scary fun to take a trip through the cemetery. Who wouldn’t? They decided to walk across it and picking their way between tombstones, heavy undergrowth and trees, to their horror, they came to an area where many graves had been tampered with. Whether for theft or some other macabre reason, in this area in the middle of the cemetery lay scattered bones and open graves with coffins and contents partially exposed. Horrified, the three friends began to hurry creeped out by the place and what they saw.

This is where it gets interesting however because at this point, my friend accidentally kicked something as he moved as swiftly as possible through this darkened field of bones. To his horror, he realized that it was a human skull.

He claimed to me that in a moment of madness, he decided to take it with him and picking up the skull, he ran with his two friends to the nearest way out of the creepy cemetery. Having escaped from the cemetery, he stuffed the skull in his bag and they all went home.

When he arrived home, he took out the skull and examined it. He was actually quite proud of his fearlessness and with some satisfaction, he placed the skull on his bedside table for further inspection the next morning and passed out to sleep.

Awaking the next morning, instead of the skull that he and his friends had collected the night before, he was shocked to find a large ivory chess piece sitting on the table. This freaked him out no end. Where was the skull? Where had this come from? He later confirmed with his mates that he had taken a skull that was now a large chess piece. The chess piece was more scary to him than the skull and after a couple of days, he and his friends returned it to where they had found it – during daylight. They left it back in the cemetery where they felt that it belonged.

Did it turn back into a skull we wonder? Or did he simply imagine that it was a skull initially? We will never know.

If you enjoyed this story then you may want to buy my new book – My Haunted Life – available NOW on Kindle