Doug Dillon's Blog, page 144
February 10, 2014
Ghosts Haunt Teens in Ancient City
Sliding Beneath the Surface
St. Augustine, Florida - Sliding Beneath the Surface - a teen novel – paranormal and historical, Book I of The St. Augustine Trilogy.
Book Description
In America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida, teenager Jeff Golden is in trouble. Horrible dreams won’t let him sleep, and he is up to his eyeballs in terrifying, paranormal experiences.
Finally, Jeff turns to his girlfriend Carla, and Lobo, the mysterious Native American shaman, for help. But what he discovers is a lot more than he bargained for.
A ghostly presence linked to a local historic cemetery is not only threatening Jeff’s sanity but his life as well. And before he knows what’s happening, Jeff finds both himself and Carla pulled into one of the nastiest and bloody events in Florida history. It is a place from which they may never escape.
See book trailerbelow:
Click here to see how this book is being used for motivation and skill building in school reading programs.
Click here to see more about this series.
February 7, 2014
Another Fabulous Book by Doug Dillon
Stepping Off a Cliff: The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book II for Young Adults and Adults Young at Heart. Paranormal & historical.
A review placed on Amazon by ksmom4.
“This book picks up where the first one, Sliding Beneath the Surface, left off with Jeff and Carla.
“This story is part two in The St. Augustine Trilogy and it does not let you down with the paranormal and history of St. Augustine.
“Jeff Golden and Carla Rodriguez, are dealing with a particle being, PB, in this story. The PB wants to take over their city of St. Augustine by taking control of the people in the city. Can Jeff and Carla protect their city from this thing?
“Without spoiling the story for anyone, you will not be disappointed at all. This story also has characters from the first book–Lyle, the homeless guy, and Lobo, the Shaman, who also helped them in the first book.
“This book goes more in depth in the relationship between Jeff and Carla and how the two of them learn more about the special abilities that they both have. It also tells about a connection between Lyle and Lobo and how they have past that crossed.
“If you have read the first book, you will love this one as well. If you like paranormal with some history to it, this is the book to read.
“I actually had to hide this book as I was reading because my 12 year old saw that I had it and she ‘stole’ it from me to read as she really enjoyed the first book as well.
“Needless to say, Mr. Dillon is a favorite author in our household and we are waiting with anticipation for the last book in the series to come out.”
See the book trailer below:
Click here to see this review on Amazon.com.
February 3, 2014
Great Addition to a Very Interesting Series
Stepping Off a Cliff: The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book II for Young Adults and Adults Young at Heart. Paranormal & historical.
A review placed on Amazon.com by Shelby Lee.
“. . . this story flowed along incredibly well and brought me right into the story as it was going.
“I love historical elements and the descriptions were lovely.
“I really liked the paranormal aspects and that this time the events that were happening actually drastically affected the real world around them. All of those elements added to the immediacy of the problem and how desperate their situation was.
“I liked how much the abilities for Carla and Jeff were growing and the continued use of the different worlds.
I would love to see Lobo’s little special place. Sounded absolutely fascinating.
“The villain here was an incredibly interesting paranormal being. The PB was different than any other being and was truly a creepy wonderful villain. I found myself wanting to know more about it and how it thought. I loved how it learned and grew and have to admit its fascination with Hitler was amusing.
“Every little piece of history that was built into this story made my little historian heart melt. Just so much fun.
“The writing here is strong and is very enjoyable. I will continue looking for more books by this author in the future and will definitely be reading the final book in this trilogy as soon as it’s available.”
See the book trailer below:
Click here to see the full review on Amazon.com.
January 31, 2014
St. Augustine, FL: Ghost Stories, Ghost Hunts & More
The Castillo de San Marcos
Haunted Tales of Paranormal Florida. Links to the Supernatural at its Best.
St. Augustine isn’t just the oldest city in the U.S., it’s also one of the most haunted as well.
See great inks below for details:
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Mary Hastings, Part 1
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Mary Hastings, Part 2
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Mary Hastings Part 3
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: The Portal
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Ghost Playmates Part 1
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Ghost Playmates Part 2
St. Augustine, FL: Haunted Lighthouse
St. Augustine, FL: Ghost Evidence
St. Augustine, FL: Ghost Animals
Haunted Lighthouse: St. Augustine, FL
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Huguenot Cemetery.
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Tolomoto Cemetery
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Ancient City Inn
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Old Lighthouse
Haunted Lighthouse: St. Augustine, FL
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Old Jail
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt :Miss Caroline’s Guest House Part 1
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt :Miss Caroline’s Guest House Part 2
January 30, 2014
Teaching About the Paranormal Using YA Novels
The St. Augustine Trilogy – Young adult paranormal fiction as an instructional device.
Book I Sliding Beneath the Surface
Book III Targeting Orion’s Children
Jeff
As a retired schoolteacher turned novelist I thoroughly enjoy using my books to continue instructing young people.
I’m able to sneak in some history lessons, and through the development of the main character, fifteen-year-old Jeff Golden, I take the opportunity to drive home the concept that you have the power to create your own reality.
But to do all that, I use the paranormal as my hook. Young people, and a lot of other people young in spirit, like that sort of thing. It creates the excitement, suspense, mystery and drama that pulls readers right along until the explosive climax.
All well and good. For me though, in creating the the paranormal events that inundate poor Jeff and his girlfriend, Carla, I tap into my own personal history. You see, to my way of thinking, the paranormal actually exists side-by-side with the everyday reality we generally agree upon.
I didn’t always view existence this way, not by a long shot. It took the death of my father many years ago to shake me out of my narrow views about reality.
So many unusual things happened when I lost Dad that I felt compelled to investigate them further. In fact, my wife and I both did.
And as we researched and spoke with knowledgeable people, more and more paranormal type things happened in our lives.
Eventually, the documentation of what we learned and experienced became so voluminous that Barb and I wrote a nonfiction book about it titled, An Explosion of Being: An American Family’s Journey Into the Psychic.
Prentice Hall offered us a contract and published the book worldwide. We even did live radio shows from our home through the U.S. and up into Canada.
I tell you all this because I want you to understand how the paranormal aspects of my young adult novels are rooted in my real life experiences.
And when I say “rooted” I mean just that. I take little nuggets from what I’ve gone through and/or what I’ve researched, and I build on them.
Naturally, the end product is much more spectacular than what I truly know but that is the nature of fictionalization and capturing the attention of your audience.
Lobo
To guide Jeff and Carla through heart stopping and often dangerous events that befall them, I insert the tough and mysterious Native American shaman, Lobo.
Lobo is the quintessential adviser I would hope everyone looking for answers to paranormal questions might have in their lives. He is sort a tougher, bigger than life composite of those wonderful people who gave Barb and me advice as we made our hesitant leaps into the unknown.
Carla
Does all this mean that I’m trying to convince young people to blindly accept the weird, the strange and outlandish as real and something to believe in? Hardly.
But what I do hope, going beyond the excitement and fun that I want my paranormal writing to stimulate, is that young people will be open to all possibilities.
If I can expand their perspectives that will allow them to see beyond what they already think they know, I will have done my job.
And if I can get them to investigate life to the fullest using all of their God given abilities, then I will really have done my job.
I know, I know. Some folks say that the paranormal in all of its manifestations is bad, evil and should be shunned. I simply don’t agree.
To me, the paranormal is no more evil than is the everyday life we generally agree upon. Evil and danger exist in the physical world that we share and from what I can see, there is a continuation of evil and danger in the unseen worlds that we share as well.
But to ignore the unseen worlds because of that is just as ludicrous as ignoring it in the real world. To do so is to truly blindside yourself to something of great importance.
K
ids will be kids and some of them like to experiment. They will play with Ouija boards, conduct their own little seances and things like that. Well, if my novels teach anything about the paranormal its that you don’t just play around with it, you could get burned. Be open, be aware, investigate if something happens and get help from knowledgeable adults – that’s the thrust of what I try to get across in my writing.
So there you have it. Below are the trailers for the two trilogy books already in print. And below that, there are some links in order to fill in any of the blanks in what I’m doing with the St. Augustine Trilogy:
Sliding Beneath the Surface
Stepping Off a Cliff
Reading Motivation that Worked (The Pine Ridge HS project in Deltona, FL)
Rewarding Reading Excellence in Schools (ThePedro Menendez HS project in St. Augustine, FL)
Trilogy Locations in St. Augustine, FL
The Main Characters in The St. Augustine Trilogy
Teaching History Through Young Adult Novels
Teaching Resilience Through Young Adult Novels
January 28, 2014
Ghost Lighthouse of St. Augustine, Florida
Haunting paranormal tales.
Since so many paranormal events have occurred at the St. Augustine Lighthouse, I decided to pull together some key information from various sources into this one posting.
Over the years, visitors and staff members alike have definitely experienced a lot of strange things. Many paranormal investigators have studied the lighthouse, including the popular TV team, Ghost Hunters. So if you haven’t visited the place, put it on your “to do at some point in my lifetime” list.
Historical Background
The present day lighthouse sits at the northern tip of Anastasia Island directly across Matanzas Bay from downtown St. Augustine. In the evening, from downtown, you can see its beam sweep across those waters and then shift out over the Atlantic.
Erected in 1874, the building was preceded by a coquina stone structure originally built by the Spanish. In fact, the Spanish had maintained a watchtower near the present day site ever since their arrival during the late 1500s. Before the Europeans arrived, of course, Native Americans freely roamed the area.
What People Experience at the Lighthouse Itself
Each night, staff members lock the door at the top of the lighthouse that leads outside to the viewing balcony. Periodically, they find the door open in the morning. There is a security system but but no alarms sound.
On occasion, people see the figure of man at the top of the lighthouse at night even though the place is closed and locked.
At times, people smell cigar smoke at the base of the lighthouse. It is always cigar smoke and there are strict No Smoking signs everywhere on the lighthouse grounds.
A Special Lighthouse Story
Even though the lighthouse became automated in 1955, someone still needed to monitor the beacon in case something went wrong. One night, the caretaker realized the light had actually ceased functioning. Immediately, he walked rapidly in the darkeness from the old lightkeeper’s house towards the lighthouse entrance.
With each step though, he 
thought he heard someone walking behind him on the gravel walkway. But when he turned around,there was no one there.
Brushing off his experience as imagination, he continued walking only to once again hear those gravely footsteps behind him. Again, he still found himself alone.
Unnerved a bit at this point, the man rushed into the lighthouse and up the stairs. This time though, he could hear footsteps ringing on the metal stairs behind him.
When he finally got to the top and checked the lighting mechanism, he found nothing wrong. As he threw the switch to restart everything, the beacon started functioning again. Not wasting any time or waiting to listen to phantom footsteps, he ran down the 219 metal steps.
For three nights after that event, the beacon again stopped working. Just like before, the caretaker found nothing wrong and was followed just as he had been that first time. He did, however, acquire the habit of taking a flashlight and gun with him whenever he went to the lighthouse after sundown.
The Lighthouse Keeper’s House (Serves now as a museum and gift shop)Some sort of presence is often felt.
People get startled by their experiences but don’t seemed to be threatened by them.
People often experience cold spots.
In the brick bottom floor where the old cistern is located, people have seen the shape of a tall man. One staff member saw this shape in an doorway. It appeared gray in color against the dark room beyond. As the staff member stared in disbelief, the shape simply merged with the darkness.
At times, chairs are moved or overturned
In the gift shop, staff and volunteers will find items have been moved out of place overnight. Sometimes items disappear only to reappear at a later date. Music boxes will turn on by themselves.
A Special Story About the Lightkeeper’s House
In the 1960s, the old Lightkeeper’s house was rented to a man who periodically had guests. On two different occasions, guests reported seeing the exact same thing: A little girl in a frilly dress who stands in a doorway and then disappears.
Tracing Some of These Paranormal Events to the Past
One unverified story is that someone, a lightkeeper or a helper,
hanged himself from the lighthouse.Another more traceable story has it that a tragedy happened during the construction of the present day lighthouse. 5 little girls were placing in a handcar set on a railroad track. Somehow the handcar went out of control and ended up in water where three of the children drowned. Two of them were the daughters of the construction supervisor for the lighthouse.
If you care to research the lighthouse, its history and its ghosts a bit more, you might find these links useful:
January 26, 2014
Teaching Resilience with Young Adult Novels
The St. Augustine Trilogy – aiming for at-risk young people, using the paranormal the historical and science fiction:
Book I Sliding Beneath the Surface
Book III Targeting Orion’s Children
My young adult series attracts a wide variety of readers, a lot of teens of course, and also a lot of adults in their twenties and thirties. And in that overall group, as I had hoped, are often a lot young people who live troubled lives.
You see, I’m a former secondary school educator who spent the last ten years of my educational career working full time with at-risk kids. I was employed by Orange County Public Schools which covers the Orlando area of Central Florida.
In that capacity, if I wasn’t setting up and monitoring programs from the district level, I was actually in schools working directly with students and their families.
Drug/alcohol use, suicide attempts, child abuse and even murder were some of the issues I dealt with over years.
I tell you all this because, as a writer, I decided to make a main thread in my book series relate to personal development, decision making, responsibility and overcoming overwhelming challenges.
The premise of The St. Augustine Trilogy then becomes this: You Create Your Own Reality.
So many of the kids I worked with felt they were stuck in the quicksands of life and had no capacity for self change to make thing better that I had to make one last attempt at reaching others like them.
Jeff
To do that, I created the character of fifteen-year-old Jeff Golden who is a composite of all those young people I dealt with for so long. Jeff comes from a deeply dysfunctional home.
He is angry at the world and it is always somebody else’s fault for whatever happens to him.Using the first person, I have Jeff speak directly to the reader as if he is speaking with a friend.
And to make life even worse for Jeff, I inundate him with wild paranormal/science fiction-type occurrences.
Young adult readers eat that kind of stuff up and it gives me a chance to really put the pressure on the main character. For Jeff, it becomes change or be destroyed.
But to the rescue comes Lobo, the tough, mysterious, Native American Shaman. Oh, and Carla, Jeff’s girlfriend, who is smart, strong and has her head on straight.
It is through this joint guidance and modeling that Jeff learns to use the natural inner strengths that he never realized he possessed.
And at-risk kids who read my books GET IT! Whether reading my stories truly helps them or not, of course, I don’t know. But after visiting classrooms filled with such young people who read one of my books as a class project, I know the possibility exists.
They see Jeff’s gradual maturation and what he had to do to get to those stages of development. And for that I am extremely happy. If I have helped just one kid in this process it will have been well worth the effort.
As a side light, I locate the trilogy in America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida. This gives me the perfect setting for the spooky aspects of the series and allows the old history teacher in me to come out and play. What great fun to sneak in some lessons about the past and not meet resistance.
So there you have it. Below are the trailers for the two trilogy books already in print. And below that are some links in order to fill in any of the blanks:
Sliding Beneath the Surface
Stepping Off a Cliff
Reading Motivation that Worked (The Pine Ridge HS project in Deltona, FL)
Rewarding Reading Excellence in Schools (ThePedro Menendez HS project in St. Augustine, FL)
Trilogy Locations in St. Augustine, FL
January 23, 2014
Teaching History Through Young Adult Novels
The St. Augustine Trilogy – a success story – mixing history with the paranormal and science fiction to hook young readers:
Book I Sliding Beneath the Surface
Book III Targeting Orion’s Children
As a former secondary school social studies teacher, I just couldn’t resist weaving strong historical threads into my young adult novels. Well, that and the fact that I love St. Augustine Florida, America’s oldest city where all three books of my trilogy take place. A better setting for a historic laden YA series couldn’t be found.
A scene from a Second Seminole War reenactment that is portrayed in Book I of the trilogy
To hook a wide variety of readers though, I dared not push the trilogy’s historic aspects as primary. No way. Not even for the 20-40 age group that likes young adult literature in addition to teens. Let’s face it, sadly a lot of people of all ages are just not all that enthralled with history.
In that light, I decided to use the excitement of explosive paranormal events and outlandish speculative fiction scenarios. Young folks like such things, and they provide the excitement that keeps them reading – reading and covertly learning a little history in the process. See the trailers for the two books of the trilogy already published below:
Sliding Beneath the Surface
Stepping Off a CliffI’ve talked to a lot of teens who have read my books and who have told me how the historic aspects work well. Here’s a combined reaction goes something like this even in the reviews I get from adults: “Hey Mr. Dillon, I don’t like history but that stuff you wrote is pretty cool!”
Jeff
Another thing that seems to work is telling the story in the first person through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Jeff Golden, the trilogy’s main character.
In Jeff, I embody a collection of so many of the trouble students I worked with back in the day. I addition to teaching social studies, I spent the last ten years of my educational career working fulltime with at-risk youth.
So really, it isn’t just history that I weave through the pages of my books. No, the plotlines in The St. Augustine Trilogy have strong threads about personal development, decision making, responsibility and overcoming overwhelming challenges.
Yup, the kinds of things dedicated teachers try to incorporate in their approach to young people no matter what the subject matter.
And for me, to see the trilogy now being used in secondary reading classrooms with young people who are often classified as at-risk just warms my heart. In the end, I’m still teaching and I love it.
Here are some links to fill in the blanks if you care to look further:
Reading Motivation that Worked (The Pine Ridge HS project in Deltona, FL)
Rewarding Reading Excellence in Schools (ThePedro Menendez HS project in St. Augustine, FL)
Trilogy Locations in St. Augustine, FL
The Main Characters in The St. Augustine Trilogy
January 20, 2014
“Jeff, Carla, and Lobo are back!” A Paranormal Adventure
Stepping Off a Cliff: The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book II for Young Adults and Adults Young at Heart.
A review placed on Amazon.com by C. Williams
“Wow another great read from Mr. Dillon! . . . I honestly enjoyed this second book as much as the first! Mr. Dillon is a great storyteller using historical facts and the possibilities of what might be in the universe to create such a great story.
“I felt like I was part of Jeff’s world and going on this adventure with him, Carla, Lyle, and of course Lobo.
Jeff learns more about his abilities in this installment of the series and some amazing facts come to light about all of the characters and the place in which they live, St. Augustine in Florida.
If you haven’t read the first book, or it has been a while since you read it, Mr. Dillon tells the story in such a way that helps you remember what happened, or to catch you up.
“I don’t want to reveal too much so I will just end by saying to give this book, as well as the first book, a try because they are very interesting and enjoyable reads.
“I definitely may be looking at things on the news and around me differently now!”
See below for the book trailer:
To see this review in full on Amazon.com, click here.
January 17, 2014
“What a Great Story!” Paranormal & Historical YA
Stepping Off a Cliff: The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book II for Young Adults and Adults Young at Heart
A review placed on Amazon.com by David.
“What a great story! Just finished Stepping Off a Cliff, the second book in Doug Dillon’s St. Augustine trilogy.
“The book stands alone—you don’t have to have read the first, Sliding Beneath the Surface, but if you have, not to worry. Jeff, Carla, Lobo, and cast glide seamlessly into Stepping Off.
“Doug is a masterful storyteller and keeps the reader on the edge of his or her seat.
“In Sliding Jeff and Carla have to overcome Jeff’s long-dead, Civil War relatives. In Stepping Off, the two teenagers battle a Particle Being, which is intent on taking over St. Augustine by entering the bodies of all its citizens. Skirmish after skirmish, Jeff and Carla with Lobo’s help escape with their lives, and just when the reader thinks their situation can’t get any worse, it does.
“This is a YA novel, but if you like sci fi/paranormal/fantasy, you’ll love this story.
“I couldn’t put the book down.”
See the book trailer below:
To see David’s full review on Amazon.com, click here.
