Anna Abner's Blog, page 26
January 15, 2015
3 Book GoodReads Giveaway
Sign up for the GoodReads contest here and enter to win:
1 signed paperback copy of Spell of Summoning
1 signed paperback copy of Spell of Binding
1 signed paperback copy of Spell of Vanishing
Good luck!
P.S. Spell of Binding in ebook format is available for free on LibraryThing until 8:00pm tonight in return for an honest review. Enter to participate here.
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January 13, 2015
Tuesday Tease
The closer Derek got to North Carolina the worse he felt. On the flight from Juneau to Denver, he started chewing on antacids. By the time his third flight crossed into North Carolina airspace he was downing whiskey sours in pairs.
Spell of Shattering, ms pg 40
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January 12, 2015
Hunting Calif. Ghosts
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Hunting the Ghosts in Haunted Pleasanton
Written by Pale Dale Roberts in July 2014
One of the most haunted hotels in Pleasanton is the Pleasanton Hotel: In 1864, five years before the first railroad arrived in Pleasanton, John W. Kettinger built the 1st hotel in Pleasanton, it was called the Farmer’s Hotel – later it was purchased by Henry Reimers in 1891 and burned to the ground on March 18, 1998 and re-built. At one time the hotel was called The Riverside Hotel and there was a minor fire in 1915. A long time resident of Pleasanton named Dwayne Simmons says that on one particular night he saw a man on fire walking on the back street, he was startled on what he was seeing and was prepared to call the police, then the man on fire vanished before his eyes. The location was very close to the hotel. Could Dwayne have seen a victim of this hotel’s past history with fires?
GHOST IDENTIFIED: MAN ON FIRE.
Many people say that upstairs at the Pleasanton Hotel is extremely haunted, the upstairs is the hotspot. People hear and see things. Doors will shut on their own. A terrified young woman has been seen wandering the hallway and many people believe she was a murdered prostitute.
GHOST IDENTIFIED: THE SLAYED HARLOT.
Every October here in Pleasanton, they have a Ghost Walk. According to Denae, she lived in a building at St. Mary’s – when you leave the closet door open, the activity begins. St. Mary’s was once a brothel. She tells me that a woman was murdered there. She says that the closet gets very cold, you can even hear a woman breathing in the closet. St. Mary’s was built sometime in the 1800s. Denae also tells me that pots and pans would fly out of cabinets. The rocking chair once started rocking and there was an old lady rocking it. As she watched this old lady, she finally just dissipated.
GHOST IDENTIFIED: THE ROCKING CHAIR GRANDMA
OTHER GHOSTLY NOTES:
1. Gay 90s Pizza – is very haunted. A patron who does not want to be identified says that one time he was ordering a pizza and the pizza flew from his hands and landed 5 feet in front of him. He said that incident scared the crap out of him.
GHOST IDENTIFIED: PIZZA SNATCHING PHANTOM
2. Tunnels underneath Main Street, Asian railroad workers worked these tunnels. Detrick Sanders says that when everyone is in bed and Main Street is quiet, you will see the heads of Asian men pop up from the streets where the tunnels are located at. Detrick saw this one time and it reminded him of ground hogs, the heads would pop up and look to the right, to the left, straight ahead and go back into the street. It was the most strangest sight he ever saw and he claims he only drank two beers that night.
GHOSTS IDENTIFIED: ASIAN HEAD POPPERS.
3. Dentist Office – Victorian building – used to be house, very haunted. A man with eyes on fire was seen there, the apparition came out of the window and floated to the ground. A couple walking past the office, looked at the ghost and it looked back at the couple and simply laughed with his blazing red eyes and then vanished.
GHOST IDENTIFIED: FIRE EYES.
4. Union Jack Pub – torn down – haunted. The ghost of a woman wearing a pink nightgown was seen floating over the land where once stood the Union Jack Pub.
GHOST IDENTIFIED: LADY IN PINK
There is a nice bridge walkway that will take you to Del Valle Parkway. Marcus Wilcox says his mother once saw a troll like creature underneath this bridge. The troll like creature was yanking the fur off a live rabbit. When Marcus’ mother saw the creature, he ran off into the thickets and vanished.
CRYPTID IDENTIFIED: PLEASANTON BRIDGE TROLL
6. The Rose Hotel: People that have visited the Rose Hotel say that lights turn off and on, a full body apparition of a male ghost has been seen moving a big dresser. Other heavy items have been moved, but according to Swala Jasine she saw a ghostly muscular man move that dresser.
GHOST IDENTIFIED: ROSE HOTEL FURNITURE MOVER.
I did some EVP work in the Pleasanton Hotel and captured a woman moaning and crying. Inconclusive, because it could have been a real woman in one of the rooms actually crying. I didn’t hear the crying with my own ears, but did capture it on my digital recorder.
Stopped off at the Pleasanton Museum at 603 Main Street and learned from the curator that in the Summer of 1917, the film Rebecca of Sunnybrook was filmed there.
The indigenous Indians that resided in the East Bay were many. Here are just a few: Ompin, Carquin, Huchiun, Saclan,Cholvon, Souyen, Taunan, Tuibun, Chupcan, Volvon, Julpun, Tamcan, Ssaeam, Tatean, Yulien, Luecha and some more! With all of these Indian settlements and all of the history of Pleasanton, you would have to believe that this place is haunted.
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January 9, 2015
Flirty Clip Friday #49
Outlander (both book and series) is my new obsession. So, January is all about Jamie and Claire. Enjoy!
Video created by chrislover345
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January 8, 2015
My Review of The Martian
I first heard about The Martian in Entertainment Weekly and I was interested in the runaway bestseller soon to be a star-packed movie, but I was still blown away by how great the story is.
Mark Watney, and his space suit, are critically injured during a dust storm on Mars. His crew, believing him to be dead and not wanting to risk more lives collecting his body, abandon him on Mars and evacuate the planet. The only hiccup is that Mark isn’t dead. There begins one of the wildest and most exciting adventures I’ve ever read. We follow him day-by-day as he struggles to survive on a planet completely inhospitable to him. The story gets even better when we are introduced to a wider array of earthbound characters.
Though I’m not a huge science fiction fan, Mark’s narration was so enthralling I couldn’t stop reading. I had to know what happened to him. Sometimes the author’s attention to detail when it comes to resisters and amps and volts made my eyes cross (perhaps it would help if I knew what any of that stuff actually does), but overall it is a can’t-miss novel.
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January 7, 2015
New Glyphs From Spell of Vanishing
Anchors represent salvation and hope.
The bridge, the X, the chalice, and the six-stringed harp create links between the physical and the spiritual worlds.
A six-pointed star is the symbol of the human soul.
The zodiac sign for Libra and the scales both symbolize cosmic justice.
A bell represents power.
The zodiac sign for Virgo is a balance of positive and negative forces.
The last two are my own creations:
The open-ended spiral is used in the overwhelming joy spell.
The variation on the Celtic cross is used to cast black magic.
These, and others, are used by the necromancers in the Dark Caster Series.
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January 6, 2015
Tuesday Tease
“Derek remembered, vaguely, driving his car too fast on long stretches of highway, taking turns at warp speed and weaving recklessly through freeway traffic. Not anymore. He didn’t drive the speed limit. He drove under it.”
Spell of Shattering, ms pg 5
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January 5, 2015
Ghost Attacks Photog in PA
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Ghost Attacks Photographer in Pennsylvania House ‘Haunted’ With Demons and Spirits
Written by Darcie Loreno in July 2014
HANOVER, Pa. — Homeowners in Pennsylvania claim their home is haunted with ghosts and a demon, and one photojournalist was reportedly hurt while inside.
According to WPMT, homeowner DeAnna Simpson said they’ve lived there for seven years, and she says she has photos and recordings of voices, laughing, and even dogs barking.
She said one of the ghosts is a demon, and that she caught it in a photo. She said it is a 7-foot-tall figure.
When a Fox 43 photojournalist entered the home for a story, he felt his hand burning and saw a scratch on his wrist. Simpson claims he was hurt as a warning about telling her story.
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December 29, 2014
Top 5 Most Haunted Roads
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Ghosts Aren’t Just For Houses:Top 5 Most Haunted Roads
Apparently some ghosts have taken their shows to the road… and this list will tell you just which roads to avoid if you don’t want to hear anything go bump in the night on your next drive.
First up, Belchen Tunnel, Switzerland. It looks creepy enough, doesn’t it? It gets better… or worse. Apparently, this Swiss road is haunted by an old lady. One report shows that two women actually claimed to pick the old lady up, and were told by the old lady that “something dreadful was going to happen.” Then, with her message apparently delivered, she disappeared.
Not scary enough? Let’s try Stocksbridge Road, also known as the “Killer Road.” Located in the United Kingdom, there have been numerous ghost sightings reported… and of more than one ghost, as well. There’s the ghost of a monk who likes to show up on the bridge on Stocksbridge Road. And then there are the ghost children (aren’t those always the scariest?). Some of the sightings of these ghost children actually come from security guards, who said they saw children playing on the road late one night… but the kids disappeared before the guards could reach them. Workmen often reported children singing in the night, as well.
But let’s bring it a little closer to home with Highway 666 in the United States. Here there have been reports of speeding ghost cars — including a flaming, demonic semi-truck that reportedly seems to drive directly at spooked travelers — as well as packs of devil dogs. Also, people tend to disappear from this stretch of road, losing their sense of time and sometimes not being found until days later. The name was changed from Highway 666 to 491, and, strangely enough, accidents did decrease… but it is still known as America’s “Highway to H*ll.”
Then there is Tuen Mun Road, located in Hong Kong. There is a disproportionately high number of car accidents on this road, and people there blame the local ghosts. Apparently, these ghosts will appear suddenly, right in front of a driver, forcing the driver to swerve and inevitably crash. Furthermore, just to guarantee there is never a shortage, they say that each new car accident fatality results in a new ghost haunting the road.
But if you are looking for a little more personal interaction from your ghostly encounters, try Clinton Road, in New Jersey, at the Old Boy Bridge. If you toss in a coin, the ghost of a boy who drowned there will toss it back up to you. And if that isn’t creepy enough, there have also been sightings of UFOs, mutated circus animals, and mysterious glowing eyes.
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December 26, 2014
Flirty Clip Friday #48
I’ve dedicated all of December to the Walking Dead. Here is the final video this month, focused on Daryl and Beth. This one made me sad!
Video created by cHiLeAn DiVa
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