Jessica Penot's Blog, page 10

The Hazel Green Black Widow

I have taken a little break from blogging this month, but an interesting news story inspired me today.  The news story can be found at http://www.waff.com/story/24544477/mystery-of-work-near-mysterious-grave-site-solved and discusses one of North Alabama's most interesting and notorious local ghost stories.  The ghost story is the tale of the mysterious black widow.   The black widow was a Hazel Green resident named Elizabeth Routt who managed to go through six  husbands in her lifetime.  According to local legend, none of her husbands met a natural death.  They all died at the hands of the beautiful Elizabeth Routt.  Elizabeth was originally named Elizabeth Dale and if the tales are true her home was built on an old Indian Burial Mound.  Her home was haunted by more than the ghosts of her husbands and those who whisper of the black widow haunting say that the ghosts that wander this area are many.  

Those who talk of the grim remains of Routt's house and the grave sites where her ill fated husbands rest in peace speak of the area being wrapped in a shroud of darkness that chills you to the bones even on the warmest of days.  There isn't too much left to see of Routt's house and the grave sites aren't in the best of states, but I've heard that you know you've arrived at the graves because you can feel the presences of something dark in the air.   One local blogger described her son's experiences at the grave sites eloquently.  Katherine Boone describes the encounter on her blog http://okaylistenhere.blogspot.com/2010/10/dead-husbands-tell-no-tells.html.  

"Time has ravaged the once pristine antebellum mansion. Locals believe the area to be haunted. My own son and his friend visited the site one night and came back shaken to the core. When asked what they’d seen, they replied their flashlight revealed glowing eyes 5 ft. off the ground and a dark mass which threatened to approach through the trees if they ventured closer. Imagine a 17 year old literally shaking all over as he told this horrifying tale. Something scared him, there was no mistaking that."

Elizabeth's true story remains a point of controversy as some still claim she was just unlucky in love, however, those who have experienced the ghosts of the black widow won't ever believe she was unlucky.  They claim she was a black widow who killed her all of her husbands. 

The Lonely Ghosts of the Detroit Art Institute

The Detroit Institute of Arts(DIA) is one of my favorite places.  I was an art major at Wayne State University and several of our projects involved going to the museum and studying the art there.  My favorite painting was by Jean Leon Gerome and it was called Solitude.  It depicted a lonely lion laying in the middle of a deserted beach.  The lion appeared to be at at peace.  It's tan main shone in the sunlight against the brilliant azure sky.  Something about that painting, and that place spoke to me.   The DIA echoed the atmosphere in that painting.  It was a quiet museum.  It was not crowded with throngs of people and during the day, when I visited,  I felt like I was the only one there.  I went there in between classes and wandered the lonely halls.  The DIA like the rest of Detroit,  was often abadoned.

Entering the museum, the first thing you see is a room painted with massive murals by Diego Rivera.  Rivera did these paintings when the museum was founded in 1927.   The museum was built as cultural center for the then beautiful city and the art within the museum reflects the time and effort that was put into the collections.   The Rivera paintings alone are worth a visit.   However, like many places in Detroit,  the DIA is haunted.

Security gaurds who have worked at the DIA at night report seeing all kinds of strange activity in this museum at night.   Loud thuds echo throught the halls of the empty museum and there are sounds that seem like people are dragging the paintings from room to room.  When the noises are investigated,  all the paintings are where they are supposed to be and the rooms are empty.   Much of the haunting activity seems to surround a statue in the African art gallary called the Nail Figure.  It is the statue of a man impaled with spikes and many gaurds report seeing this statue moving or even dancing alone in the dark.

The Ghosts of Christmas Yet to Come

Christmas is one of the most ironic holidays.   Although it has been embraced by Christians around the world as the celebration of the birth of Christ, its antecedents are murky and deeply embedded in pagan tradition.   Christmas isn't the day Christ was actually born.  In fact, most scholars believe he was born in the spring.  Christmas was chosen by the early Christians as a day to celebrate Christ's birth because the celebration could be easily hidden beneath the more common pagan holidays of the time, like the Roman Saturnalia which was celebrated on the 25th.  Early Christians were being hunted by the Romans and it was safer for them to celebrate their holidays when they could be hidden.  There were many pagan holidays around Christmas because they were solstice celebrations.   Over the centuries,  Christianity has taken many pagan traditions and integrated them into their celebration of the birth of Christ, so that Christmas as we know it today is a kind of conglomerate of many different early solstice traditions.  Despite this,  Christmas is a celebration of Christ and his birth, but it is not surprising that some of the most terrifying ghosts and horror stories also seem to spring from Christmas. 
One of the earliest and most famous of these Christmas ghosts comes from literary master Charles Dickens.   Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is possibly the most famous work of Christmas literature ever written.   It has been redone so many times that people hardly remember what the original ghosts that haunted Dickens' story actually looked like.  Few know that the ghost of Christmas past was actually a creature in white with a flame on his head.  Dickens most famous ghost is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

The Ghost of Christmas Future was and is one of the most terrifying ghosts ever imagined.  Time has eroded the edges of this famous haunt, but in his original form, the ghost was akin to death.   All of Dickens' ghosts have been imagined and re imagined in many different forms.  They've become fairies and cab drivers and cartoon characters, but the ghost of Christmas Future has remained completely untouched.  He is always the same.  No matter how silly the depiction of a Christmas Carol he resides in,  The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is always a grim specter dressed in black.  He is speechless and shows the horrors of  what lies ahead. He is my favorite spirit because he represents all our worst fears.  He represents the unknowable and uncontrollable.  No matter how much money we save, the future is always unpredictable. 
Now for me to go watch my favorite adaptation of Dickens classic A Christmas Carol.  I am going to watch "Scrooged."

Bigfoot Footprint?

A friend of mine showed me this picture a few days ago.  I'm not much of a cryptid person.  I tend to be deeply skeptical when it comes to bigfoot and other creatures that some believe lurk in the shadows forgotten by man.  This photograph, however, challenged my skepticism.  I know the folks that showed me this picture are not the type of people who would fake a photograph.  They are pretty busy people.  They both work and have children and are stable, normal adults.  I don't think they have the time or the inclination to fake a footprint like this.  They happened upon this footprint by chance.

The man who took this picture is about six foot six by my estimation and has a size 14 shoe.  He placed his foot by the footprint to give the viewer a sense of perspective on how massive the footprint is.  He also indicated that the dirt around the footprint was packed pretty tight and that he hadn't left a footprint at all that day.  This photograph was taken in Tennessee.

The Unlucky History of Friday the 13th

Happy Friday the 13th.  I am reposting my origins of Friday the 13th post to help celebrate this wonderful day.  I hope your 13th is as luck as mine has been!  Friday the 13th is considered the most unlucky day of the year. Most people aren't entirely sure where this bad luck comes from, but fear of Friday the 13th can affect as many as 1 in 4 people. The fear of Friday the 13th is known as triskaidekaphobia.


"It's been estimated that [U.S] $800 or $900 million is lost in business on this day because people will not fly or do business they would normally do," said Donald Dossey, founder of the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina.

So where does this fear that can cripple a nation come from? There really seems to be no consensus on the origin of Friday the 13th. Everyone has a story, but most of them are different. The fear comes from an unknown source. Here's a look at a few of the Friday the 13th origin stories I've found.

One folklorist traces the origins back to Norse mythology. There were 12 gods who had a dinner party in Valhalla. A 13th guest, Loki, was uninvited. Always the trickster, Loki tricked the god of darkness, Hoder, into shooting Balder, the god of joy. Balder died and darkness descended on the earth. Joy was lost to man and from then on 13 was considered unlucky.

In 1307, on October 13, 1307, King Phillip IV of France ordered every member of the order of the Knights Templar executed on charges of high treason and heresy. King Phillip owed the Templar's a good deal of money and they had amassed an enormous amount of wealth on their crusades. It is thought that the order was actually to strip the Templar's of their wealth. The Templar's were tortured horribly and forced to confess to crimes they didn't commit. They all died, but as the grandmaster died he cursed King Phillip and the day making Friday the 13th unlucky for future generations to come.

Many believe the fear comes from the number 13 itself. According to numerologist, the number 12 is associated with completeness. There are 12 months in a year, 12 zodiac signs, 12 apostles, 12 Olympian gods, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 hours in the clock, 12 labors of Hercules. The list goes on and on. The addition of the 13 ruins perfection is utterly bad and unlucky. In many stories, the 13th guest is always a bad sign. Think Judas at the last supper and Loki in the above story. It is the number 13 that lends the curse to Friday the 13th. Combine that with the unlucky Friday, when Jesus was crucifies and Adam tempted Eve and you have a recipe for an unlucky day.

It is clear there are many reasons to fear the dreaded Friday the 13th, but for me Friday the 13ths have always been lucky. So have a happy Friday the 13th, watch one of the 12 million Friday the 13th movies (I like the one in space), and wish me luck on my lucky day.

My American Horror Story Coincidence

I began writing years ago and most of the books I am publishing now I actually finished writing more than two years ago.  It takes a while for books to make it through the publication process.  It is therefore a strange coincidence that the release dates for my books seem to mirror my favorite television show.  This, of course, fills me with giddy glee.

American Horror Story is my favorite show and has been since I saw the very episode.  I make no secret of this.  The first season of American Horror Story was set in a haunted house in California that was known as Murder House.  It followed one family's daunting experiences in this twisted house.  It also tells the diabolical history that lives in the shadows of this chilling house.  Ghosts of the wicked dance across the screen and made this season of American Horror Story utterly unique.  That same year I released my second Haunted book, Haunted Chattanooga, in it I go over the dark and terrifying haunted locations in Chattanooga.







The second season of American Horror Story was called Asylum.  This season was even more twisted than the first and all you could do was watch in horror as the history of  an evil asylum opens up before you. That year my novel, Circe, was released and it chronicled the haunted and twisted history of Searcy State hospital in South Alabama. 






This year American Horror Story delves into witchcraft with its third season, Coven.  The wicked witches in this season summon the dead, murder each other, and bury my favorite serial killer alive.  It is magnificent.  This fall, my latest novel is The Accidental Witch, which chronicles a clinical psychologists descent into a world of dark magic and sex after she receives a strange spell book in the mail, was released.


Of course, this is all just lucky coincidence, but it is enough to make me happy.  I'm hoping the trend continues, but I doubt it will last another season.  Either was I can't wait to see what American Horror Story will bring next!

The Cursed House

I found this story in an old book.  The book, Ghosts in American Houses, was published in1955 and given to my grandmother in 1965.  Although this is a fascinating story, the only evidence of anyone mentioned in the story I could find outside of the story  itself was in old genealogical records.  I couldn't find any information on the famous, cursed house.

According to the story,  Phillip Noland who lived in Loudoun County, Virginia in1750 and acquired a track of beautiful land.  Noland was a rich planter whom had married into great wealth.  Noland had a grand vision of building the most extravagant house in the South.  He saw his verdant land as the perfect setting for his dream home and began construction on it.  The house would be four stories of red brick and would possess every luxury a house of this scale could possess.  It would even have a ballroom.  The house was so beautiful, that early in construction it entranced General Anthony Wayne.   Wayne and Noland became friends and Wayne followed the progress of the construction of the house with great interest. 

Years passed, and the house seemed to grow no closer to completion.   In fact, it just seemed to drain the once wealthy Noland's financial resources.  Noland's own money dwindled and then the extravagant inheritance his wife left him dwindled until the only thing Noland had left in the world was the house that seemed impossible to complete.  Many thought the house was shrouded in some kind of curse because no amount of work or money ever brought the house closer to completion.  There was a Hessian prisoner camp near by the house and when several of the Hessians escaped, the were shot dead after being chased into the house.   It was said that these men left behind their ghosts in the house.  Their ghosts rattled around inside the unfinishable house torturing Noland to his dying day.  When finally Noland died, his ghost added to the general cacophony inside the house until Wayne died and joined them.

According to the author, the house was still unfinished when he wrote his book on haunted houses in the early 1950s.  It lay in disrepair.  Its ballrooms still laid exposed to the weather and the entrance hall, that was once lit by a glass fan, was still only partially done, waiting for the ghosts inside it to finish it.

Book Tour Give Away

My new book, The Accidental Witch, is going on tour today.  To celebrate, I am doing an extra give away here.  All you have to do is comment below saying that you will rate my book on Amazon and/or Goodreads and I will send 3 commenters a free copy of my book and a $10 giftcard!  Good Luck!




http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/93700f1/" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway

Le Donjon de le Musee du Louvre

In a write up Haunted American Tours did on the Louvre they wrote, "Many believe that thousands of lost and crazed starving and tortured souls still walk the many gallery's, looking for a way out."   After spending one long day trying desperately to see the Louvre in it's entirety I would say the lost, crazed, starving souls described here must have included me.  It took me almost an hour to find where to eat and I couldn't find my way out of the Egyptian section.

Although the Haunted American Tours write up on the Louvre says that the entire museum is crawling with ghosts,  I only found one placard in the museum commenting on ghosts.  This placard was located in the lonely medieval section of the Louvre.  There are sections of this gargantuan museum that are so crowded, even in the off season, you can barely breath, but the medieval section or donjon of the Louvre is quiet, almost forgotten.   It is beneath the rest of the museum, hiding in it's shadows.  There is no art in the donjon only the long buried history of the museum itself.

The first Louvre was a fortress built at the beginning of the 13th century by Philip II Augustus to defend the Seine below Paris against the Normans and English. It consisted of a thick cylindrical donjon (dungeon) surrounded by towered walls. This château, enlarged and embellished by Charles V in the 14th century, was sacrificed in the 16th century at the end of the reign of Francis I in order to make room for a new Renaissance structure of the same size. Only the west wing and part of the south wing of the projected palace, conceived by the architect Pierre Lescot and decorated with sculptures by Jean Goujon, were finished.

It is in the old donjon that there is a placard that clearly states that there are ghosts in the Louvre.  It tells about the multiple visitors and employees who have encountered ghosts in this once battle torn portion of the old museum. The placard explains that the donjon walls stood against the English and the Normans and saw battles on many occasions so the ghosts could be the ghosts of fallen soldiers or even those imprisoned in the old fortress walls.  Whoever the ghosts are,  it is clear that the older portions of the Louvre are haunted and if you are quiet you can almost hear them.  I think I even see a small orb at the top of a picture I took while I was visiting this haunted location.  It is in the picture at the top of this story.

The Moody Brick and The Accidental Witch

The Moody Brick is an old plantation house in rural Alabama.  Its bricks positively drip with ghost stories and old legends.  The ghost stories there are so thick you'd have to shovel them away to see past them.   According to local legend, the original owners of The Moody Brick weren't a very kind lot.   In fact, they were known for their cruelty.  They enjoyed torturing their slaves and their cruelty was so profound that it drew the attention of others.   The slaves there knew little peace until the Emmancipation Proclamation.   Although the proclamation freed them, in the South they were still slaves.  However, they were doe and it is said that they rose up in the middle of the night and killed their masters in their beds.   After, they fled into the night. 



The locals couldn't tolerate this act, however, and they hunted the slaves down and killed them all.  They hung them from an oak tree in the front yard.  This is all according to local legend and this legend also describes the ghosts of the slaves and their masters wandering the grounds of the Moody Brick looking for solace.  The factual history of  The Moody Brick isn't much more pleasant.  During the civil war, the building was taken by Union forces and used as a hospital.  The countless Union soldiers that died there are buried on the property.  The building has burned down and been rebuilt.  It has seen suicides and lynchings.  It sat empty and has now been redone and rumored to be filled with old ghosts and lost spirits.  Whether or not this is true, The Moody Brick intrigued me enough to set my novel, The Accidental Witch, in it's old bricks.  I renamed it, but the place is almost the same.



The Accidental Witch cam out this week. 







GET IT ONLINE:
Kindle US http://www.amazon.com/The-Accidental-Witch-Jessica-Penot-ebook/dp/B00GG83WLE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1383666477&sr=8-3&keywords=the+accidental+witch

Bookstrand http://www.bookstrand.com/the-accidental-witch

All Romance eBook https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-theaccidentalwitch-1337231-140.html

OmniLit https://www.omnilit.com/product-theaccidentalwitch-1337231-140.html

Kindle UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Accidental-Witch-Jessica-Penot-ebook/dp/B00GG83WLE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383666722&sr=8-1&keywords=the+accidental+witch