ThrillerFest VII

If you're an aspiring author or an avid reader, ThrillerFest is the place to be seen this July. I will be attending my sixth, and it is one of the highlights of my summer, mainly because I am both an aspiring author and an avid reader. This year will be different. I will be attending with a completed novel. It may not change my experience, but somehow I think it will. Because I did it, I wrote 'The End'. I won't be wandering the halls soaking up the energy of David Morrell, Lee Child, R.L. Stine, Heather Graham and countless others secretly wishing that I had a novel under my belt. Because I will. 

And maybe some day I will hold that novel in my hands. And be on the dais for the Debut Author's Breakfast. Here's the fabulous Sophie Littlefield in 2010 when she was a debut author. (The gentlemen at the podium is Andrew Gross, a master storyteller you should check out if you haven't already.)

I know, one step at a time ...

I have learned a lot at the past six ThrillerFests that I've attended. The most important thing I've learned is that I want to be an author. I am already a writer. I want to take the next step and hold that hardcover with an awesome cover in my hands and see my (pen) name on the cover. Why? I love books, and I love to read, and I have stories in me that I want to share. I want to be part of that fabric of storytellers because I know that is where I belong. I have always thought of myself as a jack of all trades in lots of areas, from cooking to installing sheetrock to gardening to writing code. I think I could be a master at this author thing.

ThrillerFest is great for connecting with all sorts of knowledgeable people in the book industry. I've met bloggers, editors, debut authors and New York Times bestsellers, agents, readers, marketers, booksellers, and aspiring authors. Aspiring authors are among my favorites. They fill me with renewed enthusiasm, teach me something new about the journey, commiserate, read pages and provide helpful suggestions, and best of all, give me hope when I see one of my writers-in-crime pals on the debut author dais the following year. 

This year ThrillerFest is honoring Jack Higgins (2012 ThrillerMaster), Ann Rule (2012 True Thriller Award), and Richard North Patterson (2012 Silver Bullet Award). Spotlight guests Lee Child, John Sandford, and Catherine Coulter will be joined by R.L. Stine, last year's ThrillerMaster, and Karin Slaughter, last year's Silver Bullet Award recipient. ITW will also be awarding recognition to the Best Hardcover Novel, Best Paperback Original, Best First Novel, and Best Short Story. The finalists can be found here.

If you attend, be prepared to meet a lot of awesome people, have great conversation in the bar, the hallways, and the parties, get inspired, add lots of books to your library, enjoy lunch in the always splenderific Grand Central Station, and hear some great panel discussions.

And be on the lookout for really cool moments like Robert Dugoni and Jon Land modelling cute outfits. You never know when they'll happen!

Resolution

Thirty-three years ago, in 1979, six-year-old Etan Patz disappeared. He was on his way to catch the school bus, and somewhere during that two block walk he was taken.

I cannot imagine the pain and heartbreak his family went through. Not only then but now. I cannot imagine living every day wondering what happened to my child. Looking at the face of every child, then teenager, then adult, wondering, hoping, praying.

Etan was the first face on a milk carton. The agony behind the first real focus on missing and abducted children and young adults. The pain that launched awareness of a changing world where your child could be gone in an instant.

In March of 1982 Karen Wilson, a student at the University at Albany, vanished without a trace after leaving Colonie Center mall, a place that my family and friends frequented then and now. Karen disappeared near where I grew up. We helped search for her through woods near our home. Because of her I developed a fascination with missing people, and I have never forgotten her name.

In March of 1998 Suzanne Lyall, also a student at the University at Albany, vanished without a trace between her job at Crossgates Mall and the University. A little over two miles apart, maybe six minutes by car. One stretch of road, well-traveled. Crossgates Mall is another family favorite, and I myself attended the University.

These things happen even in familiar places. Safe places. Comfortable places. In the blink of an eye. In a split second of time when every possible witness has been distracted by their phone, their child, their car keys.

There have been others in our area, and I can only hope that some day their families will get closure. As for Etan, here seems to be resolution at last for Etan's family. A man confessed and was arrested. 

I hope Etan's family has found some measure of peace at last.  

I Didn't Kill It

Two Christmases ago we got a present that sort of fell by the wayside. Not because we didn't appreciate it. It was a plant in a box, billed as an Amaryllis, and my spring/summer/fall gardener figured that I would plant it when the weather was safe. I put it somewhere where I wouldn't forget about it and forgot about it. And of course I didn't read the box. 

Until a few weeks ago.

I found it recently and this time I read the box. Apparently it is an indoor plant. Because it was given to us by someone special I decided to give it a whirl, carefully following the directions even though I was sure it was pretty dead.

Much to my surprise something started happening. A very pretty something.

I'm glad I didn't kill it! And next time I receive on of these I'll plant it sooner, I promise.

Hey, I Know That Guy!

My darling husband buys me the latest season of Ghost Hunters every Christmas. I was particularly interested in an episode comprised of a visit to Alcatraz, the famous island prison that had a pretty decent t.v. show based on a pretty neat premise based on the prison and its inhabitants. As is the case with many new shows I get hooked on, it was not renewed for a second season. I really hate when that happens.I must have bad taste in television.

Anyway, since I have visited Alcatraz (will dutifully report on that in a future post), I was interested to see what the boys (and girls) came up with. They delivered some pretty creepy EVPs. One of the local gentlemen featured on the show was a man named Jim Fassbinder, Ghost Guide Extraordinaire. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail and he was wearing modern clothing, but the face was the same. Just to be sure I whipped out my pictures and yup, that was him. Here he is in one of my more spooky photos of him, guiding us through the scary streets of San Francisco in search of spirits.

Jim's the 'spirit' behind the San Francisco Ghost Hunt, a three hour walking tour of some of San Francisco's spooky places. The walk is only a mile, but packed with fun stories and amazing architecture.

We began our tour at the beautiful and historic Queen Anne Hotel on Sutter Street in Pacific Heights. The Queen Anne is in fact part of the tour, and we spent a lot of time exploring it. The hotel is well-known for being haunted, particularly by a Miss Mary Lake. Miss Mary was the headmistress of the school that originally occupied 1590 Sutter Street. It is said that she was devastated when the school closed and she still wanders the hallways. The Ghosts of San Francisco has two pages devoted to the Queen Anne and her history here and here.

The hotel has also been the focus of many paranormal investigations, including Ghost Trackers and the SF Bay Area Paranormal Group. Charlyn Keating Chisholm, about.com Guide, wrote about her stay there: Haunted Hotels: Braving the Queen Anne Hotel     

Here are some of my pictures from the Queen Anne. Orbs were plentiful!

View of the Outside

Front Parlor - orb on curtain

Sitting Area

Another Sitting Area

Really Cool Clock

Slightly Creepy Light Fixture

Beautiful Staircase

View from Staircase

Orbs-a-plenty Staircase

The Neatest Chair I've Seen Lately

We are definitely going to stay here on our next trip to SF!

Thanks Cornelia, Tom and the Travelettes!

Cornelia Read, author of the awesome Madeline Dare novels, shared a story via FB friend Mr. Tom Barclay about a 1904 New York City subway station that is no longer used. The story comes courtesy of the Travelettes Blog and is here.

The pictures depict a beautiful yet eerie time capsule of the NYC Subway's past. This is not the only station no longer being used. If you click on this link you'll find more, along with pictures and information where available. I spent a few hours reading through the list and checking out the pictures. It was pretty neat.

You can read more about the City Hall station and see more pictures here and here. And if you want to see something really awesome, check out this link. It has vintage footage of a short subway ride from May 21,1905 (about 7 months after the subway opened), and if you watch carefully you will catch a fleeting glimpse of Victorian-garbed ordinary people preserved for posterity waiting for trains on subterranean platforms. Station personnel in a platform booth stay in view as the train rounds a curve. And at the end, a platform full of dapper well-dressed men in suits, hats, some with canes, bustle around by the train, soon replaced by families and women with small children. At the very end, people who notice the camera glance uncertainly in its direction before continuing on their way, and one man appears to wave as the train departs. 

The picture below is shamelessly stolen from this article (November, 2010). 

As you may have guessed, I am a huge history buff. So you can bet that the next time I am in New York (which will be for ThrillerFest VII) I plan to take that 6 train and see this beautiful gem of the past for myself.

And I also have a neat new blog to read!

Lily

Today's post is dedicated to someone special. She is her mother's only daughter, and will more than likely cause her more stress than happiness on Mother's Day. These days it seems that the tears outweigh the smiles on a regular basis, but she is only 3 and quite a handful, headstrong and very smart for such a small child.

I know this may sound self-pitying, but Lily is lucky that she has a mom to share Mother's Day with. This will be my and her mom's second without our mother. I think of all the special moments my mom has missed since she passed away so suddenly, her first great-grandchild, a daughter's wedding, another daughter's milestone birthday, all those occasions where family descends upon each other to celebrate, laugh, fight, remember.

And I have no doubt that as the years pass Lily and her mom will forget most of the tears and build memories of love and happiness and family and their own special moments to cherish when the years go by.

Here is Lily attending her first circus! (She really was excited, trust me. This is her "another picture, seriously?" look. The price you pay of being too cute for words sweetie pie...)

Now she wants a pony and an elephant and a tiger and a horse ... 

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Um, Okay Department

While sitting at a red light I watched a tall, slender blonde woman get out of her Smart Car. My initial thought was, cool car wish I was brave enough to drive one in Upstate New York (bad winters, don't get me started on the drivers), immediately followed by wow she was smoking in that thing! I had a friend in college who drove a Mazda Miata and was also a smoker. Another classmate remarked that it must be like smoking in a plastic baggie during the winter months. Same thought occurred to me now.

She bent down and put the cigarette out in a puddle, reaching back in the car to (I assume since when she stood back up the ciggy was gone) store it someplace safe. She and her purse strode into the store she'd parked in front of.

It was a store dedicated to selling all natural, environmentally-friendly beauty products.

Um, okay. On so many levels.

Supermoon Saturday 2012

In case you missed it (and I almost did), there was a Super Moon last night. I dragged my little camera outside and took some pictures for posterity.

Enjoy!

All Ghosts, No Gimmicks!

The title of this post was shamelessly stolen from here.

Last fall my husband and I went on a five day cruise. It was his second and my first. Neither one of us were blown away by the cruise. The ocean view was spectacular day and night, and the size of the ship was impressive. 

The food was a little better than okay, and given the amount of people served on a daily basis I suppose that's the best one could hope for. If we ever take another cruise we'll try a different line to see. We came to the conclusion that for this particular cruise line, if you like to sunbath most of the day and party all night you're a cruiser. Neither one of us own a bathing suit and we don't drink so ...

I did make a new friend on one of the islands we stopped at.

Aside from spending quality time with my husband, the best part of our trip was the day we returned to Jacksonville. Not because the cruise was over, but because we had time to take a road trip before catching our flight home.

We rented a car and drove south to St. Augustine. The trip was (very selfishly) solely for me. It was another one of those (numerous) occasions that compelled me to drag him along on a quick ghost-seeking trip. By the end though my husband was planning to go back with St. Augustine as our actual destination.

Some people plan vacations around sight-seeing opportunities such as national parks, historic monuments or museums. Others plan destination vacations such as the ocean, a Disney theme park,or mountain climbing. I plan mine around places or areas known for being haunted. (Are you feeling a little sorry for my husband yet?)

I discovered the St. Augustine Lighthouse watching an episode of Ghost Hunters. It was one of the creepiest episodes I'd seen so far. The black figure that peered down over the upper railing and darted around the circular staircase was fascinating. I must admit that I am not 100% convinced ghosts exist, in spite of experiences I've had and the first-hand accounts I've been privy too. What I see on television is not what I consider evidence because, well, it's on television. Still, that does not stop me from trying to find out for myself if there's more out there than we know.

The bonus was discovering that the city of St. Augustine was a gem in its own right. According to Wikipedia, it was  founded in 1565 by Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, a Spanish explorer, and is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United States. The city is charming and full of wonderful structures and neat stores, such as Flagler College, Fort Matanzas, the Bridge of Lions, Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum, the Lightner Museum, and Whetstone Chocolates. We squeezed in a lot in the short time we were there and some day I'll be blogging in more detail about this wonderful city.

But the neatest thing about St. Augustine is that it is considered one of the most haunted cities in the United States. That alone is worth a return trip!

Back to the Lighthouse. You can see its black and white-striped tower reaching into the sky over the city from many vantage points.

I was excited to check it out, even though it was during the day. The consensus is that ghosts only come out and play at night, so I had no expectations that anything would occur. When we entered the gift shop/entrance way, the first thing we saw was a model of the Cutty Sark. 

The Cutty Sark is a clipper ship built in 1869, and was known for being one of the fastest clipper ships on the seas in her time. She sailed until 1954 when she was put on display in Greenwich. On one of my visits to the U.K. I took a trip to Greenwich to see the Prime Meridian. And yes, I was one of those tourists who took a picture of her feet straddling the hemispheres. Along the way I passed the Cutty Sark, and made a point to visit her during my stay. The ship was beautiful, inside and out, and I went back the next trip to see her again. I am glad that I did. In 2007 the ship suffered extensive damage from a fire and only reopened to the public this past April 25. (All of my pictures are paper, some day they'll all be scanned for posterity.)

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Time for a tangent!

On one of my trips to Greenwich I took a tour. The guides who give tours in London and the surrounding areas are absolutely fabulous, full of knowledge and entertaining. This particular tour took us by the National Maritime Museum and the Queen's House. The buildings are joined by a long walkway lined with pillars. That day was the opening of an exhibit at the Museum, the particulars of which escape me. Our guide paused on the great lawn next to the buildings so we could take pictures. I wandered over to the walkway, and decided that it would be cool to take an optical illusion picture of the pillars. The only problem was, two older gentlemen were standing on the walkway blocking my shot. I walked up to them and very politely asked them if they would mind stepping aside for a minute while I took my picture. They smiled and stepped aside.

I kept an eye on my tour group while I was setting up my shot, and I noticed the tour guide waving frantically to me as I approached the men. I assumed they were waiting for me to move along. I finished, waved another thanks to the men, and rejoined my group. The tour guide met me on my way back, breathlessly asking me what I'd said to the two men. She seemed very concerned. I told her, and she stared at me for a moment, then giggled. Turns out that one of the men was Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II.

Back to St. Augustine Lighthouse.

We followed a pathway through a small patch of woods and there she was. Beautiful!

Across the small lawn stood the Keeper's House.

I was very excited to make the trek up the stairs to the top of the Lighthouse. My husband, not so much. Neither of us like heights but I was not going to let that stop me.

The view from the upper windows is spectacular.

So is the view looking down, if only because I could not believe I managed to climb so high. (Yes, those are my toes.)

When we got to the top my husband opted to stay inside. I found some bravery somewhere and stepped outside. It was very, very windy. I almost stepped back inside but when an elderly man stepped out and strode to the railing I felt better that I wouldn't die alone if I got blown over the side and stayed. I must admit though that while I did manage to make the circumference of the top, I did most of it hugging the wall. Hey, it was really windy! I managed to get some good shots without dying.

One of the things on my to-do list when we return to St. Augustine is the Dark of the Moon tour being offered by the Lighthouse staff. Regardless of whether or not you believe in ghosts the publicity from the Ghost Hunters show seems to have garnered more attention for the Lighthouse. As a non-profit, it depends a lot on donations, so go visit!

Paranormal activity has been reported at the Lighthouse for years and years. Some people believe that the two young daughters of Hezekiah Pittee (or Pity), Eliza and Mary, who drowned in a tragic accident in 1873 while the Lighthouse was being built, still play there. Some believe the ghosts could be former lighthouse keepers, or pirates rumored to have been buried on the grounds. 

Regardless, there are too many stories to discount the possibility that there may be ghosts inhabiting the Lighthouse. As I said earlier, I was not expecting anything to show up on my pictures. As it so happens, I was pleasantly surprised. (Below is one of many, and I did check before and after shots to confirm.)

 Next time will be even more fun!