haunted places

  • Easter Monday

    Easter Monday

    The 1949 St. Louis exorcism is one of the most documented and debated cases of possession in American history. It is the case that inspired The Exorcist, but most of what people think they know comes from film, not from the actual accounts. When you go back to Father Bishop’s diary and read what was…

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  • A Haunting Disease

    A Haunting Disease

    I heard a quote once that described a haunted house as one that had gone insane. That made a strange kind of sense to me. The idea that a house could harbor something hidden inside it, a kind of internal system that carries something through its walls and floors like a disease. That is what…

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  • Bookends

    Bookends

    Every once in a while I stop and look at two books sitting on my shelf. The Uninvited and The Architecture of Shadows. They were written many years apart, but in a strange way they belong to the same story. The Uninvited was the beginning of everything for me. It tells the story of what…

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  • The Most Important Tool

    The Most Important Tool

    When I walk into a place with a history, I let my senses do the work. I’m not there to gather evidence. I don’t need my face buried in a gadget. Passive equipment I don’t have to think about is fine, but anything that pulls my focus away from the space isn’t helping me. The…

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  • Zombie Road is Out

    Zombie Road is Out

    Today feels a little unreal. After ten years, my next true paranormal book is officially out in the world. Zombie Road is available now, wherever books are sold. I first stepped onto Zombie Road back in 2006. At the time, I thought it was just another local legend, the kind of story every town has.…

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  • The research behind Zombie Road is unlike anything I have ever done before. Every chapter has its own bibliography, and the full list of sources runs eleven pages long. I wanted readers to be able to trace the information, explore further if they wish, and see how each thread connects. This same approach will guide…

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