Nightmares
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Some legends refuse to stay buried. There are places in this world where history and legend become so intertwined that separating fact from fiction is nearly impossible. Cartagena, Spain, is one of those places. Hidden among its centuries of history is a disturbing tale involving a mysterious coffin, unexplained deaths, a Serbian aristocrat, and a…
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You know what aggravates me? I mean, can I talk openly with you all without someone going off the deep end because they accidentally recognize themselves in what I’m about to say? I hope so because you know me. I’m going to say it anyway, and preferably before my coffee gets cold. I’m tired of…
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Crazy will always be one of my favorite books I’ve written. First of all, how it was written is different than anything else I have ever done. In 2006, I was personally asked to come to an old truck stop restaurant on Old Route 66. The Tri County Truck Stop in Villa Ridge, Missouri. They…
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“He turns; I can see his frontal torso in the light. It’s covered in blood. Is he looking at me? The room begins to spin. The sound of his desperation matches the tempo of his hands scrubbing his body. The room keeps spinning and spinning. I still feel his eyes on me. I can’t breathe.…
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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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Twenty five years ago I stepped into a haunted house. Back then it was just my home. My family and I were living there and trying to figure out what was happening around us. Those were frightening months. Anyone who has lived through something like that knows how it gets into your head. Even when…
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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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When I wrote The Uninvited about the Screaming House, I wanted to reach the people who might be living through something similar. I wanted them to know they were not alone. I have been doing this work for a long time. But I have never gathered what I have learned into one place before. For…
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Nightmares and dreams have always played a part in my life. If you have read any of my books, you already know that. I have had recurring nightmares. The man in the shower in the basement of the house in Union stayed with me for a long time. He followed me into sleep. There was…
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I often think of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol when I think about ghosts this time of year. December has always felt like the most haunted month to me. Not because it is frightening, but because it brings the past closer. Dickens understood that. He tapped into something deeply human when he wrapped a ghost story…
