HERE BE NEWS for March 9, 2020

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday, March 2 - 
"HERE BE NEWS" - All the latest from the gang at Here Be Magic.

Wednesday, March 4 -
"THE PLEASURES OF REREADING" - Do you reread books? Author Nicole Luiken reveals six of her own reasons for sitting down with a story she's already read. What are yours? 

Thursday, March 5 -
“WHEN FICTION BECOMES FACT: Wait…Am I haunted now?” – Angela Campbell is the author of psychic detective novels and paranormal romances. What does it mean when ghostly occurrences start happening to the WRITER?  

Did you remember to turn your clocks ahead?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUGUST is the month of HUNGRY GHOSTS

Don’t whistle.
Don’t go near the water.
Don’t stay out late.
Don’t take selfies.
Don’t buy a house.
Don’t wear clothes with your name on them.
And definitely DON’T get married…

These are just a few of the precautions that may be taken during Ghost Month, which follows the Chinese lunar calendar and occurs from August 1 to August 29 in 2019. At this time of year, the gates of the lower realms of the afterlife are thrown open and the unhappy spirits of the dead are free to wander among the living. (And you thought October was the scariest month!) 

According to traditional Buddhist and Taoist beliefs, Hungry Ghosts may be those who left no descendants behind to remember them or whose family failed to hold the proper rituals for them when they died. These troubled spirits may also be people who died by violent means, or they may be the malevolent ghosts of those condemned for their own acts of greed and cruelty. 

Hungry Ghosts are not depicted as they appeared in life, but are distorted, ugly and frightening, with long narrow necks and large empty bellies. This emphasizes that these spirits are perpetually subject to powerful desires that they can never satisfy on their own. 

During the month of August, they wander the living world in search of food and drink, entertainment and other worldly pleasures, a little respect and reverence – and many also look to cause mischief and misfortune.

In Western culture, ghosts are usually associated with indoor hauntings. But in Eastern culture, the unquiet souls are generally roaming the streets. This is why so much effort is put into appeasement of them with offerings, in hopes of avoiding the curses and bad luck they might bring to one’s home. In fact, the ghosts are usually politely referred to as “Good Brothers” or “Good Sisters” in order to avoid offending them.

Throughout the month it’s common to see plates of food and small cups of tea or wine set out at the curb to feed these wandering spirits. Incense is burnt next to the meal, and paper money (called “hell money” or joss) is set alight as well. The currency may not be legal tender in the realm of the living, but it’s apparently quite useful in the otherworld, and the fire transfers it into the hands of the ghosts. 

The hell money is traditionally printed with very large denominations and folded into elaborate shapes (some are even printed to resemble US dollars). Paper effigies of luxury items like TVs, cars, houses, etc. may also be burnt to make the deceased more comfortable in their world. There are even paper cell phones!

Superstitions abound like the ones listed at the beginning of this post. The main premise is to avoid attracting the attention of a Hungry Ghost. Here are just a few of the many, many taboos:

• Singing and whistling are frowned upon in case a ghost is tempted to answer you. 
• Don’t wear your name on your clothing lest the ghost find out who you are, and don’t call a friend or family member by name. 
• It’s considered dangerous to be outdoors at night, especially for children and the elderly, because some of the nastier spirits might attack them. Hungry Ghosts are at their strongest at night.
• Most people avoid swimming during this month because a ghost might pull you under and drown you. In fact, don’t go near any body of water, even a stream – that means no fishing! 
• Umbrellas should be left outdoors or not used at all. To bring one inside is to accidentally invite spirits into your house, especially if you open the umbrella to dry it out. Ghosts apparently like to hide inside them.
• Don’t ever take the last scheduled bus of the night or a ghost may be tempted to join you on your journey home. 
• Cameras are believed to be able to trap spirits, so no selfies this month unless you want a ghost to hang out with you indefinitely.
• Red and black are thought to attract ghosts, so don’t wear these colors this month.
• Don’t leave clothing hanging on the line overnight. Ghosts may be tempted to try them on and come back into the house with them when you gather the clothes the next day.

Ghost Month is considered highly unlucky for weddings and also for the purchase of big ticket items. In Taiwan for instance, car sales typically plummet in August and property prices drop!

The 15th of the month is reserved for the annual Ghost Festival, which is celebrated not only in China and Taiwan, but in Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand and more. 

Both public and private feasts are laid out on tables along the streets or on altars in front of temples for invisible guests. Buddhist and Taoist rituals are performed to redress the spirits’ sins, hopefully freeing them from their current misery so they can move on to a better place in the afterlife. Outdoor performances of Chinese opera, plays and music are held on Festival Night, with the front rows of chairs always left empty for the ghosts. These events are often quite loud as spirits are believed to be attracted to noise!

During the mid-month festival and again at the end of the month, thousands of lotus-shaped lanterns are lit and placed into rivers and lakes. 

As the lanterns float away, it’s believed they guide the spirits back to the otherworld. When the flames go out, the ghosts are gone.

At least, until next year…
.........................................................................

TEA EGG RECIPE:  https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/51326/chinese-tea-leaf-eggs/

Paranormal Spookiness: Bring it on!

Confession time: I’m a little down in the dumps today because I’ve been so busy and mixed up that I’ve been thinking for a month that today is the day I was supposed to leave for my annual pilgrimage to Dragoncon in Atlanta, only to realize — last night actually — that Dragoncon is next weekend.

D’oh!

So as I glumly sat down to devour a cupcake in front of the TV last night, pouting and moping, I got sucked into watching “Paranormal Witness” on Syfy. It’s a creepy show. I don’t recommend watching it alone at night with only your cat to protect you. Then again, I’m weird, so of course that’s exactly what I did.

“Paranormal Witness” is one of those reality-scripted hybrid shows where actors reenact supposed real-life ghost stories while the real people narrate their stories.

You would think that someone who writes about ghosts and hauntings and paranormal spookiness wouldn’t be bothered by such things, and you’d have been right a year or so ago. I don’t really know why, but these days, I get spooked a lot easier than I used to. I was raised on horror movies because my older brothers were sadistic. My best friend growing up lived in an honest-to-God haunted house and I saw things I, to this day, still can't explain. When I put flowers on my mom’s grave, I generally go at night, er, sometimes after midnight because of my work schedule, and I’ve never been scared to be in a graveyard after dark. I will admit I’ve seen some freaky things there though. Hey, I already said I was weird, remember? 

To be frank, I guess I was pretty desensitized to spooky stuff at a young age. A friend once told me if I opened the door and a man in a mask was standing there holding a knife, I’d probably look at him, shrug, and think “Meh.” Weirdo — that would be me, remember?

Anyway. The episode of “Paranormal Witness” that was on last night was about these people who moved into an abandoned motel that was haunted. Naturally, the husbands on these shows never believe that something spooky is going on because, well, men. Basically it always goes something like this:

Woman: I saw a woman’s head floating in the bathtub!

Man: Are you on your period?

The episode went on to feature creepy shadow men, black-eyed killers, and little ghost girls — gah, I hate the ghost kids, they always creep me the eff out! — and people who had previously been murdered there. As they do.

The point of all this is, I slept with a light on last night. That never, well, rarely happens with me. But I also started thinking of possible plots to use in a future book.

Because that’s not weird either, right?

Halloween is right around the corner — rubs hands with glee — so tell me. Are you a wimp when it comes to the paranormal, or do you love all things spooky like I do?

***

Angela Campbell is the author of the psychic detectives series from Harper Impulse. Learn more about her and her books at www.AngelaCampbellOnline.com.

***

Who knew pet sitting could be so dangerous…or so sexy? 

Socially awkward Emma “Spider” Fisher prefers her laptop to people, so she’s more than happy to oblige her boss when he asks her to pet- and housesit while he honeymoons in London.

It doesn’t take long for accident-prone Spider to lose a dog, get locked out of the house, and set off the house alarm. Thankfully, her hot new neighbour is more than happy to come to her rescue.

But Noah West is a mystery to Spider—and one she intends to solve.

What Are You Afraid Of?

I remember the one and only Halloween haunted house I went into as a child. Not an actual haunted house, but one set up by people to scare those who walked through. I knew it was make believe the whole time, but it still scared the candy corn out of me. I don't even recall where the "haunted house" was. I only remember the darkness and how monsters leapt out at me… the fear and wanting to get out of there fast. I never had the urge to visit another one.

I have visited a few real places that were haunted and, strangely enough, they didn't make me run screaming the other way as much as the make believe haunted house did. I grew up listening to ghost stories--ones that are told as real paranormal experiences. I find the supernatural world fascinating. For a long time, I watched every episode of Most Haunted, Ghost Adventures, and similar TV shows.

All of these stories, whether from real life or from TV, inspired me when I created the paranormal world in Blade of the Wolf, my erotic paranormal romance. Readers have told me the villain is truly scary. He is an incubus who can cross over from the Other Side and shift into many forms. Six- hundred years ago he was human, but he used sorcery to transform himself into an incubus so he could survive in limbo after death, waiting for an energy source to come along that he could tap into and resurrect himself. Syrena Ellis, a psychic medium and the heroine of my book, is that power source.

Imagine being stalked by an entity you can't see. He can go anywhere you can, whether you're tucked "safely" in your bed or shopping at the mall.

Luckily, Syrena has Ronan, an immortal Sgian Dubh Guardian, to protect her physically. But mentally and psychically, she must learn to protect herself. How can she, an untrained psychic, compete against an ancient evil?

In my erotic romance novella, Laird of Darkness, the hero is the paranormal entity everyone fears. Duncan is a half-Fae who can vanish at will and fly through the air. He may be a frightening legend in his own time, but the heroine sees past his facade to the man he is inside.

What are you afraid of? Haunted houses, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, Fae, bears, people, spiders?

Thanks!

Nicole

www.nicolenorth.com

Twitter

Facebook