Kings Mountain Military Park

This past week, I've been continuing new research for my second book, and spent several hours at Kings Mountain Military Park walking the trail and photographing the battlefield there. The park is just south of Charlotte (right across the South Carolina state line), and the battle that took place there played an important role in the Revolutionary War. Local legend states that ghostly soldiers on horseback can be seen riding the old Colonial road running from the site towards Charlotte; and while nothing interesting showed up in any of the photos I took myself, I was lucky enough to come across a very interesting picture on the 'Net that someone else had taken there. I'm in the process of obtaining permission to use it for my book, and the photographer has been very helpful in that regard.

I'd never been to Kings Mountain before, and want to get back later this season. Quite apart from being interesting from a historical standpoint, it's also a beautiful place to walk on a sunny spring day.

Writing, research, and more writing!

This past week has been a busy but productive one as I finished the edit on the galleys for my first book (Haunted Theaters) and continue to update research for my second one (Ghosts of Greater Charlotte). Today was spent in Concord, NC, as I added to my research on the two homes--both haunted--of The Old Courthouse Theatre. This performance company's first home had been in what was originally the county courthouse, and is now a museum and home of Historic Cabarrus Inc. The second building had at one time been the First Baptist Church of Concord, and currently houses the theatre company's performance and office space. I'd included both of these buildings in my first book, but wanted to add to my information and research (including new photos!) to include them in my second book, and was able to get some good updates on both.

Later I spent a very enjoyable afternoon at the Reed Gold Mine in Midland (just south of Concord) learning not only about the "ghost story" there, but also about gold mining in general and the history of the mine in particular. This mine was where the first gold ever to be found in the United States was discovered in 1799 (a full 50 years before the '49 California "gold rush!"), and also had the largest gold nugget ever discovered to date in the land east of the Mississippi (it apparently weighed close to 28 pounds. Good grief, that's a LOT of gold...). My tour guide really knew his stuff, and since I was the only one in his tour group, he was able to give me a lot of good background info and stories about the mine. It should make for good reading!

Tomorrow I hope to get to Ri-Ra's, an Irish pub here in town that has in its make-up quite a few building materials brought directly from Ireland, and that is rumored to have several ghosts in residence. (It would probably have been a lot more fun to go today--it's St. Patrick's Day, after all!--but not very productive research-wise!).

A productive month, with more to come

These past few weeks have been busy, as I've been gathering info for my next book (Ghosts of Greater Charlotte--or words to that effect!), sitting in on "ghost panels" at various conventions, and even participating in an investigation. Last month, I had the opportunity to join the Charlotte Area Paranormal Society on one of their annual investigations at the Hopewell Presbyterian Church cemetery, just outside of Charlotte. We were there at the anniversary of the death of Revolutionary War General William Davidson (February 1st), and local legend states that his ghost can be seen riding through the cemetery on an equally ghostly horse on this date each year. The setting was certainly eerie enough--a dimly-lit Colonial-era cemetery--and the night was very dark and VERY cold. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to pick up any occurrences either on camera or audio, but some of the other team members did end up with a few photos that showed some interesting anomolies. If nothing else, I was very glad for the chance to gain some more investigative experience and had a good time meeting other members of the CAPS team. A big thank-you to Tina McSwain and the other team members for letting me join them in their investigation!

This past weekend, I went to ShevaCon, an annual science-fiction convention held every February in Roanoke, Virginia. While I was there, I had the opportunity to sit in on a ghost panel with members of CPRI (the Center for Parnormal Research and Investigation out of Virgina), and was even able to put in a plug or two for my book! Once again I was glad for the chance to meet and talk with other parnormal researchers, and want to thank Allen Slonaker of CPRI for extending the invitation to join the panel.

On March 13-15, I'll be attending StellarCon, another annual science-fiction/fantasy convention held every year in High Point, NC (www.stellarcon.org). I'll hopefully have the chance to talk a little about my current research, and with any luck the CAPS folks will be there as well. If nothing else, this is a good convention to kick back and relax at!