Today, Pamela Kinney joins us at Paranormal Watch to talk about her latest book, Haunted Richmond.

Welcome, Pamela!

Thank you for interviewing me, Deborah.

We would love to get to know you. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m an author, as Pamela K. Kinney for not only Haunted Richmond, Virginia, but of horror, science fiction and fantasy fiction too. I also write under the pseudonym, Sapphire Phelan, for erotic and sweet paranormal, fantasy and science fiction romance.

I’m happily married—was thirty-one years as of March 12th, have an adult son who will soon be 30 years old, and am owned by two cats (both females), Bast and Ripley. I joined a few months ago, a local paranormal ghost group called Virginia Society for Paranormal Education and Research, and actually done some ghost hunting.

What attracted you to the paranormal and to Richmond, Virginia?

I live in Chesterfield, a suburb of Richmond, so I got to know a lot of the local ghost stories and legends. And I always was into the paranormal, growing up in a family where seeing ghosts were the norm and having a mother who would have dreams that came true exactly on the date she said would. This just made me curious about the paranormal and I started reading books by Hans Holzer and others.

Have you ever seen a ghost? If so, will you share the circumstances of this encounter with us?

Many times. One that I mentioned about in my book’s intro happened years ago and appeared solid just liked you and me. This happened at the Whaley House in San Diego. I was in high school, on a field trip for my geography class. A girlfriend, Debbie Noonan and I, couldn’t afford to take a tour of the place, so after eating at Taco Bell across the street, decided we would check it out by looking through the windows. While Debbie stared through the one that looked into the hallway, I glanced through the one that looked into the courtroom. A tiny lady in an old-fashioned dress and her dark hair in a bun walked between the aisles to the doorway and she was about pass through it. I ran over to Debbie’s window to catch her, but she never came through. Later we saw the front door open and walk up to a couple ladies sitting at a desk, and asked, “Where’s the tour guide in the costume?” One lady said that they didn’t wear costumes. Then I was asked to describe the woman and after I did, was told I had seen the ghost of Mrs. Whaley. Anyone interested, can learn more about this cool haunted house/museum at http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/ca/whaley_house.cfm . Mrs. Whaley isn’t the only ghost seem there.
Other ghosts I’ve seen was the nasty man I also mention in my intro chapter of my book, he haunted a place my husband and I had rented in El Cajon, California. In college my father passed away and I never saw him, but he haunted the duplex my parents and I lived in for three days after he died. After his funeral, the hauntings stopped. My mother claimed to have seen him.

Have you visited the places you talked about in Haunted Richmond? What was your favorite place to visit?

Most of them. The Jackson Ward one is not a safe place to visit these days and besides, I never an address to the house so wouldn’t been able to trace it down, if it was still there. I’ve been to Hollywood Cemetery and it’s a gorgeous place and I enjoyed it. My other favorite places were Shockoe Bottom, Wrexham Hall (that’s nearby where I live—I can walk to it), Centre Hill Mansion in Petersburg, Byrd Theatre, and Crab Louie’s (it has good food).

Do you have a must-see location that you would like to visit in the future? If so, what is it about that place that attracts you?

Gettysburg battlefield, as I heard loads of paranormal stuff going on there. The British Isles, as I always wanted to go there as a tourist, esp. Ireland, as both great-grandfathers on my father’s side came from there. I ate up and still do, all the ghost books set in Ireland, England and Scotland. I would love to stay in an English haunted castle. There are also places in Virginia I like to visit as I am contracted to write another book on Virginia, this time on folklore, myths and legends of the state for Schiffer. I plan to this summer so can finish the book then and even take some pictures for it.

Where can readers find a copy of your book?

Haunted Richmond, Virginia can be found at Barnes and Noble bookstores and Borders too, plus local, independent bookstores. Actually any bookstore, long as they can order, can get the book in. Here’s the ISBN: 978-0-7643-2712-4. Only Books a Million doesn’t carry them in store, but the book can be ordered at the bookstore and shipped to the your home.
Online (though I’ve seen other places on line, and even at eBay stores too):
Schiffer Books
Amazon.com

Amazon.com.uk

Barnes&Noble

Do you have a website or a blog where we can learn more about your books and your experiences with the paranormal?

http://FantasticDreams.50megs.com is my website. http://PamelaKKinney.blogspot.com and I have a myspace at http://www.myspace.com/PamelaKKinney.

Thank you for visiting us, Pamela. It was a pleasure having you. Best wishes for the success of your book.

“The first time Jude Allman died, he was eight years old.”

This is the first line of Waking Lazarus, a story about a troubled man who becomes an unwilling celebrity after he dies three times over the course of his life. Jude Allman doesn’t know how or why he survived and goes to great lengths to protect himself from the media after he moves to Red Lodge, Montana. Under the assumed name of Ron Gress, Jude works for the local elementary school as a janitor.

He leads a very solitary, paranoia-ridden life until a strange woman named Kristina shows up on his doorstep. Naturally, he thinks she’s a reporter and tries to shoo her away. She convinces him that she is a dying woman looking for answers to the Other Side. In the meantime, children have started disappearing from neighboring towns.

Jude is aware of this and is afraid for his five year-old son, Nathan. He begins experiencing premonitions, first with a suicidal waitress and then with a man he met after a fatal pedestrian accident. When Jude bumps into this man (named Kenneth Sohler) in the men’s bathroom of the local restaurant, he experiences a strong vision that Sohler has someone trapped inside his house against their will. This vision spurns him to Sohler’s house and under the watchful eye of the already paranoid police department.

Suddenly everyone wants to know who Ron Gress really is, including his estranged girlfriend. The police are certain that he is the perpetrator of the child abductions until Nathan is kidnapped with his best friend and his best friend’s mother. Jude is let off the hook, but now he must face his past as he seeks the whereabouts of his son and friend.

T.L. Hines did a great job of weaving this paranormal thriller together. Just when you think you’ve identified the abductor, he throws in another twist to keep you guessing. Highly recommended.

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Heather Graham enjoys taking an occasional walk on the wild side with her writing, creating paranormal novels that feature ghostly characters from beyond the grave. Her latest book, THE DEATH DEALER, is just such a novel with much of the action taking place in an historic home, the residence of several spirits who have yet to “cross over.”

Now, Heather is offering one of her readers the chance to discover whether or not his or her home is haunted. Dr. Larry Montz, a veteran field parapsychologist who founded the ISPR in 1972, created GHOST EXPEDITIONS(TM) in 1993 and is the current developing force behind the world’s first 24/7 Interactive Paranormal Observatory, Lab & Museum, will visit the reader’s home, along with a veteran clairvoyant investigator from the ISPR team, to determine if there is scientific evidence supporting the claim of paranormal activity in the home. To enter, readers must tell Heather, in 25 words or less, why their family is the one family in North America who most deserves a visit from a world-renowned parapsychologist.

It’s all in celebration of the publication of THE DEATH DEALER, (MIRA Books) in March 2008. A master of moody, supernatural thrillers, Heather tells the story of a guarded private investigator who must deal with a newfound ability to communicate with restless spirits. THE DEATH DEALER sees him turn that unwanted gift toward catching a killer who patterns murders on the ghoulish tales of Edgar Allan Poe.

To learn more about the contest and enter online, readers should visit http://www.eHarlequin.com/GhostHunterContest and follow the onscreen entry instructions. To enter via mail, entrants must print (or type) on an 8 1/2″ x 11″ plain piece of paper their full name, mailing address and telephone number and explain, in 25 words or less, and mail it to:

“The Heather Graham Death Dealer Contest”
3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 9069,
Buffalo, NY 14269-9069

Canadian address: 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, ON M3B 3K9.

All online entries must be received by 11:59 PM (ET) on May 31, 2008.

A Clip from the movie, Shutter:

Paranormal magazine editor Ritsuo tells Jane about spirit photography: (James Kyson Lee) “Spirit photography has been around from the 1800s, as long as photography itself. All across the world these images have always appeared, connecting us with the unseen. And I think they’re trying to tell us something.” (Rachael Taylor) “Like what?” (Lee) “Well, it depends on the people and the pictures.”

Maybe it was the Asian girl stalking the newly married young couple in the Shutter preview that made me think of The Grudge. The premise of the movie sounded too similar. Because of this, I had a mild desire to see the movie, but wanted to hear what others had to say about it first before I plunked down my cash. In this case, I’m glad I listened to my intuition because the Reuters Review confirmed my suspicions. Today, I talked to a colleague who had seen the movie this weekend and thought it was stupid.

That killed any desire to see the movie, but the subject of spirit photography intrigued me and not for the first time. I’ve been writing about ghost sightings on photos and film since I started writing for this blog, the latest involving a videographer who filmed what looked like the ghost of a Roman soldier. Prairie Ghosts has a fascinating article on the subject, entitled History of Spirit Photography.

The photograph above of Mary Lincoln (allegedly) and her spectral husband, Abe, was taken by William Mumler. Mumler became widely popular in Boston as a “medium for taking spirit photographs” until he was taken to court for fraud allegations. His original photographs may have been authentic, but the lure of money spurned him to take fake pictures for his unsuspecting clients.

This picture of a ghostly young girl was listed as one of the Top Ten Best Ghost Photographs Ever Taken. What makes it so eerie is that no one was in that hall when Tony O’Rahilly took that shot from his telephoto lens as the Wem Town Hall burned to the ground in November of 1995. If there was, I doubt that they would be as calm as this girl appears to be in this inferno.

Clip Source: K-Lite FM