No Time These Days

Wow. Much as I hate to do this, I probably won't be putting up another blog in 2014 after this very late one. However, I believe I said that last year and did put one up late in the month to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. So you may hear from me; will have to wait and see. I am putting together another newsletter, with all the book news I've put off sharing. So you'll be getting that sometime in the next week or so.

As to paranormal news, it's been quiet again. Never totally inactive at the Simmons house, of course. I never can tell when I'll feel someone or hear a voice or just glimpse Howard or another ghost or spirit from the other dimension. In fact, I saw Howard a few days ago on the front porch. I started out the door to see who it was before I realized it had been Howard. He wanders everywhere, inside and out.

I did discover something new while chatting with a friend in PM's on Facebook the other day. Or I believe it was possibly factual information that occurred to me. I encounter ghosts many, many times in bathrooms. It happens both here in my house and also in public bathrooms. And it dawned on me while she and I were exchanging paranormal information that the ghosts probably followed me into the bathrooms because it was quiet and private in there. Imagine that! She was telling me how ghosts are attracted to her, and of course, that happens to me a lot, also. However, I'm very good at putting up barriers. Otherwise, I'd be constantly interrupted by them. I'm not really someone antagonistic toward the lost souls. Heavens, I cross over my share often. But I just can't constantly stop whatever I'm doing to assist some poor wanderer. Therefore, I guess when I ignore them, they take it upon themselves to tag along to somewhere it might be easier to make me notice them.

Yep, we are always learning something new in our paranormal lives, and this was one new piece of information I uncovered during the last week.

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I hope you all had a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving. We had family here, and that always makes me very happy. The food was great, and we also were invited out for another delicious meal with more family the day after our celebration. If your day was half as good as mine, then it was fantastic for you.

Thanksgiving 2014

I've made big inroads into getting some books into paperback. All five of the Ghost Hunting Diaries are done! I'll do the Dead Man Mysteries next, then look at gathering some of the short stories into books. As I mentioned, I'll give more information in my newsletter.

If you've read this far, I have another ghost happening to tell you about, something that just occurred. I've been baking cookies, and I use the timer because I would totally burn stuff if I didn't. Well, sometimes I forget to bring the timer in my office and still burn things! However, I did good today, and I have three pans of Pumpkin Ginger Cookies cooling in the kitchen.

All three pans are indeed out of the oven, the dough all baked. So there's no reason the timer should go off, right? Well, it just did. I heard it ring in the kitchen. Huh. Maybe the little lady ghost in there thinks I've left the cookies cool long enough and it's time to put them away. I'm off to see what is going on.

Have a wonderful time this month. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Stay Safe, and ….

Boo!

T. M.

Beckham Ghosts Again

  I always do the best to keep my word, and I promised the Spirit Fest speakers they could do their own investigation of this great old hotel. Friday night, November 21, 2014, several of them showed up and we all had a wonderful time. I do believe there might have been a shock or two along the way, also, even for the experienced paranormal folks. We had a nice group: Selena Roane of Fear Paranormal, Betty Moore of Paranormal Junkies, and George Jones of Jericho Tours of Tyler. George brought his daughter, Alexa, Jennyfer Keohane, a friend and two relatives with him (Adam, Logan, and Jason), and I know they enjoyed it, also. Well, I didn't talk to Logan after the investigation about the lady of the evening on the third floor and her innuendos toward him. He blushed a lot, but I still think he had an interesting evening. We had a little fun along the way in this group.

L-R: Adam,Me,Selena,George,Betty,Alexa,Logan,Jennyfer,Jason

  There was far too much activity to get all of it in one of my weekly blogs. I'll have to just hit a couple of the interesting highlights, and a couple things that happened to my crew member, Floyd, and me on Saturday night.

  First, here are Selena and Betty hard at work investigating:

  Adam knew he couldn't smoke inside the hotel, but he always had an unlit cigarette in his mouth. When we were in the Ballroom, one of the ghosts there (I think it was Albert) knocked that cigarette out of his mouth! The cigarette laid on the floor for quite a while and a couple amazing things happened. First, the end of it glowed as though it were lit. No, it didn't burn the floor or anything like that. It wasn't "real" fire. I saw this happen and heard the awe in people's voices as they watched the cigarette move, like someone was trying to pick it up!

  Another time, we were in one of the rooms on the second floor. George kept insisting that someone was trying to take the KII out of his hand. He mentioned this several times. Suddenly, a loud crash sounded, and George said (for us and the recorder in the room), "Well, whoever it was finally got it out of my hand. That noise was the KII hitting the floor."

  We went up to the third floor eventually. Hardly anyone is allowed up there, since it's still very much in need of reconstruction. However, these were experienced investigators and they all agreed to be careful. This is where Logan caught the eye of one of the ladies of the evening. She was determined to let him know she was interested! She never did ask for any money, so I think she was truly attracted to him.

  I'll have to write up more of what we have found out about that third floor when I get time. From some of our research, as well as activity experienced up there, I do believe there were indeed ladies of the night there at one point.

  We broke up around 2:30 a.m., and I came home to get some sleep and rest before we headed out Saturday night. My crew member, Floyd Brigdon, and I had plans to investigate the 1888 Building in Mineola. This building is on the corner down from the Beckham, and it evidently was a saloon at one point, with a brothel upstairs. Lore says the first Mrs. Beckham found out what was happening on the third floor of the hotel and refused to allow her husband to continue to have "girls" there. So he bought the 1888 Building for that purpose.

  It poured down rain Saturday evening, but that didn't stop the activity in the 1888 Building. We were, again, as in the Beckham, the first paranormal investigators to have access to this building. We picked up enough information to put into its own diary, so again, I'll just be able to tell you about a couple very interesting things.

  We went upstairs first, carrying equipment up one of those really steep old stairwells. Although Connie has replaced the first two wooden steps, the rest are worn in the center. Yes, as though worn down by many, many feet over the years. When I did a pre-investigation walk-through a few weeks ago with Connie and my friend Dianna, I crossed some of the women up there into the light.  However, two of them said they had stories to tell me before they left, and I had promised to be back to listen to them.

  This is one of the photos we took of the upstairs. Connie and I discussed the layout during our walk-through, and she believes the women's rooms were on the right. We counted five areas where they probably had their beds.

  The "girls" up there were very antagonistic toward Floyd, due, we believe, to his being a man. Twice, someone tried to knock him off his chair, and both times he felt a hard pressure on his chest from what appeared to be someone's hand. That pressure even lasted quite a while after this happened. We checked for a bruise, but didn't see one. When I told the ghosts, in a stern and angry voice, that they had better behave and leave Floyd alone, my chair moved slightly under me! That really ticked me off, and I again ordered the ghosts to behave. The activity we had been having up to then "died" off for a long while. During that period, Floyd mentioned that "someone" had told him we needed to go downstairs for more activity. Although the activity in the upper floor picked back up as soon as he mentioned that, we saw a break in the rain and packed the equipment up to leave anyway.

Of course, the minute we started out of the door to go in the lower level, the rain attacked us again. But we went on in and talked to several ghosts.

  This is one of the photos from the lower floor, where the saloon operated.

  The strongest communication we experienced was with a ghost called Daniel, who indicated his last name was Jenkins. We'll have our friend Karla check him out. Daniel had a sad story though, and was very remorseful, as he should have been. He said he had caught his girlfriend Lila in the saloon and was so angry that he killed her during the resulting argument. We crossed Daniel into the light, but I think Lila was one of the ladies who wanted her story told. She was the very first ghost to make contact when we arrived upstairs, and interestingly enough, she contacted Floyd.

  Anyway, I've got lots of things to write about, and since the book news is pretty much the same as last week, I'll close now. Remember, these ghosts we encounter were once real people. They all lived lives, and some of them have sad stories to relate. They can also get upset and let you know that in various ways. So, stay safe out there.

  Boo!

  T. M.

Paranormal and Weather

It's been a slower than normal week here at the Simmons house. We've also had an arctic front move in, and believe it or not, we're expecting some snow this afternoon in Texas! As I sat down to write my blog, I ran the past week through my mind and realized I hadn't "seen" any of my ghosts for a while. Oh, I've felt one a time or two, but even that's been way less frequent this week.

So, do ghosts go back to their own dimension to escape the cold? I have no idea, but they sure haven't done much around here this cold week. In fact, both times I thought I spied one in our bedroom turned out to be false alarms. I walked in once and thought there was someone on the far side of the room. On examination, it was our stand-up fan with a towel tossed over it. The second time, it was something similar, a shirt hanging over a room divider.

The only other time I've actually noticed a definite correlation between a lack of paranormal activity and the weather was at our favorite cemetery. I've quit naming it, because of vandals in the area. Anyway, there were only two times we drove out there and did not receive even a blip on the KII's. Both times, an electrical storm was in the area. It wasn't close enough to send us on our way due to fear of lightning. However, we could see the beautiful lightning streaks and hear the thunder. Maybe the ghosts and spirits could, also, because they never even peeked their noses out of the portal in the cemetery.

It's not supposed to warm up until Thursday, so I'll have to try to remember to be aware on that day. See if my paranormal boarders have checked back in.

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If you find any typos I've missed, blame this little guy:

I haven't come up with a name for him yet (other than Trouble), because I don't like all the ones that pertain to his poor little one-eyed status. I don't know what's wrong with the eye; it was like that when he came onto my front porch a month or so ago. I've been treating it, but I don't believe it's going to heal so he can see out of it. So far, I've also called him "get down" or "no." He's been living here in my office since the cold set in, and of course, he loves crawling across the keyboard when I'm trying to type. He also sits beside the monitor and tries to capture the cursor.

What to do, what to do? It hurts my heart to have to train a new kitten, but I finally resorted to that darned squirt bottle filled with water. He's really smart, so I barely have to get him wet to make him quit whatever he's doing. I hardly even squeeze the squirt trigger. The worst is when he tries to climb up my leg. Ouch! No, take that back. The worst is when I allow him on my lap if I'm not doing much but reading versus trying to type. Maybe my tummy does take up part of my lap, but it shouldn't be enough to push the little guy off. When he starts falling, he digs those claws in hard. Double ouch!

Hub said the other day, "You're just taking that kitten in to tame it, then find it another home, aren't you?" I just smiled and said, "I doubt anyone would want him with just one eye." Y'all know where his forever home is already, don't you? I've already caught son and hub petting the little guy.

If you have any name suggestions, feel free to pass them on to me on Facebook or in the comments here. If I choose one, maybe you'll get a surprise.

I hope to have some more ghost tales next week. In the meantime, I'm still doing the same as last week: working on Diary VI and getting the books available in paperback. Talk again soon, and stay safe out there (and warm).

Boo!

T. M.

Resting Up ... Not

No rest for the wicked? Guess that's me, then. You'd think after the breakneck speed of October, November would slow down a bit. However, now we have Thanksgiving and Black Friday and Christmas staring me in the face. Plus all the catchup writing work that got put aside during my favorite month of the year. Next year, I'm going to get started a little early for Halloween month. Sure, I am! We shall see if I remember that promise about next August.

The house is really quiet, though. I miss Aunt Belle and my friend, Dianna Miller. I was looking through some photos and found this one of Dianna. See what interesting friends I have?

Dianna "Annie Oakley"

There hasn't been a lot of paranormal activity here at my quiet house the past week. Or maybe there has but I've just been too tired to pay much attention. I have noticed, however, that lately I seem to be experiencing a lot more contact when I'm driving.

Many times, this contact starts out as a headache; sometimes it's slight, other times it's fairly painful. I'll know immediately that it's a ghost making contact, because I'll feel the sensation of paranormal energy. Usually, if I look around to examine where I'm at, it's somewhere on the highway where it's logical that an accident could have happened — an accident which resulted in the death of someone. That person was probably killed quickly, and he or she is very confused.

I don't know if they are drawn to me or if I'm just sensitive enough to realize there's a ghost lingering at this site. But if I'm flying down the road at Texas highway speeds, which normally range at least five-to-ten miles over the speed limit of either 70 or 75, I can't pull off and talk to the ghost to help him cross over. The most I can do is mentally say: Go east. There is always a door open there for you to cross through and be with your loved ones. You'll be at peace then. Go east.

Seldom do I know whether or not the ghost has taken my advice. Once in a while, though, I do find out. There are a few highways I travel fairly often, and I'll sometimes note when and where a ghost contacts me. Then, the next time I pass by there, I'll open my senses and see if I contact anyone on this trip.

You know what? Never once have I still found the ghost lingering in the same place. That makes me strongly believe that even a brief communication with a ghost can pass on the needed information and allow the poor lost soul to cross over. I suppose it could also be that my spirit guides step in and take over to assist the soul, once I point the ghost in the right direction. Either way, I'm just so glad when I confirm the lost soul isn't lingering in the place of its death. I have no doubt that he or she has indeed crossed into The Light. I'm not being egotistical about my abilities. Instead, I have a strong faith that wanting to help works, whether it's me doing it or some of my spiritual helpers.

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As to my writing life: One thing that will (hopefully) make some of my family members happy is that I'm beginning to get my books available in paperback again. I'll have to admit, the fomatting is kicking my butt, although I'm persevering. I'm starting with the Ghost Hunting Diaries, then I'll do the Dead Man Mysteries, then perhaps gather the short srtories into a paperback volume. Hopefully, they will all be available by Christmas. However, I'm not going to put aside the new writing just to have these done by then. I'm working on Volume VI of a new set of diaries, and also Silent Prey, the companion book to Winter Prey.

I also want to tell y'all about a fantastic book that just went up for sale: Tears for a World by Alexander Fernandez. Alex is one of my clients from back when I was doing editing, and I can say without reservation that this is a wonderful book. It's the first book of Alex's Lonely World Trilogy, and I've also read the second book. Right now, I'm anxiously awaiting the third one to see what happens to Marisylia, his fantastic heroine. She is the strongest woman I have ever had the pleasure of following in a great story. Even if you don't read a lot of fantasy, Tears for a World will be a book you won't forget.

There is another wonderful Angela Rogers cover and it does fit the story beautifully.

Alex has it available in both ebook at: www.amazon.com/Tears-World-Lonely-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B00NR6X71I

If you'd rather have a print book (I have both), you can get that at: www.amazon.com/Tears-World-Lonely-Trilogy-Volume/dp/1497319250

Also, Deliver Us From Evil is making its way out into the rest of the ebook world. Besides the other url's from previous weeks, it's now in Apple iTunes and at Kobo.

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/deliver-us-from-evil/id938397028?mt=11

Kobo:  http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/deliver-us-from-evil-38

Enjoy reading!

Stay safe, and ….

Boo!

T. M.