YA SPOOKTACULAR - STORY 2 PRIZE PACK!

Welcome, ghosts and goblins, to the Story Two prize pack giveaway. I hope you've all enjoyed the YA Spooktacular this year as much as I have. Are these spooky tales great or what? And there's more to come!

If you missed the beginning of Story Two just click on the banner below to be magically transported.

And if you missed Story One click below to start from the beginning:

I'm really excited be part of the YA Spooktacular for a second year, hosted by Frenzy of Noise & Wicked Awesome Books.

Yesterday, you got to follow along with Story 2: PARTY TIME. Today, you can enter the Story 2 Prize Pack.

Let me remind you of the awesome stuff up for grabs:

•  Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children book/poster
• Quirk Books Tote Bag
• Signed copy Swoon/Swear by Nina Malkin
  
• finished copy of Fury by Elizabeth Miles
  
• signed copy of Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann
  
• After Obsession (ARC) by Carrie Jones
• signed copy of Ashes by Ilsa Bick 
• Entice/Need/Captivate by Carrie Jones
• signed copy of Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon
• copy of Cold Kiss by Amy Garvey
• finished copy of Darker Still by Leanna Renee Heiber
• SWAG

Told you it was awesome! All you have to do to enter is fill out the FORM.

Don't forget to check out Story Three: The Corn Stalker tomorrow at Page Turner's Blog and remember to enter for the grand prize drawing at either Frenzy Of Noise or Wicked Awesome Books starting October 31st.

And if you got lost anywhere along the way and don't want to miss out on all of the bonus "tricks and treats", just click on the YA Spooktacular banner at the top of this post for a summary of all the creeptastic fun. Good luck!

Spooktacular Giveaway Hop!

Thanks to I Am A Reader, Not A Writer & The Diary Of A Bookworm for hosting

I've been discussing haunted places in my hometown all month long on the blog, so I thought it was about time for a "treat".

What better way to share my love of the Halloween season than by giving away some of my favorite creepy reads?

Here's what you can win:

THE classic vampire story

If you've only seen the movie, 
you don't know what you're missing

SIGNED ARC

There will be three winners and the only thing you're required to do for entry is to give me your name and email address on the FORM. If you would like extra entries for following and tweeting, just enter those in the appropriate fields as well.

Contest runs from now until midnight on Halloween. I will announce the winners on November 3rd. And please don't forget to visit the other fantastic blogs participating. Find the complete list HERE.

The Scariest Destination Of All

Thanks so much for visiting My Haunted Hometown with me this month. I've had a blast introducing you to all of these creepy places this Halloween season.

Unfortunately, my own home has turned out to be the scariest place of all this past week as my youngest is suffering from pink eye and bronchitis while my oldest is in bed with pneumonia. And that is the main reason for this succinct post.

I will be back next week with a couple of great giveaways. I wish you all a happy and healthy weekend.

My Haunted Hometown - Waverly Hills

'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.                                                                           

                                                                     ~William Shakespeare

In the early 1900's, Northern Kentucky was ravaged by an outbreak of the "White Plague" otherwise known as tuberculosis. This prompted the construction of a new state of the art TB hospital.

The building that still stands in Louisville, Kentucky, was opened in 1926 with 435 patient beds, but by 1932, patient numbers had increased to 480 with nearly 100 applicants on a waiting list.

The sprawling 160,000 square foot facility was comprised of five stories and a basement. Like other tuberculosis sanatoriums, it was situated on a hill because elevation to drier, purer air was thought beneficial to sufferers.

Nearly 8000 patients died there from 1926 to 1961 when the hospital was closed. In order to keep up patient morale, a body chute was constructed to dispose of the dead so they would not be visible to the remaining patients. This "death tunnel" stretched 525 feet underground to the bottom of the hill where the bodies of the deceased were collected by the family or cremated.

The sanatorium currently hosts tours with all proceeds going to restoration of the building. The current owners plan on turning it into a bed and breakfast for ghost lovers. If you visit Waverly Hills today, there is a good chance you might run into the spirit of a child that haunts the third floor and has been known to play with toys brought in by visitors. You might also hear the disembodied voices of children chanting "Ring Around The Rosy" up on the roof, encounter an apparition of one of the two nurses who died in room 502, or cross paths with the shadow people of the fourth floor.

The sanatorium has been featured on Ghost Hunters, Scariest Places On Earth, Most Haunted and The Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures.

Waverly is open to the public year around for tours and overnight stays. And don't expect to be able to go whenever the mood strikes because there's a waiting list.

Are you adventurous at heart? Would you spend the night at Waverly Hills?

My Haunted Hometown - Colville Covered Bridge

Gravedigger, when you dig my grave could you make it shallow so that I can feel the rain?

                                                           Dave Matthews, lyrics from "Gravedigger"

Just a short ride to the East brings us to the next location on My Haunted Hometown tour, The Colville Covered Bridge in Bourbon County, Kentucky.

Built in 1877, the bridge is 124 feet long, 18 feet wide and crosses over Hinkston Creek near the city of Paris. It is one of the few Kentucky covered bridges still passable by car.

Of course, traversing through this piece of history is not for the faint at heart.

In the past eighty years, at least three travelers who entered on one side, never emerged from the other, and it's said their spirits haunt the space in between.

All three deaths occurred in the 1930s. A young couple on their way home from prom lost control of their car and plunged into the water below. They were found the next morning drowned in the front seat.

Then there was the elderly Sarah Mitchell who headed out across the bridge by foot on the way to the doctor, but fell dead before she made it to the other end.

Even today, nighttime travelers make their way to the center of the bridge only to see light coming through the floor beneath them as if a car had gone into the creek and the headlights were shining up through the water. Or they hear an elderly woman coughing and crying out for help.

I doubt the living linger too long though. Would you?

My Haunted Hometown - The Seelbach Hotel

The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always -- take any form -- drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!

                                                                   Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights

The Seelbach Hotel, located in Louisville, Kentucky, was opened in 1905 with an original cost of approximately $990,000.

The rich and infamous have visited the hotel over the years, including Al Capone and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who even featured the hotel in his novel The Great Gatsby as the location of Tom and Daisy Buchanan's wedding. The Hustler starring Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman featured scenes shot in the old Seelbach billiard room (now known as the Oakroom, the hotel's 5-diamond restaurant).

But perhaps the most famous resident of the hotel is Patricia Wilson, also known as the lady in blue. In 1936, Wilson, age 24, had moved to Louisville from Oklahoma with her husband. His work schedule wreaked havoc on their relationship and by 1940 they were separated.

In an attempt to work things out, the couple agreed to meet at the Seelbach for a romantic weekend, only Patricia's husband never showed. He was killed in a car accident on the way to their rendezvous. Patricia was devastated by the loss. Later that day, her body was found at the bottom of a service elevator shaft in the hotel. No one seems to know whether it was an accident or if she deliberately jumped.

In 1987, different staff members reported seeing Patricia Wilson on both the Mezzanine Level and the eighth floor. In both cases, a woman in a blue dress with long black hair was seen walking into the elevator, despite the fact that its doors were closed.

In April 2004, a couple on their honeymoon awoke to find their room freezing cold and the overpowering scent of a woman's perfume in the air. Others have reported disembodied footsteps in the hallway and electrical objects turning off and on. The sightings continue to this day.

For over 100 years, the Seelbach has been a place for the weary traveler as well as the unexplained.

I've been there several times including my senior prom, but have yet to experience the lady in blue. While it's thrilling to think about, I would probably be terrified. I'll stick to watching Ghost Hunters.

My Haunted Hometown - Fairview Cemetery

It's no accident that the church and the graveyard stand side by side. The city of the dead sleeps encircled by the city of the living.

                                      Diane Frolov, Northern Exposure, Lost and Found, 1992


 

Historic Fairview Cemetery, New Albany, IN, started as five acres of land on the edge of the city. First known as the Northern Burying Ground, it is the final resting place for the majority of the town's earliest families.

Now covering 85 acres, the cemetery holds the entire Culbertson family, whose house we visited earlier in the week, fourteen victims of the Lucy Walker Steamship Explosion of 1844, and several Revolutionary War soldiers.

One of these soldiers, Richard Lord Jones, born 1767, joined the army as a fifer at the age of ten and served three years during which he was captured by the British. Legend says after dark you can still hear him playing his music throughout the cemetery grounds.

It is my plan to visit Fairview on All Hallow's Eve to see if we can pick up anything digitally if the kids don't chicken out on me before then ('cause I'm not going out there alone).

Has anything not easily explainable ever happened to you in a cemetery?

My Haunted Hometown

Behind every man now alive stand 30 ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living.  

                                           ARTHUR C. CLARKE, 2001: A Space Odyssey

The Culbertson Mansion in New Albany, Indiana, was the home of William Culbertson, once the richest man in the state. Built in 1867 at a cost of $120,000, this French Second Empire-style mansion has 25 rooms within 20,000 square feet, and was completed in November 1869.

Features within the three-story edifice include frescoed ceilings, a carved rosewood and mahogany staircase, marble fireplaces, fabric wallpaper and crystal chandeliers. The tin roof was imported from Scotland.

The house has seen many owners and changes since Culbertson and his family roamed the hallways. At the time of his death, William Culbertson willed the home to his third wife who sold it at auction in 1899 for $7,100. During the past century it has belonged to the American Legion and would have been torn down to make way for a gas station if the local historical society hadn't intervened in the late 1960's.

In 1985, the carriage house behind the mansion was opened as a haunted attraction during the month of October. It has raised nearly $600,000 since, with all the proceeds going to a restoration fund. The first floor of the mansion is completely finished and the second floor is well on its way.

Every year, the kids and I head over to the main house for ghost stories. For the admission price of two dollars, we get to trek by candlelight up the long winding staircase to the attic. There we hear about all the odd happenings that have taken place in the mansion including a small stuffed doll that moves from bed to bed in the children's room, and Misty the ghost cat, a favorite of the Culbertson family, that has been seen walking up and down the main staircase when the moon is full.

There have been inexplicable noises -- footsteps, murmurs, and doors slamming -- and sightings of a ghost dubbed the "lady in gray" that some believe is Culbertson's second wife, Cornelia, who died of cholera in 1880. Of his three wives, she lived in the house the longest.

Cornelia Culbertson

The creaky floorboards and the wind whistling through the lone attic window always add to the experience. Every year as we're making our was back down the steps, I tell the kids not to step on the cat. I've never seen Misty, but I figure it's good to be prepared.

I'll be back with another spooky stop in my haunted hometown on Thursday.