Punxsutawney Phil and his imitators were right this year about spring coming early. Winter was gone with the first week of March, and good riddance. 2007 is shaping up to be a beautiful year for going out and exploring Forgotten Ohio sites, full of weather so nice it's like a drug. I managed to make the most of the final weeks of cold weather, doing the last of the writing, rewriting, and compiling necessary to get my new book, Ohio Hauntings out of file folders in my bedroom and into the publisher's hands. I'm still hopeful that it can hit the shelves by Halloween, though actually printing a book takes a certain minimum amount of time.
The new stuff this time around includes a full section dedicated to the crumbling remains of what we now know to be the Bellaire Gas Light and Coke Works. Pictures of it and a brief description remained on this updates page month after month recently until someone finally identified it for me. Here's an example of the cool sights to be seen inside the one large and really sound building on the grounds:
A new haunting has been added in Montgomery County: Miami Chapel Elementary School. Also updated and expanded, thanks to my friend at Zane State, Mr. Gary King, is the haunted at Muskingum County's fascinating Avondale Youth Center.
Speaking of Avondale, that crossroads village just outside South Zanesville, its most interesting residence--the notably haunted Sidwell House--isn't there anymore. Much like Circleville's famous Octagon House, it has been moved. I'll pass along more information about this strange turn of events very soon, after I've had a chance to do all the research I can. As always, the refrain goes: "At least they didn't demolish it."
I may have mentioned this, but when I go so long between updates (a month or more, generally), I find myself unable to fill in the gaps on the books I've read since last time. This is too bad, because I've used the "What I'm Reading" aspect of this journal update format to keep a record for myself, but especially to get in touch with people with similar taste, and hopefully swap recommendations. (The best book I've read lately was, without a doubt, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, though it's not exactly an easy read, and I'm not sure I got it all. But it was still great, and if anyone out there has any recommendations, particularly novels with dark themes, which I always find myself enjoying most of all, please drop me a line.) I can still enter what I've got going at the moment, and usually the last few books, but sometimes I have a hard time bringing titles to memory when I'm in front of the computer. Oh well.
Anyway, enjoy the beautiful weather, and even if you don't have information about a haunting or an opinion about the blue vs. light blue controversy or a book recommendation, feel free to drop me a line. I'll update again soon. (Really.)
I am listening to:
I am reading:
FICTION - Haunted, by Joyce Carol Oates
Ten Little Indians, by Agatha Christie
Recently finished...
Worlds Enough, and Time, by Dan Simmons
NONFICTION - Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, by Harriet A. Washington
D.W. Griffith: An American Life, by Richard Schickel
Aaron Copland music - rerecordings, remixes, reinterpretations, adaptations, and covers, particularly "Fanfare for the Common Man" and "Hoe-Down"
