At any rate, the new page, such as it is, is for Monroe Lake. This is one of those man-made lakes inside an ODNR Wildlife Area, complete with a sandy beach and even a very interesting concrete diving island/platform thing. (I'm not really sure what to call it.) Here's a picture:

As you might notice if you check the updates page regularly (and why should you, when it changes once every three fucking months), I've decided to make this the page where I write in a little more detail about what's going on with Forgotten Ohio and, yeah, with me, to a certain extent. I'm not a big fan of blogs (and I'm even less a fan of the word "blog"), but I think this is a good opportunity for me to keep in touch with everyone and respond to questions more publicly, as well as post information about upcoming events related to this website. Those twelve-word updates just aren't good enough.

For instance, I might not ordinarily be able to share this with you, and I think it's utterly fascinating and creepy as hell: The Sidwell House, you might recall, is the neat little gingerbread house in Avondale, west of Zanesville, where the father is supposed to have murdered his wife and kids and then shot himself. Over time I discovered that the family who lived there in the late '60s and '70s, the Whites, weren't murdered at all. In fact, the White kids are grown up and they all seem to have gotten in touch with me, amused at the idea that people think they were killed in their childhood home. (And what's more amusing than children and mass murder, really?) But while they deny that story, they very definitely do not deny that the house is haunted. It was built in the 1840s as the Rankin Inn, and over the years seems to have picked up a ghost or two. The recent development is the e-mail I received from Katherine Martin, a Cincinnati woman whose research into her own family history revealed that her ancestors lived in the former Rankin Inn, sometime around 1858. The family was the Jacksons. Katherine Martin unearthed a letter written by the daughter of Marianna Jackson which described her parents' time in the house like this:

"Hugh was so ill from malaria that Father took a pleasant house in Avondale that the child might have milk from their own cow. That is the house where everybody but Father suffered so from evil spirits (ghosts). I have never read any true account of spiritual manifestations to equal it. I was born there in October 1858. At last, Dearest said she'd not stay there another day, and so, belatedly, Father took a house in Cincinnati."

Really amazing. I still don't think I believe in ghosts--I need to see one before I'll make that leap--but this is pretty compelling stuff.

Though this update is expanded and others will be as well, let me just mention that I am way behind, both on the website and with my e-mail responses. Part of this is due to sheer procrastination. Okay, most of it is due to sheer procrastination. But I have also been working a ridiculous amount on what will be my third book, Ohio Hauntings, trying to get it into shape to send off to the publishers. Twice now I've worked obsessively for eighteen hours straight, further screwing up my always-screwed-up sleep schedule, and I'm still not quite done. The end is in sight, though, I promise--and after that, I will be adding new sections to this website like crazy. I have two or three updates partially done already, and will post them ASAP. And you might not be able to tell at a glance but I'm constantly fine-tuning everything, fixing broken links or spelling errors, even adding paragraphs and bits of information to other sections. I don't post these as new updates because they would be unbelievably shitty updates.

And with e-mail, I am literally thousands of unread messages behind. I might never catch up. But I'm answering plenty these days, and I'm digging into the backlog, so if you e-mailed me and I never responded, please forgive me; I will get to your message, and I will reply. It's just one of those things where taking a day off means you'll never make that day up. If you'd like to e-mail me, I recommend an eye-catching subject, since I do get into the account almost every day.

In the near future, if you'd like to hear me speak about abandoned buildings and scary haunted places in our lovely state, you can come to my presentation at the New Carlisle Public Library, located at 111 E. Lake Ave. in that town, on Thursday, July 13 at 6:30PM. New Carlisle is located in western Clark County, just off I-70, and is sort of a distant suburb of Dayton. Here's a fun fact: On June 10, 1933, John Dillinger committed his first bank robbery in New Carlisle, Ohio, making off with $10,000 from a bank at the corner of Main and Jefferson (State Routes 235 and 571).

Later in the year--probably in the late summer--I'll be the instructor for a series of classes at Zane State College in Zanesville. The details are still being worked out, so I'll be sure to post updated information as soon as I get it.

And finally, as I've mentioned before, my Halloween is already booked at the Upper Arlington Library's Lane Road Branch. That's Tuesday, October 31, 2006. Both library presentations will include visuals, and I can sign books, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Anyway, I hope you're enjoying your summer, and that you have regular access to air conditioning. Get some exercise, eat some vegetables, register to vote, read a book, thank a teacher, and send me an e-mail letting me know what you think of this new format. If it's a success I'll start archiving previous entries in their entirety.


I am reading:
FICTION - White Oleander, by Janet Fitch
NONFICTION - Never Call Retreat, by Bruce Catton

I am listening to:
DEPECHE MODE - Songs of Faith and Devotion