cemetery – Barbara Edwards Comments

Do you visit cemeteries? By Barbara Edwards

Memorial Day is drawing closer. A day the nation remembers our dead soldiers. The parades are smaller, the ceremonies shorter and the remaining veterans fewer than when I was a child. Perhaps people are more focused on the surviving soldiers instead. I hope so.

I guess I’m old-fashioned. My family always decorated the grave-sites of deceased relatives. It was a way to show respect and a chance to share memories. To this day I can find my grandparents, aunts and uncles, and a few cousins in the enormous New York cemetery we visited. Now I put flowers on my parent’s grave in Connecticut.

Perennials since I spend more than half the year in Florida. Lilies, plantains and bulbs like daffodils or tulips do well and assure me they are not being neglected. I need to go back and replant my sister’s flowers since they didn’t grow well this year. Sort of sad, but my sister and I shared a love of gardening.

The new flags decorated the deceased soldiers are a bright note against the green grass.

Cemeteries can evoke fear, grief, loneliness or interest. I added the last because like many who explore old graveyards, I think they are fascinating. The practice of gravestone rubbing has fallen off and that’s a good thing. It involved spreading tissue over the carved surface and rubbing it with charcoal. You could read weather-worn carving using this method, but it proved to be destructive.

Another reason to visit cemeteries is the http://www.findagrave.com site on the internet. You can go there and ask about an ancestor if you’re interested. If you know the cemetery, it’s likely a local person will take a picture and post it for you. Or you can find one for someone else. In a society where people move far from their birth home this can be a way to make contact.

Thanks for your interest in what I’ve been doing. Visit www.barbaraedwards.net for excerpts, buy links and free reads

Ghostly bride haunts cemetery by Barbara Edwards

Haunted cemetery features ghost of bride should be the description of most creepy stories. I decided to be logical about the over-abundance of dead young brides if there is any kind of logic to deciphering deadly tales.

My opinion is that there aren’t more brides fluttering over gravestones than any other demographic.

So what causes the stories?

In times past burial was a simpler matter. Wash the body, cloth than wrap in a shroud or winding sheet, put in a wooden box (this is if there was someone to build it in the time left), dig a hole and insert remains. Cover with dirt.

Now comes the interesting part.

The body decomposed. TaDa- gas is released. At night this could appear to be a mist or cloud rising from the grave. Thus anyone passing the cemetery at night might be treated to a scary sight.

Imagination would provide the identity in a small town where everyone knows who was the most recent person to die.

Would you expect to see the actual person or a misty form floating near the grave?

My favorite local story is in a Harwinton Cemetery and she is called The Green Lady. The story says the Green lady was murdered by her husband on their wedding night. He threw her body into the swamp bordering the cemetery and claimed she ran off. This was in a time when the settlers were sparse, the graves few in number and the area not well-traveled.

Since then the area has been populated, the old cemetery expanded to hold hundreds of graves and a major highway passes close by. The swamp still exists due to inland-wetland preservation.

My two sons went there one dark night near Halloween to check her out. They parked the car and walked in, daring each other and talking the trash boys exchange when trying to scare each other.

I don’t know what they saw.

A green light floated over the swamp. Growing brighter, larger, it drifted toward them. They ran like rabbits and almost blew the tires speeding out of there.

They were laughing by the time they got home, but they did say ‘no’ when I wanted to go there, too.

Do you have a scary story?

Read my paranormal romances, Ancient Awakening and Ancient Blood for some frightening scenes.

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Building a Book Bible by Barbara Edwards

Ancient Awakening started as a romance and a stand-alone book. It quickly changed, became complicated and detailed. The different characters blurred after several chapters and I realized I needed a better way to keep track of eye color, hair style, physical
description and other pesky details. I’ve used character sheets, interview
sheets, lists and found they didn’t meet my needs.

Then another author mentioned using a ‘bible’ and the light bulb flashed over my head. What could be easier than a method I could do on the fly?

After creating a new document I quickly skimmed what I had already written. To make it easy to find, I used bold for the character name. It was easy to copy/paste sections of description any time I mentioned him/her.

Let me amend that. I copy the information when I go back to do a simple edit. I never stop the writing process for editing. It breaks the flow and I don’t recommend using anything
that does that.

I also found it helpful to have a timeline of events. Mine is at the front of the ‘bible,’ but you can put it anywhere.

Once I decided Ancient Awakening was the first of a series set in Rhodes End, I added the town as a character. I’m also drawing a map using my characters actions. You’d be surprised to know how hard it is to recall if you turn right or left out of the driveway to get
to the cemetery.

Rhodes End Series: Book Two Since I’ve worked on Ancient Blood, Book Two and Ancient Curse, Book Three, the information is invaluable. I have opened ‘bible’ two and three,
copied the appropriate character descriptions as needed, and keep on writing.

I’ve found it helpful to add research details. So many times I’ve wasted time hunting for that important detail because I couldn’t recall the spelling, the year, whatever.

The ‘bible’ is meant to be a flexible tool. I recommend it.

Blurb for Ancient Blood: Lily Alban escapes a murderous stalker, but his vicious attack leaves her with the ability to see auras. She finds safety in
the tiny hamlet of Rhodes End where a stranger stands out like a red light. Try
as she might to deny her growing desire for Cole, she seeks his help but soon
discovers the man she loves is not a man at all.

Werewolf Cole Benedict resists his attraction to Lily. A botanist researching the healing herbs to find a cure for Lycanthropy, he’s determined to protect Lily from her stalker as well as himself even in human form, but instinct takes over when he changes to his inner beast.

Together they must use their extraordinary gifts to catch Lily’s stalker before he attacks again, but revealing their secrets to one another could destroy their growing love or save them both.

Excerpt:

“Lily?” His strong hands gently
cupped her shoulders.

“Don’t, please don’t.”

She pulled away, fully intending to
flee. Her resistance shattered, and she turned into his embrace. It was too
late to escape. Pressing against his strength, she wound her arms around his
neck and pulled him closer. His erection prodded her stomach, and she moaned. A
heavy groan filled his throat as he lifted her from her feet. He kicked the bag
aside as he sat her on the counter.

“I can’t wait,” he growled. His
flaring aura spiraled with colors she couldn’t name. She caught her breath. One
hand burrowed through her hair, keeping her still as he stepped between her
thighs. “You’re all I could think about all day.”

Clasping her bottom, he slid her to
the edge of the counter. With his lips claiming her mouth, he unbuttoned her
slacks, than lifted her slightly to push them down and off.

The cold surface only made her more
aware of his scorching heat. His rough denim pants scraped her inner thighs in
contrast with the silky hair under her palms. Her pulse leaped, and she gasped.
His male scent mixed with hints of the wild forest filled her nostrils. When
his fingertip explored the heated moisture gathering at her juncture, she
tightened her thighs around his hips.

Barbara Edwards

The
Wild Rose Press: Ancient Blood, a Black Rose

Buy
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Scary starts with S

Did you ever notice that the scariest words start with S? Take
S-s-s-spooky. Just the word sends shivers down my spine. So I took that idea

and made a list I find scary.

10. Spook is another name for a ghost, but where ghost
conjures up cute images like Casper, in my mind spook is the sheet-clad figure
shifting through shadows.

9. Swamp is the site for slithery, slimy, sucking muck. The
victim always stumbles into the swamp, tries to escape and sinks.

8. Sarcophagus is more frightening than a simple tomb or
crypt. Picture the stone lid sliding aside for Dracula to ease out in his
nightly hunt for blood.

7. Shadows move and shift in the darkness. Shadows conceal
the evil things we strain to see. Shadows appear in places they don’t belong.
Shadows dog our steps.

Book One: Rhodes End Series — Paranormal Romance

6. Shape-shifters are more terrifying than werewolves since
they can assume any form.

5. Skeletons are a Halloween favorite to hang outside. They
rattle in the wind. Or make a click-click-clicking noise as they sneak along
the hallway of the old mansion.

4. Skulls are skinless, eyeless, sometimes toothless shapes,
all that remain of the place considered strong enough to protect our brains.
Skulls remind us of their past humanity.

3. Snakes are slithery and slippery. Asps hiss.

2. Stake is not exactly scary until you put it in the
context of killing Dracula or staking out your enemy on an anthill.

1. Samhain (pronounced Sow-een) is the Druid or witch
celebration of the holiday we renamed Halloween. Samhain is the time when the
curtain between worlds is thinnest and allows the creatures from the other side
to come into our world. Souls, demons, incubi, ghosts can roam freely and
do. Fear they will not return is the
reason for November 1^st to be called All Souls Day and a day of
prayer in many religions.

I’m sure you can think of more s’s. You’re welcome to add
them to my list.

Barbara Edwards writes paranormal romance.

Ancient Blood, Book Two Finding Rhodes End Series-blurb

Lily Alban escapes a murderous stalker, but his vicious attack
leaves her with the ability to see auras. She finds safety in the tiny hamlet
of Rhodes End where a stranger stands out like a red light. Try as she might to
deny her growing desire for Cole, she seeks his help but soon discovers the man
she loves is not a man at all.

Werewolf Cole Benedict resists his attraction to Lily. A botanist
researching the healing herbs to find a cure for Lycanthropy, he’s determined
to protect Lily from her stalker as well as himself even in human form, but
instinct takes over when he changes to his inner beast.

Together they must use their extraordinary gifts to catch Lily’s
stalker before he attacks again, but revealing their secrets to one another
could destroy their growing love or save them both.

Buy link for Ancient Blood http://tinyurl.com/3f627vh

Author Web: http://barbaraedwards.net

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Ancient Blood http://on.fb.me/naHRY5

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Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003F6ZK1A

Buy link for Ancient Blood http://tinyurl.com/3f627vh

About Ancient Awakening

Ancient Awakening by Barbara Edwards

Paranormal, strong romantic elements, sensuous

In Ancient Awakening, Police Officer ‘Mel’ Petersen investigates a death only she believes is murder. By disobeying direct orders from the Rhodes End Chief, she risks her career to follow clues that twist in circles to her backyard and lead the killer to her.

Her neighbor Stephen Zoriak is a prime suspect. Steve worked for a major pharmaceutical company where he discovered a weapon so dangerous he destroys the research. He is exposed to the dangerous organism. He suspects he is the killer and agrees to help her find the truth.

In the course of their investigation Mel and Steve find the real killer and a love that defies death.

Excerpt:

Legend gave him many names, but the wide halls of his mountain retreat no longer echoed with countless worshipers. He could have ruled the world had his ambition not died with the passage of time. The endless whispers were from the cold winds and the few praying priests. He didn’t care that he couldn’t remember his real name or birthplace.

For an eon he’d regretted the loss of softer emotions. Love had been the first feeling to die, along with the woman who had insisted he would never harm her. He couldn’t recall her features just the merry tinkle of her laughter and the bright smile she had greeted him with every morning. He licked his lips. She’d tasted sweet.

Fierce need flared in his gut and he sniffed the air. Outside his chamber a single acolyte in long brown robes waited to escort him. His mouth curved with a mirthless smile. The silent servants had ignited the flickering wall torches. Shadows jumped and shivered in the drafty halls like nervous virgins.

Barbara Edwards

The Wild Rose Press: Ancient Awakening, a Black Rose

www.barbaraedwards.net for more excerpts and to find buy buttons

Available on Kindle