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Halloween Haunts 2013: The Fox True Ghost Tales Project by T. Fox Dunham

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My dear fellow and lady horror authors of the HWA:

I have begrudgingly—kicking and howling all the way—let go of summer. I’ve hung up my sandals and shorts, exchanging them for my suit jacket and trousers. Still, in Philly, she teases us with 80 degree days, yet the mornings chill us; and we dig ourselves under our fox blankets—mine made for me by Tara Fox Hall.

Fox_bioI am comforted each year by the turning of the seasons. Now comes Samhain, the ancient celtic cycle of the years, when we approach symbolic death—transition. This world and the next aligns; a thin silver veil separates both realms. At this time, old things break through. Places remember. Houses remember old trauma and lost love. The older a building or cemetery or battlefield becomes, the longer its more and more violent its spirit. Ghosts become lost, trapped in old visions, playing over again and again like a broken Victrola. They orbit in and out of our lives on a merry-go-round, and we see them all of our lives, though many of us ignore and forget.

And so I started the Fox True Ghost Story Project, to collect these experiences of encounters with the otherside. I used to collect folklore when I worked for museums in Pennsylvania. There are guidelines and collection methods to be observed in order to maintain at a material folk and cultural science. Though I’m a well-published author, this is a different creature entirely than submitting and publishing fiction. As authors, we narrate reality. We compose it, generate a rhythm. We shape the events of reality into a song with balanced parts, in a climatic buildup. That’s what our readers expect. Life is messy and chaotic. These qualities must be preserved when collecting folklore, and these real stories of our ghostly encounters beat the blood through the heart of story season in October.

So for fun, to enjoy the season and get away from the furious mad scribbling of monsters and zombies, I founded the project with the purposes of giving a voice and collecting the told stories in an online archive to be read by anyone who enjoys a real ghost tale. I collect new stories every year, either by email, or often I’ll even sit with the person, listen to their account and scribe it, as I did with my last story from a waitron at Molly’s whom we name Brown Eyes.

I want this to be casual. Folklore often is. It’s the common voice, of authors and non-authors. The stories should be written as accounts, and I ask that you try to keep them under a thousand words. Think of it like you’re writing an email to a friend about a ghost you saw the night before. You’re not going to be edited. Sincerity and preservation of your narrative are vital to collecting folk culture. These stories needed to have been experienced by you or someone close to you. I want personal experiences, not secondhand stories you’ve heard. You’d be surprised. Everyone’s encountered some spirit or element of the paranormal. The story need not be scary. People often ask me if it has to be scary. Most of these stories are not tales of terror: they’re stories of comfort, of fear and love, of dead loved ones reaching out to comfort the living. Of course, we have our share of dark stories too. There are many species of denizens in the spiritual realm that overlap in this world. Send your stories in the email—I prefer not to open attachments—to foxghost@comcast.net. I’ll contact you before I use your story. There won’t be any edits unless it’s something that clearly needs to be corrected, and this isn’t really a professional publication. It’s for entertainment and the preservation of folklore. It’s a way for us to enjoy the season and share our experiences.

Dave Considine and Barbie Held of Phantasm Psychic Research time will be doing an interview with the project. Dave and Barbie are the premier world ghost hunters now that we’ve lost the Warrens, and I’m sure you’ve seen their work on television in multiple shows. They’ve helped a lot of families, and I am excited to interview them. Look for it on October 30th.

I’m including a brief tale from one of our contributors below, a dear woman to me who lives in Texas. This was in our 2012 session:

Wake up from Dad

Submitted by Ravens Zuta (Me Lovely Mum)
South Central, Texas

My father, a hard-working fellow, was ill for quite some time before he left this existence. My four sisters and I would always talk about how Dad always looked out for us, and we figured he would probably continue to do so from wherever he was. The October after his death, I made the monumental decision that I had had enough of seventh graders and since my health was suffering, I quit. Didn’t put a lot of planning into the event, just decided enough was enough and out the door I went.

A few weeks passed and as was my new custom, I would lie down on the couch in the living room in the afternoon and read and usually fall asleep. On this particular afternoon, I was awakened by someone poking me in the back . . . hard! I grudgingly opened my eyes, mumbled something, and then realized that no one was there and my back had been to the couch, not outward. I sat up! I looked around, listened. Nothing happened. Then I chuckled and said, “Okay, Dad, I’m up, I’m up!” I didn’t pass my time in the afternoons on the couch for a long time after that and tried to be sure that I stayed as busy as possible . . . just in case.

The Fox True Ghost Story Project:

http://foxghosttales.blogspot.com/

foxghost@comcast.net

Fox_cover_StreetMartyrAnd if you’re interested in a thriller this season, a crime novel that’s been said to have a horror atmosphere, my book The Street Martyr has just been released by Gutter Books. It’s a new type of story for the crime-grit genre, using a literary and descriptive voice that drowns the reader in the gravel and filthy river water of Philadelphia. A short synopsis:

Vincent Grant lives on the edge. He gets by pushing stolen prescription drugs to high school kids, his mother is dying of cancer, and his business partner, the diminutive “King Louie,” may up and kill him, or anyone else, at any moment.

When Vincent is enlisted to throw a scare into a deviant priest, he does it dutifully, leaving the man bleeding on the floor of a seedy apartment. But when the priest is found brutally murdered, life as Vincent knew it ends and he has to flee as killers on both sides of the law make him the target of a city-wide manhunt.

In an increasingly desperate struggle against increasingly long odds, Vincent begins to think his only hope lies not in fighting to live, but in resigning himself to dying—and killing—for a cause.

The Street Martyr by T. Fox Dunham available soon from bookstores, libraries and amazon.com: http://www.gutterbooks.com/2012/05/t.html

T. Fox Dunham

http://tfoxdunham.blogspot.com/

foxbard@comcast.net

@TFoxDunham

4 comments on “Halloween Haunts 2013: The Fox True Ghost Tales Project by T. Fox Dunham

  1. Congrats, Fox 🙂 I’m pleased to be part of your Fox’s True Ghost Tales Project this year. I love to read other’s stories at your site, as it makes me feel I’m not so odd to have had my true life supernatural encounters. Best Wishes!

  2. Very interesting. When my dad passed earlier this year, one of our clocks stopped at exactly his time of death. It turns out the batteries were exhausted, but I left it that way for a long time. I can’t help but think it isn’t coincidence.

  3. Pingback: Halloween Haunts 2013: The Fox True Ghost Tales Project by T. Fox Dunham+++++ Edgy, engaging, informative +++++ | +++++ Edgy, engaging, informative +++++

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