But first, please read about the true paranormal events that happened to me and made their way into my book.
There’s a scene early in The Angel Connection where paranormal happenings convince Morgan the protagonist that the old Rectory she’s impulsively moved into is haunted. The spookiest event takes place one evening in the living room.
Morgan has just discovered a series of charcoal drawings hidden under the floorboards upstairs. The drawings are now spread out on the floor; “a patchwork quilt of white squares resting silently on the carpet. Suddenly the segment of carpet nearest us begins to rise, creating a kind of tunnel effect. As the first tunnel dissolves back into the floor, a second one ripples and rises, then a third and a fourth until the entire carpet of sketches is undulating like miniature ripples on a lake, a subtle low-rise ballet of pale parchments breathing up and down, astonishingly alive.”
This scene didn’t come from my imagination -- it actually happened to me. Back in the '70s my young sons and I moved into an old converted schoolhouse in rural Chester County, Pennsylvania. Shortly after I signed the lease, the landlord casually mentioned that the house was rumored to have ghosts. As a single mother with two little kids in the middle of nowhere, I would have preferred this information be disclosed before the signing of the lease. Too late. My name was on the dotted line. Shortly after that, weird stuff began to happen. Strange shadows oscillating on the cathedral ceiling, a phantasmagoric vision of a woman folding clothes, inexplicable noises in the kitchen, faint footsteps across the floorboards.
One Sunday afternoon, I was hosting a small brunch and talking about the unsettling possibility that there really was a ghost. One of the guests playfully called out, ”Here Ghostie, here ghostie!” My sister-in-law, in her signature Milanese accent, warned: “Don’t call him! He come!” The next moment the carpet in the living room stirred and began to undulate across the floor, creating tunnels from one end to the other. We stood there, pop-eyed and jaws agape. The eerie spectacle continued for perhaps forty seconds. That was the first time the carpet moved, but not the last. It happened several times more over a two-year period and there was no explanation for it.
We eventually vacated the schoolhouse (which we adored, despite the poltergeistic activity!) when my work required me to be closer to Philadelphia.
About five years had passed when a new friend and I discovered in passing that we had both lived in the schoolhouse, though her stay there was a few years prior to mine. We got to talking about the cute little house and ghosts, and I related my own scary stories, with emphasis on the undulating carpet. What she told me next made the hairs on my neck stand at attention.
She’s been in the process of moving out of the schoolhouse. All her furniture was gone but she couldn’t get into her new place until the next day, so she was spending one last night at the house in a sleeping bag on the living room floor. As she lay her head down, she felt the floorboards under her begin to ripple. It felt as if the floor was rising and falling. She spent a sleepless night and couldn’t get out of the place soon enough.
The undulating carpet in The Angel Connection is the first in a series of spooky paranormal events that mysteriously connect two women born a century apart. The convergence of their lives and loves leads to an explosive karmic conclusion. Could such an eerie event as a carpet rising and falling happen in “real life”?
Yes Dear Reader, it happened to me.
Yes Dear Reader, it happened to me.
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Special thanks to Kallysten and Tricia Schneider for putting this bloghop together and graciously inviting me to take part.
Now to the goodies!
In order to enter the Kindle giveaway, you must first enter to win a copy of The Angel Connection. Two winners will be chosen randomly. US winners can choose between a print or a digital version; international winners will receive a digital version. All the authors participating in this Very Paranormal Holiday Bloghop are offering their readers the same opportunity to enter the Kindle giveaway. You will increase you chances of winning the Kindle if you visit each author below and participating in their individual giveaways. Before the winner of the Kindle Fire HD is announced, the entrant's participation will be validated.
To participate in the Kindle and The Angel Connection Giveaway, you must:
1. "Like" my Facebook page at /JudithAnneBarton
2. Follow me on Twitter @jabartonbooks
3. Leave a comment below
After you've done that, you can enter the Kindle Fire HD giveaway by visiting http://blog.kallysten.net/2013/12/a-very-paranormal-holidays-blog-hop.html
Contest ends 12/30/13.
Good luck everyone!
