If You Build It, Will the Ghosts Still Be There?

If on old building with a history of violence and death was torn down and a new structure was put in its place, would the spirits that haunted the old structure still be there? Some houses that have had reports of evil spirits tormenting the current owners were found to have been built on an old cemetery or sacred grounds. It appears that the unhappy spirits are making there presence known and that they do not appreciate this structure on top of their final resting place. Are the imprints of the spirits in the structure’s walls or floorboards; the objects that belonged to the decease; the ground the structures are built on that carry the embodied spirits, or perhaps all three? This brings me to Ground Zero, the over 16 acre area in Manhattan where the Twin Towers once stood. We all know what happened on September 11, 2001, it is forever embedded in our minds and hearts. Many innocent souls were lost in that unbelievable tragedy that unfolded in front of us either on our TV’s or live for those that were there. For me, I spent a week glued to the TV with a box of tissues in disbelief. I never got the chance to see the towers and now I never will. Ten months later in July of 2002, my family and I saw Ground Zero for ourselves. When we first got there, we walked along a long cover corridor where openings were provided in various areas to see the enormous hole that once stood the Twin Towers. You finally get to an open area were you can stare and reflect on what that moment was like for those that were there. On all four sides of the massive hole were signs of the destruction on the buildings surrounding the 16 plus acres. You saw three buildings standing with the middle one covered in what looked like a large sheet; building walls that were still destroyed from the trauma of the towers falling; windows that were still blackened from the fire and heat; and a one solid block memorial honoring those loved ones that perished in the destruction. In the very deep hole was the construction equipment that was working to fill the area so that new construction can some day be put upon this massive piece of land that will forever have a history of violence. While there, you are overwhelmed with the feeling of sadness and the terror that many must have felt. With about 3,000 lives that were lost almost eight years ago, I was wondering if the area might be haunted by some of their spirits, especially those that never knew what hit them. Will the new memorial park and buildings have paranormal activity or will those spirits finally rest in peace?

Some visitors and others that have offices near Ground Zero have reported some paranormal activity. They have reported seeing a ghost of fireman in full gear running through the area and other apparitions of those that may have worked there. An unsettling feeling, chills with hairs rising on their arms, and the feeling of dread are also reported. I have been there twice and experienced some of those feelings, especially in 2002. The memory of that day was clearer in 2002 than when I returned three years later, in 2005.

Basically, I was just wondering, if you build it, will the ghost still be there? I would love to hear your thoughts.

--Julie--

Manhattan skyline before 2001
Manhattan skyline 2005 (picture taken by my cousin)

An Urban Legend Memory: The Hook

I was quite young when I heard this one for the first time. There was a group of us camping and one of the older gentlemen decided that he needed to tell us a story he claimed was true. He said that not too long ago in the area where we were camping, there had been reports all day about an escape murderer from the state insane asylum. This murderer had been described with having a hook where his right arm once was and they were calling him the Hook Man. Everyone in the area was warned to keep a lookout and when he was spotted to report his whereabouts to the authorities immediately. A teenage boy and his date were parked in the dark and desolate area for a little love making. He turned on the radio for some romantic music when an announcer chimed in to report the warning about the escaped murder and that he was in the area they were parked. The girl became increasingly scared and wanted to leave. The boy felt all macho, locked all the doors telling her that they would be just fine, and tried kissing her again. She became more frightened, arguing with the boy, when the car moved a bit as if someone or something was outside and they heard a scratching sound. Frustrated and a wee bit scared, the boy put the car in gear and flew out of there. When they arrived at the girl’s home, she got out of the car and as she began to shut the door, he heard her scream loudly. He ran around to her side of the car and hanging on the door handle was a bloody hook.

I can’t tell you how scared this story made me. The jerk told us that we were camping in the same area and that they never caught the man. Needless to say, I didn’t get any sleep that night and was glad we left for home the next day.

I have many memories of certain Urban Legends, but for some reason this one really scared me. I first heard this story when the Zodiac killer was on a murder spree in California in the late 1960's, so the possibility of the hook man killer was quite real.

--Julie--

We Are Not Alone?

I thought this might be interesting to post and would love to hear your comments about it.

Live Re-enactors or Ghosts?

In 2005 I took a two week vacation with my Mother, daughter and cousin along the East coast. Our vacation started in Virginia, then Washington DC, New York City, Philadelphia, Rhode Island and Boston MA. Since many of the places we went to have so much history and reports of ghostly activity, I thought that I would do a blog series on that vacation. I will start with Newport News, Virginia, where my Aunts, Uncles, many cousins live, and where my Father grew up. On one of the evenings of our visit, several of my cousins came over and we chatted about our lives. I found out that one of my cousins was a Civil War re-enactor. He and many others would put on Confederate and Yankee uniforms and meet on the battlefields where all the action took place. He is a southern boy so he would wear a full Confederate uniform, from head to toe, with whatever pistols or fighting gear was necessary for the re-enactment. These battles were carefully orchestrated by historians and other Civil War experts. A distance away from the battlefields was the spectators or news media, watching the whole event as it unfolds. I think it would fun to watch them re-enact a battle. He told us the stories about the night before the battle that turned out to be just as fascinating as the battle recreations themselves. Some of the private owners of the plantation properties around the area, allowed some of the participants to pitch tents or sleep in the cabins that are on the property as long as they respect the land. (I'm sorry but I can't remember the name of the plantation that he stayed on and haven't seen him since 2005.) The cabins were where the plantation owner's slaves would live. It was well known to those that have camped on one particular property for several years. that one of the cabins near the back of one of the property is haunted. No one ever stays there because whatever is there doesn't want visitors and is not shy in letting them know. One time a new member to the re-enactment group was staying in the cabin next to the "haunted" cabin. There was lots of noise in that cabin and he couldn't sleep. He thought that someone was partying in the cabin and went over to tell them to be quiet. My cousin was staying in another cabin nearby and watched this all unfold. He saw the guy march to the cabin angry, go inside, and then ran out like his britches were on fire. The man said that someone or something told him to 'get out' in an angry voice but no one was in there. He never went near the cabin after that. My cousin said that the night was like a dead calm, eerie quiet and pitch black unless there was a full moon. While you are lying in bed, you were overcome with the feeling like you are not alone, almost like some unseen thing was in there with you. Some have reported seeing apparitions walking through the property, ignoring the living, moving around and repeating the same thing over and over. No one felt threatened by any of the spirits that may still reside on the property, so they didn't mind staying there. As for the "haunted" cabin, they just respected the angry ghosts wishes and stayed away.

On the day of the battle recreations, the feeling and reported sightings of ghosts have been witnessed on the battlefields as well. While the battle was going on, or after it was over, some say they noticed opaque soldiers on the field still fighting the battle. For some of the re-enactors they do this because they love it and others to honor those who lost their lives in the war, perhaps a family ancestor. With all the bloody deaths from the Civil War in Virginia, it’s not surprising that along with the human re-enactors that some of the ghost soldiers from the war are joining in on the fighting too.

There have been many sightings of battle scenes being played out by witnesses on many famous battlefields like Gettysburg. Many visitors have thanked the park managers for the wonderful and realistic re-enactments of battles or soldiers marching in formation for them. In every case, there was never a re-enactments going on. I would love to hear from anyone who has done battlefield re-enactments or has seen one done by ghosts of the battles' past.
--Julie--

Divine Photos

FROM OUTER SPACE
"The Eye of God"

"The Hand of God"
FROM THE VATICAN
"The Angel"

They say that the picture has not been retouched.
I saw these photos online and wanted to share.

Beth's Angel

It's funny how when you read another person's blog it might trigger a memory of either an event or person that made an impression on you at one point in your life. This is the case of Beth, a very refined woman who I met in an art class in college. Beth was very talented in every area of art whether it is a drawing, a painting or her amazing sculptures. We ended up in several classes together so we shared other aspects of our lives besides art. I found out that Beth was spiritual and had experienced many paranormal phenomenons throughout her life. She has felt the loss of many family members and always felt their spirits were with her. Many of her drawings and sculptures reflected her strong belief in angels and them watching over her. She felt even more protected and blessed on the day of her birthday. Photos taken of her during birthday celebrations show unusual lights surrounding only her even when several people were in the pictures. She brought them to school for me to see because I showed an interest in viewing them. In every picture there were lights all around just her. They appeared to be moving towards her or just moving over her head, and were long in shape or looked like orbs. Those photos were so fascinating to look at but the best was yet to come. For a long time Beth felt the urge to sculpt a very large figure of an angel. It took her months to do it and she revealed this over 7 foot statue to her friends on her birthday. The angel sat by her Arcadia door and Beth posed for pictures with it. They took several pictures and they all looked the same, Beth next to her sculpture of an angel in front of the door, and through the glass you can see that it was pitch black outside. The last picture had a different look to it; the pitch black had an apparition of a woman standing behind Beth. She was opaque, white and appeared to be floating because you couldn’t see her feet. Beth said that she looked like her mother who died many years ago when she was young. She showed me the picture at school and I got chills. This is the first time I have ever seen a picture of an apparition, actually it's the only one that I have ever seen that wasn't on the computer. I was totally mesmerized by what I was seeing and couldn’t get enough of looking at it. This happened 15 years ago and I believe that Beth's photo was not touched or altered in anyway. I’m sure that some would scrutinize it today but I know that what I saw was real. I’m surprised that I didn’t remember seeing Beth’s picture until now because I told everyone about the ghost lady in the Arcadia door. Seeing Autumnforest’s pictures of her Mother with strange lights around her triggered this memory…….thanks.

--Julie--

The Jersey Devil: A Mysterious Cryptid

I will sometimes come across fascinating mysterious creatures besides Bigfoot or aliens that I might want to know more about. I saw a special on this cryptid on the Travel Channel and found the story of where it came from and some of the witness stories interesting. The Jersey Devil is a legendary cryptid that is sometimes referred to as the Leeds Devil. This creature is found to dwell in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. There are several descriptions of this cryptid with different deviations of its appearance. It has been described as a flying two-footed animal with hooves, having a horse like head with a tail, and glowing red eyes known to paralyze a man. It releases a high pitch squeal and varies in height anywhere from three feet to more than seven feet. The stories of this creature have made its way to modern times with New Jersey naming their hockey team after it.

Where might it have come from? There are so many stories even dating as far back to Native American folklore of the origin of the Jersey Devil. The story that many people tend to believe the most is the one about Mother Leeds. The story goes that Mother Leeds had twelve children and was about to give birth to her 13th child. She believed that a 13th child would be the devil and was afraid to give birth. In 1735, on a stormy night, Mother Leeds gave birth to a child that looked normal, but quickly changed to look like a creature with hooves, a horse’s head, bat wings and a forked tail. There were rumors that she was a witch and the father of this child was the devil himself. This story reminds me of the plot for “Rosemary’s Baby”. After the cryptid was born it let out a loud scream, killed the midwife, and then flew up the chimney and into the pines. Five years later a clergy performed an exorcism for the devil and for 100 years there were no reported sightings of the creature. It was told that a Japhet Leeds, whose wife was Deborah Leeds, named twelve children in his will which was written in 1736. This falls in line with the legendary story of Mother Leeds thirteenth child being the child of the devil, lending credence to the story.

Where would we be with the skeptic’s point of view? Many of them believe that the Jersey Devil in nothing more than the wild imagination of the English settlers told to many generations. The Pine Barrens was a place that many early settlers were afraid to go into because of its dark, uninhabitable, and deserted eeriness to it. It is easy to see how the stories may have gotten started from them seeing animals such as bears, the smell of the pines, the dark unknown of what is lurking in these barrens, could have fueled their imaginations.

The Jersey Devil stories are intensified by the eyewitnesses who have encountered this legendary cryptid. In 1840, many livestock was reported killed by the devil because of the unusual tracks found and reports of loud screaming could be heard afterwards. From this time on until the 1900’s there were reports of sightings anywhere from flying above them, killing animals and terrifying children. The more frequent activity of sightings were reported in January of 1909. The reports were made on a daily basis and were anywhere from seeing it flying overhead, it’s tracks in the snow and all over town, to spotting it sitting right outside their homes and attacking people. Then the sightings stopped until 1951 when a boy claimed to have seen a screaming creature. Then in 1957 a strange rotting corpse resembling the Jersey Devil was found and many felted that the cryptid was dead. Even though the creature was thought to be dead, many encounters of the Jersey Devil have been made after that date. The reports of sightings are still being made today.

Some movies were made based on the story like the 2008 low-budget horror flick “The 13th Child: Legend of the Jersey Devil”. Even an episode of The X-Files was titled “The Jersey Devil” where is compared to Bigfoot and were revealed to be wild humans. Real or not, the Jersey Devil does make for interesting folklore.

--Julie--

Travis Walton - Fire in the Sky

"I looked at the vague but reassuring forms of the doctors around me. Abruptly my vision cleared. The sudden horror of what I saw rocked me as I realized I was definitely not in a hospital. I was looking square into the face of a horrible creature . . . with huge, luminous brown eyes the size of quarters! I looked frantically around me. There were three of them! Hysteria overcame me instantly." — Travis Walton

Some skeptics believe this to be an elaborate hoax brought on by Travis and his logger buddies. On the other hand, others believe the story to be true.

--Julie--

The Ghosts of Eastern State Penitentiary

I have seen several specials on Eastern State Penitentiary and a couple of Ghost Hunters shows as well. This place has been deemed one of the creepiest places in the world, “hell on earth”, and called “pure evil” by many. Since this is one of the many places I would like to visit someday, I decided to do a blog on this immense prison that has seen a very violent past. Near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania stands a fortress type structure known as the Eastern State Penitentiary. It was considered a great social experiment that would turn some inmates into raving lunatics, inspired fear in most hardened criminals, and is rumored to have ghosts roaming its cold, decaying walls, haunting the living. Today the place stands as a museum and was saved by a group of devoted preservationist, opening this historic site to the public. They intentionally preserved it in its eerie, derelict state to keep it authentic so that visitors can get a small glimpse of what kind of hell a prisoner went through.

For 142 years Eastern State Penitentiary was one of the most feared correctional institutions in the world having 75,000 men and women passing through its gates. In 1787 at meeting at Benjamin Franklin’s Philadelphia home, an idea of a new way to reform prisoners was born. Most prisons at this time were open rooms where adults and children were kept encouraging violence and disease with no hope for any of the prisoners to be reformed. Funded mostly by Quakers, it took more than three decades of planning before their masterpiece was revealed in 1829. The exterior looks like a castle and having the interior carefully built for the most foul of prisoners. In the middle stood the central rotunda room where you could view down all the cell blocks just by standing in one spot. Above this room stands the guard tower where they had a clear view of the inmates in the exercise yards and all the rooftops. While the guards may have had a view of the entire prison; the prisoners were kept in solitary confinement. Their view were of cell walls and a tiny patch of sky known as “the eye of God”, which made them feel like they were in a tomb. They had running water and central heat in each of the cells because there was to be no conversing with other inmates or the guards. For the two years of their sentencing they were aloud to take two breaks a day in their personal exercise yard, spending 23 hours in their cells. They were fed through a small slot called a “feeding hole” so that the guards wouldn’t have to come in contact with the prisoner. Once they were locked away, their loved ones and past life no longer exist with any letters or visitation aloud. It was eerie quiet in the facility and the prisoners felt like they were in a tomb and buried alive. Many of the prisoners suffered with extreme madness and insanity which some say is still felt in the dreary, rusting walls of the prison.

By the 19th century, the guards felt empowered and dealt out brutal punishment to the prisoners if they tried to make contact with others. They would remove the light in their cells, starved them, or used inhuman torture. The prison was becoming a hellhole. Even Charles Dickens, who visited the prison with the best of hope, said that it was the worst prison on Earth. Five years after it opened, an investigation of wrong doing was finally enacted with harsh punishments handed down. By 1913, during the industrial revolution, the prison was modified by using the prisoners as free labor. They opened a work shop, a dining hall and gave the prisoners cellmates bringing this once hellhole to more like other contemporary prisons. The prison that once housed petty criminals is now holding murderers, rapist and other very violent criminals in its cells. The most famous man to be imprisoned in Cell block 8 of the prison was Al Capone. Capone and friend were visiting Philadelphia when they were caught and arrested for carrying firearms. He was sentenced to eight months and started his stay in May of 1929. Capone was treated like royalty and was aloud to have many amenities in his cells that others were not privy to. Rumors are that he either stop a fight between prisoners or made a heavy contribution which is why the preferential treatment. During his eight month stay he told the guards that he was being haunted by one of the men he killed at the St. Valentines Day massacre, James Clark. He could be heard screaming, “Jimmy don’t do it”, or “Jimmy don’t hit me” and said that Jimmy was in his cell. Was this the early sign of syphilis that would eventually kill him? In January of 1930, Al Capone walked out of the Eastern State Penitentiary but was in some way never really free.

In January of 1961, the biggest outbreak of violence happened in the prison with prisoners and guards in mortal danger. Riots were started along with fires, stabbings, and it ended with many officers and prisoners brutally beaten and killed by the violence. In 1971, Eastern State Penitentiary was closed because the city of Philadelphia was afraid that they could no longer contain the violence behind the massive 30 foot stone walls. The prisoners were dispersed to other institutions and the penitentiary was ruined by Mother Nature. The rotting exterior was almost torn down several times until 1991 when a band of preservationist restored many of the walls keeping most of it in the original state it was found in. Now you can take tour and learn all about the stories on how it began and how it was operated during its existence.

Many ghost hunters have investigated this massive place even TAPS. During their first visit they were told about the shadowy figure seen in Cell block 12 that came out of the last cell and just stood in the hallway. While investigating the team felt like they were being watched, saw black masts moving through the corridors and had the feeling of heaviness especially while in Cell block 12. But what they caught in Cell block 12 was something incredible! On their still video camera they caught what appeared to be a dark shadow figure wearing a cape, manifesting, turning quickly, and then bolting down the corridor. Jason and Grant was not sure what it was so they returned to the Eastern State Penitentiary for a couple more nights of investigating. They had Brian try to recreate the figure’s moves but it turned out to be similar but not exact. They decided not to say what it could have been and left the video out there for us to come to our own conclusion. If you haven’t seen it yet, and I don’t know anyone who hasn’t, I posted it below.



TAPS did return to Eastern State Penitentiary a year later but caught no viable evidence even though they had lots of creepy personal experiences.

Full Moon Lunacy

Do you get overwhelmed with the desire to go outside and howl at the moon when it is full? I never get that feeling but still like to joke around and do it anyway. When I was a little girl, the werewolf scared me more than Count Dracula, Frankenstein or any other monsters. Those creepy gypsies in the movies had this little girl believing that those who bare the mark of the werewolf will change into the beast at the light of the full moon. Needless to say, on those nights I never got much sleep. The only werewolf that didn’t scare me was Quentin Collins from the late sixties soap, Dark Shadows. I soon realized that the stories of the werewolf were just urban legends made up to scare its audience. It worked on me. Does the full moon have an effect on human behavior besides someone turning hairy, growing fangs and running on all fours?

Some researchers feel that there is a connection between the moon’s cycles and the deviant manners of human and animal behavior. The theory is that the full moon is linked to crime, suicide, mental illness, disasters, accidents, birthrates, fertility, strange weather, an increase in animal bites and even the elusive werewolf. There are some reports of the mentally ill patients showing signs of deterioration during a full moon, while others show an increase in seizures and bleeding ulcers. Many hospitals have been known to add more staff in the maternity ward on the nights of a full moon. My daughter is due to give birth next month, a day before a full moon, with my first grandchild. I have been joking around with her saying that she will probably go into labor on the night of the full moon because I heard that there is a high rate of births during that time. The theory is that the barometric pressure caused by the full moon has an effect on a woman’s ammonic sac causing it to expand and the woman to go into labor. At least that is what I read on some websites. They also say that women who have had more than one child are likely to give birth on a full moon night. This is her first so we shall see. My grand-daughter will come when she is ready, full moon or no full moon.

Is there a connection between the full moon human behaviors? All of the theories and connections are not shared by scientific evidence. Many studies have been conducted and proven that there is no significant correlation between the full moon and human or animal behavior. These studies were taken all over the world, in many places, during a full moon with no unusual results or changes in behavior.

Are the full moon effects real, or is it just folklore about the lunacy brought on by the many stories of werewolves and other unusual behavior told by believers? Whatever the truth may be, many still believe that the full moon does have a connection to mental and physical abilities even to this day. I was just curious.....

--Julie--

Stephen King: The King of Horror

I once read that Stephen King wrote his incredible novels in a small room, with a table and chair in the center. On the table sat a typewriter and a pile of papers for him to type his engaging words to scare the person who ends up reading his stories. I suspect that was probably true when he first started out writing and his tiny room is now a plush office with the typewriter being replaced by a computer. Stephen Edwin King is known as an author of contemporary horror, fantasy and science fiction and has sold over 350 million copies of his books. He is best known for his work in horror with many of his novels being adapted for movies, television and comic books. One of his most famous novels, “The Shining”, can usually be found on many people’s ‘top ten scariest movies of all time’ list. He has even written several books using the pen name, “Richard Bachman”.

Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, and when he was just two years old, his father left using the, ‘I’m going out to buy a pack of cigarettes” line. His mother, Ruth, was left to raise King and his adopted older brother by herself, leaving them falling on hard times. Until he was eleven, the family moved many times ending up back at Durham, Maine, where they took up permanent residence. When he was young, King witnessed a friend of his being struck and killed by a train. When he returned home after playing with the boy, he appeared in shock and speechless. This confused his family until they found out about the boy’s death. King said that he had no memory of the incident but some believe that witnessing his friend’s death may have mentally inspired King’s dark side, but he doesn’t believe it. That may be true, but this event may have spawned the idea for his novel, “The Body”, which was about four young friends who take a journey to find the body of a kid, that was hit by a train, and was their age. Along the way they deal with each of their inter demons and form a strong bond. This novel was later adapted for the movie, “Stand by Me”, which is a favorite of mine. King’s non-fiction novel, “Danse Macabe”, details where King’s inspiration for horror came from. His Grandfather and a collection of short stories by H. P. Lovecraft which was his father’s, were part of what encouraged the dark, disturbing creations in King’s imagination.

King attended the University of Maine and graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science in English. He wrote a column for the student newspaper called, “Steve King’s Garbage Truck”, and in 1967 sold his first short story, “The Glass Floor”. After leaving college, King got a teaching certificate but had trouble find work. He sold short stories to supplement his income while teaching. In 1971, King married a fellow student, Tabitha and got a teaching job at Hampden Academy. While working on novel ideas he continued to write short stories for several magazines and developed a drinking problem which has stayed with him for more than a decade.

In 1973, King’s idea for a girl with psychic abilities was disheartening to turn into a novel, so he threw his early draft in the trash. His wife retrieved the copies and ask him to finish it. In 1974, his novel, “Carrie” was released the same year his mother died. King’s drinking problem was becoming more serious causing him to slur his speech at his mother’s funeral. After he finished “Carrie”, while his Mother was in ill health, he moved his family to southern Maine and wrote a couple more novels, “Second Coming” and “Salem’s Lot”. After her death, King moved his family to Boulder, Colorado. While on a drive with his wife in Estes Park, they caught the glimpse of a magnificent hotel, The Stanley Hotel, which inspired the novel, “The Shining”. In 1975, King and his family moved to western Maine where he finished his fourth novel, “The Stand”, which was turned into a mini series for television. He taught a creative writing class at the University of Maine and has made Maine his permanent home. Even though King was enjoying success as a writer and teacher, his addictions were becoming a huge problem. Right after the release of his novel, “The Tommyknockers”, in 1987, King’s family and friends planned an intervention by displaying the evidence of his addiction. They took from his trash beer cans, cigarette butts, grams of cocaine, Xanax, Valium, NyQuil, dextromethorphan (cough medicine) and marijuana, giving King a reality check on how bad his addition was. On the encouragement of his loved ones, King sought help and has been clean and sober ever since.

On June 19, 1999, around 4:30 am, King was walking on the shoulder of Route 5 in Center Lovell, Maine, when he was struck by a minivan throwing him about 14 feet from the pavement, where he landed on the ground. The driver said that he was distracted by his dog moving in the back of the minivan and didn’t see King. Even though witnesses said that the driver, Bryan Smith, didn’t appear to be speeding or reckless, the Sheriff said that King was hit from behind. King disputes this and put on his website that he was walking while facing traffic. King was elusive enough to give the deputy his family’s phone numbers but appeared to be in excruciating pain. He suffered from a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of his right leg, scalp laceration and a broken hip and was kept at the hospital for almost three weeks. After five operations in ten days, with physical therapy, a shattered hip causing him to only be able to sit for forty minutes at a time, King continued writing his novels. He wrote a fictional account of the accident in the last novel of his, “Dark Tower” series, along with an exact description of all his injuries. A couple of years later because of the punctured lung, King was stricken with pneumonia. In 2002, because of having problems sitting comfortably making him tired from the injuries of the accident, King declared that he would stop writing. He stated that he was writing much slower and his creative thoughts were not processing but would be willing to publish his writings if he came up with something really, really interesting. Lucky for us, King continued to write his extremely imaginative horror, suspenseful novels.

King’s keen eye for detail, fictional locations like the town of Castle Rock, and the use of secondary characters makes his novels extremely unique. The settings for his novels are mostly in Maine including, Dolores Claiborne, Hearts in Atlantis, The Shawshank Redemption, The Body, The Mist, and The Green Mile. He likes to reference American history and American culture in his novels as well. He will also use authors as a character in his novels like Paul Sheldon in “Misery" and Jack Torrance in “The Shining”.

In 2003, Steven King received The National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. When King was asked why he loved to write, he responded by saying, “The answer to that is fairly simple, there was nothing else I was made to do. I was made to write stories and I love to write stories. That’s why I do it. I really can’t imagine doing anything else and I can’t imagine not doing what I do.”

I for one am very happy that Stephen King has followed the path of being a writer. Although I haven’t read his novels, I have enjoyed many of the movies that were adapted from his novels. Some of my all time favorite movies were written by Stephen King.

--Julie--