Hitting stores on September 15, 2014 is Tacoma’s Haunted History, co-authored with my dear friend and ghost hunter, Ross Allison. Special thanks to Ross for believing in me enough to work with him on this project. We had several fun hours spent together pouring through history at the library!
Book Description:
Tacoma hides in the shadows of Seattle, but what hides in the shadows of Tacoma? The city’s paranormal history is riddled with Native American culture, spiritualists, mysterious deaths, tragedy, and curses that dwell in the dark. Much of Tacoma is built directly on top of sacred lands, and many natives to the area can attest that the city is haunted by its past. Desecration of graves can leave troubling results. Hexed citizens can perish. An untimely death can leave behind a soul. These unfortunate circumstances bring forth tales of the strange and unexplainable. Are we alone in Tacoma or accompanied by ghosts of the past?
Author Bio:
A.G.H.O.S.T. was founded in 2000 by Ross Allison. With more than 25 years of worldwide investigative experience, Ross shares his knowledge by writing books, appearing on national television, and teaching classes. He can also be found wandering the streets of Seattle as a tour guide for his business, Spooked in Seattle Ghost Tours. Teresa Nordheim is the director of research for A.G.H.O.S.T. and is a self-proclaimed research addict with a passion for the paranormal field. She has written more than 30 articles for various publications and conducted interviews with celebrities and distinguished professionals in the paranormal and scientific fields.
Pre-Order today from Amazon and see a free preview!
On July 5th, I had the honor of visiting Tacoma, Washington to kick off summer reading with First Book and the United States Coast Guard’s Handshake Tour! As you may know, First Book is the signature charity of the Coast Guard and for the next few weeks First Book will be hosting private reading parties aboard the USCG Tall Ship Eagle to generate new books for children in need. How does it work? Everyone that tours the Eagle will be invited to shake hands with a Coastie on board - each handshake will provide a new book for a child in need.
Although the day started out rainy (I know surprise, surprise) the sun soon came out and we were greeted by a group of smiling 1st and 2nd grade children from the nearby Bordeaux School. The kids and adults alike were thrilled to tour the 295-foot vessel and each child walked away from the day with three beautiful new books!
This weekend First Book and the USCG are heading to San Francisco for the next stop of the tour – July 24 through July 28 - so if you’re in the Bay area, come down to tour the Eagle and help bring new books to children who need them! If you are not able to make it in person, you can still help by virtually shaking a Coastie’s hand at www.firstbook.org/uscg.
Lots of people wrote to tell me that X-Rays were needed for TB tests, and some people suggested that they were in hand-baggage as they might be fogged by X-Rays in checked baggage, but no-one explained why there seemed no mechanism for anyone ever to look at the (quite expensive, and carried over in hand-baggage), x-rays until this arrived from Mr Petit...
Having been a commanding officer in the UK -- meaning I had to supervise
airmen and NCOs under my command when they wanted to bring their UK brides
back to the US -- I had to chuckle when I saw the note about the x-ray.
It's not required by the immigration folks (either Division 6, or anyone
else). Since it's a different federal agency, I'm not surprised that an INS
employee wouldn't know about it. It's required by the US Public Health
Service, for everyone, regardless of nationality, who is trying to immigrate.
And they do, on occasion, get checked, but only if there's advance reason to
believe there's "a substantial risk of exposure." For example, you can bet
that flights on foreign-flag carriers originating in, say, Nairobi get more
scrutiny than would a BA or AA flight from Heathrow.
The relevant statute was passed in 1938 (there may have been a predecessor,
but I doubt it) and hasn't been updated yet. What a surprise.
And this came in from my editor Jennifer Brehl at Harper Collins about the free American Gods -- I'm putting it up because she says it better than I could paraphrase it:
First of all, the online edition has been optimized and the embedded pages are moving much faster. I’ve asked that the widget confusion be fixed – i.e., open up widget to full book rather than older partial version.
We’re wondering if you might have some time tomorrow that we could call you and we could have a conference call to discuss things? We want your fans to know that we are responsive to their concerns and, although it’s painful getting the criticism, it’s also a good learning opportunity.
So there will be a conference call, and I'll report back on it.
...
-MikeOh good.
(And I should mention, I loved
this Michael Chabon New Yorker article about Superhero costumes.)
Hello Neil,
I am going to the Easter Con in Heathrow because I'd like to hear you. Could you recommend which day would have the most Neil-time or most Neil-events? I know I'm not made of the right stuff since I might have to be selective about the days at the con, and even though I'd love to build my own battle-ready space ship, I still would like to get two flies with one swat....being battle-ready an'all (Ahem!).
Thank you,
HenrietteFrom the schedule, it looks like it's definitely Sunday.
http://www.orbital2008.org/sunday.pdf -- and you get a
Mitch Benn concert into the bargain.
...
Dave McKean says he doesn't mind me putting up his sketches for
The Graveyard Book cover...
So to bring you up to speed...
Dave
did a cover while I was writing the book. As the book continued, it became sort of obvious that the cover was younger than the book was, and we needed a cover that told adults that this was a book for them too.
So I finished the book and Dave read the book and did a bunch of sketches, all of which made me happy, and all of which felt a lot more like the book I'd written...
All of these are sketches, it's worth pointing out -- roughs for me and the various editors and art departments to look at and choose from. It's not finished art, nor is it meant to be.
(The actual typeface is something Dave plans to scan in and create from photos of old gravestones.)
And in the next post I'll tell you what the response was, and which one we wound up going with and why.
