Alan Lowe's Blog: Lowespeaks

From the Dueling Grounds at West Memphis to the battlefields of the Boston Mountains to the haunted churches in the oil rich south, Arkansas’s haunted history and heritage is deeply grounded in the beliefs and cultures of its people and places. The diverse cultural background of the state is a breeding ground for rich legends and lore. The stories that are presented to you in “Supernatural Arkansas: Ghosts, Monsters and the Unexplained” are but a few of the haunted stories that supernatural enthusiasts will find as they travel the highways and byways of Arkansas.
Please join us on our supernatural adventure by picking up a copy of our new book.

Very excited that my new book will be out to the general public on Septemebr 1st. It is available now for pre order at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million. Check out the trailer for my book.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6RMf0...

I just finished a novel and it is Historic Fiction. I am now told that HF is not selling so publishers are not buying. I believe in historic fiction and the impact it can have on readers. Of course my Professors say that HF is a no no. They think it will confuse readers and should be banned from publication. I think whatever it takes to get people reading and interested in history should be embraced. What do you think????

I am going to start adding to this blog some haunted experiences that I have in my house and yes, my house is haunted. I own a two story house. The upstairs is empty except for furniture and my office. Most of the supernatural experiences either originate from upstairs or happen there. We have a set of stairs with a switchback landing. That is to say the steps have a landing at the halfway point then they turn to the right and continue to the hallway on the second floor. The newel posts are decorated with small teddy bears. I was walking up the steps when one of these teddy bears literally jumped from the post and hit me in the stomach. This has never happened before and these stuffed toys have been there for years. After I had acknowledged the attempt to get my attention I continued to my office and started to work on a story. I had not been there long when I felt something tap me on the shoulder. I turned to see if by chance my wife had slipped in the door and gotten behind me without me seeing her. There is no way that could happen but it is a natural reaction to look behind when tapped on the shoulder. I went back to work and soon I had something or someone tugging on my shirt sleeve. This time I stopped work and acknowledged a presence in the room other than myself. I told whoever or whatever that I was glad that I was not alone and that they could watch me work while keeping me company. All of the interruptions stopped and I was able to finish the story on which I was working. Maybe this will be the basis of a new one.

Lately my doors have been acting up or maybe the spirits in my house have discovered a new toy. The other day I was working in my study, I was home alone and I heard a door slam. It was a nice day and I had all of the doors and windows open to air out the house. I was working away and BAM, a door slammed somewhere in the house. I thought it could have been the breeze closing a door and figured I had better check on the dogs. Something like that could hurt one of them badly. I knew that I had taken the time to put a chair in front of every open door but still I guess anything is possible. I checked all of the open doors and found them just as I had left them, blocked open. I never did figure out what the noise was. Then last night I had just gone to sleep when I heard a pounding on the door. Angie was still up working on the computer and I thought maybe she had taken the dogs out and the door had locked behind her. Nope, she was still working on the computer. I ask if she had heard it and she had not. Please tell me that I am not going crazy, please.

While I was in Tampa recently on business I found myself staying at a really nice Hyatt Regency downtown. It was nice, let me say that one more time it was nice and I had no thoughts of it being haunted. The first night of my stay was very interesting. I had not been asleep long when I felt what can only be described as a cold clammy hand grab my ankle and pull. It was so real that I woke and started kicking thinking that someone had gotten into my room and was trying to pull me out of bed. I finally came to my senses and dismissed it as a bad dream. The night was young and the touching and pulling continued until I finally decided that I should go ahead and take a shower, dress and go to work.
On the way to work or rather the conference I saw some historical markers all around the hotel. One stated that at this site the first home of Tampa was built by a sea Captain that had been tossed ashore by a hurricane. He had no ship and no way to leave so he built the first home and became the first settler of Tampa in the early 1800’s. I walked a little farther and found another placard stating that this was the site of Fort Brooke Cemetery. (1824 – 1842) The cemetery became overgrown and forgotten to history. During construction the builder started unearthing graves and work stopped. The bodies of over 200 US soldiers, family and Seminole Indians were removed and buried properly. I continued on toward my destination and found another sign stating that this was the site of an ancient Seminole temple mound. It was used by soldiers as a lookout until the fort was decommissioned in 1844. The mound was then leveled to make room for progress.
It is no wonder that the spirits are hanging out in this area. I only wish I could have spent a little uninterrupted time trying to communicate with them

I wrote a story a while back called the Who Children of Orange Beach. It was a fiction story about all of the children that drown at sea and how on stormy nights they come to visit looking for other children to join them. It was told on a stormy night to my nephews in hopes of helping them sleep through the storm. Ha, with Uncles like me who needs enemies? It was all centered on a noise the wind made when it blew through the trees outside our Condo in Orange Beach. (Whoooooooooo) Not long after the story was written I came back to the condo with some investigators from SSI. We were in town to do an investigation at Old Fort Morgan in Gulf Shores. I had a visitation that night while I was asleep from a young blond girl. She was all wet and pasty colored. She just stood by the bed looking at me with her dark deep set eyes. That really freaked me out. The next morning one of my more skeptical investigators told me he had the weirdest dream. He said that he dreamed that a young blond haired girl came into his room a just stood by his bed looking at him. Yikes, same girl, same Condo and same night. Did that make it real? I believe it did. Was it one of the Who Children looking for someone with which to play? Maybe but remember I made the story up. Interesting? It gets better. Six months later (two nights ago) I am back at the condo and have the strangest dream. I have a room full of children all in various stages of being wet. They are all dressed in costumes wearing all kinds of masks. One was puffy and had a head like a balloon with drawn on eyes, nose and mouth. They were pulling at me and beckoning for me to come with them. No way, not after the story and what happens to those who do go with them. I have a real hard time going in the ocean now. I will go knee deep and that is it. They say it is the rip tides that pull a person under and out to sea. I know better, it is the Who Children.

Two weeks ago I was walking up stairs when I noticed a little dark critter at the head of the steps. Thinking it was my little Chihuahua Poco I said, “Poco, how did you get upstairs ahead of me?” Of course I did not expect a response and did not get one but what I did get was a little whine at the foot of the steps. I turned and looked to see Poco standing in the living area. I looked back upstairs and could see the little dark critter still standing at the head of the steps. I took a couple of more steps toward the unidentified creature and it turned and raced to what used to be Violets bedroom. I wonder if it could have been the spirit of her old black cat that had to be put down because of sickness. Do you believe in Animal spirits? If you have any stories to share I would love to read them and so would the other two or three that frequent this blog.

It has been a while since my haunted house has given me anything to write about. I was starting to think that my unseen friends had abandoned me. Recently we have had some items come up missing. They were really small things that a person would hardly ever miss. The most impressive thing to come up missing was a silver antique hand mirror. It was used rarely and was mostly decorations. Three days ago my wife asked me if I knew where the mirror was. I told her that me and mirrors do not get along lately because when I look in them there is an old man looking back and it scares me. I had not touched the mirror yet it was now missing. We both looked all over the house and finally gave up. We figured that either someone had slipped into the house and stole it or one of us was getting senile.
She finally found the mirror. It was in the toe of her rubber rain boots in the back of the closet. These boots are rarely worn and usually stuck in the dark corner of her closet under some winter wear. That is where they were this time when she needed them. Only this time there was a little mirror tucked in the toe waiting on her to stick her foot in and find it. The only explanation is that one of our ghostly friends was hiding it in an attempt to get our attention. The other missing things were found also but a rational explanation can be found for each one of their disappearance and reappearance. This mirror trick is very disquieting.

Saturday night I was sleeping when something told me to wake up. I opened my eyes to see a hand in front of my face. It was so close that I had to back up to focus on it. I thought it was Angie but when I was able to focus the hand disappeared and Angie was asleep with her back to me. Hummmmm wonder what that was all about?