Elizabeth Eagan-Cox's Blog: Musings on Mystery and the Paranormal

I realize this March, but is it too early for Autumn? 

Never!

I gave up writing and have recently returned to sculpting clay art dolls. Autumn is my favorite time of year, so. . . of course an Autumn theme is what my imagination insisted on for my re-entry into sculpting, which I have not done in 20 years!

My first vignette is of "Ambrose" a friendly scarecrow. 



I created Ambrose by making his 'skeleton' an aluminum armature and then I covered the armature with a soft body of wrapped batting. I sculpted his head, hands/forearms, feet and lower legs, from polymer clay. He has French paperweight glass eyes, and rag hair that I made.

I made Ambrose a beanie cap and a matching under-sweater beneath is shirt. His shirt and pants were purchased.

In this vignette, I sculpted the following accessories: All the pumpkins, all the ears of corn and the bird seed bag that Ambrose has. I made all the signs. The hay bales, little crows, larger canvas corn bag, fence and crates were purchased. I stained the crates. 

Ambrose is about 12 inches in height, he is self-supporting and pose-able. The polymer clays used were: Premo, Kato and Fimo.

I heard rumors that Ambrose went missing from the Pratt's Apple Orchard. Just the other day, Ambrose was seen at the Hickory Hill Farm produce stand. . . Shhhh, let's not tell Pratt's Apple Orchard where Ambrose is.  

IT IS OFFICIAL!  

"IT" What? You might ask. 

I'm no longer in the writing biz... My books and novelettes are kaput... no longer available at retail, first-time sellers, bookstores and shops. Yes...this means my titles are no longer for sale at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Kobo and all other bookstores, in cyberspace or at walk-in stores. 

So... BUYER BEWARE! If you see my titles, in ebook or paperback or any other format for sale... including the above-mentioned stores, you are not dealing with a first-hand retail seller. And, quite possibly the titles that are being offered for sale, which are being sold by third-party retailers, are used (obtained from who knows where???) secondary remainders, and possibly Pirated copies of draft editions of the books. Draft editions are not the final-approved edited version initially offered to primary booksellers. 

Unfortunately, on sites such as B&N, Amazon and others, the books that are still listed are coming from third-party book dealers and are not vetted for their stock... hence the very real possibility that the titles have been pirated. 

Also, there is a great deal of price gouging of the books.... this should be your first clue about the origin of the books.

So, do not get burned... you heard it here, from the author's mouth. Do not buy these titles. I am officially out of print, out of business, out of ink!

It was a good run, and like all good things. . .  it came to an end. 

Elizabeth Eagan-Cox
August 30, 2017.

DEAD-RINGER GHOST is RELEASED!
New, for Autumn 2016: Dead-Ringer Ghost Paranormal Mystery Novelette is now available at B & N NOOK,  KOBO,  Apple iTUNES and Smashwords.    Links to these retailers are below the book cover:


For Barnes and Noble NOOK devices: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dead-ringer-ghost-paranormal-mystery-novelette-elizabeth-eagan-cox/1124597216?ean=2940153729633
For KOBO deviceshttps://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/dead-ringer-ghost-paranormal-mystery-novelette

For APPLE iTUNES, including iTunes, iPhone, iPad, iPod, Touch, Mac:https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dead-ringer-ghost-paranormal/id1154164778?mt=11
At Smashwords:https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/665102

UPDATE!  While the publisher's corporation undergoes the various steps of closing, my Shannon Delaney novels will remain on retailers' to-purchase lists. This process is estimated to take about two years. To summarize, the novels will continue to be available for purchase for the next two years. 

By the end of 2016, the publisher of the Shannon Delaney novels will have shut its doors. With the publisher no longer in business, my Shannon Delaney novels will not be available for sale, anywhere. 

Dead-Ringer Ghost Paranormal Mystery Novelette is now available at B & N NOOK,  KOBO,  Apple iTUNES and Smashwords.    Links to these retailers are below the book cover:


For Barnes and Noble NOOK devices: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dead-ringer-ghost-paranormal-mystery-novelette-elizabeth-eagan-cox/1124597216?ean=2940153729633
For KOBO deviceshttps://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/dead-ringer-ghost-paranormal-mystery-novelette

For APPLE iTUNES, including iTunes, iPhone, iPad, iPod, Touch, Mac:https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dead-ringer-ghost-paranormal/id1154164778?mt=11
At Smashwords:https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/665102

                            Autumn 2016

The article below is the copyrighted ownership of authorElizabeth Eagan-Cox. The author prohibits the digital, Internet, and hard-copy forms of copying, sharing, printing, posting, saving; in any format or device, transferring to another Internet Site; and all unauthorized use of this article. Plain and simple: DO NOT violate copyright.
FREE, and Fun, Genealogical Research WebsitesBy Elizabeth Eagan-Cox
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Don't you just love the holidays? That time of year when you struggle for a dinner conversation topic? Or an ice-breaker at a get-together? The genealogical websites presented in this article will give you something to talk about... and you don't even need to be interested in genealogy, yours or anyone else's. But... if you are looking for fun and free ways to dig up the dirt on family secrets, you'll find the sites I list even more informative and entertaining. 
All the sites listed below are free to use. Some sites may require that you create an account that has a User Name and email address. Before doing so, I advise that you sign up for an entirely separate email address (separate from your regular-use email address) for the sole purpose of genealogical research. Well-known email providers such as AOL (my personal preference for this purpose) or Yahoo, are your best bet. I suggest avoiding the use of an email provider such as Google/G-mail or Hotmail, simply because these two email providers are known as sites used by spammers.
There are many websites free to use for genealogical research. Below, I list a few sites I have found to be interesting, entertaining, reliable and useful.
BURIAL/GRAVES
Find A Grave. Search through thousands of grave/burial sites in USA and international.www.findagrave.com   This site is updated often, literally, day-by-day.
From home page, under heading of “Find Graves” choose “Surname Index.” Next, choose “Search Page.” On the Search Page, a search form appears. Enter as much, or as little, information as desired. Be sure to use variant spellings of surname and given names. If no results appear, try using only a surname and an initial for the first name. Then filter out the results based on location. Find a Grave can be used to locate cemeteries. Get to know the menu provided on its home page.
Billion Graves.  http://billiongraves.com/   Similar to “Find A Grave.” Personally, I do not use this site nearly as often as Find A Grave, however, it is worth an attempt to research/locate a gravesite. Use the search option at the top right.
NOTE: Keep in mind that dates and names listed on a tombstone/gravestone are not always accurate. Recently I discovered that a great-grandfather's tombstone was in error by one day: he died on the 10th, not on the 11th, as indicated on his tombstone. Thus, in authentic research, it's best to follow-up on a gravesite information by ordering an official vital record (Death Cert. from the county in which the death occurred). Also, writing to the cemetery for a burial record may provide additional details. I did this with a grandmother in order to identify the funeral home that handled her services. The burial record I received from the cemetery's office provided a name of a funeral home. I did a Google search to locate the funeral home and then wrote to the funeral home, for the cost of $5.00 I received a copy of her funeral record, which, in turn provided more detailed information than what was on her official Death Certificate.
In making a request to a cemetery or funeral home, always do so by USPS groundmail and include a SASE. State only the facts, as briefly as possible.
OLD PHOTOGRAPHS
Locating a photo of an ancestor is exciting, and the chances that you will find a photo is unpredictable. Do not use the sites listed below for the sole purpose of finding images of people, broaden your interest to discover what a place/location looked like at the time and era in which your ancestor resided (or worked) at a specific location.
www.DeadFred.com “Dead Fred.” From the home page, choose one of five ways to search. I usually skip the “Quick,” “Mysteries,” and “Keyword” search options in favor of using the “Surname” or “Detailed” option.
www.AncientFaces.com   “Ancient Faces”  This site is heavy with advertisements. It can be difficult to discern which search box form is Ancient Faces or another (subscription required) web site (such as Ancestry dot com). From the top horizontal menu that runs along the top of the home page, choose the small tab labeled “Vintage Photos” a drop-down menu appears, click on “Browse Photos” then from the Browse Photos page, scroll about half way down the page to the section labeled “Family Photos.” From the Family Photos section, choose how you want to conduct your search.
LIFESTYLES OF YOUR ANCESTORS
Get to know more about how they lived, and their life and times by exploring these sites. The following sites put flesh on the bones, and by that, I simply mean you get a better understanding of what the world was like from an ancestor's point of view... by glancing over your shoulder to another era.
www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/ “Measuring Worth” allows you to calculate the modern-day equivalent to a specific dollar amount in a specific year. Think of it this way. You discovered on a U.S. Census that your ancestor had personal wealth valued at $300.00 in 1860. So, what does that really mean to you, in present day? How do you compare your ancestor's financial well-being by today's standards? This site does it for you. From 1774 to current time, you can enter a sum in a specific year and find its contemporary value. This comes in handy not just for the obvious lifestyle comparison, but to appreciate the cost of living and value of items on many levels: The cost of a funeral, a college degree, medical fees, food and dining out, clothing and the ever-important “vehicle” for transportation in eras of the past... a horse.
Browse eatery and dining menus at: http://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/visual-collections/menu-collection Los Angeles Public Library Menu Collection. Everyone eats. So… the question is... how has eating and dining-out changed over the decades? The url above takes you to the search page. I suggest starting at the 4th line down, and enter an era (1870, for example) for which you want to find menus. The menu collection is not exclusive to L.A./California. While perusing the menus, pay attention to the prices, menu selections...the foods that were popular at the time, and the artwork on the menu...all of these features are telling about the period.

What in the world was happening during your ancestor’s lifetime? Use this url: http://www.timelineindex.com/content/home.php  The Timeline Index allows you to see what was going on in the world during a specific time period. From this home page, on the right, at the top, type in an era or a year, such as 1870, and click. The result is a timeline of events, people, places and things that impacted the world in the time period specific to your search.
Naming traditions and practices at: http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hornbeck/naming.htm  “Naming Practices” is a tutorial written by Shirley Hornbeck that explains the quirky practice (found in genealogy) of how families used patterns to name their children. Also, toward the latter part of this page, there is a listing of various nicknames/call names that have been popular over the centuries. No genealogist can ever explain in logical terms why a women named Mary was called Polly... but it happened, and it happened often. This concept of using a nickname that appears no shorter or phonically relevant to a given name is one of the great mysteries in genealogical research. All genealogists (myself included) have come to recognize on sight when a listed name is probably a call name and not the legal given name. Shirley Hornbeck does an excellent job or making sense of the name-game.

MY ANCESTOR DIED OF THAT?
What your ancestor died of can be a curiosity and/or a health concern. It can also be exclusively significant to the era in which the ancestor died. My great-great grandfather Lucian Hunt died young, age 44, in the first decade of the 1900s. He lived in the Red River farming region of north Texas, just above Dallas. No other person in his family had/has died so young, in fact, his grandfather lived to be 102. When I received Lucian's Death Certificate I was stunned to find out he died of stomach cancer. No person in this family branch had/has ever had cancer, let alone die from it. I set out to understand why, and while I will never know for certain what caused the cancer... I did discover lifestyle clues that could explain it: 1. Chewing tobacco. I have no proof that Lucian chewed tobacco, or used it in any form. But I did discover that farmers were more likely to chew tobacco than smoke it. Chewing was more practical to their lifestyle and work in farming. 2. The area of north Texas were Lucian lived and farmed was a key area for experimentation with various agricultural products of that time period. This included pesticides derived from arsenic and additional toxic chemicals, that were later outlawed. In this era, most substances were handled bare-handed, and safety masks/goggles were not in use, thus exposing Lucian to the carcinogens in products he used. Is this what caused his stomach cancer? I will never know, but at least I have some historically accurate ideas that could explain why Lucian, and no other person in the family, suffered with and died from stomach cancer.
The following list is of sites that have to do with diseases, ailments and cause of death commonly found in genealogical research.
http://www.genealogy-quest.com/glossaries/  This is the url for a “Genealogy Quest” list of Glossaries. “Diseases” is the second topic in the list. Click it and it takes you to a glossary of diseases found in genealogy... past, present and in-between. Make a note of this site, the other glossaries listed on the opening page (Abbreviations, Epidemics, Latin, Occupations, Terminology) are equally valuable in genealogical studies.
http://www.disease.pricklytree.co.uk/  The “Prickly Tree” site originates in the U.K. and is an excellent source for the old names of ailments and diseases. Keep in mind that many of these names transcend the distance between the U.S. and the U.K., especially when digging up records relating to Canada and early America.
And a reminder...  
About names: Always search for alternative spellings of a person's surname and first name. Keep in mind that nearly any vowel can be, and probably was, exchanged for another. This was common, simply because of misinterpretation of handwriting as well as how a surname was heard and then subsequently, pronounced. Regional accents played a huge part in variant spellings. So did the multicultural nature of early America.
Prefixes on surnames were often dropped or misspelled. Many a German surname beginning with “von” became a Dutch “van” and vice versa. Irish and Scottish surnames beginning with “O'” “Mac” or “Mc” were dropped or exchanged. And, if you have heard that “Mac” stands for Irish and “Mc” stands for Scottish (or vice versa) you heard wrong. “Mc” is simply a shorter form of “Mac.”  Neither “Mc” or “Mac” is unique to Irish or Scottish names.
With married women, look for them under their maiden surname, and their married surname.
About Website Addresses. If the URL I list does not work... Chances are the website is still valid, but it may have undergone a revision. This happens all the time. Try to locate the website in a GOOGLE search by typing the name of the website in parenthesis. Example, if you go to Google (www.google.com) and type in the term “Find A Grave” in the search box, the first, or at least the second, result should be the valid url for Find A Grave.
Final Word to the Wise :If you catch the genealogy bug and become dead serious about digging up your past… NEVER, ever, rely on those little trails of green leaves found on Ancestry.com. to connect, and more importantly, verify beyond doubt your ancestry connection. There is an excellent and unquestionably valid reason that tried-and-true genealogical organizations (lineage societies such as the D.A.R. and S.A.R) do not accept the so-called family trees as evidence for membership qualification… Simply stated, the information presented as ‘fact’ on the trees is not evidenced with official documentation. I am a member of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) and Descendants of Mexican War Veterans… often I have been approached by women wanting to join D.A.R. , who are misled and misinformed by the family trees they have discovered on Ancestry.com (and similar sites). To prove direct lineage to an American Patriot of the War of 1776, a woman must have official documentation to prove direct lineage… not say-so info found on a website. I was the first in my family to locate an ancestor who is a patriot, then undertake the research and gather the documentation... it can be done, if one is serious about collecting evidence.
Happy hunting!Questions about genealogy? Contact me via this blogsite.

Eagan-Cox Launches Newest Book: Haunted Mysteries, as Exclusive to Amazon Kindle.
Author Elizabeth Eagan-Cox released her newest title, a paranormal mystery novelette collection called Haunted Mysteries, in an exclusive contract with Amazon Kindle Select.

Los Angeles, CA, October 07, 2015 --(PR.com)-- 
Elizabeth Eagan-Cox, known for her Shannon Delaney cozy mystery series, decided last year to switch to writing paranormal novelettes. Her newest addition to her writing bookshelf is a collection of three of her most popular novelettes: Hungry Ghost, River Ghost, and Winter's Ghost. Each novelette averages 14,500 words. These three cozy paranormal mysteries are boxed under the title: Haunted Mysteries; Paranormal Mystery Novelette Collection. Eagan-Cox explains: "Ending my Shannon Delaney full-length novel series was based on health issues, which I detailed on my blog site. Not wanting to abandon the concept of writing cozy-styled paranormal mysteries, I decided on the idea of penning a collection of novelettes. Each novelette is a stand-alone mystery with characters and locations different in each title. In an exclusive contract with Amazon Kindle, the first collection, called Haunted Mysteries, is ready for autumn reading, which I feel is the ideal time of year, since the mysteries in the novelettes take place in autumn and winter."

Elizabeth Eagan-Cox's novelette collection is published and retailed in Amazon Kindle e-book formats and available world-wide via Amazon retailers. Eagan-Cox explains: "I chose the Amazon Kindle Select exclusive distribution for Haunted Mysteries because Amazon offers free Kindle-reading apps for numerous devices. A person need not have a Kindle e-reader device. Whatever type or brand of digital book reading device a person has, Haunted Mysteries can be purchased for reading, this includes Apple products, numerous other brands and android mobile devices.

For additional information, refer to Amazon Kindle or visit Elizabeth Eagan-Cox at her site: ElizabethEaganCox.blogspot.com

For Autumn 2015: VOODOO GHOST.
$1.25 (U.S.) Available in ebook at major retailers, including:B&N  NOOK: (click, or copy & paste, link below)http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/voodoo-ghost-paranormal-mystery-novelette-elizabeth-eagan-cox/1122663752?ean=2940152354997B&N  NOOK, Free Read Sample Chapters before you buy: (click, or copy & paste link below)https://nook.barnesandnoble.com/products/2940152354997/sample?sourceEan=2940152354997
KOBO Books: (click, or copy & paste link below)
https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/voodoo-ghost-paranormal-mystery-novelette

Retailed at ebooks sellers world-wide, check with your favorite ebook store.