I will be kicking off and keynoting the “Haints and Heroes” festival in Water Valley, Mississippi, the weekend of October 20-22, 2023.
My part of the event will be Friday October 20th @7PM, consisting of a full lecture (with emphasis on the Mississippi Bell Witch and the life of Betsy Bell after Tennessee), a meet-greet, and a book signing. Location: The TIN Space, 16 South Main Street.
See you there!
Lori Crane’s highly-anticipated new book, Witch Dance, is here! Yes–it involves the location just off the Natchez Trace.
I have known Lori a long time, and in addition to being a top-notch musician and entertainer, she’s also quite the historical fiction author! Her topics are very similar to mine, yet we are not competitors, so I always try my best to help promote her works any way I can.
Here is the “Witch Dance” description from Amazon:
Just south of Tupelo, Mississippi on the Natchez Trace lies a place of mystery called Witch Dance.
When Thomas and Margaret Speedwell took their twins to Witch Dance for a weekend camping trip, they never imagined they would be pulled into a vortex of witchcraft, tragedy, and karma. One of the girls goes missing; the other won’t say what happened on the other side of the hill.
The tragedy pulls together a cast of characters from Margaret’s childhood and beyond – Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians, Toltec ancestors, the extinct Hopewell tribe.
With the help of a childhood friend, a concerned newspaper reporter, and visions by a strange old woman, a two-thousand-year-old mystery begins to unfold, uncovering missing children throughout generations. Who is taking them? Could it be the infamous witches of Witch Dance?
+ Purchase Witch Dance for the low introductory price of only $0.99 on Kindle for a limited time
Paperbacks are also available for only $9.99!
To learn more about the author and what she’s working on, be sure to visit her site!
Giving a word of thanks to those who came out for the lecture and book signing at the Batesville, Mississippi, Public Library last Thursday. Thanks so much for coming. It was great, and we had a ball!
Oh, but there’s just one more thing…
The audience thought the woman in the drawing behind me was following me with her eyes throughout the presentation. A new stalker, perhaps? Photo by “The Panolian” newspaper (www.panolian.com).
With some Batesville-area Bell family descendants. Photo by “The Panolian” newspaper (www.panolian.com).
Thursday, April 23rd, 7:00 PM Central
Batesville Public Library
206 Highway 51 North
Batesville, MS
This free event is open to the public, and is being held in conjunction with a regular meeting of the Panola County Historical Society. The discussion will center on the “Bell Witch” legend, with special emphasis on its local Mississippi ties. The limited supply
of books to be sold and signed include, “The Bell Witch – The Full Account,” and “Ghostly Cries From Dixie.” Light refreshments will be served.
The Outlaws and Ghosts of The Natchez Trace, a working title for now, will be released in 2015. Its release will culminate a long journey of intrigue and fascination that began in the early 1990s.
At the time, I lived just outside of Nashville, on McCrory Lane. Directly across the road from me was the northern terminus of the recently-completed Natchez Trace Parkway, a modern highway that roughly follows the path of the old Natchez Trace.
The Natchez Trace was a footpath that led from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi. Created by prehistoric animals and used by Native Americans for centuries, the Trace became a major trail for European and American explorers and traders in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Despite the presence of today’s modern parkway and thousands of visitors each year, the Natchez Trace’s enduring sense of time, place, and mystery is ever present along its 440-mile path through the wilderness. Although the Trace is known for its natural beauty and rich history, it is also shrouded in mystery. Tragic, often savage events were common in its early days when foot travelers attempted to make the grueling, six-week trip from Natchez to Nashville.
Because most of those travelers carried large sums of money, the Natchez Trace became a haven for land pirates, thugs, and even cold-blooded killers. Some travelers managed to evade or fend off the hoodlums, only to succumb to disease, snake bites, or other perils of the wild before they could make it home.
With its sad and often bloody history, the Natchez Trace is the collective footprint of tragedies past. And, as one might expect, the horrendous events that occurred along its path over two-hundred years ago left behind a spiritual residue that still lingers today.
Ghosts of weary travelers, friendly innkeepers, and infamous outlaws keep a vigilant watch over the old Natchez Trace. Who were they? Why have they not moved on? Is there something they want to tell us?
~~~
As an avid, lifelong researcher of history and the paranormal–and a Southern author to boot–I have studied the Trace for many years. The place has always intrigued and fascinated me, and no fewer than one-hundred people have told me that I “definitely” need to write a book about the Trace. But that was easier said than done.
Although living on McCrory Lane had its advantages, such as spending every weekend and holiday driving the Trace and scouting all of its trappings, another book project lay in front of me, one that I had been researching ever since I was a child in the 1970s–the Bell Witch. After the 1999 “short version” was released, followed by the comprehensive, 406-page version some time later, pressure from the reading public forced my writing and research to take a more paranormal turn. So that, I did. And I still do. History and exploring historic locations is my first love, and the paranormal is my second.
It gives me great pleasure and satisfaction to finally be able to commence working on the Natchez Trace book. Although I will cover lots of paranormal locations and stories, the book’s common thread will be history. And, most notably, the history of those who MADE the Natchez Trace such a haunted location in the first place: the ruthless, throat-slitting, disemboweling scoundrels who made it their sinister playground.
I am looking forward to weaving this nasty and unnerving tapestry of greed, bloodshed, and the supernatural.
The Outlaws and Ghosts of The Natchez Trace
ISBN: 978-0-9705156-7-4
Coming in 2015!
Official Facebook page for updates, excerpts, and signing & lecture information: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Outlaws-and-Ghosts-of-The-Natchez-Trace/1574089829479013
GOOD NEWS! “The Legend of Stuckey’s Bridge” is now released for the Amazon Kindle! The paperback and Nook editions will be available later this month. What is Stuckey’s Bridge?
In 1901, the Virginia Bridge & Iron Company began re-building a fifty-year-old Mississippi bridge. In the middle of the project, they began discovering bodies buried on the banks of the river.
Legend has it, he was so evil, he was even thrown out of the notorious Dalton Gang. Years later, he opened an inn near the river, and on foggy nights, boatmen witnessed him pacing back and forth across the bridge, waving his lantern, offering travelers a hot meal and a soft bed.
Those unfortunate enough to take him up on the hospitality were often never seen again.
To this day, eerie experiences are still reported around the bridge that now bears his name. If you travel down to Stuckey’s Bridge, be careful, for not much else is known about the man locals refer to as Old Man Stuckey…until now.
Pleasant dreams.
The Legend of Stuckey’s Bridge
by Lori Crane
Foreword by Pat Fitzhugh
If you have a Kindle, you can download this thrilling eBook RIGHT NOW, for less than the price you’d pay for a cup of Starbucks! To order, just click
the link, below:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Stuckeys-Bridge-ebook/dp/B00DGHNU1K
The video trailer of “The Legend of Stuckey’s Bridge” is now online!
The Legend of Stuckey’s Bridge
by Lori Crane, with foreword by Pat Fitzhugh
In 1901, the Virginia Bridge & Iron Company began re-building a fifty-year-old Mississippi bridge. In the middle of the project, they discovered more than a dozen bodies buried in the banks of the river.
Legend has it, he was so evil, he was even thrown out of the notorious Dalton Gang. Years later, he opened an inn near the river, and on foggy nights, boatmen witnessed him pacing back and forth across the bridge, waving his lantern, offering travelers a hot meal and a soft bed.
Those unfortunate enough to take him up on the hospitality were often never seen again.
To this day, eerie experiences are still reported around the bridge that now bears his name. If you travel down to Stuckey’s Bridge, be careful, for not much else is known about the man locals refer to as Old Man Stuckey…until now.
The Legend of Stuckey’s Bridge – available June 2013 in paperback, Kindle and Nook.
GREAT NEWS! The release date for The Legend of Stuckey’s Bridge has been moved up. It will be available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle around June 21st. Barnes & Noble, Nook, Sony, Kobo, and iBooks, will follow shortly thereafter. The video trailer premieres next week.
The Legend of Stuckey’s Bridge
by Lori Crane, Foreword by Pat Fitzhugh
Psychosis knows no bounds
Pat Fitzhugh 