Free Book Days!

I am blogging more slowly these days.  My mind is muddled and I feel that I probably wouldn't make much sense today if I did a real blog post.   I haven't slept in several days and I may begin seeing ghosts where there are none soon.   Despite my sleep deprivation, muddled mind, aching back, and fatigue, I have a lot to celebrate.   My horror novel, Circe, came out on Kindle.  I have 300 followers on my blog and I will be having a baby any moment, hopefully soon.   So rather than torture you with the ramblings of an addled woman, I am going to give away books to celebrate all the good things in life.   Today and Tomorrow, I will give away free copies of Circe and Death's Dream Kingdom to anyone who asks.   If you want one, email me at jessica.penot@gmail.com  or comment below with your email address and I will send you a copy.  I have several wonderful guest bloggers lined up for after I have my baby, so ya'll may notice that I may not be writing, but that is a good thing.  Also, I apologize to all the wonderful bloggers out there who I am not following as well because my brain seems to have left the building.   I appreciate everyone who reads this blog.  Ya'll keep me writing and keep me inspired and I have learned so much from you that I can't say.   So, happy free book day!

A Brief History of Ley Lines

 In the 1920s, a man named Alfred Watkins claimed to have discovered a grid of straight lines which he called leys from the Saxon word for meadow.  He believed that many of the archaeological sites of the ancient world, particularly the megalithic stone monuments of the ancients, were connected by a series of  man made tracks or lines.   He said that "a fairy chain stretched from mountain peak to mountain peak as for as the eye could reach."   Watkins put his beliefs about ley lines in two books "Early British Trackways" and "The Old Straight Track."  Both of these books were almost completely ignored by serious archaeologists.

Yet, Watkins was not alone.  Other historians and archaeologists had proposed similar theories.   An American  tracked the alignment of Native American mounds and burial sites across the Americas using the same technique as Watkins.  A German named Heinsh tracked the alignment of holy hills and ancient churches across German.  In the Andes, the Nazca lines were shown to follow the similar pattern of  lines by a British explorer named Morrison. Driven by theses linking theories, in the 1960s,  new voices in ley research proposed a radical new theory.  They suggested that leys carry a mysterious earth energy that was know to the ancients but forgotten by us.  They believed that ley lines represent lines on the earth where mystical energies are aligned and amplifies and where the ancients found their spiritual centers.

Those who believe in ley lines report increase psychic activity along these lines.  They also report increased paranormal activity and increases in ghost sitings and hauntings.    Believers say that leys are located on channels of geophysical power and that intersections of leys form nodes.   Many famous hauntings occur and have occurred along leys and on nodes.  The famous Phantom Army at Loe Bar was sited at a particularly active node.  Many say poltergeist activity increases along these famous lines.  I have read some theorists who believe that Ley Lines might serve as pathways or roads for the dead. 

There are many theories about ley lines and their paranormal and historical significance. Whether or not you believe in their paranormal power, the theories regarding them are fascinating and numerous.   Is there some energy connection that ancients saw that we have become blind too?  Are we lost in the modern world or did the ancients just use particularly reliable astronomical signs to build their sites on?  To me, either way, it is worth reading about and studying because the slightly mysterious always is and anything that connects the ancients to ghost stories certainly is.

Reading Aloud

I went along and supported my local library last night on their second Reading Aloud event. This is where you can go along and read out anything that takes your fancy. There were about twenty of us – about the same number we had last March – and again we had a good mix. These are the ones I can remember:

A bit of Pam Ayres. Not poetry but a book about her family life and a hilarious piece describing her attempts to learn French.
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café.
A couple of Walter de la Mare poems.
Gervase Phinn – always popular.
A couple of the pieces reflected this time of year with WW1 books The Monocled Mutineer and Testament of Youth.

In the interests of blogger solidarity I chose to read out a passage of Frances Garrood's The Birds, The Bees and Other Secrets. I picked a piece near the beginning where Cass's mum tries to teach her and her brother the facts of life. It went down very well and I had difficulty finishing it with all the laughter going on.

By the end of the session we had come to several conclusions:

War is terrible.
If you can learn to read you can learn anything.
Kids don't read enough these days.
The English language is magic.
Anybody who closes down libraries should be shot.

Obviously, I was bullied....

Today in my Juvenile Justice class, a girl gave a presentation regarding cyberbullying. Now, I'm no angel, but when I was a kid, I knew right from wrong. I also defend juveniles, so I'm not inherently against them nor do I judge them for their alleged "transgressions." In fact, most the time I think the prosecutor overreaches for their charges and the police use their authority to intimidate kids into confessions.

Another note: I'm a decently jaded person. That being said, today, I was pretty demoralized about the general lack of compassion or character my classmates have regarding the subject of bullying.

People were quick to classify it as "horseplay." Or as "just telling the truth." Or as "kids being kids."

They also said that we had all done it.

I'm sorry, but some of us had parents who would have whooped their asses if they tormented other kids. And some kids just have a fucking heart without the fear of potential ass-whoopings.

Maybe when you bully someone, it makes you feel good. I know when I hurt someone's feelings, it generally makes me feel like a piece of shit.

Let's not make excuses for what has now been classified as criminal behavior. Address the problem.

Because they know it's wrong.

And so do you.

Visiting The Haunted Ohio State Reformatory

The Ohio State Reformatory is one of the most haunted places I have ever traveled to. It is considered to be one of the most haunted places in the nation. Even as you walk up to this old building, the cold seeps out of it and chills you to the bone. Inside the castle like structure, it was so cold I had to put my coat on. Outside it was lovely. This cold seems to come from more than the old stone. It seems to drift from the very core of the building where haunting and terrible histories clog the structure with sorrow and ghosts.

The Ohio State Reformatory is a thing of rare beauty. In the states, structures of such epic beauty are as uncommon as snow in the South. The reformatory was designed by architect Levi Tucker Scofield. His work was visionary. He had designed insane asylums and orphanages and penitentiaries all with the belief that beauty could bring peace to lost souls and help heal them. The original reformatory was build on progressive ideals. The philosophy was that by separating young men from hardened criminal and giving them the opportunity to grow while in prison they could become better people and would be less likely to continue in a life of crime upon their release. This idea actually worked for a time. Recidivism rates for those leaving reformatory were amazingly low. Almost 90% of those leaving never committed another crime. Later figures show recidivism as close to 60% returning to a life of crime, but when the Reformatory was built in 1896 it was a shinning ideal and a monument to the beauty of progressive philosophy.

As with many such things I have written about in the United States, these lovely turn of the century progressive ideals eroded with time. Finances became more important than people and The Ohio State Reformatory slowly became nothing more than a prison. Horror stories drifted out of the prison and became part of its mortar. Guards were murdered in solitary. One story told of a man who was put in solitary confinement with another man and killed him and hid him under the bed. Men were accidentally pushed over the five story cell block guard rail to their deaths. Men hung themselves. In 1933, overcrowding created more and more problems in the reformatory by 1986 The Council of Human dignity was in the process of completing a lawsuit to shut the reformatory down because of the “brutalizing and inhumane” conditions found in the walls of the once idealic reformatory.

I can’t even begin to describe all the hauntings and horrors that have been seen in the Ohio State Reformatory here. I was in the reformatory for a brief period of time and I could feel the history seeping out of the walls. Those that work in the reformatory embrace its history and believe that the building is made more beautiful by it. It whispers secrets and calls to others to come explore them. The beauty and uniqueness of the structure has called to many since its closing. The Shawshank Redemption, Airforce One, Tango and Cash, and many other movies have been filmed there. People come from all over to tour the facility. Tours run daily. Famous ghost hunting teams from all the big televisions shows have locked themselves in the reformatory to see its ghosts and they are not disappointed. The ghosts in the reformatory are thick.

My guide said that paranormal occurrences are common in the reformatory in almost ever section of the structure. Objects fly about on their own. Doors open and close and lights flickers. Strange shadows creep up on you from quiet corners. The stories from the reformatory are numerous. A Guard named Frank Hanger was injured and later died during an escape attempt from solitary. It is said that his ghost and the ghosts of those hung for his murder still linger in solitary. Clear EVPs from this section of the prison have captured the voices of all these men. The Warden’s quarters where the warden and his family used to live is said to be haunted by the ghost of a warden and his wife who were both mortally injured in the warden’s quarters. One employee described seeing four phantoms walk straight towards her and then vanish in the warden‘s quarters. Another saw an orb moving in the shadows in the warden’s quarters. Full body apparitions have been seen in the administration wing, the wardens quarters, and the east cell block.. People have described being punched, pushed and hit. The list goes on and on. There are so many ghost stories that Sherri Brake was able to fill an entire book with stories just from The Ohio State Reformatory. I won’t try to tell them all here, but I will say that if you are ever in Ohio the reformatory is worth the visit. Its ghostly beauty will stay with me for a long time and its ghosts have made believers out of the most hardened skeptics.

Lucy in the Sky with Cubic Zirconium

This week was pretty much the week from Hell. I had a shitton of stuff I had to make happen, including a few interviews for externships next semester, a presentation for one of my classes, and a gazillion client interviews that somehow had to take place. But somehow I got through it and it's now Friday and I'm sitting in my house clutching two bags of Goodwill purchases and rocking myself like a baby preparing to make dinner like a big kid. (Okay, I did go to Goodwill.)

The most interesting thing to take place this week was probably one of the interviews for a judicial externship. I went in and introduced myself and the judge (who I have NEVER EVER MET BEFORE) said it was nice to see me again, effectively shaming me into a pool of self-doubt about whether we had, in fact, ever actually been introduced before. I maintain we hadn't. But I digress. After our standard repartee regarding why I want the externship and my studies (which I kinda like, because I always seem to have a new answer), we started to meander into other topics.

Like how she once represented a woman in a divorce proceeding who always smelled kinda funny and she never knew what the scent was. Until the lady was arrested for meth. (Oops for requesting child custody.)

Or how I had done an internship this summer and was scared shitless about the job and how much I anticipated hating it (I may have substituted in crap instead) and how I actually ended up loving it. (Maybe that's kinda relevant.)

Or how it's impossible for someone to overdose on LSD, and how the judge had always kinda wanted to try it, but figured she would have a flashback twenty years down the road in court and so she never did.

And how LSD is now being advocated for people suffering severe depression and it supposedly actually works.

And how anytime I smell pot, I want to barf all over the place and how I hate getting on the bus because I never know if the bus will smell like Reefer Joe over in the corner who just got done toking it up right before he boarded.

Oh, and how I saw pot the first time when I was in college and how I had a minor freakout.

And how she knew kids that smoked pot all the time in law school and once they pulled it out in front of her and she also had a minor freakout.

We then agreed that legalizing drugs wasn't necessarily a problem, since the people who are going to try heroin are going to do it regardless of whether it's legal or not, and we just don't want to have to deal with people doing it in public.

Yes, people, I spent approximately 25.3465 minutes of a 30 minute interview discussing drugs...with a circuit judge.

She offered me the externship the next morning. And naturally I accepted.

Passing on the IDig Your Blog Award

A few weeks ago the lovely Little Gothic Horrors stopped by my blog and gave me an award.  I'm always thrilled to get awards because it is nice to be thought of,  but also because it gives me a chance to pass the award on to other amazing blogs out here.   Little Gothic Horrors is one of my favorite blogs and if you haven't seen this blog yet you should stop by http://littlegothichorrors.blogspot.com/.   Here are the conditions of the awesome award I was presented. 

iDig Your Blog Award Protocol:


1 ) Gratefully accept this award.

2 ) Link to the person you received it from.

3 ) Post 3 interesting facts about yourself.

4 ) Pass this award around to at least 5 blogs you dig.

5 ) Notify them.


I'm not too interesting lately, but here are some new interesting facts about myself and also some notifications:

1.   I'm now nine months pregnant and will probably be taking a brief break from blogging for a week or two once I have my little bundle of joy.

2.  I love to travel and am glad that blogging gives me another excuse to go to dark places and learn about their histories.  My next blog post will be the end of my series about my trip to Haunted Mansfield and I'll be writing about the Ohio Reformatory.

3.  I recently quit my job as a therapist on the psychiatric unit of a hospital.  Although I will probably return to psychology,   I'm enjoying staying home and working on my books right now.  It is nice to be focused on one thing.  It is nice to not have to get dressed up and professional every day.  Nothing like a day of t-shirts and leggings.


Five Blogs I Dig that are awesome and deserve this award are:

1.  Justine's Halloween  http://justineshalloween.blogspot.com/
2.  Something Wicked This Way Comes  http://wickedwaysproductions.blogspot.com/
3.  Scary True  http://scarytruestory.blogspot.com/
4.  Voodoo Ghoul  http://voodoo-ghoul.blogspot.com/
5.  Notes to a Ghost  http://jefferyr.blogspot.com/

There are a lot more blogs I Dig and would add to this list, but I tried to include blogs I haven't given awards to before or are newer additions to my regular reading list.  My regular favorite blogs like Haunt Jaunts, Above the Norm, The Heart Centered Psychic, Ghost Stories, Southern Spirit Guide, and Frog on a Pumpkin I've given awards to before and know how much I love their blogs, but these are some of my recent additions or blogs I've been reading for a while, but haven't  included before.   Thanks again to the fabulous Little Gothic Horrors!