EVER FEEL LIKE YOU’RE LIVING IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE?

”J” had shoes thrown down at her from the top of an empty staircase.

On separate occasions, “S” and “L”, neither one aware of the experience of the other, both heard a metal bucket hit the wooden floor in a room where there was neither bucket nor wooden floor.

Mysterious knocking upon the front door alerted “A” to a potentially dangerous fire.

And while driving one night, “P” and “G” ran right over a man who suddenly appeared in the middle of the road, yet when they stopped, no one was there.

All true stories! These happened to real people that I know and trust. (You know the type— family and friends.) All around the world, weird things are experienced by ordinary people every day. Things that seemingly defy any rational or scientific explanations.

Who can dispute the reality of “W’s” photograph, taken long before the age of Photo Shop, that clearly shows a vague outline of an unknown figure that took its place within the group shot of a family photo?

And do you really know what causes the shadow movement caught from the corner of your eye? I mean, really?

Or that gut feeling known as “intuition”?

Since the beginning of time there have been tales of spirits. I think we’re drawn to stories of the strange and the supernatural because most of us have experienced some of these things ourselves. Some of us more than others.

Having grown up in a haunted house, I’ve always been fascinated with (and sometimes totally frightened by) the unexplained. Throughout my entire life I’ve had a number of ghostly encounters. I managed to draw upon some of those in the composition of a few stories within my book, THROUGH A BROKEN WINDOW, Ten Dark Tales of the Strange and Deranged. www.outskirtspress.com/brokenwindow

The title story, “Through a Broken Window,” contains variants of a few of my own actual experiences. And “The Black Dog” was inspired by the night a strange dog trailed me on a five-mile walk along a lonely country road. I couldn’t see the dog—it was too dark. But I could hear its toenails clicking on the pavement and the panting of its breaths. I didn’t know where it had come from but from its gait, I could only conclude it was probably a large animal. It stayed right behind me until finally, a quarter-mile from my destination, it simply was gone! Not an exceptionally exciting story, I know, but definitely an odd occurrence which I was able to transform into a fairly dramatic piece of fiction.

As far as horror stories go, we all have our favorite kinds. I tend to shy away from those that use gore for the pure sake of gore, but I’m a sucker for a story that can send a chill up my spine and cause my skin to prickle. Or one that makes me sit back and go . . . .hmmm.

How about you? What makes you want to keep the lights on at night when you’re all alone?

The squeak of a door hinge?
Phantom footsteps?
How about a cold tap on the shoulder?

Weird stories are fun—that’s why we like them so much! And as long as strange and eerie events keep occurring in our world, people will hold them in fascination, which bodes well for the tellers of those tales. You probably have a story or two to tell yourself! So don’t be afraid to share them.

A maverick with a pen, Nevada author L.F. Falconer’s powerful, page-turning style of dark fantasy has consistently been praised as both “gripping,” and “captivating.” Skillful, character-based artistry fuses magic and the supernatural with reality to bring her audience a unique reading experience.

Find her at:

www.lffalconer.com

www.goodreads.com/author/show/6485699.L_F_Falconer