I said that I would do it and indeed I did. No, I don’t mean I channeled my inner Henry Higgins. I finally released Deadly Heirs, my first mystery novel, on Kindle last week. This is a revised Second Edition with extended scenes, so even if you currently own the printed copy you’ll find some new treasures and secrets in the Kindle version. This is currently available on Amazon for $4.99 — just click on Deadly Heirs (Kindle Edition)! For those of you looking for it on Nook… I’m working on that.
Perhaps the biggest change in the book aside from the extended scenes is the name of Chase Michael DeBarlo’s hometown, so let me explain that. When I first sat down to write this book more than a decade ago I decided on the name of Fallsburg, and that is what made it to printing. However, given that this fictional town is placed in Massachusetts, a name with Germanic origins such as “-burg” would have been more fitting in other states, not one that was predominantly English. Thus, I changed one letter of the name and Fallsbury was born out of Fallsburg. Those that have followed Chase’s subsequent adventures in the mini-mysteries that have been released in this newsletter and the short story in the Studies in Scarlet anthology may have already noticed this change. Now Fallsbury is properly named in Deadly Heirs.
Investigating with Society of the Haunted, we recently conducted an investigation at the old Frederick Army Air Field in Frederick, Oklahoma, which is now a part of the regional airport. Still standing is an old hangar dating to World War II with historic planes inside, including one that saw action during the war. This is currently maintained by the WWII Airborne Demonstration Team, which honors the WWII airborne soldier by actively parachuting out of vintage WWII planes in the same manner and style as the soldiers of the time. This is quite a unique and fantastic group!
This plane saw action in World War II, and it appears one of its navigator still resides there.
After getting over the initial awe of being surrounded by history we could touch we began our investigation with an initial walk-through of the premises. While the location was teeming with paranormal activity, there were some unexplainable personal experiences throughout the night. When we first ventured up into the barracks area on the second floor, we were greeted with a stern male voice that declared, “Hold!” We immediately stopped on the narrow plank and sought out who called out to us, but no one was to be found. Within the barracks, Chris captured an unusual green ball of light in a doorway in one of his photographs that we were unable to replicate. It was near this doorway later when I was sitting on a cot that I felt like someone was pushing me from behind, but when I had Arielle take a picture of the area behind me the pushing stopped. In this room later we heard the sound of metal scraping or clanging. Ken and Mick went out into the hangar to try and recreate the sound, but they were unable to do so, and the way the sound traveled into the room we concluded that the noise came from inside the room. However, there was nothing in the room that could have made that sound.
Our most interesting experience of the night was actually toward the end inside the plane that had seen action during WWII. We ran an EVP session with a K-II EMF meter on the floor hoping we could get a spirit of the plane to interact with us. Nothing happened for quite a while. Then, when I mentioned that the Army Air Corp later became the U.S. Air Force and I had served six years the K-II meter lit up wildly, frantically flickering up into the red. We were ecstatic as whatever was there began answering our questions through the K-II meter. Chris had a hunch about who our mysterious visitor may have been and asked if it was the navigator. Again, the K-II lit up wildly into the red. There were a few more questions answered with smaller flickers and then it died out, and we deduced that the spirit may have expended too much energy too quickly.
It was definitely a fantastic time, and we hope to get back out there soon!