While
writing is a solitary pursuit in so many ways, a striking number of people
nonetheless played a role in the completion of this project and deserve
recognition here.
Foremost among those who warrant thanks is my wife, Diane, who accompanied me on visits to many of the sites that appear in this book and, perhaps even more importantly, allowed me to make working on it a priority.
Foremost among those who warrant thanks is my wife, Diane, who accompanied me on visits to many of the sites that appear in this book and, perhaps even more importantly, allowed me to make working on it a priority.
Three
people who have encouraged the development of this project and given me an
opportunity to speak about it publicly are Donna Stewart, Laura Schier, and
Sharon Kincaid of Psi-Fi Radio, a paranormal-themed show I have appeared on
many times over the years. All three of them even ventured out to Texas in May
2014 to do presentations and broadcast the show from the Comicpalooza fan
convention in Houston!
Comicpalooza
itself, for which I serve as the paranormal track coordinator, has also been a
terrific venue for talking to people about haunted sites in Texas, the
America’s Haunted Road Trip series, and paranormal investigation in general.
Its organizers have always been very helpful and encouraging. I am especially
grateful to John and Patty Simons, Ginger Simon, J.R. Warren, and Dawn Washington.
Another
convention that has given me the opportunity to talk about haunted places in
the Lone Star State is Dallas Comic & Pop Expo, which is owned and operated
by impresario Zachery Taylor McGinnis, who I always enjoy working with.
I
also have had the opportunity to work with a number of paranormal investigation
groups while writing this book and would like to thank the members and
organizers of San Antonio Ghosthunters, Dawn Paranormal, the Pasadena Paranormal Research Team, and the Dallas Area Paranormal Society. People in those groups whom I have particularly
enjoyed working with include Jill Benoit, Christy Briones, John Delgado, Alan
King, Glenn Martinez, Coy and Lori McCollum, and Kristen Stout.
Special
thanks are due to Lauren Swartz and Allison Lindhorst of Sisters Grimm GhostTours, whose historical roots in San Antonio, paranormal research in it, and
work on the subject provided me with lots of useful information and some unique
perspectives.
Karen
Holmes, someone whom I have worked with off and on in some capacity or other
since moving to Texas in 2009, deserves thanks for encouraging me in this and
other projects and discussing the history and folklore of Texas with me. She
also gave me the opportunity to visit or spend time at a number of the sites
described in this book, including Enchanted Rock, the Texas State Capitol, the
San Antonio Missions, and the Devil’s Backbone (the first three of which I
visited with her and students from Fischer Schule Haus Christian Academy, and
the last of which is the area where that school is located).
I
do not want to neglect to thank the publishing, editorial, and design staff at
Clerisy Press for the work they did on this book at their end. I am especially
grateful to acquisitions editor Tim W. Jackson, who served as de facto project
manager for this book and as my main point of contact with the company while I
was working on it; to marketing and publicity specialists Liliane Opsomer and
Tanya Twerdowsky Sylvan; and to publisher Richard Hunt. Molly Merkle and Marie
Hillin at the Keen Communications headquarters have also always been helpful
and a pleasure to work with.
A
number of the proprietors or staff of various sites I visited or people I
encountered in the process of doing so deserve my thanks as well, and these
include Jo Ann Rivera of Victoria’s Black Swan Inn, Doug Blank of the Faust Hotel, staff members at Hotel Indigo and the Emily Morgan Hotel in San Antonio and the Driskill Hotel in Austin, the staff of Ye Kendall Inn in Boerne, the
management and staff of the Austin Pizza Garden, and bartender Lincoln at the
Devil’s Backbone Tavern.
I
also would like to thank all of the editors, colleagues, family members,
business associates, and friends who patiently — or, in some cases, not so
patiently — waited for me to fulfill my obligations to them while I was focusing
so much of my attention on this project.
Finally,
if there is anyone I have left out of these acknowledgments, I would like to
sincerely beg their forgiveness and thank them for the roles they played in the
completion of this book as well!
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