Comicpalooza 2016 'Paranormal Track' Events

As the coordinator for the Paranormal Track of the Comicpalooza fan convention, I am responsible for developing interesting programming related to ghosthunting and similar subjects. For the past few years I have done this in conjunction with two great Houston-area groups, Dawn Paranormal and the Pasadena Paranormal Research Team, and with the assistance of the America's Haunted Road Trip series of travel guides. Following is the terrific lineup of events we will be presenting at the convention this year. All except for one, the Investigation at Discovery Green, are set to run for up to 90 minutes and will take place in a dedicated panel room at the George R. Brown Convention Center. 

FRIDAY, JUNE 17

Paranormal 101: Introduction to Ghosthunting (1 p.m.)

Join author Michael Varhola, editor of the “America’s Haunted Road Trip” series of travel guides, Christy Briones of Dawn Paranormal, and Kristen Stout of the Pasadena Paranormal Research Team for an interactive introduction to the subject of ghosthunting that will examine the basics of this popular phenomena and answer questions from attendees.

Paranormal 101: Opening Up with Meditation (2:30 p.m.)

Perr Mittelstaedt and Darcy Tarrillion of the Pasadena Paranormal Research Team will provide a basic introduction on learning meditation and using it as a tool for paranormal investigation. "I have been investigating and learning about the paranormal, meditation, and metaphysics for more than 40 years and have done many different types of investigations, classes, and events," Mittelstaedt says. "I have also given many presentations on UFO research, philosophical topics, and mind expansion. Learning to be quiet internally will allow people to have much better paranormal investigations ... you become your greatest tool, allowing the experience to flow from you to your equipment instead of the conventional vice/versa. Stay open, learn, understand, and experience the amazing worlds that surround us all."

Paranormal 101: Ghosthunting Around the United States (4 p.m.)

Rody Speake, Kay Finlayson, Chris Finlayson, and Darcy Tarrillion of the Pasadena Paranormal Research Team will discuss well-known haunted locations throughout the United States, some of which they have personally investigated. 

SATURDAY, JUNE 18

Paranormal 102: Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, & Texas Hill Country (1 p.m.)

Join author Michael O. Varhola for an exploration of some of the most fascinating haunted sites in San Antonio, Austin, and the Texas Hill Country and get a first-look preview of some of the things that will be appearing in his upcoming book on the subject. 

Paranormal 102: Investigative Equipment (2:30 p.m.)

Experts from the local Pasadena Paranormal Research Team will conduct this hands-on workshop that introduces attendees to the various sorts of equipment used by ghosthunters and other paranormal investigators, including cameras, recorders, EMF meters, digital thermometers, laser grids, and night-vision devices. 

Paranormal 102: Ghosthunting Texas and Louisiana (4 p.m.)

Join experts Christy Briones, Denise Hardin, and Megan Mozelle from the local Dawn Paranormal investigative group for this seminar on a number of the most interesting haunted sites they have investigated in Texas and Louisiana — along with things they have personally experienced at some of them! 

Paranormal 102: Protection Techniques (5:30 p.m.)

Join experts Christy Briones, Denise Hardin, and Megan Mozelle from the local Dawn Paranormal investigative group for a discussion on how to psychically and physically protect yourself before, during, and after an investigation. They will also discuss everyday psychic protection techniques for yourself and your home. 

Paranormal 102: Investigation at Discovery Green (7 p.m.)

Investigators from the local Pasadena Paranormal Research Team will guide attendees on a very special firsthand investigation of Discovery Green, the park located across from the George R. Brown Convention Center! Everyone will meet in the Paranormal Track panel room, where they will receive an orientation and be formed up into groups. They will then proceed across the street to the park for an investigation that will run until between 9 and 10 p.m. There may be limited spaces available so, just in case, feel free to show up a little early to get signed up. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 19

Paranormal 103: Reviewing Evidence After an Investigation (1 p.m.)

Rody Speake, Katrina Cooper, Kay Finlayson, and Chris Finlayson of the Pasadena Paranormal Research Team explain how to review and then debunk or validate any possible evidence gathered from an investigation using cameras, audio recordings, video recordings, and personal feelings/senses. Specific examples will include any possible evidence gathered during the investigation at Discovery Green being run on Saturday! 

Paranormal 103: Science and the Paranormal (2:30 p.m.)

Christy Briones, Denise Hardin, and Megan Mozelle of the Dawn Paranormal investigative examine how certain environmental conditions may affect how people perceive various sorts of paranormal activity. 

Paranormal 103: Open Forum Q&A (4 p.m.)

Anything goes at this open forum with a panel of professional paranormal investigators from America's Haunted Road Trip, Dawn Paranormal, and the Pasadena Paranormal Research Team! Our experts will address questions about anything related to ghosthunting and other aspects of paranormal investigation. 

An Annual Halloween-ish Ghosthunt

Each year I like to return to a site near my home, the 19th-century haunted German burying ground known as the Bremer Cemetery, and conduct a mini paranormal investigation there. I usually do this right on Halloween, shoot for getting there a little before midnight and then staying as long as I need to, and am by myself. This year, however, my friend Brendan flew out to spend the weekend before Halloween workshopping a number of things for our Skirmisher Publishing and d-Infinity, and so I decided to push up the excursion so that we could do it together. 

It rained all day Saturday and did not let up until around 2 a.m. on Sunday morning, at which point we set out and made the 15-minute hike down into the wooded valley below the ridge my home sits on. 

He took all of the following photos and achieved some interesting effects with them by leaving his aperture open for periods of six to 20 seconds, making it look as if some of these were taken during the daytime, rather than the middle of a dark and very overcast night. None of them have been modified in any way. The first three are of the little fenced cemetery itself, and in the first one can see a red dot of some sort in the upper left quarter of the image, but I am not sure whether this qualifies as an anomaly of some sort. The fourth image is of me at the base of a tree around which I have detected paranormal activity during previous visits. 

All in all, our nighttime adventure did not produce any dramatic results but was a good training run and an enjoyable break from our labors! 

Ghost of a Chance (New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung)

Following is a feature article that appeared in the October 31, 2015, edition of the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung, one of the local newspapers in the title area of my new Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country travel guide. 

   

Event Report: Wimberley Village Library 'Lunch & Learn'

It is kind of fun to talk about one of my books and the research I did for it in the heart of the area it is about! On Wednesday, October 7, I had the pleasure of giving a "lunch and learn" presentation on my just-released Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country to a couple dozen people at Wimberley VillageLibrary in Wimberley, Texas. 

Suffice it to say that my one-hour lecture, PowerPoint presentation, and question-and-answer session went very well. Several attendees asked great questions and about half the people came were engaged enough by the subject that they decided to pick up a copy of the new book. 

Thanks very much to everyone who came to this event and to Sarah Davis, the library assistant for circulation and programs, for setting it up! This was my first presentation in historic and haunted Wimberley and I certainly hope it won't be my last. 

Our Haunted Hill Country

Of the three title areas I cover in my just-released travel guide, Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country, the last is undoubtedly my favorite for a number of reasons, one being because it is where I live. This 25-county area is full of historic towns and villages, wilderness areas, lots of ranchland surrounded by fences hung with unwelcoming signage — and numerous haunted places. Following are a handful of my favorites, all of them publicly accessible. 

The Devil's Backbone, aka Ranch-to-Market Road 32, is a haunted highway that corresponds to a ridgeline used by Spanish explorers travelling inland and later by ranchers driving cattle. Parts of this road seem mysterious and haunted under the best of conditions and it is little wonder that it should have so much ghostly lore associated with it, to include an ominous "White Lady" that causes car wrecks. One spot along the highway travelers might want to visit is the Devil's Backbone Tavern, a haunted watering hole located on the site of an old Indian campground and what was once a stagecoach stop. 

Enchanted Rock State Natural Area has been part of the Texas state park system was designated as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1936. Native Americans believed the site was a portal to the otherworld and there are countless legends, ghost stories, and paranormal phenomena associated with this wondrous natural site, whose name is not arbitrary or just meant to be colorful. 

Jacob's Well is an artesian spring located just north of Wimberley. Peering into the mysterious and ominously beautiful depths of Jacob's Well, it is almost hard to believe that it is not haunted. Native Indians certainly held this natural artesian spring, which rises up through a limestone tube from the unmeasured depths of the underworld, to be sacred and inhabited by elemental spirits of the land. Beyond its appearance and hallowed nature, however, it is also the site of numerous drownings and there are those who believe the ghosts of those who have perished at this spot continue to haunt it.

James Kiehl River Bend Park is a pleasant recreational area situated along the banks of the Guadalupe River. Paranormal phenomena like strange mists, orbs, and EVPs have been noted both at it and a disused SA&AP railway bridge located nearby. There are also four small cemeteries dating at least as far back as the 1800s in the vicinity of the park.

The Treue Der Union Monument in the historic village of Comfort marks one of the strangest, bloodiest, and most heartbreaking episodes in the saga of a violent state, the Nueces Massacre, which took place during the Civil War. There is every reason to think the "Loyalty to the Union" monument might be haunted by the spirits of those whose deaths it memorializes and whose remains it marks.

Wimberley started as a trading post near Cypress Creek in 1848, the year Hays County was organized, and its original gristmill was expanded over the years to process lumber, shingles, flour, molasses, and cotton. The mill was shut down in 1925 but the community has continued to grow in more recent times into a resort town and destination for tourists and ghosthunters alike. Virtually every historic building in the town is reputed to be haunted and late author Bert Wall wrote numerous books specifically about the ghosts and legends of Wimberley and the surrounding area.

Other Hill Country sites with haunted lore associated with them include Fort Martin Scott in Fredericksburg, the Kerr County Courthouse in Kerrville, the Lover's Leap overlook outside of Junction, Schreiner University (notably its Delaney Hall), and the Y.O. Ranch Hotel & Conference Center. There are many more beyond these and if you ask the staff at any two establishments in historic communities in this area chances are at least one of them will have a ghost story associated with it.

And anyone who wants to learn more about haunted places in our area can find my book in stores and at sites like Amazon.com and can follow my Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country Blog!

I wrote the above article for the West Comal County Chronicle, a publication I write for off and on that is published by the Bulverde/Spring Branch Library, at which I periodically do educational lectures. 

Unboxing 'Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country'

My Favorite Haunted Road Trip Project

Periodically someone will ask me what my most and least favorite book projects have been and the answer to both questions is the same: my most recent one.

As contradictory as that might sound it is very true. My latest project is inevitably the one I have been most excited about and engaged with recently, for which the endorphin rushes received from finishing the various elements are most immediate, for which any exciting fieldwork I did is most memorable. That project is also the one for which I have suffered the most recent stress, for which I can most acutely feel physical rigors like lost sleep, for which other things have suffered because of my disproportionate use of time and other resources. This is the strange dichotomy of book authorship.

Its immediacy aside, I can nonetheless say that, of all the projects I have worked on for the America's Haunted Road Trip series of travel guides, Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country has definitely been my overall favorite. This is true for a variety of reasons.

One is my love for the American Southwest of which Texas is a part and the unique, violent, and colorful history that makes it such a fun subject for research, writing, and roadtrips and a likely locale for haunted places. Good subject matter counts for a lot.

Another reason is the almost iconic distinctness of the places I selected for inclusion in this book, which include everything from wilderness areas that have existed for time immemorial to ancient missions, grand hotels, and great public buildings. This variety of locales made the book stimulating to work on and that is the sort of thing that translates into a into a more enjoyable experience for readers.

Finally, a big reason is the improvements we have made in the format of this book so that it would be even more useful resource for the people using it as a guide on their own haunted road trips. Foremost among these improvements is a robust section of Additional Haunted Sites, which contains entries on 60 locations and effectively triples the number of places covered in earlier books in the series.

All these things have made not just me feel good about what I have accomplished with Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country — they have also made me very confident that the effort I have put into it will make it a valued resource for readers and one of their favorite volumes in the series as well.