My Poem Nominated in 21st Annual Critters Readers' Poll

My poem, "Warrior Not Forgotten," was nominated for the poem page of 21st Annual Critters Readers' Poll. The poem is included in The Virginia Writers Club Richmond Chapter Golden Nib Contest 2018 anthology. Voting ends after the last day of January 14th. This goes directly to the Poem Voting Page: http://www.critters.org/predpoll/poem.shtml Please vote for it, and if you do, thank you.

Supernatural Friday: A Dark and Terrible Thing Is Coming! (Original Poem by Pamela K. Kinney)

"A Dark and Terrible Thing is Coming!"

It’s coming,

Like a terrible thing

It’s scary,

Dark, and with a toothy grin.

So you better beware,

Have everything ready

Decorate appropriately,

For the end is near.

Just remember one thing,

It only comes but once a year

Halloween, costumed in orange and black,

A mask upon its gruesome face

Ringing your doorbell with persistence,

Innocent child or demonic being

Feed it candy, just to be safe.

Trick or Treat.

 I hoped you enjoyed this poem I wrote, "A Dark and Terrible Thing Is Coming!" It's an original poem and copyrighted to me, so do share the link with friends, not the poem, please. Thank you. 

I Have a Poem in a Newly Released Anthology on Kindle

I have a poem, "Warrior Not Forgotten," included in this Kindle eBook just released and it is free until 11:59 p.m. PST Tuesday the 25th. After that, it's 99 cents. (The poem is not paranormal/horror related but about soldiers/veterans). The Kindle includes 2 poems and 4 stories-all entered in the local Richmond chapter's contest for the statewide Virginia Writers Club's Golden Nibs contest. Only the first place winners went on to the state level (mine is one of those).

https://www.amazon.com/Virginia-Writers-Richmond-Chapter-Contest-ebook/dp/B07HGJVQWH?

Supernatural Friday: Are You Scared Yet? (Original Poem)

Scared Yet?

By

Pamela K. Kinney

Eyes watching me in my nightmares,

A shadow hovers in the corner of my room

A howl on a moonlit night gives me shivers,

Footsteps of someone invisible caught on my recorder

Are you scared yet?

Fingers touching my shoulder,

Turning, nothing's there.

Whispers carried on the air,

No one is there.

Are you scared yet?


Alone in the house,

All the lights on,

One by one, they go out,

Leaving you in the dark

Are you scared yet?

You should be. . .

*Copyrights of this poem belongs to the author--do not take, but do share the link with friends.*

Supernatural Friday: Ghosts of Written Words

With my new nonfiction ghost book, Paranormal Petersburg, Virginia, and the Tri-Cities Area releasing September 28th, Supernatural Friday will be all about ghosts. Today is the first day and I am posting an original poem of mine, It is copyrighted to me, so please share the link to it to friends and relatives, and not the poem. Thank you. Have a spooktacular Supernatural Friday.

Ghosts of Written Words

By

Pamela K. Kinney

Ghosts made by written words,
Haunting, mist upon the pages
Forgotten dreams, or nightmares
Of authors' own imagination darkly,
Ghostly tales for autumn nights
Such stories full of chill,

Readers' own thrills...

ISBN: 9780764349423

Blurb for Paranormal Petersburg, Virginia, and the Tri-Cities Area:

Travel to Petersburg, Virginia, and the surrounding areas of Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Prince George, Dinwiddie, and nearby Ettrick-Matoaca, Enon, and Chester to discover what spirits, monsters, UFOs, and legends await the unwary. Why are the Union and Confederate spirits still fighting the Civil War in the battlefields? Who is the lady in blue who haunts Weston Plantation House? Learn what the phantoms at Peter Jones Trading Post will do to keep from being photographed. Drink tea with runaway slaves still hiding on the top floor above the Blue Willow Tea Room. Are Edgar Allan Poe and his bride still on their honeymoon at Hiram Haines Coffee and Ale House? Why does the Goatman stalk young lovers? Meet the ghosts of Violet Bank Museum that greet guests at the house. Hauntingly active as they share space with the living, the dead refuse to give up their undead residency.

Preorder it at Schiffer Publishing, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Books A Million, plus yoir own independent bookstore. 

Copies of Print Harboring Secrets on Sale for $3.07!

No longer on sale for that price.

The print version of Harboring Secrets anthology that includes my dark fantasy short story, "Devil in the Details' is now on sale for $3.07 at Amazon. Original price is $9.95 and the eBook version is $6.99. So a good time to buy it. It's a mixed bag of horror, paranormal, science fiction, mystery, romance, poetry and true stories. 

Book Blurb: Poignant, funny, thought-provoking, frightening, or enlightening, the literary pieces created for the 20th Anniversary of the Chesapeake Bay Writers club's anthology will entertain. This anthology highlights established writers along with up & coming writers. We present fiction, personal essays, and poetry based around the Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia, while shining light on hidden secrets. In his introduction to the anthology, New York Times best-seller John Gilstrap writes about the Power of Secrets. "Who among us would not go to great lengths to prevent the revelation of at least one secret in our own lives? Our secrets define us, allow us to shape for others the image that we want them to see, projecting our strengths and sheltering our weaknesses." Open the book, settle by the riverbank or the bay shore, and discover the secrets harbored by the Chesapeake Bay Writers.

PURCHASE

Supernatural Friday One Day Early: Winter Night's Fright

Since I am out of town for Mysticon beginning tomorrow and plan to be in my room writing a wip today, I figure to go ahead and post Supernatural Friday one day early. The poem is an original one by me, so please do not copy and paste it elsewhere. Do share the link though, so others can come and enjoy it. Thank you.

                        Winter Night's Fright                                                 

                                      By

                     Pamela K. Kinney

                 Snowy winter night
                 Full of fright,
                 Dreams turn to nightmares
                 Snow to ghosts,
                 But fear not, dreamer
                Warm beds melt cold monsters.

Supernatural Friday: Winter is Hunting Season

Winter is Hunting Season

by

Pamela K. Kinney 
(copyrighted to the author, so please just share the link, not take the poem)

Winter’s cold fingers touching my skin

Nothing to fear,

Except freezing to death;

Right?

But the coldness

Brings the monsters

They want to play;

Play with you

In so many ways.

Less people in the woods,

It’s Sasquatch’s time.

Werewolf is drawn

To towns more.

Ghosts don’t feel

So they haunt--cold or hot

Zombies?

They can eat anytime!

As for vampires

They’re icebox cold too.

So who told you winter’s safe?

It’s just another hunting season--

For monsters!

Supernatural Friday: The Crimson Rush

Enjoy my original poem, "The Crimson Rush," but please do not copy it and paste it elsewhere, share the link instead so others may enjoy it. It is copyrighted to me.

The Crimson Rush

By

Pamela K. Kinney

So much red;

Delicious, lip-smacking

Liquid,

I want it

No, need it.

The fountain of life

Beneath the flesh,

Beckoning,

Taunting,

Calling me,

Until,

I can’t help it

But sink fang

Into the softness

Drinking;

Rush of crimson,

Of daylight and life.

Leaving a husk

Behind,

Flying off

To sleep

The addiction off.

Supernatural Friday: The Wendigo Hungers

“Hunger Changes”

by Pamela K. Kinney

Hunger, so much hunger

Never filling,

Cold darkness

Overtaking,

Changing,

Taking over,

No longer human,

Predator, killer, monster—

Wendigo. 

(Poem copyrighted by Pamela K. Kinney--do not take, but share the link instead.)

Though the Wendigo is first written down by writer Algernon Blackwood in his classic terror tale, "The Wendigo", Native Americans have their own stories of the monster.  The Inuit Indians of the region called the creature by various names, including Wendigo, Witigo, Witiko and Wee-Tee-Go but each of them was roughly translated to mean "the evil spirit that devours mankind". Around 1860, a German explorer translated Wendigo to mean "cannibal" among the tribes along the Great Lakes.

The tribes told of a gigantic spirit, over fifteen feet tall. Lore says that it was once human but had been transformed into a creature by the use of magic (or curse?), whenever a human resorts to cannibalism to survive. Descriptions of the creature vary here and there, the Wendigo is said to have glowing eyes, yellowed fangs of length, and long tongues. Most have a sallow, yellowish skin, while others are said to be matted with hair. They are tall and lanky and are driven by a horrible hunger. In years past, such a practice was possible, although still rare, as many of the tribes and settlers in the region were cut off by the bitter snows and ice of the north woods. Unfortunately, eating another person to survive was sometimes resorted to and thus, the legend of the Wendigo was created. 

Of course, some of the descriptions seem to fit the sightings of Bigfoot. And Bigfoot by Native Americans is considered a spirit (except to Northwestern tribes: they considered Sasquatch as a physical being). An appearance to humans is meant to convey some sort of message.

White settlers took the sightings and reports quite seriously. According to the settlers' version of the legend, the Wendigo would be seen as a sort of premonition of  a death in the community. A Wendigo allegedly made a number of appearances near a town called Rosesu in Northern Minnesota from the late 1800's through the 1920's. Each time afterwards, an unexpected death followed and it would not be seen anymore.

One Wendigo hunter was a Cree Indian named Jack Fiddler, who claimed to kill at least 14 of the creatures in his lifetime. The last murder resulted in his imprisonment at the age of 87. In October 1907, Fiddler and his son, Joseph, were tried for the murder of a Cree Indian woman. Both pleaded guilty to the crime. They defended themselves, stating that the woman had been possessed by the spirit of a Wendigo, She’d been on the verge of transforming into one and they killed her before she murdered other members of the tribe. In this day and age, there are tales of Wendigos seen in northern Ontario, near the Cave of the Wendigo, and around the town of Kenora. A creature in that area has been spotted by traders, trackers and trappers for decades. In fact, many who still believe that the Wendigo roams the woods and the prairies of northern Minnesota and Canada.


Whether a Wendigo or more likely Sasquatch, something stalks the woods hit by heavy, cold winters.  Next time, you decided to travel through those forests during that season, think about it seriously. Especially when night comes and a full moon rises above, and you swear you see a shadow move or a flash that maybe from staring eyes, maybe it is not a good idea. Maybe summer is a better time to check out the area. 

The Raven by Poe's 168th Anniversary Was Yesterday

Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem "The Raven," was published on this day in 1845 in the New York Evening Mirror. 168 years ago.
Poe's dark and macabre work reflected his own tumultuous and difficult life. Born in Boston in 1809, Poe was orphaned at age three and went to live with the family of a Richmond, Virginia businessman. Poe enrolled in a military academy but was expelled for gambling. He later studied briefly at the University of Virginia. He died in a hospital after found in a in Baltimore, Maryland. 

He left us a legacy of short stories, many making him the leader in mystery, science fiction and of course, the dark gothic horror. And many great poems, including the most famous one of his, "The Raven."

Watch this animation of  "Margali's Midnight Matinee:  A Cartoon Travesty of 'The Raven'" released in 1942 at Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qVVBpuvBAbs
  And Vincent Price reading The Raven:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqthT-7_K3E

Happy anniversary, Raven--evermore!