Tales Told When the Windows Rattle

The genius of Charles Dickens shines in this dark and disturbing tale about glimpses of the future, the limits of human comprehension, and a railroad worker whose actions spell life or death.

This classic ghost story is included in After the End of the Line: Railroad Hauntings in Literature and Lore, available from Brom Bones Books. Learn more about it at: https://brombonesbooks.com/catalog/after-the-end-of-the-line/

"Attempting to mask our client’s identity would be foolhardy, since this magician is internationally recognized for escaping from handcuffs, padlocked chains or trunks, and almost any other kind of restraint. Many years will have to pass before readers no longer recognize the personage known as Harry Houdini." -- Lida Bergson

This reading comes from Help for the Haunted: A Decade of Vera Van Slyke Ghostly Mysteries, by Tim Prasil. For more information on this book -- and on the the entire Vera Van Slyke Ghostly Msytery series -- visit https://brombonesbooks.com/catalog/vera-van-slyke-ghostly-mysteries/

Does dying mean it's too late to repair the damage done to those left behind? Maybe not -- if you find help from someone who has studied the occult. The first of Fitz-James O'Brien's supernatural mysteries featuring Harry Escott, this tale can be found in From Eerie Cases to Early Graves: 5 Short-Lived Occult Detective Series. Find out more about this anthology here: https://brombonesbooks.com/catalog/from-eerie-cases-to-early-graves/

A sheer-legs is a huge tripod used to hoist up steam locomotives for repairs beneath. A slip of a chain, and someone can be crushed to death. That happens in this tale — and then a phantom appears under the sheer-legs. What terrible secret does it want to reveal? This story comes from After the End of the Line: Railroad Hauntings in Literature and Lore. More information is available here: https://brombonesbooks.com/catalog/after-the-end-of-the-line/

James John Hissey was a travel writer who kept a sharp eye out for haunted sites. But he struggled to fulfill his dream of witnessing a real ghost. Will his efforts to spend a night in a reputedly haunted house in Holton Holgate, England, pay off? This reading comes from The Victorian Ghost Hunter's Casebook, and more information about it is here: https://brombonesbooks.com/catalog/victorian-ghost-hunters-casebook/

Disturbing dreams and visions of blood dripping from the ceiling drive tenants away from the Green House, spurring a realtor and his clairvoyant secretary to uncover the house’s gruesome history.  This tale is the first of Allen Upward's series featuring  Alwyne Sargent and Jack Hargreaves, all of which can be found in From Eerie Cases to Early Graves: 5 Short-Lived Occult Detective Series. Find out more at https://brombonesbooks.com/catalog/from-eerie-cases-to-early-graves/

“He was not an easy man to get along with, but one had to admire his dedication. That sense of commitment is why I think he’s come back from grave!” — Chester Paddock, Theatre Director

This reading comes from Help for the Haunted: A Decade of Vera Van Slyke Ghostly Mysteries, written by Tim Prasil and published by Brom Bones Books. For reviews, ordering information, and more, visit https://brombonesbooks.com/catalog/helpforthehaunted/

On a miserable night, two men share a weird reminder of a railroad catastrophe and of the overworked signalman who cannot forget his role in it.

This reading comes from After the End of the Line: Railroad Hauntings in Literature and Lore, edited by Tim Prasil and published by Brom Bones Books. For more details, visit https://brombonesbooks.com/catalog/after-the-end-of-the-line/

In this tale by Algernon Blackwood, Englishman Jim Shorthouse learns that some New Yorkers are not at all neighborly. In fact, at times, they can be downright cold.

This story is included in From Eerie Cases to Early Graves: 5 Short-Lived Occult Detective Series, edited by Tim Prasil and published by Brom Bones Books. For more information, visit https://brombonesbooks.com/catalog/from-eerie-cases-to-early-graves/

For decades, Catherine Crowe’s The Night Side of Nature (1849) was a best-selling compendium of purportedly true ghost stories. In a later book, she recounts a ghost hunt that she conducted, offering a fascinating look at mid-1800s-style paranormal investigation.

This reading comes from The Victorian Ghost Hunter's Casebook, edited by Tim Prasil and published by Brom Bones Books. For details, reviews, and more, visit https://brombonesbooks.com/catalog/victorian-ghost-hunters-casebook/ 

This is a new -- and whimsical -- adventure featuring William Hope Hodgson's popular occult detective, Thomas Carnacki. Upon learning that a competing detective might be conjuring occult forces to do his dirty work, Carnacki travels to Carmarthen. There, he uncovers the secret behind weird, nocturnal -- and largely inconsequential -- occurrences at a candymaker's cottage, a residence Carnacki dubs "The Least Haunted House in Wales."

Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale of wine, revenge, and murder is the first installment of my interim series: Tales Told Whenever I Feel Like It. It's something to keep me out of trouble until Season Two of Tales Told When the Windows Rattle begins in October, 2022.

A couple on their honeymoon discover that the Moon is far from a romantic destination. In fact, if not ghostly exactly, it’s certainly ghastly!

Sure, it’s good to walk in someone else’s shoes. But what if that someone else is standing on the gallows?

“Come now, doesn’t the prospect of encountering the ghost of the missing link have a certain irresistible charm, Miss Van Slyke?” — Professor Geoffrey Wallace Livingstone Adams

A fireside story about the evil lurking within a room — and reaching beyond those walls.

Upon showing off in front of friends, a man uncaps a power to dominate others that grows to dominate him.

“The magnitude of the afterlife is very much a mystery — perhaps especially to those of us who investigate it!” — Lida Bergson

A fireside story about a ghost who stopped for one last look.

No one really breaks the Laws of Nature, but Edgar Allan Poe presents a weird experiment that bends the Dictates of Death.

“In most cases, a ghost haunts the living because something haunts the ghost.” — Vera Van Slyke

Ambrose Bierce presents a campfire story about four men who had no one left to tell their story. (NOTE: This 1909 story is set on America’s western frontier and features a presumably white character whose dialog reflects some of the racial insensitivity representative of his group.)