Posted under Uncategorized
Five new stories are gracing the stories page today. Three of them are continuations of last month’s story by Ray who is becoming somewhat of a fan favourite. He has some good stories to tell so read on. 
Thanks to those that answered the first COS poll. I’ll keep it going for a while longer. I’m also looking to figure out how to revamp the story-of-the-month process, news on that as I research further.
Posted under News
Thanks to Amazon changing their royalty policies, I was able to reduce the price of the Kindle version of Tome of Lost Tales to $8.99. For those of you with a Kindle or the Kindle app for iPhone, you can buy the book here:
Posted under News
I’ve just created the Castle of Spirits Facebook page! Search for Castle of Spirits and become a fan.
I’m also looking at changing the way Story of the Month operates. I’ve been ignoring the story votes for the older stories (my apologies to those who took the time to vote) but I’d still like to recognize the best stories of the month somehow.
I’m slowly teaching myself HTML so I’m looking to put polls on the site to let everyone vote on their favourite story for the current month. I’ll post the winner on the Facebook page. Sorry, I can’t offer any prizes other than recognition at the moment.
Posted under News
If you live in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or the Ottawa/Kingston areas and have a ghost story to tell, the folks at www.ghostlyencounters.ca want to hear from you. Filming for the next season of Ghostly Encounters is starting in March so if you feel you have a good story to tell, visit their website and let them know.
Posted under Ramblings
I read an article the other day that the famous Poe Toaster failed to show this year. For those unfamiliar with the tradition, every January 19 since 1949, a mysterious figure has come to the Baltimore cemetery where author/poet Edgar Allan Poe’s original headstone is and has left a bouquet of roses and a bottle of Cognac.
This year, however, he was a no show, much to the disappointment of Poe fans everywhere. As a Poe disciple myself, I hope that the Poe Toaster hasn’t stopped and was just the victim of illness, a missed alarm, or car trouble and encourage him (or her) to continue. Poe was vastly under-rated and scorned in his time and I can’t think of a better way of paying tribute to the man.
Whatever the circumstances, I raise my glass to you, Mr. Toaster. Thank you for honouring Poe in a classy yet solemn way.
Posted under News
Hi all,
I updated the stories with a few new ones to end January off with.
I’ve also added a ghost tour in Schochwitz, Germany. The owner of the castle there, Lord James Welsh, contacted me with a few details. He has opened up the castle for ghost tours and there are also holiday rentals for those so inclined. Jim has told me that he suspects there are between 10 to 15 ghosts that roam the halls, the bulk of them appear to be made up of Nazi SS officers who were resident in the castle during World War II. Jim has personally seen one ghost three times and suspects it is the ghost of Heinrich Himmler, so if anyone is a WWII buff as well as a ghost hunter, this would be the place for you.
You can visit the Castle Schochwitz web page at http://www.castleschochwitz.com/. For more information on the ghost tour, please email Lord James Welsh at schochwitz@hotmail.co.uk. A link to the site can also be found on the COS ghost tours page. It’s easy to find, it’s the only ghost tour in Germany at the moment.
The Australian Ghost Hunters Society (AGHS) is starting it’s own blog for those interested in ghost hunting and the investigations the AGHS has participated in. You can find that at http://www.castleofspirits.com/aghsblog.
Keep the stories coming! Now that the whole holiday season is over with, I have more time to update the site so hopefully I’ll have more frequent updates.
That’s all for now. Thanks as always for reading and visiting COS!
Don
The Groundskeeper
Posted under News
Hi all,
I’m sorry for the lack of updates lately. The last month has been a busy one so I wasn’t able to work on the site. But things have settled down and there are ten new stories so far for December with more to come.
I’d also like to take the time to wish everyone a good solstice, happy Festivus… oh yea, and a merry Christmas to you non-pagan folk. Whatever your holiday this time of year, have a good and safe one.
Don the Groundskeeper
Posted under Uncategorized
I hope everyone had a good Hallowe’en, I spent a quiet evening with my wife watching the 1991 version of “Dracula”, a great movie despite Keanu Reeves’ attempt at an English accent. Great as Neo, not so hot as Harker.
We finally have some art! Thank you to Katie Wilson for her skeletal horse submission, it fits the site quite well. To have a look, click on the following link: http://www.castleofspirits.com/coppermine1/thumbnails.php?album=2
I’m switching photo gallery software again, Gallery2 wasn’t doing it for me so it’s off to Coppermine. I like the Coppermine interface a lot better so looks like that’s what I’ll run with. In the meantime the old photo archives page will still be active while I transfer everything over.
New stories are coming, I’ve been too busy playing with the photo software lately.
Don – The Groundskeeper
Posted under News
It’s been a busy week at the Castle. We moved to new web servers, there was a little hiccup with the story submission page and blog but that’s been resolved and we’re working as normal again.
October is becoming a banner month for stories, there’s over 20 posted this month so thank you to those that continue to submit your stories, you make the site what it is.
One thing that’s been nagging me lately is that there are some people who still consider Hallowe’en a time of evil. Historically, it’s the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain and was (put very simply) a combination of Thanksgiving and New Years that stretched on for about a week. The evil connotations seem to be propagated by religious types that don’t bother to research what they spout on about so I invite everyone to read up on the history of Hallowe’en on this site as well as others. Get educated, people!
Posted under News
Hi All,
I’ve put up a new page for ghost tours that features a clickable map of the world to find ghost tours in your area. So far I only have the Australian and one Canadian ghost tour highlighted, more will follow as I do a little research. Please give it a try and let me know how you like it.
Don – The Groundskeeper