Author Conversations

On this episode continue our journey into the spooky month of October by exploring Haunted Charleston with author and Tour Guide Ed Macy.

You can book a tour with Ed by visiting his website here: https://edmacytours.com/

In a land occupied for thousands of years, mystery and unrest linger. Anguished soldierly figures dot the landscape of Pasco County, from the doomed march of Major Dade and his haunted hill to the ghost of Captain Jeffries standing watch over his homestead in Zephyrhills. A pair of spirits drifts about near a Dade City pond, perhaps the brother and sister cut down during the infamous Bradley Massacre. Echoes of the once rugged frontier rebound from the Ellis-Gillett feud, vigilantism and Sheriff Bart’s justice. Obliterating the mounds of indigenous people cast an ever-present and ominous tone over sacred grounds throughout the county. Author Madonna Wise shares ethereal accounts of the Meighan Theatre, the treacherous Road to Nowhere, the Edwinola Hotel and more.

https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467146814

Today I am joined by the Director of Children's Books for Arcadia Publishing, Nancy Ellwood to talk about Arcadia Publishing's new Spooky Talesseries.

Spooky America is adapted from Arcadia’s bestselling Haunted America series (more than 300 titles strong), and brings you the ghoulishly gruesome, fantastically phantasmal stories of our nation’s undead souls. Rewritten for the middle-grade audience, these terrifically terrifying tales bring local history to life—even if the main players are dead. Ghosts, hauntings, legends and unexplained phenomena keep readers rapt and celebrate local history and lore.

You can find the books by following the link below:

https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Search?searchtext=spooky%20tales&searchmode=anyword&searchoption=allbooks

The Powder Magazine is South Carolina's oldest public building and today's serves as a museum. The museum's director and author ofArsenal of History,Alan Stello joins me to discuss the site's history and the museums upcoming virtual luncheon series.

You can find out more about the museums Zoom luncheon series by visiting powdermagazine.org/programs

Nashville’s Music Row is as complicated as the myths that surround it. And there are plenty, from an adulterous French fur trader to an adventurous antebellum widow, from the early Quonset hut recordings to record labels in glass high-rise towers and from “Your Cheatin’ Heart” to “Strawberry Wine.” Untangle the legendary history with never-before-seen photos of Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Kris Kristofferson and Shel Silverstein and interviews with multi-platinum songwriters and star performers. Authors Brian Allison, Elizabeth Elkins and Vanessa Olivarez dig into the dreamers and the doers, the architects and the madmen, the ghosts and the hit-makers that made these avenues and alleys world-famous.

Elizabeth Elkins is a professional songwriter and writer. A military brat, she holds degrees from the University of Georgia and Emory University. She has written for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Creative Loafing, Art & Antiques and many others. She is president of Historic Nashville Inc. and the author of the upcoming Your Cheatin’ Heart: Timothy Demonbreun and the Politics of Love and Power in Nascent Nashville (Vanderbilt University Press).

Vanessa Olivarez is a professional songwriter and vocalist. A Texas native, she was a Top 12 finalist on the second season of American Idol and received a Dora Award nomination for her work in the Toronto, Canada production of Hairspray.

Together, Elkins and Olivarez are Granville Automatic, an alt-country band that has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today and the Bitter Southerner. Their songs have been used in numerous television programs and films, and they have written songs recorded by more than seventy-five other artists, including Billy Currington, Wanda Jackson and Sugarland. They were the songwriters in residence at the Seaside Institute’s Escape to Create program (Florida), where they wrote a Civil War concept album, An Army without Music. Their 2018 album Radio Hymns focuses on the lost history of Nashville, and the 2020 follow-up, Tiny Televisions, was inspired by Music Row stories in this book. You may have seen their videos on CMT. The pair live in Nashville, Tennessee, and regularly tour across the United States.

While not a musician himself, Brian Allison was born and raised on stories of country music. His father, Joe, was a producer, songwriter, radio personality and pioneer, and without his stories, this book would not have been possible. A professional historian, museum consultant and writer, Brian is the author of two other books for The History Press, Murder & Mayhem in Nashville and Notorious Nashville. He lives in Nashville.

This week we focus in on the fascinating history of the Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks.

Much of New York during the Revolutionary era was frontier wilderness, sparsely populated and bitterly divided. Although the only major campaign in the region would end at the Battle of Saratoga, factional raiding parties traversed the mountains and valleys of the Adirondacks throughout the war. Sir Christopher Carleton led groups of Loyalists, Hessians and Iroquois in successful attacks along Lake Champlain, capturing forts and striking fear in local villages. Mohawk war chief Joseph Brant led a motley band of irregulars known as “Brant’s Volunteers” in chaotic raids against Patriot targets. Marauding brothers Edward and Ebenezer Jessup brought suffering to the very lands they had purchased years before in Kingsbury, Queensbury and Fort Edward. Author Marie Danielle Annette Williams covers the history of the Adirondacks during the Revolutionary War.

This week we explore the Bizzare History of the Bluegrass State with author Keven McQueen. From ghost towns to circus performers to mass hysteria, the Bluegrass State is no stranger to the strange. Read stories of famed President Abraham Lincoln you’ve never heard before. Find possible solutions to the mystery of Pearl Bryan’s missing head and decipher the outrageous hoaxes involving an unsolvable puzzle and monkeys trained to perform farm work. Learn about the time when the author wrote to Charles Manson as a joke and Manson wrote back—four times. Join author Keven McQueen as he recounts some of the weirder vignettes from Kentucky lore.

This week we discuss a site who's role is not well known but was vital in bringing about an end to the Civil War. The site? Fort Clinch in Fernandina, FL.

Even though Fernandina was tucked away in the far southern reaches of the Confederacy, Fort Clinch had been abandoned to Federal forces by March 1862. It proved a boon to the Union war effort, and the island became a haven for runaway slaves, with many joining the Federal army. The military occupation of this vital seaport helped end the war, and the Reconstruction period that followed bore witness to Union and Confederate veterans working together to bring Fernandina into a golden era of prosperity. Author and local historian Frank A. Ofeldt III captures the vital and under-told story of Amelia Island during the Civil War.

https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467145961

Authors Patricia and Robert Heyer join me this episode to tell us about famous attacks along the Jersey Shore including attacks in the early 1900's that influenced pop culture.

Every summer, thousands flock to the Jersey Shore for its beaches and boardwalks, but lurking in the depths beyond is a historic threat to tranquility. Dozens of shark attacks and interactions have occurred throughout Jersey Shore history that reveal bravery, heartbreak and the hubris of man. A boy paid a gruesome price for teasing a trapped shark in the first recorded attack in 1842. The three bloody attacks of 1960 left one man’s limb amputated. The horrific summer of 1916 included seven attacks in a two-week span and crafted the caricature of the killer shark that remains in popular culture today. Authors Patricia and Robert Heyer dive into the history of when two apex predators, man and shark, cross paths on the shores of New Jersey.

Join me this week as I talk with the author ofHidden History of East Texas,Tex Midkiff about Texas Rangers, Big Tex, Shootouts, UFO's and theories around the JFK assassination.

The heritage of East Texas partakes in the same degree of unexpected turns and hidden depths as its backroads and bayous. One line of inquiry meanders into another. Start out searching for La Salle’s grave and end up chasing Spanish gold in Upshur County. From Sam Houston’s Bible to the Longview nightclub that hosted both Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, one tale follows another and introduces a cast of characters that includes Candace and Peter Ellis Bean, Old Rip, Jack Lummus and Vernon Wayne Howell. Part the Pine Curtain with Tex Midkiff for a history as heated as the La Grange Chicken Ranch’s parlor and irresistible as a batch of Golden sweet potatoes.