Don't Judge My Love of Sharing Ghost Tales

In my weekly Free Friday Frights adventures I have enjoyed the combination of sharing live videos of reading my fiction or just sharing a ghostly tale from the research I have done for many of my non-fiction books on the paranormal.

 

And last Friday (Friday April 13th), while I was enjoying a couple of pints at The Winking Judge in Hamilton, as part of a quick teaser video that I had originally posted live to Facebook, I walked about the 2nd floor of this haunted bar and shared a few of the ghostly tales I had heard over the years.

I re-edited the original live video to add in a few fitting visuals as well as some haunting background music.

Here is the revised and enhanced video:

You can read more about this in a post on my Spirits Untapped blog entitled "Ghostly Tales From A Hamilton Bar," which also focuses more on the "beer" and "beer culture" aspects. (IE, if, after seeing the beer I'm holding and wanting to know what it was)

Year It Was, What a Beer It Was, It Was

So I recently posted my annual update of my previous year in beer. I use the Untappd app to track and rate the beers that I have in a year. I have been using Untappd since early April in 2013 and have checked in a total of 3,479 unique beers since then.

When explaining Untappd to my friends, I usually describe it like Goodreads for beer.

You can read the FULL post on my Spirits Untapped blog, but here are a few interesting highlights that I have pulled out.

Unique Beer Check-ins: 829
Unique Countries: 7
Unique Venues: 118
Unique Brewery Beers: 407
Top Style: IPA
Top Venues Included: The Winking Judge (no surprise there, our favourite haunt and it was right downstairs from where I used to live), Arabella Beer Park (our new favourite local beer spot to hang out in the KW area)

Cheers to Beers

Admittedly, I haven't been blogging here much, even though I'm proud to say that I have been blogging since my initial post on March 3, 2005.

That first post wasn't much, just a note that my friend from work, Mathew (work back then was Chapters Online, or Chapters/Indigo) had mocked me into starting a blog. It's short (so unlike me) and sweet (well I can sometimes be sweet) and called Beginnings. (I was unique, since it wasn't like many blogs, called "My First Post")

My second post, on March 9th, was a little more typical of the musings I would blog about over the years. It was called Not the TV show starring Dick. This one was about the growth of my Van Dyke beard. You know, the facial hair that everyone calls a goatee. (It is technically either referred to as a Van Dyke or a goatee and mustache. A goatee is just chin hair. A mustache is hair over the top lip. But, since laziness prevails and that affects language, most people call it a goatee. Gee, see how I like to rant about such things?)

In my first eight years of blogging I averaged between 180 and 190 blog posts per year, which was almost one every two or three days.

I haven't blogged as much since 2012. Perhaps one reason is that many of my updates end up being shared in the quicker click share of Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. Another part of the reason is likely that my "blogging" efforts were directed towards the Kobo Writing Life blog as well as other writing efforts.


But I still quite enjoy blogging. Heck, I've even started other blogs that align directly specific passions.

While the KWL Blog was focused specifically on writing and publishing, and I was able to channel much passion into that, Liz and I started Spirits Untapped, a blog that focuses on the spirit and spirits that inhabit beer and bar culture.

A "Beer with Norm" - What does it say about me for this being on my bucket list?

Yes, this will be information that we have started compiling for a forthcoming book in my "series" of books on the paranormal, called SPIRITS UNTAPPED: Haunted Bars and Breweries that likely won't be out for a couple of years; but we started this the blog in May 2016 and on the blog we decided to focus on the Spirit of Beer Culture, while throwing in a few spots about haunted locations.

For example, the first post, May 7, 2016, was about The Winking Judge on Augusta Street in Hamilton. I first learned about it when writing Haunted Hamilton: The Ghosts of Dundurn Castle & Other Steeltown Shivers. And it has since become a local "haunt" since I moved into an apartment "above" the judge in 2014.

The Winking Judge - One of our favorite haunts

On Spirits Untapped, Liz and I blog about such things as:

• Haunted Locations (which will end up going into the book)
• Breweries
• Memorable Beers
• Interesting beer labels and artwork
• Beer festivals
• The intersection of beer and music 

. . . along with other fun intersections from beer culture as well as a map tracking the various locations we have enjoyed beers together since 2014.

I'm pretty sure that the Spirits Untapped blog will continue to grow now that I have more time for writing, and that I'll also be returning to blog more here as 2017 draws to a close and we usher in 2018.

A Haunted 5K Run in Hamilton

Almost by accident this morning, I discovered a neat way to turn a run into a historic haunted run.

It started when I left my apartment, wanting to go on a relatively short run that had a bit of a challenge to it. So I decided to head south on James St S. towards the Hamilton Mountain where there's a path and set of stairs (part of the Bruce Trail).

Once I got to the top of the stairs, I thought it might be fun to keep moving along the upper edge of the escarpment and run out towards Century Manor. A week earlier, I took a short hike up there to do a Facebook Live video to help promote a new book (Haunted Hospitals) that includes a chapter on the beautiful old abandoned and boarded up building that used to be an insane asylum.

One of the spectacular views looking down on the city from Hamilton Mountain (ie, Niagara escarpment) on this run

When I reached Century Manor and lifted my iPhone to do a selfie (because apparently I'm a teenaged girl), I noticed that it was approximately 2.6 KM from my place to that spot.

While I'm not a math whiz, I knew that the full route would end up being approximately 5K, which is a decent short run.

Century Manor

So, considering the beautiful and picturesque landscape I'd gone through (not to mention the fun challenge of the hill and the stairs), I wondered it if might make a thematic run. A Haunted Run, I imagined.


So I mapped it out and created a "Haunted Runs in Hamilton: Winking Judge to Century Manor" route.

The Winking Judge to Century Manor & Back Route

I figured one haunted location might not be enough, and so, since I live near my favourite bar to haunt, The Winking Judge, I figured I'd add that into the route and have a fun haunted destination at both ends of the run.

Of course, after I finished, I realized that the route is pretty close to a few other haunted locations (Augusta Mansion on the mountain and Whitehern House down in the city). But I figured incorporating them into a slightly longer route might be more fun.