Beth Dolgner, Writer and Editor

Terri Grimes

Paranormal romance author Terri Grimes and her sister-in-law visited Savannah during Memorial Day Weekend in 2010. Teri loves visiting haunted locations to get inspiration for her books, such as Morons Guide to Waking Up Dead and Shake, Rattle and Haunt. She was amazed at how evil the house at 432 Abercorn felt, and she had some very interesting experiences and pictures to share.

Terri and here sister-in-law were brave enough to stick their arms inside the mail slot on the front door to take pictures of the house’s interior. Here’s what Terri says about that experience:

“My sister and law and I took turns taking our digital cameras and sticking them through the mail slot and taking pictures. Each picture we tried to snap, sparks would fly and the camera made a popping sound like you were repeatedly popping bubble wrap. It was like there was an overwhelming amount of electricity in the air. Literally we saw sparks when the popping sounds happened. Not surprising since you can actually feel the energy when you are a few feet away from the house. There is no electricity in the house at all. I get that. But when you stick your hand in through the mail slot you feel a blast of the coldest AC air you’ve ever felt. You actually feel a strong breeze of it on your arm and hand. And it’s so cold! And the hairs on your arm stick straight up and have an electric charge feeling like you ran a balloon over carpet and then ran it across your arm. I can’t get over it. I tell you, I’ve never felt such a thing in my life. I’ve been to a lot of haunted locations. I’ve even been touched by spirits but never have I ever felt such a strong energy, not even in Waverly Hills. It scares me because now I want to go back to that house so bad and walk through it, investigate it, take my digital voice recorder and look through every nook and cranny. It’s apparent that house gets under your skin and that really scares me. It would be all too easy for it to suck you in.”

The picture that Terri’s sister-in-law snapped while holding her camera through the mail slot defies description. What do you think caused this phenomena?

The camera was completely inside the house. What surrounds the image?

Another picture Terri took shows what looks like glowing eyes in a downstairs window. Is that a head with long hair materializing around the eyes?

Click for the full-size photo. Can you see the eyes?

Return to 432 Abercorn Main Page

On June 26, 2009, I celebrated the launch of my first book, “Georgia Spirits and Specters.” In the one year since that time, my second book, “Everyday Voodoo,” debuted, I revised my paranormal romance manuscript, and I got signed to a literary agent.

Homemade cookies at the "Georgia Spirits and Specters" party.

It seems like a lot to happen in just one year, but there has been a lot of patience involved in all of it. Writing takes a great deal of patience and humility: patience as you wait for your book to debut, or wait to hear back from a potential agent. As for humility, well, you hear “no” a lot more often than you hear “yes.”

Thankfully, it only takes one “yes” to really get things rolling. When Dinah, my editor at Schiffer Publishing, said “yes” to me writing “Georgia Spirits and Specters,” it led to me authoring “Everyday Voodoo.” Having two books already published helped me get an agent at a well-established agency. Now, hopefully, that will lead to my fiction manuscript being sold to a publisher.

My year in publishing has been especially busy when you tally the number of book signings and radio interviews I’ve been fortunate enough to do. I’m glad all those Georgia ghosts got things rolling for me.

Paranormal investigators, I need your input on this photo! During our Girls’ Weekend in Savannah, my friend Elyse snapped a ton of pictures. She took a lot of the house at 432 Abercorn Street. I talk about that house in my book, and it’s probably the most unnerving ghost story in the whole collection.

The photos all turned out blurry: it was near twilight, and Elyse’s camera doesn’t like low light levels! However, out of all the photos she took of this house, this is the only one that had any sort of anomaly. The close up shows the front porch, and you can see two reddish-pink streaks of light, aligned vertically, on the front porch.

If you have any suggestions as to what this could be-paranormal or otherwise-please comment here. Is this paranormal, or is there another explanation for the anomaly? Thank you!

October is my favorite month of the year because I get to celebrate Halloween for four weeks. This year, Halloween is even more special because I’ve been promoting my book, Georgia Spirits and Specters. The wonderful folks at the Norcross Ghost Tour had me out for a book signing two weeks ago. The weather didn’t cooperate with us, but we still had fun. And, I got to tell ghost stories to a troop of wide-eyed Girl Scouts.

Things really ramp up this week since we are just seven days away from Halloween itself. On Sunday, October 25, I’ll be signing books at Oakland Cemetery during their nighttime Halloween tours. Oakland is Atlanta’s oldest cemetery, and my favorite spot in Atlanta. Tours are sold out for this year!

On Monday the 26th, I’ll crawl out of bed in time for a 7:35 call-in to the Bill Bailey Morning Show on Fun 101.1. You can listen to me on their website. Catch me again on the air on Friday, October 30, when I stop by the Fun 101.1 studios to hang out at 8:00 a.m.

If you’re in Savannah, stop by Magnolia’s, a fabulous gift shop at 137 Bull Street in the historic district. I’ll be signing books there from 1:00-3:00 p.m. on Saturday – Halloween!

Before all the promos, I’ve got to put on my dancing shoes one more time. Guinness gave the Thriller world record to Mexico instead of DragonCon, despite the fact that they only danced for two minutes and didn’t do the full choreography. Guinness can’t keep us down, though. A lot of the D*Con Thriller alumni are gathering to participate in another record for the most people worldwide dancing at once. I’ll be in full zombie mode!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

My friend Chris, who urged me to write this book in the first place, was at the Border’s in Buckhead on Sunday. He and his girlfriend Ashley spied my book, looking all nice with the cover facing out. It’s pretty cool to see my book in a place like that, and it reminds me what a beautiful job the graphics team at Schiffer Publishing did on that cover.

Georgia Spirits and Specters has debuted! If you’re not in Georgia (where it’s easy to pick one up from me or the bookstore), you can buy it right from my publisher: Schiffer Books. I’m very excited that my book is finally out! (As if you couldn’t tell.)

Also, Carroll County’s newspaper, The Times-Georgian, did a nice article about me and the two ghost stories from their county. You can read it here: New book on the supernatural. A username/password is required but it’s easy to sign up.