Paranormal Road Trip: Destination Austin with Gerry Bartlett

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.  This week's stop is Austin and our special guide is Gerry Bartlett author of the Glory St. Clair series.

Keep reading for a chance to win a fabulous Keepin' It Weird Austin, TX t-shirt!

The Glory St. Clair series is set in Austin, Texas so it seems fitting that our guide for this week's Paranormal Road Trip be the amazing Gerry Bartlett.  Let's see what terrifying places Gerry has planned for our tour.

Austin's Top Five Spooky Places

The Driskill  Hotel is said to be haunted by several ghosts. The saddest to me is in room 525. There two young women committed suicide on their honeymoons. This was on the same day, twenty years apart. It’s said you can see them in the mirror of the bathroom there. Hmm. Think I’ll pick another floor. Even Colonel Driskill, the cattle baron who built the grand hotel on Austin’s Sixth Street (yes, right down from my heroine Glory St. Claire’s vintage clothing shop), is said to haunt the hotel. His cigar smoke sometimes lingers in the air even though Austin doesn’t allow smoking in public buildings now.

The Congress Avenue Bridge is home to one of the world’s largest urban bat colonies. So naturally Austin holds a Bat Festival every year. This is one reason I set my Real Vampires series here. With a town that has the motto “Keep Austin Weird” how could I resist? The stream of bats emerging at sunset every night during the summer is scary to me. Could there be a few vampires among them, enjoying the flight? I don’t want to know, do you? The  bridge is very close to Sixth Street too.

Traveling around Austin you’ll still see some of the Moonlight Towers, built in the 19th century after a serial killer terrorized the city. The Servant Girl Annihilator preyed on housemaids asleep in their beds who he then dragged outside to mutilate and kill with a knife between 1884 and 1885. The killer was never captured and some say he could have been the person who three years later showed up in London and began operating as Jack the Ripper. Perhaps the towers shed too much light on his bloodthirsty habits and that’s why he left Austin. Creepy for sure.

Buffalo Billiards is also on Sixth Street almost across from the Driskill Hotel. It was built in 1861 and was rumored to begin life as a boarding house and maybe brothel. Cowboys had a good time there. Now the employees are convinced it’s haunted—by children and a woman in Victorian dress. Ghost hunters went in to search for evidence.  They heard voices and footsteps. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need that. There’s a YouTube video if you’re interested.

Finally I couldn’t resist a funny one. There’s a Home Depot in Austin near my brother’s house. No, I didn’t bother with a picture since they all look alike to me. Seems the garden center there is haunted. A girl posted a story claiming her father, who was an amateur carpenter, died in his home workshop leaving the family in serious debt. They couldn’t afford a big funeral, just cremation. When it came time to dispose of the ashes, they decided to leave Daddy where he loved it most—in Home Depot. So they sneaked into the garden center and sprinkled him around the plants where he wouldn’t be noticed. Since then, a bald man with a beer belly has been sighted strolling the aisles out there. When you try to ask for assistance, he vanishes. Oh, well, guess Daddy’s happy. He spent a lot of time there in life and he left the credit card bills to prove it.

Thank you Gerry for giving us such a haunting tour of Austin!  

To learn more about Gerry Bartlett and her books, please visit her website and don't miss our Q+A with Gerry Bartlett here at From the Shadows.  You can add the Glory St. Clair series here on Goodreads.

Readers, was this your first visit to Austin?  Have you experienced anything supernatural in and around Austin, Texas?

What did you think of Gerry Bartlett's picks for spooky places?

 Now for a giveaway!

Paranormal Road Trip: Austin, Texas Giveaway

The author is giving away a Keepin' It Weird Austin, Texas t-shirt to one lucky winner!

To enter, please leave a comment on this post and include your email address so we may contact you if you win.  This giveaway is open to the US/CA/UK mailing addresses.  Giveaway ends Monday, October 27, 2014 midnight EST.

Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited San Diego, California with S.J. Harper.  Next week we'll be traveling to Tokyo, Japan with Steve Bein.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!

Q+A with Gerry Bartlett + Real Vampires Know Hips Happen Giveaway

Please welcome today's paranormal guest author Gerry Bartlett.  Gerry is the author of the Glory St. Clair series (Real Vampires Have Curves, Real Vampires Live Large, Real Vampires Get Lucky, Real Vampires Don't Diet, Real Vampires Hate Their Thighs, Real Vampires Have More to Love, Real Vampires Don't Wear Size Six, Real Vampires Hate Skinny Jeans, Real Vampires Know Hips Happen).

Keep reading for a chance to win a paperback copy of Real Vampires Know Hips Happen by Gerry Bartlett.

EJ:  When did you begin writing?

Gerry:  I started writing years ago, maybe more than twenty, gave it up for a while, then got back into it. I sold my first book, a romantic suspense in 1998.

EJ:  What brought you to the paranormal genre?

Gerry:  My critique partner and one of my best buds, Nina Bangs, was writing paranormals and doing really well. I’d sold a historical but hadn’t been able to sell a second one. She dared me to write a vampire book. I wasn’t sure I’d like it but when the idea for Glory, a vampire who was bloating when she was turned in 1604, came to me, I knew I had a story I could get excited about.

EJ:  If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be? Why?

Gerry:  I’d probably be a shape-shifter. First, it’s my world, so my shape-shifter would be immortal. Who wouldn’t want to live forever? And also, it would be great to be able to turn into whatever you wanted to be, large, small, sneaky or ferocious.

EJ:  Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.

Gerry:  Real Vampires Know Hips Happen is number nine in the Glory St. Clair series. Glory is off to Scotland in hot pursuit of her on-again, off-again lover, Jeremy Blade. She did something pretty unforgivable and now she has to try to win him back. Things start off well, but then he’s attacked and loses his memory of their time together. I had a lot of fun making Jerry deal with modern ways. He’s always been a tough Highlander. When he’s terrified of going up in an airplane? It’s Glory’s chance to be the strong one. I actually went to Scotland to see the original Castle Campbell, Jerry’s home turf. I got a lot of story ideas on that trip and I think it added to the final product. I hope readers feel that when they read the book. It’s fun too that Glory finally meets her mother. She’s a real piece of work and will be someone Glory has to deal with in book ten, Real Vampires Know Size Matters, coming next December.

EJ:  If your book(s) were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?

Gerry:  We’ve had a big debate going about this on my Real Vampires Fan Group on Facebook, a page started by one of my fans. The group is casting the fantasy movie and picked Kat Denning for Glory and Joe Managiello (probably misspelled that) for Jerry. Me? I write in first person so I hope each reader pictures herself as Glory. I know I do. A woman with figure issues and a boyfriend who tries to tell her what to do? I relate to that. As for Jerry, her hero, well, that’s a tough one. I would need someone tall, dark and Scottish. Alex O’Loughlin comes to mind. Think about him in Moonlight or Hawaii 5-0. I think every woman out there probably has her own pick for her hero and why not? It’s the fun in reading. Let your imagination take over. I know I do.

Real Vampires Know Hips Happen (Glory St. Clair #9) by Gerry Bartlett.

Does plaid make your butt look big?

Glory St. Clair knows that it does. But she'll even throw on a Campbell kilt if it will help her win her hunky Scottish lover back. She's risked everything to cross the Atlantic to confront him in Scotland. Now powerful forces are determined to keep them apart. An attack on Jeremiah Campbell leaves him with amnesia and he doesn't remember her or their centuries together. Glory must win her man back and prove to her nemesis that she's where she's always wanted to be, even if it means dragging Jerry back to Texas.

Jeremiah doesn't remember the woman who claims they've been together so long but he's more than willing to take what she freely offers--her ancient blood and her voluptuous body. But when she tries to get him to travel to the New World in a flying machine and to work with his ancient enemy, he thinks she's cracked. In his mind, he's stuck in 1590. This modern world is almost too much for him. But there's something about this woman with the generous curves... Soon enough he finds himself risking death for her more than once. Who or what seems determined to keep them apart? The ancient warrior in him won't stand for it. And the fight is on.

Thank you Gerry for joining us here today at From the Shadows!

To learn more about Gerry Bartlett and her books, please visit her website.

**Real Vampires Know Hips Happen Giveaway**

We are giving away one paperback copy of Real Vampires Know Hips Happen by Gerry Bartlett.

To enter, leave a comment on this post.  Please include your email address so we may contact you if you win.  This giveaway is open to US mailing addresses only.  Giveaway ends April 10, 2013 midnight EST.