Paranormal Road Trip: NYC with Shanna Swendson

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is New York City and our special guide is Shanna Swendson, author of the Enchanted, Inc., Rebel Mechanics, and Fairy Tale series.

NYC's Top 5 Spooky Places

All of my fantasy novels so far have been set in New York City, probably because that's always been a magical place to me. I didn't actually visit the city until I was an adult, but I'd seen so many movies set there, read so many books set there, and had dreamed about it as a place to achieve stardom that by the time I did finally go there, some of that magic seemed to transfer to the way I experienced the city. It's a place full of history layered on top of more history, full of possibilities, so I find magical things that inspire stories around every corner. Here are five magical (and maybe a little spooky) places that have inspired my books:

1) Central Park
The very concept of a vast parkland in the middle of a major city is rather mindblowing. It seems to exist on a border between the manmade world and the natural world, and I feel like I've entered some other realm when I visit the park. That was a big inspiration behind my Fairy Tale series, in which the park holds portals to the fairy Realm. The Ramble, in particular, seems to exist in some other sphere than the city, and sometimes you can hear the distant sound of a violin coming from within. Or there are the tunnels under the street that lead to Bethesda Terrace, which I'm pretty sure are passages to a magical land. Then there are all those lampposts straight out of Narnia.

2) Lower Manhattan
This is the oldest part of the city, and although there aren't too many buildings from the colonial era left, thanks to fires, war, and constant reconstruction, the twisty, turny street pattern from that era remains. It's very different from the grid in the rest of the city, and it's one place where I can get truly lost in spite of my good sense of direction and ability to carry maps in my head. You never know what you'll find around the next corner, and sometimes things look entirely different when you look at them out of the corner of your eye. This is where I set the headquarters for Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc., the magical corporation in my Enchanted, Inc. series. It just seemed like the kind of place an ancient corporation would be based, and where you might find a castle with turrets tucked down a narrow side street that you never noticed before.

3) The South Street Seaport
There's something about a tall ship that calls to my soul, and the masts and rigging towering over the docks here seem to have come out of another era. If you look at it the right way and in the right frame of mind, you might even imagine yourself traveling in time. That imagery comes into play in Rebel Mechanics, set in an alternate 1888 New York, where those tall ships at docks are a common sight. I just wish I could see them from the deck of an airship, the way my heroine does.

4) Grace Church
This Gothic-style church makes the list more for what isn't there. When I was initially planning the first book in my Enchanted, Inc. series, I was pretty sure there had to be gargoyles there. It's the kind of building that just cries out for some gargoyles or grotesques. But when I visited the city to research the book and took a good look at the church with my story in mind, I was surprised not to find any gargoyles at all. That ended up playing into my story. And you kind of have to wonder where the gargoyles might have gone …

5) The mansions of Fifth Avenue
This is another item on the list that's about what isn't there anymore. For a rather brief period of time, the stretch of Fifth Avenue facing Central Park was a row of impressive mansions. These buildings nearly filled entire city blocks and looked like palaces. But that's some of the most expensive real estate in the world, and although you'd think a building would be substantial, these turned out to be rather ephemeral, gone within a couple of decades and replaced by tall apartment buildings. There are only a few traces left of what was once there, with some of the old mansions now serving as museums, or the gates from a mansion now gracing the gardens in the park. This was one case where I couldn't research a book setting by visiting it because the setting I wanted to use in Rebel Mechanics was no longer there. Fortunately, a lot of photos were taken of these homes, inside and out, and a few facades still exist to help us imagine the ghosts of what briefly existed there.

Thank you Shanna for giving us such a haunting tour of NYC! 

To learn more about Shanna Swendson and her books, please visit her website.  You can add here new steampunk fantasy novel Rebel Mechanics here on Goodreads.

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

On our last Paranormal Road Trip we visited Los Angeles with Jamie Schultz.  Next week we'll be traveling to Washington D.C. with R.S. Belcher.

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

Paranormal Road Trip: Destination New York City with Victoria Davies

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is New York City and our special guide is Victoria Davies, author of the Fated Match paranormal romance series, including the new release DYING TO DATE.

NYC's Top 5 Spooky Places

The Fated Match Series features a paranormal dating agency in the heart of Manhattan ready and willing to help pair supernatural creatures with their eternal mates. Whether it’s ghosts, goblins, werewolves or vampires, there’s someone out there for everyone. As the characters in the story know, while NYC boasts some world-class shopping, sites and restaurants, it also has its fair share of unnatural incidents like the top five listed below.

The Dakota
You don’t have to be a supernatural or a ghost hunter to have heard about this spot. The breathtaking gothic residence was built in 1884 and has now become one of New York’s most sought after residences. It was featured in the horror classic “Rosemary’s Baby” because of it’s creepy architecture but that’s not its only claim to fame. John Lennon was shot and killed exiting his Dakota home.

Lennon himself is said to have been sighted making a few ghostly appearances. He isn’t alone, however. Two small ghost children are the most famous attraction of the Dakota. They are said to be dressed in period clothing from the 1880s and are often seen as being very friendly to residents. Reports of their haunting has been documented as far back as the 1960s.

The House of Death
This house is always a popular place for the city’s supernatural clientele to visit. Located in the West Village, this 1850s home comes with a rich history of things going bump in the night. Found on a picturesque tree lined street, you wouldn’t think the unassuming house has such a haunted history but 22 ghosts are said to roam the halls. In 1900, Mark Twain himself lived there for a year and was quite vocal about his brushes with the supernatural. Even now, he’s said to be one of the 22 ghosts, wandering around the basement in a white suit. He certainly has enough company to keep his afterlife hopping, though. The other 21 residents are said to be made up of young children, a few old ladies and even a cat. Turnover in this brownstone apartment tends to be high. If a room became available, would you dare to take it?

St. Paul’s Chapel
This pleasant little church is one of the cities oldest public houses still in use. Though many people have been laid to rest here, one famed British actor is the source of the church’s legend. George Frederick Cooke was buried in 1812. The heavy drinker had raked up quite the mountain of debt during his life, however. In order to settle his accounts before he passed, Cooke agreed to donate his head to science. After death, his corpse was decapitated. Rumour has it you can still see Cooke wandering the church grounds looking for his head. The skull, incidentally, seemed determined to return to show business and served as the prop in “Hamlet” productions.

The Whitehorse Tavern
Witches and vampires aren’t the only ones to favour this classic watering hole. If you like your ghosts to have a taste for whisky head to this bar. Opened in 1880, it was a bit of a rough and tumble bar until famous writers began to take it over in the 1960s. Bob Dylan, Hunter S. Thompson and Jim Morrison all reportedly liked to gather here. But it was poet Dylan Thomas that really gave it a story. Always a heavy drinker, on one particular night he downed 18 shots of whiskey, a new personal record. Thomas had to be helped to a cab where he returned to his hotel and promptly fell into a coma. He was pronounced dead at the hospital the next day. Apparently the famous poet can still be seen haunting his favourite bar in hopes of getting one more drink. To support their most infamous patron, the Whitehorse keeps a large portrait of Thomas hanging over their bar.

Manhattan Bistro
And finally we come to the tale of a ghost in dire need of Fated Match’s matchmaking skills. Though rumour has it the food was enough to scare anyone away, this quaint little bistro also boasts a mournful ghost. In 1799 a young woman, Gulielma Elmore Sands, ran away from her boarding home to meet her lover. They were going to elope together but somehow Sands turned up at the bottom of the Manhattan well, which is now found in the bistro basement. Her  lover, Levi Weeks, was the key suspect of her murder. Police thought he had killed her to hide an unwanted pregnancy. Unfortunately for Sands, Weeks hired two cutthroat lawyers who were able to clear his name, much to the fury of New York residents at the time. Though Weeks when on to live his life a free man, Sands spirit continues to haunt the well in reminder of her injustice.

Thank you Victoria for giving us such a haunting tour of NYC!  

To learn more about Victoria Davies and her books, please visit her website.  You can add the Fated Match paranormal romance series here on Goodreads.

Have you ever visited New York City?  Ever had a paranormal experience in New York?

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

On our last Paranormal Road Trip we visited Nashville, Tennessee with Emmie Mears.  Next week I'll be on my way back from In-CON-Ceivable, where I'll be staying at a reputedly haunted hotel, and we'll be traveling to New Harbor with Matthew Quinn Martin.

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

Paranormal Road Trip: Destination NYC with Susan Wright

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is New York City and our special guide is Susan Wright.  Susan is the author of the Allay urban fantasy series.

Susan's Top 5 Spooky Places in NYC

New York is a city that has it all, including lots of creepy places. That’s why I had a hard time narrowing down my list to just 5!

I’ve picked out the truly weird stuff, the places that stand out even in the Big Apple. There are also plenty of more mildly creepy places like the Chelsea Hotel, which has a reputation for ghosts, or the underground remains of the Lovelace Tavern outside 85 Broad Street, a popular party spot in the early 1800s until Lower Manhattan burned.

These five are my all-time favorite spooky spots in New York City:

Roosevelt Island TB Hospital (map)

Everyone can see the huge ruins of the TB Hospital because they’re exposed on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island. Among the locals, it’s the most discussed spooky site in the city. You used to be able to walk among the fallen-in buildings, and it was best to do it on a rainy day when you could see the clouds and gray water all around you through the open window frames. Then you could feel how incredibly isolated it is, even while you’re completely exposed. Now the last remaining ruins are barricaded off by a chain link fence, but the park goes all the way to the tip of Roosevelt Island so you can walk all the way around the ruins and get a great view of the old place.

City Hall Subway Station (map)

The subway station under City Hall is a glorious place that was closed in 1945. It’s got towering arched ceilings made of patterned brick that are lit up by natural light pouring through the ornate wrought iron and glass skylights placed in the street overhead. You can see it—like it’s been caught in time—by staying on the 6 train past the final stop at Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall station. The train takes a big curving turn-around to go uptown under City Hall, letting you see the slowly moving panorama of a time gone by.

Staten Island Ship Graveyard (map)

It’s the freakiest thing – one minute you’re driving along ordinary road along the Arthur Kill, the waterway that separates Staten Island from New Jersey. Then suddenly the trees part and all you can see is a bay filled with dead ships. Some ships have sunk so the skeletons of their prows stick out, and others are rotting low in the water or turned on their sides in various states of decay. It’s such a sight of ruin and devastation that it’s hard to forget once you see it.

Brooklyn Navy Yard (map)

There are several spooky spots in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. I ran a Trap-Neuter-Return project in the BNY for years, so I saw every nook and cranny. The 300-acre site holds a vast Naval Hospital Annex where a dozen buildings sit frozen and empty because of asbestos. There are also giant skeletons of ship-building warehouses, with the glass all shattered and the deep water slips murky and oily between them. You can take a tour of BNY if you don’t have access to the industrial complex that has grown up on the site in the midst of the ruined buildings.

Ridgewood Reservoir (map)

The reservoir sits oddly enough on a hilltop in Highland Park. It was decommissioned in 1898, but there was still water in it until there were a number of drownings in the 70s. To reach it you have to go past the Cypress Hills National Cemetery with its white tombstones in neat rows undulating over the hillside. Then you have the climb up the crumbling steps to the overgrown forest at the top, emerging into a wilderness that seems like it’s been transported hundreds of miles from New York City in an instant. But be careful – you’ll see signs of people living in there though you rarely see them. It’s not your usual walk in the park!

Thank you Susan for giving us such a haunting tour of New York City!  

To learn more about Susan Wright and her books, please visit her website.  You can add her Allay series here on Goodreads.

Have you visited New York City?  Ever experience anything of the supernatural kind in and around New York City?

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

Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited Australia with Cassandra Page.  Next week we'll be traveling to Kennian with E.L. Tettensor.

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

Paranormal Road Trip: Destination New York City

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.  This week's stop is New York City.

For this week's Paranormal Road Trip, we're doing something a bit different.  This week I'll be visiting NYC for a few days, so I thought it would be fun to check out some spooky places listed online, and to revisit a previous Paranormal Road Trip post.

My List of New York City's Top 5 Spooky Places

North Brother Island:  An abandoned island that once housed Riverside Hospital, a hospital specializing in treating diseases that required quarantine—a subject all the more poignant in today's Ebola frenzied social climate.  Riverside Hospital became a prison for Mary Mallon, the famous Typhoid Mary, who was quarantined here for three decades.  Mary died here after years of living in isolation.  Some say she never left.

Chumley's:  This pub is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of Henrietta Chumley, who owned the establishment in its days a speakeasy.  Henrietta is said to have rattled glasses and knocked bottles from the shelves.  Unfortunately, the pub is currently closed due to the collapse of its chimney, a problem probably due more to the passage of time than Henrietta Chumley's mischievous ghost.

Landmark Tavern:  Another haunted drinking establishment, Landmark Tavern makes this list for it's two resident ghosts.  The tavern is said to be haunted by a confederate soldier, who was shot here in a bar brawl, and a young girl who died here from typhoid fever.  The girl is said to haunt the third floor, and the soldier haunts the second floor which still houses the bathtub where the man bled out.

Washington Square Park:  The site of a former potter's field, Washington Square Park sits on the unmarked graves of over twenty-thousand corpses.  Many of the people buried here were victims of the 19th century yellow fever epidemic, and their bones have surfaced during construction and when the park was used as military parade grounds.  Have these disturbances of their final resting place caused disturbances of a very different kind?  You decide.

Hangman's Elm:  Hangman's Elm, or The Hanging Tree, is located just off Washington Square Park.  This tree, the oldest in Manhattan, has a ghoulish reputation for being the haunt of ghosts rumored to have been hung here.  City records provide no documented proof of the tree being used in public hangings, though a hanging is recorded to have occurred nearby.  Perhaps the sightings are of the park's other ghostly residents...

I was planning on doing a bit of sight seeing while in NYC, but, on second thought, perhaps I'll just hide in my hotel room.  Searching the internet for spooky sights may have been a bad idea.  Are you scared yet?

Also, don't miss Melissa de la Cruz' picks for the top 5 spookiest places in Manhattan.

Manhattan's Top Five Spooky Places

Manhattan is a city full of history and haunted places. A few of my favorite places to ghost-bust, below.

Hotel Chelsea
222 West 23rd St. 

The famous hotel in Chelsea was the site of many deaths. Poet Dylan Thomas, who wrote of the “dying of the light” and died there is said to haunt near room 206. Doomed punk couple Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen are said to haunt the lower floors. Sid killed Nancy in a drunken, drugged out fight, and he died of a heroin overdose before he could stand trial.

White Horse Tavern
567 Hudson St.
One of my favorite bars downtown, and related to the Chelsea Hotel. Dylan Thomas reportedly drank 18 whiskey shots here before collapsing and being brought back to his room at the Chelsea. It’s said he haunts his usual table at the tavern from time to time.

One If by Land, Two If by Sea
17 Barrow St.


One of the most romantic restaurants in Manhattan, it is also the former home of Alexander Hamilton and his daughter Theodosia, who have supposedly never left. Diners are said to have experienced being shoved by them, lights flicker, and women’s earrings disappear. Staffers insist the ghosts are friendly, but maybe a little cheeky?

Edgar Allen Poe’s Abode
85 West 3rd Street
“Nevermore” author Edgar Allen Poe lived here for eight months in 1845 and 1846, and wrote “The Raven” here. The house has been demolished for NYU dorms but students say they’ve seen the haunted and haunting writer climbing the banister, the only remaining part of the original house.

Mark Twain House
14 W 10th St between Fifth and Sixth Aves
The practical and down to earth writer born Samuel Clemens lived in Greenwich Village from 1900-1901 and reportedly haunts this domain. He was skeptical of ghosts, so it’s hard to believe he became one upon his death.

You can read Melissa's entire Paranormal Road Trip: Destination Manhattan guest post here.

What did you think of our picks for spooky places?

Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited Twelve Acres, Colorado with Teri Harman.  Next week we'll be back to our regularly scheduled Paranormal Road Trip, and we'll be traveling to Eden, Kentucky with Sharon Buchbinder.

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