The Enduring Appeal of the New York City Ghost Tour

There are many, many guides who will show you the best, brightest, and most beautiful sights the city has to offer, but I prefer the darker side of tourism. I want to know about the hidden histories of those who never made it into the guidebooks. I want to know what happened in the darkest nights, in the furthest reaches of New York City’s past. I want to know what happened to this city’s poor, to its wretches, to its forgotten. Most of all, I want to know what happened to its ghosts.

Nethermead

Fairly recently, one of my short stories, Nethermead, was made into a film by Soren Bailey. The story concerns a young woman bored by her job, her life, and everything, who is finally driven to madness when she rambles through the eponymous meadow in Prospect Park one shady twilit evening… NETHERMEAD TRAILER from Soren Bailey […]

Ghosts of the Sea

The ocean is filled with wrecks and the bodies of doomed sailors and passengers. With so many ghosts of the sea, the earth’s waters should be one of the most haunted places in existence.

M.R. James at Ghost Stories for the Weary Urbanite

Tomorrow I will be co-hosting Ghost Stories for the Weary Urbanite, a fun show with a poncey title that will feature one new and one classic ghost story. The new story will come courtesy of Jack Ketchum, and the classic story will be read by the lovely Terry McGarry. This stellar SF author will be […]

Green-Wood Cemetery Tour on April 7th!

Cool! The South Slope News just called my Green-Wood tour “brilliant!” Truthfully, 50% of this brilliance comes from the fact that the $20 fee includes a burger and beer from the Sea Witch Tavern! There is a tour-only option available for those who don’t wish the burger and beer, at $10. I’ll be leading a […]

Ghost Stories for the Weary Urbanite

Next Wednesday, April 3rd, I’ll be co-hosting (along with Gordon Linzner) a night of readings of classical and contemporary ghost stories, with special guests Jack Ketchum and Terry McGarry. Ketchum and McGarry are renowned horror/SF writers, and this is an amazing chance to see them together! So, to paraphrase Lord Dunsany, come with me ladies […]

More Brooklyn Ghosts

After my recent blog post on the Ghost of Red Hook Lane, I started looking for more Brooklyn ghosts, and hit pay-dirt in this thrilling round up I found in the Brooklyn Public Library’s website. Most of these articles come from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which is in itself fascinating when you think about it […]

Brooklyn Ghosts: Cobble Hill

Found this great post over at the Bowery Boys, telling a Brooklyn ghost story I’d never heard before. And it’s thoroughly awesome. According to Henry Reed Stiles’ 1869 history of Brooklyn, the following event transpired one night in the 1820s, in a rowdy little tavern on Red Hook Lane: “One evening at around 11 p.m., […]

Frightening Favorites

This is a decidedly non-New York post, but lately I’ve been thinking about some of my favorite (fictional) ghost stories, and I realized that some of them aren’t even ghost stories at all. They’re just strange, and eerie, and unsettling, and if you ever get a chance to hunt them do, by all means do. […]

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