Ramblings of a Mad Man

     I've started putting up banners linking to other sites. They are sites that I personally go back to for either inspiration (the Davis Graveyard), to see if they've published a new book yet (How to Haunt your House), or because I've purchased a product from there and I had a good experience from it (Terror Syndicate). I am in no way affiliated with any of them and they have not offered me any "kickbacks" to link to them (and I doubt if any of them even know I link to them).
     I personally think it's very important to get the word out about my hobby (of home haunting) and the links I put up I feel are essentials (or they were for me anyway). I can remember several years ago stumbling on Steve Hickman's (Terror Syndicate) and thinking to myself "Whao!!! This guy made all of this himself!!! I want to do that!!!" I think his site was the one that really got me thinking about home haunting like I do now. ~ I know, one might ask, then why has it taken you until this year to jump into building your own props?? Simple answer, I'm lazy. Actually in all fairness, I think it was Steve's site and another one DC Cemetery that got me all in a crazed like obsession with home haunting... (and the way that at the end of all the america's scariest home haunt clips Danielle Harris would say, "remember Home is where the Haunt is ....boo!!" but that's a whole different story there...lol)
     The one thing I've left out of all my reviews (I think) is that no matter how good the book or DVD is I've learned something from every single purchase I've made. I tend to sometimes focus on the negative, because that is usually what I remember, but so far every single one of my home haunt books have taught me a lot. It may have been something as simple as seeing how someone else has done something which in turn made me start thinking...you know that works but I wonder if I modify this or that would it still work?? or even giving me a base of knowledge so I could come up with my own "twist" to a prop.
    So I started scouring the web for ideas and inspiration. In my scouring of the web I definitely have found sites (read people) that I find to be truely inspiring. One might even call them my home haunting heros... Last year, I was on facebook and I did a search for Graveyards. Well the Davis Graveyard came up. I looked at the pictures on their page and was blown away. I even called my wife to the computer and shown it to her. I had been trying to explain to her what direction I wanted to go with my yard haunt but couldn't come up with the right words... the Davis Graveyard did it for me with their pictures. I have since been able to describe what I am after. I want it to be believeable. I find that with monsters and gore it's easy to scare the ToTs, but I usually fall short on the adults. The way the Davis Graveyard looked to me in the pictures I saw I could easily talk myself into thinking it was a real graveyard. It got me thinking, what am I scared of... well for one, I am scared of cemeteries at night. (When I was a younger me (about 14) growing up in BFE South Carolina one of the most terrifying things I remember was one night a bunch of my hoodlum friends and I were up to some trouble. We had actually just toilet papered the high school principal's yard. well he was home and was chasing us... we decided that we would run through the cemetery across the street to get away. In my running I stepped on an old grave and the coffin must have rotted away because I sank to about my knee... I thought I was being pulled in...) So I want to go for that realism... Another awesome site that makes me wish I was more artistic is Stolloween... This man is amazing... go look, I think you'll agree...I of course have to give props to the folks at the Mitchell Cemetery I am so stoked that this year I get to see their yard in person... they only live like 5 miles from me so there is no excuse for me not to see their haunt. There are others actually many others that inspire me but only a few that I constantly go to to check for updates....
   Well, I guess I've rambled enough... It's Sunday and I have a lot to do....
~ Bill