The American Ghost Society's Annual Open House kicking off the Halloween season is being held this Saturday at Alton's History and Hauntings Bookstore from noon to 5pm.
The event is Free.
Featured speakers at the Fall Festival will be Andrea Prindable on The Haunting of Hope Farm, Amy Myers on Cemetery Art & Symbolism, Burial Customs around the World, Adam White on Ghost Hunting 101, and John Winterbauer of Springfield on Lincoln in New Salem (Then and Now).
During breaks, you'll find plenty of books to tempt you. The bookstore specializes in works on specialized topics with half the inventory on ghosts and the paranormal, the rest on Illinois, Civil War, and Western history, Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft, paperback horror, treasure hunting, and other somewhat specialized subjects.
Pat and I have been to past Fall Festivals and enjoyed them a lot with talks on a variety of topics, including jail ghosts, Chicago ghosts, and ghosts of the South.
Recommended: bring a fanny cushion, the metal folding chairs can be hard on the butt after an hour or so.
Pat has also purchased tickets for the haunted McPike Mansion tour in the evening. (We get each other haunting tours and conferences for our birthdays.)
Authors Len Adams & Luke Naliborski, who conduct the Alton Hauntings Tours, host the event. Len's first book, Phantoms in the Looking Glass: The History & Hauntings of the Illinois Prairie, comes out next week and focuses on Lebanon, IL, where he leads ghost tours, one of which Pat and I took (I've posted a Gather article on Lebanon). Troy Taylor, author of 30-45 books on ghosts and hautnings, conducts the McPike Mansion Tour, which is probably booked up.
Troy's website for more information is at http://t.ymlp115.com/mmmacaumyanaejbwanaewby/click.php. He also offers a free newsletter, practically every issue of which includes a true ghost story.
The History and Hauntings Bookstore is located at 515 East Third Street in Alton, Illinois.
Again, the event is free.
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