I promise to post something not related to the new book next week!
Yes, it's true: News releases still exist, and authors still release them. Where they fly after that--it's hard to tell. Some authors might find this useful; If anyone wants to, feel free to send this off to the media/social media/internet thingy/newsletter/skywriting airplane of your choice.
NEWS RELEASE
Albion Authors Write the Haunted History of Noble County
An Albion couple steps into the supernatural with their new book, Haunted Noble County, Indiana.
Published by The History Press, the book is part of its Haunted America series, and comes out on August 12th. Mark R. Hunter and Emily Hunter spent over a year researching the book, and collected stories from many sources, including eyewitnesses.
“Every area has ghost stories,” Mark explains. “We just put them together and added pictures.”
Some of the stories are well known to locals, including the legend of Spook Hill, which inspired a famous poem by Indiana’s former State Poet Laureate. Others stem from events from Noble County’s history, such as the hanging of a horse thief and accused murderer at Diamond Hill, near Ligonier. Still others were told directly to the Hunters, including their favorite: “The Thing In the Basement”.
Do the authors believe?
“I’ve seen a few things,” Mark admits, “and I keep an open mind. But most of the people we talked to directly are absolutely convinced they saw something supernatural, and we respect that.”
They were also able to dispel some rumored hauntings, and in a few cases were disappointed to find no stories at all. “Look at the Noble County Old Jail Museum,” Mark says. “How could a place that atmospheric not be haunted? But we found no ghost stories there.”
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| Photo by Mark R. Hunter, who had a lucky lighting day. |
Many of the stories they did find were from normal homes, but historical hauntings include places such as the former Kneipp Springs Sanitarium in Rome City, The Strand Theater in Kendallville, and the former Noble County Asylum near Albion.
The resulting book, Haunted Noble County, Indiana, is available on the Arcadia Publishing website, the Hunters’ social media sites, their website at www.markrhunter.com, and various retail locations around Noble County.
It’s not the Hunters’ first foray into local history. Together they produced the books Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century or So with the Albion Fire Department; Images of America: Albion and Noble County; and Hoosier Hysterical: How the West Became the Midwest Without Moving at All.
Mark R. Hunter is also the author, with Emily’s help, of two humor books: Slightly Off the Mark: The Unpublished Columns, and More Slightly Off the Mark: Why I Hate Cats, and Other Lies. He also has three published books set in Noble County: the novels Coming Attractions, Storm Chaser and its sequel, The Notorious Ian Grant, as well as a related short story collection, Storm Squalls. His young adult adventure, The No-Campfire Girls, is set in southern Indiana. Another novel, Radio Red, is set in Michigan.
Mark is a 911 dispatcher and volunteer firefighter in Albion, and Emily is a trail guide at the Pokagon State Park Saddle Barn. He blogs at https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/ or https://substack.com/@markrhunter, and can be found hanging out on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter/.
Note to Media: Mark and Emily are available for questions and interviews, and can be contacted through the website at www.markrhunter.com.
