Visiting #Montreal + Taking Our Own Ghost Tour! #Canada #travel #paranormal #vacation

According to the friendly bartender, most ghost sightings
occur in the upstairs bar, which was closed that night.  But
I snapped pictures to see if anything showed up!

I love seeing new places, and as an author of ghost mysteries--and a life-long fan of all things paranormal--I often try to visit some local haunted sites.  Sometimes inspiration for a new book strikes, like when I visited the Old Jailhouse in Barnstable Village here on Cape Cod and came up with the plot for Haunted Souls.  A few weekends ago, my husband and I traveled to Montreal, Canada, for a wedding.  I'd never been, and it's a beautiful city!  Friday and Saturday were primarily taken up with wedding activities, but we made sure we had an entire free day on Sunday to explore.  I tried to sign us up for one of the evening Ghost Tours, but they were all booked...apparently there are a lot of people who share my interests!  I was disappointed, but I wrote down some of the sites the different tours visited, along with the history of the haunting, and we built some stops into our day's exploration.  It was considerably less spooky seeing these places in the bright sunshine, but at the end of the day, after 24,000 steps and 42 flights of stairs climbed, I was glad we had no more walking in store for the evening.  Instead, we had a wonderful dinner and a few pints at Hurley's Pub, a reputedly haunted pub pictured above.

First stop was Dorchester Park.  Beneath the beautiful expanse of grass lies the Sainte-Antoine Cholera Cemetery, containing over 70,000 skeletons, many in mass graves.  Apparently during the 1832 epidemic, some victims were likely buried alive by accident due to heavy morphine administration.  

We walked through the Quartier des Spectacles, which sits on the Old Red Light District, an area with quite a bit of haunting history.  As Prohibition laws took effect in the US and Canada beginning in 1919, Quebec quickly abandoned the laws banning alcohol, and Montreal's Red Light District drew crowds of visitors seeking rowdy fun, legal liquor, and the entertainment that goes along with that.  Murder, crime, and exploitation led to many stories of hauntings that still persist today.

One of the beautiful trails through Mount Royal

We climbed Mount Royal to enjoy the view of the city, and learned that this "City of the Dead overlooking the City of the Living" (source: Montreal.org) is considered one of the most haunted places in the city.  Mount Royal is a breath-taking mountain park that is also the location of the largest intact burial ground in North America if you combine the four cemeteries.  The people of the First Nations also buried their dead on the mountain, so it's a very old burial site.

We also walked through Old Port and along St. Catherine Street, and our final stop was Hurley's Irish Pub.  The pub is situated in a former tenement building in what was once the slums, which dates back to 1865.  Dangerous conditions and crowding were problems, and over the years, many fires broke out and trapped tenants inside.  Many sightings of "The Burning Lady" have been reported, but all we encountered was very cool old architecture, great food, and a fun atmosphere.  A wonderful way to cap off a long day!

Tired and sweaty!

More photos I took as I snuck around the quiet parts of Hurley's!

For more posts on haunted places I've visited, check out:

Historic Mt. Washington Hotel, NH

The Old Jail in Barnstable Village, MA

Historic Buildings of Barnstable Village, MA

The Dakota Building in NYC, NY

The Catacombs beneath Paris, France

The Abandoned Glendale TB Hospital, MD


And if you enjoy spooky ghost mysteries, try one of my books!  My latest is The Haunting of Hillwood Farm...and most reviewers advise reading it during the daylight hours!

We earned out poutine and beers!

$100 #Giveway Halloween Blog Hop + Win a Ghost Story #Romance

Welcome to my stop on the Snarkology Halloween Blog Hop!  It's the season for all things spooky, and graveyards offer the perfect spot for all kinds of paranormal activity.  Picturing a visit to a cemetery on a crisp autumn night easily conjures up images of wispy shadows darting amongst the tombstones.  Those are the types of scenes I love to describe in my books, but then I have a bit of an obsession with ghosts.  I've done multiple posts on both my experience with ghosts and actual hauntings, so I thought this October, I'd delve a little deeper into graveyards, the final earthly destination for many restless spirits.

A graveyard refers to a burial ground within church property; this location within the church's yard indicates a burial area associated with a single place of worship, consecrated for use by a specific denomination.  The graveyards were initially for people who could not afford to be buried within or beneath the church.  Spots close to the church and to the east were reserved for those of higher status, while the north corner was the least favorable location.


Eventually, graveyards became overcrowded hotbeds for disease, as more and more bodies were packed into limited space.  Concern over infectious outbreaks near graveyards located in populated areas led to an alternative solution.  Cemeteries were created away from town centers, and these new burial places were not necessarily connected to a particular church.  While we often use the words "graveyard" and "cemetery" interchangeably now, "graveyard" is a much older term.

Catacombs of Paris - Wall of Skulls

In 18th century Paris, the overcrowding became such a problem that the Holy Innocents' Cemetery was closed and condemned.  Bodies buried there were exhumed and transported to the Catacombs beneath the city.  This turned the remains of old stone mines into a massive underground ossuary: a site, or thing, such as a box, which is made to hold skeletal remains.  The bones of approximately six million people were moved into the Catacombs during a two-year period, and as it was impossible to match the remains with identities, display walls were created by stacking femurs and skulls.

A Potter's Field refers to a mass graveyard for the poor or unknown dead.  The term "Potter's Field" actually comes from the Bible.  Before hanging himself, Judas cast away the silver he'd received for betraying Jesus.  The priests did not want the tainted money to go into the charity box, so they used it to buy land for the burial of strangers.  The field they purchased was considered land of poor quality--consisting of clay used by potters as opposed to rich soil useful in agriculture--hence the name.  Interestingly enough, Judas plays a part in many morbid superstitions--see my posts on The Number 13 and The Origin of Superstitions.    

A dangerous ghost & an
ex-boyfriend await Claire
Linden in Gull Harbor...

If you enjoy a suspenseful spooky story mixed with some steamy romance, leave a comment below to enter the giveaway for a FREE e-copy of my ghost story/romance GULL HARBOR.  This book was a 19-week Kindle bestseller, and it's a perfect Halloween read!  Please don't forget to leave an email or twitter handle where I can reach you should you win. Facebook and twitter follows/likes will gain extra entries into the GULL HARBOR giveaway - please note in your comment.

If you like $100 gift cards to Amazon or Barnes & Noble (ha ha, who doesn't?), here's the Blog Hop Rafflecopter! Extra entries to win $100 can be gained by the +1 options. Plus, there are two second prize winner who'll receive $15 cards.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


There are a whole bunch more stops on this blog hop, filled with fun Halloween/Fall posts...and more swag to win along the way.  Below are the links to guide you through the hop!  Happy haunted hopping :) P.S. The hop begins on 10/27 and ends with the drawing on 10/31 - enjoy the trick-or-treating!