Meet Spooky History Author Colleen Adair Fliedner #interview

Spooky Topics

Please join me in welcoming historical author Colleen Adair Fleidner to the Reading Room today.

Hi Colleen. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hello and thank you for inviting me to do an online interview. First of all, I live in Orange County, California with my husband, Rick, and two little Pomeranian dogs. My daughter and her husband moved in with us shortly before she gave birth to our grandson two years ago. So, the house is crazy busy and always noisy with a two-year-old running wild.

I’ve always been a dreamer, and I must say that I’ve been lucky to be able to live many of my dreams. My three passions are writing, history, and travel. The jobs I’ve had through the years have provided me with many opportunities to embrace all of these obsessions.

Why do you write historical fiction?

I’ve always loved history. Period! Many of the first historical novels and nonfiction books I read were set in Egypt. The first book I purchased with birthday money at the age of 12 was a huge history of Egypt. I also devoured James Michener’s novels and I especially enjoyed the historical novel, Hawaii. Naturally, I was a history major in college with a minor in anthropology and archaeology participating in digs in Irvine and in the Mojave Desert. I studied writing in the Writer’s Program at U.C.L.A., and screenwriting at USC and at the American Film Institute. I optioned a screenplay (historical, of course) about Fatty Arbuckle, as well as several paranormal scripts for the new Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents television programs.

Stories in StoneTell us a little about researching Stories in Stone.

Stories in Stone: Miners and Madams, Merchants and Murderers contains 100 true stories of pioneers who lived and died in Park City, Utah. I began my research by using the dates of each individual’s birth and death found on their headstones to search newspapers for obituaries, death records at the Family History Center in Salt Lake City, census records, and on and on. It took me well over a year to do the research, much of which I did while staying in Utah. The rest I did online from my home in Southern California.

I’m honored to say that the Mormon Family History Museum in Salt Lake City has copies of my book for people to use as part of their families’ genealogy research. As a result of my work, the Park City Historical Society held an annual event in Glenwood Cemetery in which local residents dress as one of the people in my book and stand at the grave site to tell people their stories (which I had written). The money they charged the public for the event helped them renovate the deteriorating pioneer cemeteries, as well as supporting the historical museum in Park City. I’m very proud of the book, and it’s still selling!

Here’s a link to the book at Amazon.com.

During Spooky History, Colleen will be sharing some of her eerie experiences while researching in Park City and stories about the abundant number of ghostly apparitions that haunt the old buildings.

You can find Colleen online at:

Website: http://colleenfliedner.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Colleen-Adair-Fliedner-633173770537236
Blog: http://www.colleenfliedner.blogspot.com

And please join us for Spooky History on Monday, October 19, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. (PT) The Zoom meeting is sponsored by the Santa Clarita Library in their series of History Talks held monthly on various historical topics.

Click here to register: bit.ly/HTSpookyHistory

Hope to see you there.

Linda McLaughlin

Happy Howloween! #Werewolf Lore & Romance #PNR

For your Happy Howloween reading pleasure, I’ve delved into my research notes for a little werewolf lore I discovered while writing my paranormal romance, Ilona’s Wolf.

When I was a kid, werewolves were villains of horror movies, not heroes in romance novels, so why the change? I wonder if it has something to do with restoring wolves to wild areas, like Yellowstone Park, and the resulting awareness of these beautiful, magnificent animals.

Grey Wolf by birch tree

Grey Wolf (Canis lupus) By Birch Tree, Copyright: gkuchera

Yes, they are predators, but they have proven immensely useful in controlling the deer population and in some areas the ecosystem has benefited from the re-introduction of the wolves.

But back in the Middle Ages and earlier, people were terrified of wolves and of the idea that some humans could transform themselves into wolves and attack. Hence, the popularity of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, inspiration for Ilona’s Wolf. Wolves were hunted relentlessly in Europe and the British Isles. Some of the ancient beliefs are werewolves are…

Lycanthropy is the term for transforming from man to wolf and it dates back to Roman times, probably no surprise since the brothers who supposedly founded Rome, Romulus and Remus, were said to have been suckled by a she-wolf, a lupa, as babes.

During the Middle Ages, people believed that witches practiced lycanthropy. Alternately, witches were charges with riding werwolves during their rituals, and thus were werewolves associated with magic, a fact I took advantage of in Ilona’s Wolf.

We’ve all heard of the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries, but did you know there were also werewolf hunts in the same time period? In France, there were over 30,000 cases of supposed werewolves. Some were executed; others confined due to insanity. For more information and possible real causes of werewolf-like symptoms, see http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/werewolf5.htm.

Werewolf means “man-wolf” though there are varying theories of the evolution of the term. In Old English, the word wer(e) meant man and not in the general, human sense. In Norse, the term varg had two meanings: a wolf or a godless man. Each country had a different term. In France, werewolves are loup-garou; in Spanish hombre lobo; and in Italy lupo mannaro. And there are many others.

In the Middle Ages, people believed that the werewolves hair grew inward and the skin reversed during transformation. Talk about itching under the skin! I don’t think I’d like that.

Werewolves are known to have superior strength, nocturnal vision and sense of smell, just like real canines. In addition, thanks to the transformations undergone, they are immune from aging, and thus nearly immortal, except when in their more vulnerable human form. My hero, Sir Rolf, usually shifts into wolf form when danger threatens.

The notion that werewolves transform at the full moon is attributed to medieval chronicler Gervase of Tilbury, and is now an almost immutable fact of werewolf lore. I chose to ignore it for my book in favor of letting my hero shift at will. (Much more useful, plot-wise.)

Ilona's WolfBlurb for Ilona’s Wolf:

Imagine a world filled with magic, a tormented knight, a damsel in distress, an evil sorcerer…

While picking herbs in the woods, Princess Ilona is rescued from a woodsman by a wolf. When the creature licks her wounds, it is suddenly transformed into a man. A very handsome, very naked man who makes passionate love to her in a glade.

Cursed by an evil wizard, Rolf was trapped in wolf form until he tasted the blood of a royal. Now he must escort the princess on a hazardous journey back to the castle to stop an ill-fated wedding.

Passion flares between them, but both know there is no future for Ilona and her werewolf. Or is there? In a world where magic and passion combine, anything may be possible.

Available for only 99 cents from: Amazon Kindle Store, BN/Nook, iBooks and Smashwords.

Click here and scroll down to read an excerpt.

Happy Howloween!

Lyndi