Library Nightmare

Greetings on October eve!

As a collector of stories, I have spent some time creating my own.  I have a children's book in the works, I compose poetry and love to concoct creepy tales.  The stories are a combination of things that I have heard, written about and remember from my own nightmares.  I'm in the process of finishing another story based on a recurring dream I have about a library.

In a small town long forgotten there was an old, five-story library made of gray and white stone.  This building can only be seen by children.  There are gargoyles that guard the massive structure and they only move when they are not being watched.  The library is filled with millions of books that come to life; they sing, tell you stories and challenge you with philosophical queries .  This library is very haunted.  The higher up you go in the library, the more haunted each passing floor is.  In order to make it to the next level, you must answer a riddle asked by a ghost at the foot of the stairs.  The answers can be found in the books on each level but you must charm the book into revealing the desired answer.  If you answer the riddle correctly, you may pass.  No one has ever made it to the fifth level.  At the fifth level, there is a grand staircase which leads to a beautiful haunted mansion above the library.  At midnight every night, the ancient grandfather clock chimes.  This summons all the ghosts to the grand hall of the mansion where they dance together until sunrise.  Legend has it that anyone who makes it to the mansion at midnight to watch the ghosts dance may have a wish granted.  A young brother and sister will explore the building.  Each of them make a great friend out of two of the books they find.  With the help of the books they answer all the riddles correctly and pass up to the fifth level.  They will have to fool the ghost at the mansion stairs in order to get in.  The children will see the ghosts dance at midnight.  It is a beautiful sight to behold.  Just before sunrise, the lady of the house will approach the children and grant them each a wish.  The children each ask to take one book from the library home with them.  Their wishes are granted and the books are delighted to go home with the children.  Until the end of time, the books are passed down from generation to generation, these special books that sing and love. 

This story comes from a dream that started as a nightmare.  Each time the dream reoccurs, it gets less frightful.  When I was a child I went to the library as often as possible.  I coveted books, collected them, befriended them.  The library was my passion and sanctuary for many years.  I would fantasize that there were hidden doors within the library that would lead to magical secret rooms.  This story that I am creating is a fusion of some of my deepest passions and sweetest memories.  I hope that something will come of it.

Until next time,

~Story Siren

For the Kids

Yesterday evening, I had the great pleasure of playing tour guide to a group of high school students.  This wasn't a typical group of kids; they all wanted to be there and had an appreciation for storytelling.  They were smart, funny and willing to be engaged in frightful tales of the haunted Downtown Tampa.  Much to our delight, we even found a few ghosts along the way.

I've said this before but I feel it bears repeating: the weather was pure Hell.  Humid, stagnant, hot.  So much for Florida in the Fall.  By the time the tour was over I had sweated out about half of my body weight.  The beauty mark that I had painted on in an act of whimsy?  Slid off in an avalanche of make-upy sweat.

 This is how nice the make-up looked pre-visit to hell!  It's actually quite pretty when it isn't sliding off my face.  :-)

The best part of the evening was scaring the kids out of their wits with good old-fashioned urban legends.  I like to weave them in and out of the scheduled stories to catch them off guard.  I'll start telling them a tale as though it was a story I heard about in the news.  They believe it to be real and are horrified by the grisly ending.  This is followed by gasps of relief when I tell them it's only a fabricated tale.

You know you've done your job as a storyteller when the ghosts you find become the part of the tour the kids are the least afraid of.  

All in a night's work.....

Until next time,
 ~Story Siren

Drumming up some ghosts!

Good evening to all....

My hair is a matted rat's nest, my face is caked with sweat-streaked character make-up, my throat is parched like an endless desert....and I couldn't be happier.
Tonight was a Ghost Tour night!  I had an intimate but brave and spirited party, all ready to brave the Florida humidity to explore haunted theatres, parks and forgotten graveyards.  We even did a little ghost hunting; you never know when an orb may pop up in a picture! 
Tonight's character look was a car crash victim: ponytail ripped apart, haggard and lifeless skin, bloody split lips and huge bruises on my cheek bone and collar bone.  So ghastly!  

 

Dead but still looking good!

My tour guests usually have one of two reactions when they meet me and take in my varied apparance-

1- "Oh, my God!  Let me take your picture, this is going on Face Book!"
2- (......Silence and then a polite but awkward handshake......)

Tonight I was favored by one of each reaction.  Not a problem.  The awkward Option Two people ended up giving me the biggest tip.  Could it have been the fantastic storytelling or the threat that I wouldn't show them how to get back to their car when the tour was over?  We'll never know.

As for me, I'm content in my air conditioned home chugging glass after glass of ice water.  I may love storytelling but it is a LOT of talking in every kind of weather!  Outdoor tour guiding: not for the faint of heart!

Until next time.

Happy haunting,
~Story Siren

Searching and Scaring

Dear Readers,

I've been up for hours pacing and reading.  I am in the process of creating the ultimate list of creepy stories and urban legends to entertain and scare people with at events.  I work as a professional story teller with a particular spark for the paranormal.  Most nights you can find me in Downtown Tampa guiding guests through the streets by lantern while telling them ghost stories and folklore about Tampa Bay.  It's pretty tasty stuff!  On other nights I can be seen as an event entertainer; this entails fortune telling, face-painting, story telling and some ghost hunting (But only for the fearless!).  Even though the term is no longer commonly used, I refer to think of myself as a geisha.  By "geisha", I don't mean "courtesan"; a geisha was simply a woman who lived her life by art.  Hair, make-up, song, dance....everything in a geisha's life was an expression of art.  I live, breathe, eat and sleep art.  Performing and sharing my passion for story telling is something that I live with on a daily basis.  We shall see where this takes me.  Events, parties, long-term self-employment....the world is at my finger tips, make-up brush and within the next story that I share.

Best,
~Story Siren