Mercy on YouTube
If you google “Mercy Brown” on YouTube, you come across a fascinating variety of videos. I viewed this one from The Devil’s Hopyard–a great summary of the historical events around Mercy’s death and exhumation, although I don’t know about the bell they mention as possibly inside the crypt. I know that was sometimes done in Victorian times. (People got oddly hysterical about the idea of being buried alive–it was kind of a trend. Despite the fact that there were, I believe, no verified cases where it actually happened. I mean, even before embalming people were not stupid and could tell if you were breathing or not. But I digress.) I’ve never actually heard of such a bell as a piece of the Mercy Brown legend. Still, it’s a very clear and succinct recounting of what went on, and you can get a clear view of the Chestnut Hill Cemetery where Mercy and her family (Edwin too) are buried.
Of course, if you search for “Mercy Brown Book Trailer” you’ll also come across our awesome trailer for Mercy, featuring the lovely and talented Emily as both Mercy and Haley. Doesn’t Emily look absolutely haunted in that eerie final shot?
Read MoreHooray!
Mercy makes the Voice of Youth Advocates’s Top Shelf list–their best middle grade fiction of 2011. Thanks, VOYA! Check out their February issue for the full list.
30 Odd Minutes with Vampires
They say you can still smell Mark Twain’s cigars here in his billiard room. Could his ghost be smoking them?
I went for a little wander at ghostvillage.com, a site collecting information on paranormal occurences. I was pleased to see that they had a long, well-researched entry on Mercy Brown, and even more pleased that the writer had interviewed Michael Bell, folklorist and author of Food for the Dead. If you want to know more about the history and folklore of the New England vampire tradition, this is the resource to check out.
This is an interesting and spooky site–if you’re up for a little wander among ghostly photographs, unexplainable phenomena, and haunted hotels, it’s worth a visit! And for other ghosts and spooky occurrences from Southern New England, you can listen to author Jeff Belanger chat with some experts about whether Nicholas Cage is a vampire, haunted kitchens, the ghost of Mark Twain (or just his cigars), and Mercy herself, at 30 Odd Minutes. The expert interviewed implied that Mercy’s corpse, taken out of her grave, had fangs–not something I have ever heard elsewhere, and not really consistent with the tradition of New England vampires. But the liquid blood in her heart–yes, that was confirmed by the newspaper at the time.
Read MoreWe Wish You a Morbid Christmas
Here is a little holiday tidbit for you. It’s not to do with vampires, precisely, but it has ghosts and death in it, so I figure it’ll fit right in.
“Old Marley was as dead as a doornail. Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it.” –Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
Well, Charles, I can now tell you why doornails are dead. A nail that is driven entirely through a piece of wood (so that the pointed end sticks out) and then has that pointed end hammered down to hold the nail in place, is called “dead.” In the old days, hinges were always put on door with dead nails, to hold them extra firmly since they got so much use. There you go. Doornails are dead.
Happy holidays to all!
Read MoreThanks, Santa!
Mercy is one of Barnes & Noble’s Best Young Adult Books of 2011!
Who knew Santa could fit that into his sleigh!
Amy Benfer, the B&N reviewer, says of the ten books on this list:
Read More“They are simply good books. They are books for people of all ages who appreciate what makes a story work on the page: fresh storytelling, a distinctive voice, and compelling use of language.”
Odd Things
New England does seem to have more than its share of quirky legends, and Mercy Brown is only one of them. Witches in Salem, haunted lighthouses; there’s even a cursed town (supposedly) in Connecticut, about which more anon. Is it our long, chilly winters? Is it a need to come up with more and more tourist attractions as fish stocks decline and manufacturing moves overseas? Who knows? Actually, the guy who knows seems to be J.W. Ocker. His book, the New England Grimpendium, is the last word on the weird, the wacky, and the spooky in the Northeast. And his blog, O.T.I.S (“Odd Things I’ve Seen”) take us even farthest afield: Rome, Chicago, New York–you name it.
I appreciated finding Mercy Brown on O.T.I.S., and was taken back to my own rainy, chilly trip to the Chestnut Hill Cemetery, where you can still see the graves of Mercy and her family (including poor Edwin), plus the crypt where her body was held. It’s a quiet little cemetery, not anywhere near as spooky as I made it in the book (creative license–I needed some atmosphere, plus a crypt or two for my heroine to hide behind during the chase scene). Apart from the occasional tourist wandering by, you’d never know that America’s last vampire is buried there. Unless somebody like J.W. tells you.
Read MoreTest Your Vampire IQ
Think you know your Angel from your Edward? Find out just how sharp your stake is here.
If you can identify the sources for all of these famous fictional vampires, I’ll send you a free Mercy tattoo. (Actually I’ll send you one if you just ask. To be honest.)
Read MoreSarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Thomson focuses on newfound connection, magic, and suspense to conjure a fast-paced, heartwarming mystery. Thomson’s world is populated by resourceful protagonists, fanciful creatures, and quirky supporting characters.”
—Publishers Weekly