Katherine Howard, the 5th wife of Henry Viii, was beheaded for treason and adultery at the Tower of London. She now spends eternity running down the gallery screaming for Henry as she was being chased down and arrested.

She was born somewhere between 1518 and 1524. The exact date is unknown. She was born into an aristocratic family. Her father was the younger brother of the 3rd Duke of Norfolk and her cousin was none other than Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife.

When Katherine was around aged 10 to 12, her mother died and they sent Katherine off to her step-grandmother, Agnes, the dowager duchess of Norfolk’s home. Katherine had grown up with a dominant mother and a hen-pecked father. She was both pampered by her father and controlled by her mother. At the dowager duchess’s, she found herself in a room that looked more like a room set up in an orphanage. She was in a room with several other girls, and they had little to no supervision. Because of this, Katherine and her friends were a tad bit wild.

The relationship between Katherine and Henry Mannox (her music teacher) was put to an end by the Duchess. Katherine was approximately 15 years old. Later, both would say that their relationship had never been consummated. That same year, Katherine had a love relationship with Francis Dereham. They referred to each other as husband and wife, even though they were never legally or religiously married. They put their relationship on hold when Francis headed over to Ireland to make his fortune before coming back to her. Unfortunately for Francis, Katherine’s father died, and they moved her into the custody of her uncle Thomas Howard, the 3rd Duke of Norfolk.

Her uncle then arranged for her to become a lady-in-waiting for Anne of Cleves, the king’s current wife. A wife that Henry Viii wanted to get rid of, but her being a princess from another land, he couldn’t do to Anne of Cleves what he had done to Anne Boleyn. This is where Henry, who was over 30 years older than Katherine, took notice of her. 

Anne of Cleves, in fear for her life, agreed to her marriage being annulled, but as an intelligent woman, she made sure her parting package included her own Castle, lands, and income. 

Nineteen days after the annulment, on a hot summer day, Henry married the sixteen-year-old Katherine Howard.

By the time winter came around, not only had Katherine become the queen, but it also put her into the same social circle as her cousin and eventual lover, the charming Thomas Culpepper.

Spring came in with a rush of rumors circulating around the court about Katherine and Culpepper. This prompts Thomas Cranmer to investigate and over the summer months, he builds a case against her. 

November came and Cramner used every piece of information available to inform the king about Katherine’s past, with Maddox, Dereham, and currently Culpepper.

By the end of the month, they have stripped Katherine of her Queenship and sent off to Syon Abbey. Katherine would never see her husband again. It was then that Katherine ran through the gallery screaming for Henry. A sight that would repeat every year in the gallery. Katherine’s screaming ghost would terrify anyone who heard her.

They executed Thomas Culpepper and Francis Dereham at Tyburn that December. They executed Francis by hanging, drawing, and quartering him. Thomas, a favorite of the king, got off with a simple beheading.

They convicted Katherine with the law of attainer in January. So they convicted her without a trial. Henry didn’t want to repeat the trials of both Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn.

On Friday, February 10th, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, took Katherine to the Tower of London to await her execution. She requested they bring the block into her room on the evening of the 12th so she could practice putting her head on it.

The next morning, along with Jane Boleyn, the lady Rochford, and Anne’s sister-in-law, Katherine lost her head. She was somewhere between 18 and 20 years old.

Henry spent the next day out hunting and celebrating St. Valentine’s day.

Did you know that there were numerous attempts on Queen Elizabeth’s life (this would be the first Queen Elizabeth) Anne Boleyn’s daughter, my niece?  

Let’s chat about one such plot.

In 1558, William Parry was convicted of treason and attempting to assassinate the queen. Can you imagine the gall? This incident became known as Dr. Parry’s Plot. Bring it up at any tavern and opinions fly around faster than any gossip about Jeffree Star.  

Now, here is why there is so much to talk about. First Dr. Parry managed to not only get away with attacking one of his creditors, but he also got a royal pardon and a seat in Parliament. 

Can you even believe that?

Working as a spy and a double agent, he was paid enough to relieve a bit of his considerable debt, which was a lot considering he made the coins of a spy but lived like a duke.  It became quite profitable to inform on fake Catholic plots against the queen. He was walking on thin ice. At any time it could be found out that he was double-dipping with his espionage against the crown. 

Now, there are a few versions of the attempt against Her Majesty. In one story, Parry attempted to engage Sir Edmund Neville in a supposed plot to kill Elizabeth, only so that he could rat out Neville and become a well-paid hero to Queen and Country.  Others say that Neville ratted out Parry. A few other people thought Parry was going to plant a blade in the queen’s heart, but he backed out at the last moment. Either way, Dr. Parry was finally tried and convicted, 

Unfortunately for the doctor, his argument—that he had never really meant to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I—fell on deaf ears. He was hung, drawn, and quartered at Westminster within a fortnight.

Talk about dead on arrival…

Next time we will discuss another such plot that was meant to take down Queen Elizabeth, The Virgin Queen. (As if anyone really believes that, the way she carried on with Robert Dudley)

-Jane, The Lady Rochford

The morning sun shone on the front porch of the shop as I dragged buckets of flowers outside. 

My knee was swollen and an ugly shade of purple, thankfully I knew it wasn’t broken. I’d had enough fractured bones to know the difference between a nasty bruise and a cracked bone.  Even without my patella being broken, my pain was real, and I was already wondering if I was going to make it through the day. 

Lucky for me, it wasn’t tourist season. I knew I wouldn’t be that busy, so I had brought the book that I had found the night before. The shop was open, and I was sitting on my work stool (really it was an office chair set to its highest level). I had my knee elevated on a stack of crates that were waiting to be picked up by the moving service. I reached over to grab a soda out of the mini-fridge and read the title again.

The History of the House with the Cemetery

By Amelia Hawthorne

On the inside cover was a hand-drawn floor plan of my house and shop. Each room had a little circle dot with a number inside. Some of the rooms had multiple number dots. Then pages for each level of the house and the shop. I shivered and turned the page.

The book was old; it smelled of vanillin and, oddly enough, chocolate. I knew there was a reason why old books smell good, but I couldn’t remember what it was. The table of contents was composed of little dots with numbers and beside each one there a title, like The First Ghost, Clatter in the Kitchen, or The Banging in the Bedroom.  But the numbers weren’t in order as they should be. I turned to the first chapter, and in the dot was the number 16. I searched for the number on the floor plans and it was actually outside of the building. I looked out the window and found the spot on the floor plan that looked to be the building’s front yard was now a road that ran between the village and the cemetery.  My shop was on the side of the road leading to the cliffs. My front door didn’t open to a view of the ocean. It opened to the view of a road and the cemetery.

I sat up straighter and changed the ice pack on my knee to the heating pad, twisted an ice-cold bottle of Diet Pepsi open, and took a drink. My mother would say, “Nobody drinks Diet Pepsi at 9 in the morning.” 

Mom was obviously wrong. But I digress.

I flipped through the first few pages again and settled in to read when I noticed some very faint writing on the inside cover. It had faded, but the pencil writing could be seen if you held the book up to the light, just so.

I, Amelia Hawthorne

Do solemnly swear

That the events in this book,

are true and accurate.

And just underneath that, was her signature in beautiful calligraphy and the year 1896. This book was that old?  I flipped it over in my hands, shrugged, and opened up to the first chapter. This was what I read

 Number 16: The First Ghost.

Our clapboard house sat downhill from the captain’s house on the cliff. The fire from the lighthouse would light up fruit trees that mama planted when the night was clear, but usually, the nights were dark, the fog almost sucking the warmth from the fire that was burning in the hearth. Mother thinks I’m being maudlin or singing a maudlin song, but in truth, this place makes me uneasy, unsettled, and well quite frankly spooked. And here’s why. 

One night, I was lying in my cot, trying to sleep, but the night sounds were keeping me awake. Everything just seemed louder, out of focus. I thought perhaps I was ill or was suffering from some mania. The noises became louder, I looked towards my parents and they were putting a puzzle together under the gas lamp, my mother smiling and touching my father’s arm when he made her giggle. They couldn’t hear what I was hearing. I pulled the pillow up and around my ears, blocking out the sound. Secretly, I was thankful that the sounds were not in my head. You could end up in an asylum for just about anything these days and hearing voices in your head would definitely do just that. 

I squeezed my eyes shut and practically cracked my head like an egg squeezed in a piece of cotton with the tightness of the pillows around my ears, I counted to 100, and when I slowly released the pillow, the sound was gone; the crackling from the fire was no longer booming in my ears. I let out a heavy sigh of relief and opened my eyes. Two inches from my face was the brown visage of an old man with red and green paint on his face. His eyes were black as the night sky, his teeth were grey and rotten, and he smelled of earth and death.  It grinned.

I screamed.

I jumped, slamming the book shut. Did I just hear a scream? I was embarrassed to say that I just stood there with my mouth hanging open for a few seconds before I swore out loud and shoved the book into my bag.

The day went by fast. The book was in my tote bag and hadn’t come out since I finished reading the first chapter this morning. 

I was locking up the shop, and I looked up through the glass window to the cemetery across the street, I shivered slightly. The minute I got upstairs I was going to cleanse my fears by diving headfirst into a rom-com. 

I flipped the sign from open to closed on the door. I looked at the nail jutting out of the door frame above the window that that sign hung from. I would need to find a solution to that little…

The face staring back at me through the glass was not my reflection, it was the reflection of the Native American ghost that I just read about.

I too screamed.
Stay tuned for more stories.

My husband, our girls, and I went on a family trip to Victoria, BC. Why? Because I was whining that I hadn’t had a decent scone since we left Ireland.  While on this trip, I was having a bad lupus day and my whole body hurt, but my feet were the worst; it felt like the bones of my feet were slowly being crushed. We stopped at LaConnor Inn in LaConnor, Washington. 

It was the smallest town I had ever seen.  The inn was comfortable, cozy, and right across the street from this amazing restaurant.  We went inside to check-in and behind the desk stood Chloe: blonde-haired, big-eyed, dressed in pink and ruffles. Even with the giant pink sneakers she had on, she looked like a Victorian-era porcelain doll.  

We checked into our rooms, and I asked my oldest to go downstairs and get some change or something. I don’t recall. She would not go down without her younger sister. It was so funny. My soon-off-to-college daughter was terrified of the girl behind the counter. I thought, and still do think, she was absolutely adorable, in the girliest of ways. My oldest thought she was one of those haunted dolls, like Annabelle. I thought… But what if she were a ghost? My youngest thought it was hysterical, and my husband, as always, just shook his head and walked away. 

During that trip, I found myself watching a lot of YouTube because walking wasn’t an option. Though we did walk down the short street that was this whole town,  my feet just couldn’t do it long-term. So, I was watching videos on YouTube, and one of the videos was about those coincidence photos, you know the ones. Where right before a couple’s wedding, they find a photo of the bride at Disney World and the groom in a stroller with a family in the background.

I knew I had to write this story.  So, check out Snapshots in Time.  It’s got it all: romance, a tower, a dash of time travel, and, of course, a ghost.”

So let’s get on with the list.

Number One:  Jeffree Star’s Pink Vault-

If you see your Chanel caviar floating around on the security cam, that’s just me, Jeffree, playing pretend with my unicorn. I promise not to leave any ghostly fingerprints on any of your Birkins.

Number Two: Stevie Nick’s closet.

Because come on’ this is Stevie Nick’s closet we are talking about. Any other hauntlings want to join me in living my AHS Coven wardrobe fantasies with me?

Number Three: The Tower of London.

The Tower of London, I could hang out with the ghost of Anne Boleyn so that I could do justice to her in the book I write about her, romance, time travel, ghosts, and Anne Boleyn. Now that’s my cup of tea.

Number Four: Ryan Murphy’s Office

Ryan Murphy’s office. Because, yeah, Ryan…when are you going to tell us who is coming back for season 9, American Horror Story 1984. I am sure he has the cast list somewhere. Ryan? Are they coming back? Sarah? Lily? Cody? Frances? Taissa? Maybe even Stevie? Pretty Please.

Number Five: The New York Public Library

It’s a Library…books, lots and lots of books. Think I would read faster as a ghost?

Number Six: A Certain Asshole

That asshole on the East Coast—what’s a few saucers launched at you going to hurt? Yikes not so hearts and flowers there. There’s a history there. I wouldn’t aim for their face. Ok, I probably wouldn’t throw anything, just shake their poltergeist all over their existence for a couple of days.

Number Seven Tiffany’s 

Like a magpie, I like sparkly, shiny, glittery things. The one above is in London. Ghostly field trip, anyone?

Number Eight: Starbucks

Simply because if I am going to linger around as a mist. I want to smell like a mocha latte.

Number Nine: Windsor Castle

Because…Reasons. Oh and I could trip the ghost of Henry VIII, and hang out with the Queen. I wonder what she has in her private library. And a scone…if ghosts can eat, I want a freaking scone. I haven’t had a decent one since we went to Canada. With clotted cream and raspberry preserves.

Number Ten: Oxford University

Can you imagine all of the things you could learn haunting the halls of this place? I would always be in class because I wouldn’t have anything else to do.  Seriously though, I think this should be the number one on my list of places I would haunt.

If you found this entertaining or want to share where you would haunt, let us know in the comments.  I check them every day.

For more weird and entertaining sh*t from Alex, sign up for my newsletter by scrolling down to the bottom of the site and plug in your name and email.

Cheers,

Alex

10) Lost and Moved Objects

Your things keep moving around. I swear I lose my cup coffee at least ten times a day and then find it in some weird random places, like the laundry room and the garage. Seriously I found a 6oz bottle of diet Pepsi that disappeared from my office on the dining room table. We only use the dining room for company. It doesn’t just happen to my coffee or soda, my keys disappear quite often. This morning, I found them in my purse. I never put them in my purse. I always dump them onto the kitchen counter with all the other random shit that I usually have with me.

9) Loud Noises

Loud noises that come out of nowhere. Seriously. Have you ever been sitting there, just innocently following all the beauty guru drama on YouTube, and suddenly there is a bang so loud it sounds like a truck drove into the side of your house? I got up and checked the whole house and yard out, there didn’t seem to be anything out of place. So, I’m pretty sure that those noises are proof that I have pissed off my ghosts. I need to figure out what I did so that I can apologize. Yet, I am getting the “YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID” vibe.

8) Temperature Changes.

I don’t know what my ghost is trying to tell me but this one is really horrible. Seriously, I get into my favorite cotton sleep shorts and a tank top, crawl into nice cool sheets, and five minutes later I am freezing. Like, shivering cold. What’s with that? And no sooner do I start to fall asleep, It feels like I am suddenly burning up from the inside.out. It feels like being on fire but you’re not burning, its as if your body has turned into a sauna. Then there’s the mistake of getting up because my pj’s are soaked through. That, of course, is the exact moment when the ghost wants to run at me with a blast of cold air. And we are right back where we started, that awful shivering.

7) Doors closing by themselves.

It happens. I come home from grocery shopping and hold the door open with a huge block of paper towels before I run back to the car to bring stuff in. The moment I have four grocery bags hanging from my arm and I am just to the door…It Slams barely missing my face by mere centimeters.  Now, I can see the door being heavy and pushing the paper towels out of the way, but the timing? Ah huh ghostie, we aren’t fooled.

6) Animals Acting in Curious ways.

The dog, my sweet 7-pound Yorkie. She’s my shadow. She sometimes stares at the wall and barks her head off. Why I do not know. She also does this to the kitchen cabinets. The only way to get her to stop is to give her a treat. I don’t know what she’s seeing in that corner but it must be something she doesn’t like. Probably my pissed off ghost.

5) Lights going on and off.

It happens, especially when I am in the bathtub. My friend Courtney told me that in California closets and bathroom lights go off automatically when there is no movement in the room. Well, I beg to differ. I have left the bathroom light on and it has stayed on. Except when I am in the bath. Then it goes off. So my thinking is that my ghost wants me to break my leg getting out of the tub in the pitch black, and then get electrocuted when I turn on the lights.

4) Feeling like someone is running straight at me, but no one is there.

You know the feeling. You standing there, looking for something, your favorite pen, a book you are reading or if you’re in California, your pot pipe and you feel something running straight for your back.  You can’t smell, see or hear anything, but you can feel that rushing towards your back. You freeze and then whip your body around and there is nothing there. Nothing but a cold spot and goosebumps. Happens to me all the time.

3) Feeling like someone is sitting on your bed.

At night, when my husband is out of town, It feels like someone has sat on the edge of the bed. Like something heavy, like a weighted blanket. It freaks me out. The only way to stop it is to pull the bottom sheets out and stick my feet outside the covers. And when I do that, whatever it is, goes away. The ghosts are trying to keep me up at night so I will be neurotic all day. Their plan is not going unnoticed.  

2) Weird and Wicked Bad Smells.

I also suspect that the horrible smells that are coming out of nowhere are the work of a very angry ghost. Think about it. I am walking through the entryway and kick my daughter’s gym back over to the side, you know because it was left right inside the front door. Suddenly this horrific scent of death and despair floats across the air. It doesn’t even dissipate when I spray it with Lysol.

1) Weird SnapChat Photos.

At this point, you probably think I have to hit that amazing Napa wine, I can assure you if I drank, I would be drinking right now… I have proof. Look at all the angry ghosts I picked up on my iPhone. I’m scared of Siri now.

I don’t know what I did to piss off my ghosts, but I am leaning towards the sage fried chicken with fried sage leaves. That’s about when I started putting two and two together and came up with some pissed off ghosts.

If you found this entertaining or have your own angry ghost stories, let us know in the comments.  I check them every day.

For more weird and entertaining sh*t from Alex, sign up for my newsletter by scrolling down to the bottom of the site and plug in your name and email.

Cheers,

Alex

So why ghosts? Aren’t they supposed to be terrifying? Perhaps not,  Perhaps they are proof that love remains even after death parts us.

I can’t remember the first time I watched The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, but even though it’s in black and white and came out in 1947, way before many of us were born, it has remained a favorite.  It’s probably the biggest influence on what kind of stories I write. If you haven’t seen it, click on the title and it will take you to Amazon where you can rent it. I highly recommend it.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a story of a widow named Lucy, who moves to a seaside home and and develops a friendship with the ghost of a cranky sea captain, who haunts her home and helps her keep her independence during a time where very few woman could make it alone without a husband.  That is until a real flesh and blood suitor shows up.  Lucy is played by the amazing Gene Tierney and the Captain is played by Rex Harrison.  I think anyone who watches this movie will find that a little bit of their heart was taken by Captain Daniel Gregg. <sigh> Or perhaps I am just an old souled hopeless romantic.

This movie may be the reason that my books will all contain a ghost, either as a main character or as a supporting character.

I hope you watch this and find it as romantic as I always have.

Cheers

And Happy Valentine’s Month.

Alex