St. Elmo & Cover Reveal!

I'm just going to have to apologize in advance for the kazillion photos on the rest of this post, but I finally got to go up to St. Elmo, a ghost town in the Colorado mountains that's one of the most preserved ghost towns in the U.S. In fact, it's so well preserved that some of the houses are still inhabited, and those inhabitants not only run a general store, but lovingly preserve the empty houses. I'm not going to lie, there's a part of me that would absolutely adore living in one of those houses. I'm a sucker for a ghost town and, basically, anything having to do with the old west.

St. Elmo was a mining town (gold and silver), founded in 1880. The railroad went up to it, and the population boomed to about 2000 at one point. The tracks were abandoned in 1922, and the last family (the Starks) left in 1958. I'm not sure when people started moving back in. You can take snowmobiles up to an even higher, older, less preserved town called Tin Cup in the winter, and take a 4WD vehicle up in summer. We didn't get to do that this time, but what I REALLY want is to go up there in the fall to get photos of St. Elmo with the aspens golden around the houses, and I'd like to take the Jeep up to Tin Cup, as well.

Before I post the bazillion photos of St. Elmo, I need to let you know that my second collection, Bruised Souls & Other Torments, is up for pre-order (Kindle) at Amazon, and will be be available in e-book and paperback this Friday, the 13th! Click on the title above to pre-order the e-book!

Fear resides in the soul.

A welcoming widow with a twisted appetite; a war-time evil lurking behind the face of a child; a father’s love gone horribly wrong; a deadly government solution; a new job with a demonic pay scale; a woman trapped in a mysterious house with no memory of who she is or how she got there. These are a mere glimpse of the terrors that lie in wait in this collection of horror short stories, sure to grip the psyche and torment the soul.

If you'd like to help spread the word, I'm holding a blog hop Friday the 13th for a little creepy fun. The sign up form and information can be found at the bottom of this post.

Finally, I was interviewed by the Functional Nerds (well, one of them, who is also a good friend). You can listen to the interview HERE.

Okay, back to the photos. One of the things that I found interesting was how deep the snow was. Of course, a snow plow goes through there now, but when you look at these photos, imagine what it would have been like before snow plows, to be up on top of this mountain with snow halfway up the doors, and have to get out to hit the store. Note that I also made sure to post a picture that included an outhouse. Pretty sure they were using chamber pots in the winter, because no way would I have wanted to walk through four feet of snow to go to the bathroom, especially in the middle of the night.

Also mind blowing is the fact that some of these houses are inhabited. You'll notice which ones are updated with paint, outdoor furniture, and that sort of thing (one of the houses has a satellite dish--I don't believe I got a picture of that).

Part way through our time in St. Elmo it started to snow. It was so peaceful up there, even with a couple other tourists wandering around. A hush existed over everything. I could imagine the quiet of snow season up there. Then again, I could also imagine the cabin fever and other issues associated with heavy snowfall and having your access cut off from everywhere else.

Have you visited any neat ghost towns? Does your area have broken down homesteads scattered about? Will you be joining me on the blog hop? (Thank you to those who have signed up already!)

May you find your Muse.