Bill Thompson

2019 INDEPENDENT BOOK AWARDS WINNER FOR HORROR 2019 SILVER IPPY AWARD FOR HORROR 2018 FIRST PLACE EVVY AWARD WINNER FOR HORROR Deep in the Louisiana bayou, an ancient mansion sits empty and abandoned.Callie Pilantro inherits the house and finds a mysterious child there who appears and disappears at will.Even the walls of the mansion hold long-forgotten secrets.Get your copy today Follow Callie as she struggles to find the secrets of her house even as someone or something tries to stop her. It all ends one eerie night. Will it be too late for Callie?Buy it now

New England's story and history is best on display inside its burial grounds. Exploring the customs and cultures of the region's past helps showcase the importance of New England to America over the centuries. Presidents, "witches," enslaved peoples, and all of those in between can be found from Connecticut to Maine. The landscape of these states has shifted from a sprawling wooded space to lush and ample farmland and bustling cities. Inside the graveyards, cemeteries, and burial plots, war wages between memories and time. Now four centuries deep, these memorials are fighting to survive. The punishing weather of the area and urban sprawl combine to push these memorials back into the ground to be lost forever. Through photographs we can capture these cherished lost ones and give them the chance to live on in a new way. Across New England, marble, bronze, granite, wood, and other stones stand and fight to maintain the memory of those buried below them. Through Buried New England, those lost to time have the ability to live on as remembrances.

From the seacoast to the White Mountains to the Great North Woods, New Hampshire burial grounds vary from urban park-like cemeteries to simple family plots. One might find a single lonely marker hidden deep in the backwoods with nothing to suggest that anyone ever lived nearby. Each tombstone has its own story. All tell of the past and may speak of heroic deeds, heartfelt emotions, or great tragedies. Tales of the first European settlers, enslaved African Americans, indigenous people, heroes, murder victims, murderers, artists, writers, and famous historical figures can all be found in New Hampshire's final resting places. Veterans of every war going as far back as the earliest colonial conflicts with the Native Americans to the most recent foreign excursions are among those lying beneath New Hampshire's soil. Authors and photographers Rick Davidson and Bill Thompson spent a year investigating fascinating legends, researching, following clues, and photographing granite state cemeteries. What they found is contained in two intriguing books. Personalities in New Hampshire folklore, some lost to history and others well-known, come alive in these books. Volume I of Buried New Hampshire includes half of the stories Rick and Bill discovered. The authors have a long history of roaming and exploring New Hampshire together, fly-fishing for trout and salmon, and photographing the state's historic and natural beauty. During their travels, they have been exposed to and developed insights into the legends and history of New Hampshire. Cemeteries and gravestones often point the way to the weird, unusual, sad, affectionate, courageous, fortunate, unfortunate, criminal, and even humorous. Buried New Hampshire: Graveyards Have Stories to Tell, Volume I is not only for those who love New Hampshire but also for those who love good stories, many of which will surprise you and all of which will pique your imagination about lives once lived.

For over fifty years, Bill Thompson has not only observed but been a part of hundreds of small towns across the South. Before there were interstate highways, he traveled the two-laned paved roads (and some of the dirt ones) to help celebrate every kind of festival and celebration imaginable, events that recognized what was good about the community. He has helped numerous civic organizations work to improve their communities. He has also watched the rise and decline of civic/service clubs. In the course of his travels, Bill has met a wide range of people who have not only welcomed him in their communities but also their homes, and they have shared with him why they chose to live where they did.In Lessons from a Small Town, Bill uses the lens of his home community of Columbus County, North Carolina to look at what is so loved about the small-town South, why there is a decline in numbers of such towns, and what we can do to preserve them.

For over fifty years, Bill Thompson has not only observed but been a part of hundreds of small towns across the South. Before there were interstate highways, he traveled the two-laned paved roads (and some of the dirt ones) to help celebrate every kind of festival and celebration imaginable, events that recognized what was good about the community. He has helped numerous civic organizations work to improve their communities. He has also watched the rise and decline of civic/service clubs. In the course of his travels, Bill has met a wide range of people who have not only welcomed him in their communities but also their homes, and they have shared with him why they chose to live where they did.In Lessons from a Small Town, Bill uses the lens of his home community of Columbus County, North Carolina to look at what is so loved about the small-town South, why there is a decline in numbers of such towns, and what we can do to preserve them.

FOUR FAMILY MEMBERS RECEIVE A CRYPTIC INVITATIONTO RETURN TO THE ANCIENT SCOTTISH CASTLE THAT IS THEIR BIRTHPLACE FOR A LAST CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION.SOON AFTER THEY ARRIVE, THEY REALIZE NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS. A PROTECTIVE GHOST WARNS THEM OF A CURSE, THE MATRIARCH OF THE FAMILY PROVIDES MYSTERIOUS CLUES TO A TREASURE, AND THEY MUST DECIPHER THE SECRET OR LOSE EVERYTHING - INCLUDING THEIR ANCESTRAL FAMILY -- IN JUST SIX MORE DAYS. Four adult children of Benevolence Dayne who are different in every way receive an all-expenses-paid invitation to return to Torcall Castle in a remote part of northwest Scotland. Benevolence has never been close to any of them, but each comes home for a different reason.A set of inexplicable clues leads the Daynes on a Christmas hunt for an old clock and treasure that dates back to the battle for Scottish independence at Culloden. The phantoms in the castle want to help, but an ancient curse will bring down the Dayne clan and its ancestral home if they are unsuccessful.They have until six p.m. on Boxing Day - December 26th. Can they decipher the puzzle and save everything by then, or will their failure cost them everything?

COULD FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD NOAH PROCTOR HAVE SLAUGHTERED HIS FAMILY IN THEIR BEDS, ARRANGED THEIR BODIES ON A COUCH AND PUT THEIR HEADS ON THE MANTEL?EVERYONE IN TOWN THINKS SO, BUT NOAH'S NOT TALKING.Proctor Hall is one of Lafourche Parish's oldest sugarcane plantations. After Noah supposedly murdered his parents and little sister in 1963, he went off to an institution while caretakers maintained the place. Twenty-six years later, the man who never spoke returned home. A girl disappears and people believe Noah's up to his old tricks.Four college students visit the now-abandoned farmhouse as part of a class project, and they fall victim to whoever -- or whatever -- still resides within its walls. Famous paranormal investigator Landry drake conducts a seance there, uncovers long-hidden secrets and learns that the horror of Proctor Hall is still at work.

The most haunted building in the French Quarter holds dark secrets. Legends say there were murders here long ago. When a paranormal expert investigates, the forces of evil descend upon an ancient courtyard to stop him dead. Deep in the heart of New Orleans' French Quarter there's an old building on Toulouse Street. People say it's haunted. They hear strange things at night - eerie moans and wails from tiny windows up on the roof. They see flickering lights too, like someone's moving about inside. But no one's been in there for years.A woman on her first trip to Louisiana takes a French Quarter ghost tour. She sees the darkened structure and realizes it's the source of terrifying dreams since her childhood. She goes home but is inexplicably drawn back time and time again to this old building that holds frightening truths for her.Paranormal investigator Landry Drake arranges a hypnosis session in the building's courtyard, where according to legend the worst of the atrocities happened within these walls. As the woman is transported back in time - to her childhood and even beyond - the reality of the Toulouse Street hauntings becomes clear. As Landry tries to unravel the mystery, people die. Will there be more before the truth becomes clear? Can he stop whatever it is that haunts the building?

Everything's been quiet in the bayou town of Jeanerette, Louisiana for years. The last big news was when those rich people burned to death at their plantation in 2003. Most people have forgotten the details, but no one can forget Amelia House, the beautiful old home on Bayou Teche where the Morisset family lived.Craig Morisset grew up in Jeanerette and started a company when he was in college. He sold it for almost a billion dollars and became the town's most talked-about product. When his parents died in the fire, he never returned and didn't even afford them a funeral. Instead, he ordered Amelia House shuttered. Since then, only the occasional caretaker goes inside, and they make sure to be out before nightfall.For years people have whispered about the awful things Craig's parents did in the name of science, and some brave teenagers who went up to the house after dark reported ghostly wails coming from somewhere on the upper floors. Famous ghost hunter Landry Drake comes home to Jeanerette to interview Craig, who is in town for a class reunion. Craig regrets coming back and when a hurricane heads their way, he makes a fatal mistake. Since they have no place to stay, he invites three classmates and Landry to spend a night inside Amelia House. The mansion may have been closed up for years, but Craig's mother and father have patiently waited to resume their life's work. The operating room's all prepared; all they need is a patient. When Craig and his friends arrive, they can at last resume the experiments.

Bill Thompson knows the South as well as the creases in his old white bucks. Told through the lenses of family, friends, a couple of celebrities, and even a few Presidents, this first memoir from best-selling author and self-proclaimed Southern Gentleman, Bill Thompson, is an homage to Southern living.

2019 INDEPENDENT BOOK AWARD WINNER FOR PARANORMAL ACTIVITY & REGIONAL FICTION 2019 EVVY AWARD WINNER FOR HORROR A house that sat empty for fifty years as its dead owner instructed. A locked room with no key. A single father with eight-year-old twin girls. A nursery from long, long ago that no child ever played in.There are eerie things going on at The Arbors in St. Francisville, Louisiana. Architect Jordan Blanchard is joined by his friend Callie Pilantro ("Callie - The Bayou Hauntings 1") and Landry Drake ("Forgotten Men - The Bayou Hauntings 2") to learn the secrets of a domineering matriarch whose two husbands died in bizarre ways. They explore the house as someone watches from a hidden place high above. The Nursery, the third book in the series, will keep you up late at night wondering what's behind the next door, what lies beyond the mirror and who hides and waits at The Arbors.