I originally wrote this story for Last Exit: Travels with Death in the Garden State, a special issue of Weird NJ that was published in 2009 and has long since been out of print. Seeing a reference to safety coffins on social media the other day prompted me to dust it off and share it … Continue reading Mr. Vester’s Safety Coffin
Cemeteries
Following Annie
Yesterday I took a trip to two New Jersey towns--Blairstown and Hope--that were featured in scenes from the 1980 horror movie, Friday the 13th. Both appear early in the film, when we're following the perky and independent Annie, who signed on to be the cook at Camp Crystal Lake and is getting there on a … Continue reading Following Annie
Katie in Death’s Garden
My story, Katie Likes Flowers, was recently published on the Cemetery Travel: Adventures in Graveyards Around the World website, as part of the Death's Garden project by Loren Rhoads. Check out the story and take the time to read the other posts on the website, which features stories about cemeteries, graveyards, and how death impacts … Continue reading Katie in Death’s Garden
Katie Likes Flowers
This short piece about an experience I had in a nearby abandoned cemetery was originally published in Weird Hauntings (Sterling, 2006). Many abandoned bits of civilization are found in the woods in the part of New Jersey where I live: Towns that simply disappeared off the map for one reason or another. Their remnants include … Continue reading Katie Likes Flowers
Leo the MGM Lion
The Asbury Park Press recently published another story I wrote for the "Last Exit" special issue of Weird NJ: This one is about the original Leo the Lion, one of a number of roaring lions that MGM featured at the start of its films. This Leo in particular lived on a farm/animal sanctuary in Gillette, … Continue reading Leo the MGM Lion
The B side of a headstone
A few years ago, I accidentally stumbled across a family headstone while looking for interesting graves to write about. The stumble became a story in larger project, and in my returns to the cemetery to visit the grave in question, which marks the burial site of a great-grandfather and his two wives, I eventually got … Continue reading The B side of a headstone
joanne m. austin 
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