ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The spooky season might be over, but that does not stop people all over the country from exploring potential paranormal phenomena, including in Kentucky.
A new book, "Paranormal Kentucky: An Uncommon Wealth of Close Encounters with Aliens, Ghosts, and Cryptids," by Marie Mitchell and Mason Smith, sets out to tell some of those stories to readers. Smith and Mitchell said the genesis of the book was somewhat unusual.
“For several years, I taught English 102 at Eastern Kentucky University, and I got tired of reading endless papers about global warming, so I decided the topic for my English 102 class would be paranormal phenomena,” Smith said. “That ends up being a really good topic because it lets you work with the students as far as what makes a reliable/unreliable source and how to research properly, and there are some really good sources out there from people who have done serious research on this topic among everything available on the Internet. I presented a paper on that, which got the attention of the Kentucky Humanities Council and led me to be invited to be on a podcast, and then the University Press of Kentucky heard me on that podcast and ultimately invited Marie and I to write a book on paranormal activity in Kentucky.”
“It was actually Mason who was asked to write the book, but we're married and collaborate on a lot of writing projects, so I was game to go along and do research and some of the logistical stuff,” Mitchell added. “We spent about three years traveling and researching and writing, and it was quite the experience.”
Ultimately, there were multiple factors that led to the book actually coming together.
“There have been multiple times when we've faced deadlines before something big in our lives, whether it was traveling or spending time with our children, and we met every single one of them, which we're really proud of. When a publisher approaches you and asks you to write a book, that in itself is a big hurdle overcome since you don't have to go searching for an agent or publisher – it's almost like a 'If you write it, we'll publish it' situation,” Mitchell said. “When they approached us, it was really a no-brainer to accept the job and move forward with it. And we wanted it to be known this wasn't going to necessarily be an academia book – there are many sources quoted and research to back up what's written, but we wanted this book to be more something like what could be found in a bookshop or state park or something like that. We back everything up, but the stories included are also interesting from a more literary perspective. We definitely balance both academia and storytelling, and I'm proud of how we put everything together.”
“We both work at Eastern Kentucky University, and tenure and those benefits is always a good thing in the academic world, and that's even further improved by getting a book deal. It was a big deal for the both of us, and we both actually have a background in journalism, so when we were presented with a deadline, we were more than willing to deal with that,” Smith added. “There was quite a bit of 'hurry up and wait' involved. We wrote a draft of the book, which took about a year and a half, and then we sent to the editors, and then we got notes and edits back, and then it was sent out to peer readers, who also sent notes and edits back, and that in itself was a whole process. We were making edits right down to the wire before it officially went in for publication. I would say an alternative title for the book could be 'Mason and Marie go to Spooky Places.’”
Smith and Mitchell also talked about how they came up with what ultimately made it into the book.
“A lot of the stories focus on aliens, ghosts and cryptids,” Smith said. “When we went to the publishing board, they kicked back a comment to us about some of the stories being older cases, to which we responded how Kentucky is lucky enough to be home to a few nationally known UFO cases, and we didn't want to write a book on paranormal activity in Kentucky without mentioning those incidents. We've also got some famous ghost stories, and our editor asked us to also have a chapter in there about Mothman – which is great, except Mothman's more in West Virginia, so we had to find a case of a Mothman sighting in Kentucky, and we found a few other stories about flying humanoid creature sightings. We have stories about some famous hauntings, a chapter on Bigfoot, UFOs, and other stories like that.”
“And another point of the book is to find explanations for some of these happenings and break down what exactly these people might have seen and putting some aspects in the proper historical context, because we knew that had to be addressed,” Mitchell added. “Like I said before, it's not a straight academic book but it's also not just anecdotes from people. We went to these places and talked to some witnesses and tried to figure out what else could have been going on in the area around that time. And there have been a few times where we've had to conclude we simply don't know what exactly is going on and there's not really any logical explanation, like the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter in 1955 when a family claimed they were harassed by small alien creatures from a spaceship that had been attacking their farmhouse. We did all the research possible and went to the location and did everything possible and ultimately concluded there wasn't really a logical explanation for this particular encounter. Everyone we talked to, we treated with respect, and they were sincere in what they told us they experienced, these weren't people who were seeking press or attention.”
Overall, Smith and Mitchell said, they were very pleased with how the book turned out.
“Overall, we're very happy with how the book turned out, and we hope a lot of people read it. It's available on Amazon and other online book vendors as well as through the University of Kentucky Press, Barnes and Noble and other similar vendors. If anyone wants to read it, it's easily found,” Smith said. “And we know there are people in history who have been proven to have lied, and we know there are situations that have been proven to be hoaxes, but that was not the experience we had with the people we talked to, they were looking for an explanation for their extraordinary experience. And we're continuing to gather information and stories for future talks, so this book is definitely not the end-all, be-all for us when it comes to this topic. In fact, there was a talk we gave recently that included an overnight stay in what turned out to be a very haunted Ramada Inn, so we were waiting for an experience there, and there were a couple other places in that area that were also known for some paranormal activity we'll have to follow up on.”
