Over the past two years, author Kevin Paul has been working on his follow-up book to his popular paranormal accounting of Greene County, Pennsylvania. His first novel, 2018’s Haunted Hills & Hollows, written with co-author Rosemary Ellen Guiley, was an Amazon bestseller, as was its sequel, Haunted Hills & Hollows II, released in 2021. Both books, published by Visionary Living Publishing, explored the history of the area, paranormal activity, and eyewitness accounts of strange occurrences in the area.
Set to release in October 2024, Politics & the Paranormal in Greene County continues sharing the paranormal events in this corner of Pennsylvania. Kevin elected to go the self-publishing route with this book, parting with Visionary over amicable differences: “Originally this was to have been Haunted Hills and Hollows III, but I was unwilling to gut the final chapter. I’m working on the concept of a fourth book, which may become HHH III.”
Kevin believes that we’re constantly surrounded by the spirit world by entities which we either cannot see, refuse to see, or only catch glimpses of. We view everything through a materialistic lens which has skewed both science and Western religion, interpreted written records of history with a contemporary world view.
“[T]here is considerable misrepresentation and exploitation of not only the spirit world but those in the paranormal subculture who fork over a lot of money unnecessarily. The spirit world has become a prepackaged commodity, and there is a ‘keeping up with the paranormal Joneses’ mentality that requires expensive gadgets and travel to research or experience the unknown,” Kevin says. “Like food on the table, the spirit world is best experienced locally. One doesn’t need deep pockets to learn of the spirit world. What is needed is a patience, willingness to learn, learn correctly, and learn carefully. One does not find that in paranormal entertainment.”
Heather Moser of Small Town Monsters perhaps summed the new book up best: “Various supernatural phenomena from time slips to UAPs are covered within these pages as the author invites the reader to seek out and follow the common thread that may tie it all together.”
For this new book, Kevin had to get outside of his comfort zone in coming to terms with werewolves, entities such as what the Irish call the Sidhe, and time slips, which are sudden brief glimpses into the past or future. Some of the encounters described are personal experience.
“Luckily, this is Appalachia, and my spiritual world view is old school, which helps considerably when I find myself outside the box. It was interesting to discover several witnesses to a series of UFO sightings near Holbrook in 1973. I was surprised to learn I knew several them but sadly some have passed. Had I known then what I know now, I would have tried to get their stories.”
Equally interesting was finding potential links between modern day reports of apparitions and the well-known Downey House fire from the 1920s. Kevin used eyewitness accounts and historical records; two intuitive individuals who are skilled in retrocognition also assisted him.
“Neither of them are local, nor were they familiar with the demise of the Downey House; yet they produced some remarkable information.”
He also discovered eyewitnesses that had similar experiences to those described by researchers such as John Keel, Ted Phillips, and others.
“It was also gratifying to discover a possible link between a reported werewolf and a well-documented historical site in western Greene County. In my opinion, this project, like the two before it, confirms once again that we have it all supernaturally speaking here in the corner of the Keystone State.”
“Greene County is a remarkable place, with an untold and equally remarkable history, which includes true stories of the unexplained. Opinion, theory, philosophy, dogma, attitude, and values skews much of that history – in other words, politics.”
Politics & the Paranormal should release in October 2024 and will be available on Amazon and elsewhere. The paperback will be released first, followed by the Kindle version. No decision has been made regarding an audio version.