Archive for the ‘life rambles’ Category

This originally appeared at S.D. Hintz’s place as a guest blog. For those of you who missed The Shag Harbor Incident the first time around, I thought I’d re-post.
Canada’s Roswell? The Shag Harbor Incident
Louise Bohmer
On October 4, 1967, a tiny fishing village in Nova Scotia experienced a well documented UFO sighting that also entailed underwater phenomena. However, over the years the case has somewhat fallen into obscurity. Much like the famous and hotly debated Roswell incident, the unidentified flying object crashed, this time into the water near Shag Harbour.
Shag Harbor sits along the South Shore of Nova Scotia. The small village has a population of approximately 450 people, and the village contains not much more than a bed and breakfast, a post office, two wharves, two churches, and a museum. Like much of the Maritimes, this quiet little community is rich in folklore, from sea monsters to ghost ships, but the Shag Harbor Incident may be one of the area’s most well documented local legends.
The coastal community is fairly well known for the 1967 UFO sighting, which occurred around 11:00 pm that autumn night. Teenagers were the first to spot four strange orange lights hovering in the sky above the water, and at least eleven other people would witness the strange phenomena hovering in the sky and falling to the water that night. Many of these witnesses report the orange lights flashed in a sequence for several minutes, before diving in a 45 degree angle toward the water’s surface.
Three RCMP officers were dispatched to follow up on a flood of reports about the lights hovering over and then crashing into the water. Of the three, one would witness the strange orange lights in the sky as he drove to the site, and he stated the object seemed to change in shape as it descended on the water. Upon arrival at the site, the three officers all assumed an aircraft of some kind had crashed in the water and a search and rescue team would need to be dispatched. The Coast Guard Cutter #101 was notified.
The three officers, along with several witnesses, watched the object float on the water just after the crash. It was about a half-mile from shore, glowing a pale yellow, and leaving a wake of dense yellow foam behind it as it drifted. By the time the coast guard arrived, the UFO had submerged, but as evidence of its presence it left a 120 x 300 ft. slick created by the sulfurous scented foam it had emitted. Search and rescue efforts continued until 3:00 am, and then resumed the following day, which would end in a preliminary report sent to Canadian Forces Headquarters in Ottawa. An underwater search was conducted by Maritime Command, after communicating with NORAD, but the official results were recorded as nil. Seven divers from the HMCS Granby searched until sundown on October 8, 1967, but their efforts would prove futile and fruitless, leaving more questions than answers to what crashed in the water off Shag Harbor.
After this, the incident fell into obscurity outside of local stories. That is until 1993, when two MUFON investigators used newspaper clippings and police reports to track down eyewitnesses, people involved in the rescue effort and subsequent investigation, to conduct interviews with. These interviews with crew and divers from the HMCS Granby uncovered some intriguing new information.
According to these reports taken from crew members and divers, the object that crashed into the water off Shag Harbor had been tracked, and this UFO traveled underwater approximately 25 miles to Government Point, a spot where the U.S. military, in the 1960s, maintained a small military base that managed a Magnetic Anomaly Detection system, which was used for detecting submarines in the North Atlantic. They allege the navy brought in ships that investigated for up to a week after the crash, and some reports state a barge was brought in from the U.S. to assist in the recovery mission. One witness, an American diver, claims pictures of the object were taken and foam-like material was recovered. Other witnesses reported another UFO came in from underwater to seemingly aid the object that had crashed and submerged beneath them. But none of this testimony has been corroborated by any official government reports, and no known RCMP reports on the Shag Harbor Incident remain, and no survivors or traces of the object were ever officially recovered, although according to one fisherman, he also saw divers bringing up aluminum-colored metal.
On October 11, 1967, the alleged naval search was called off, and this same night witnesses reported an identical UFO leaving the area near the original crash site. Did the people of the tiny fishing village of Shag Harbor see a vehicle from another planet that night in October 1967? According to one diver, the object that crashed into the water was not of planet Earth. Or is there some more simple explanation for the strange phenomena that occurred over forty years ago above the waters of this Nova Scotia community? Theories on a crashed Russian spacecraft developed, after a Russian submarine showed up in the water near the crash site. Still, over forty years later, no definitive answer has been given for what crashed that night. But the people of Shag Harbor who witnessed the event can agree on one thing: they did see something unidentifiable crash into the water off their village that October evening.
More Information on The Shag Harbor Incident
UFO Case Report – The Shag Harbor Incident
Wikipedia – Shag Harbour UFO incident

Velvet is a wonderful supporter of the small press and indie authors. She works tirelessly to promote, and she’s a nice person to boot. Huge thanks going out to her for all the promotion she recently did for Old School. Here’s her Old School review below, and we Old School authors are thrilled she gave the collection 4 out of 5 stars.
vvb32 Reads Old School Review:
“My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): no sparkles
Deliciously scary collection of stories with poems interspersed to set the proper mood of old school horror. Each story creates a bit of shiver.”
–Velvet
Check out the full review here:
http://vvb32reads.blogspot.com/2011/10/old-school-edited-by-louise-bohmer.html
Thank you to everyone who has ‘liked’ the book on Amazon! This helps up our ranking. If you haven’t ‘liked’ the book yet, please consider clicking the tan ‘like’ button on our Kindle or print page. It’s right by the customers’ reviews link.
Random Writing Life
Happy Halloween month, folks!
September was pretty hectic, and October looks to be a busy month, too. I have four books on the editing roster (goofed on scheduling this month), and I just finished a short story I need to format and submit. Wish me luck, dear folks. I subbed out some poems in August, too. Slowly, I’m getting back into the swing of it. The museli and I are on much better terms these days.
Huge thanks going out to KV Taylor for beta reading / proofing Passion Plays. (She also writes erotic romance as Katey Hawthorne, which you should check out.) I’m indebted to her keen eye. Right now, I’m working through the manuscript once more, as I go through Katey’s suggestions. Then I need to finish up formatting (thanks to Jerrod Balzer’s excellent advice on creating ebooks). So I’m bumping the estimated release date for this puppy to early 2012. Watch for more updates!
And huge thanks to Rich Ristow for the killer cover. ( I know you’re staring at her butt. I see you.)
Lastly, Steve and I lost one of our little ratty babies on his birthday. Our Rosemary passed over the Rainbow Bridge September 30. She had bad upper respiratory congestion, so a rushed trip to Moncton was made. Dr. Gallon upped her meds, and she appeared to improve. Three days later, she was gasping and having panic attacks, despite the meds, so another emergency trip to the vet was made. This time, she received a steroid shot to open her lungs, plus a steroid to take home, and more meds to open her lungs. Once again, she appeared to improve. We were syringe feeding her baby food and water, and I got her to eat a tiny bit of moist cat food to up her protein. But sadly, once again, after about two to three days, she relapsed. We were considering euthanasia (because when a rat panics for a prolonged period from lack of breath, the poor creature is basically suffocating to death), when I found her the next morning. She looked peaceful, as if she were simply sleeping on the floor of her cage.
The other girls are doing well, but the cage was quiet for a while, after they lost their Rosemary.
Rest in peace, sweet wee one. We miss you.

Like the white rabbit, I’m late. But you forest visitors are probably used to that by now. It takes a while for this slithery rock dweller to emerge from my mountain of electronic paper. Every now and again, someone needs to poke me with a stick so I remember to come up for air and socialize with you good people. Today, we have the Old School contest winner announcement.
Congrats to Angie Leger, vvb32 reads Old School contest winner! Angie picks herself up an ebook copy of this traditional horror anthology filled with tales of terror from yours truly, David Dunwoody, Horace James, Natalie Sin, Jackie Gamber, Gregory L. Hall, R. Scott McCoy, and poems from Zombie Zak. Check out the Books From Louise page for more information on Old School, feast your eyes on the trailer, and clicky the links to purchase Kindle or print copies, plus other formats.
Random Rambles – Life And All That Rot
In an effort to keep this blog updated on a regular basis, give you some content to keep you all happy, every now and again I’ll inject a bit of anecdotal rambling into blog posts. I don’t know if readers really dig this or not, but I figure you might. If you’re bored to tears, you can always tell me to stop.
August was a bit crazy. For those of you who don’t know, hubby and I live with my mom-in-law and gran-in-law. We’d like to get a place of our own, and sell this place, but for the time being mom-in-law can use the help with gran-in-law. She’s got Alzheimers and Glaucoma. My mom-in-law isn’t in the best of health, so taking care of gran-in-law can be hard on her. We help out.
Anyway, gran-in-law took a tumble recently, and had to go to the hospital. (If you check out my Facebook, you’ll see what a kerfuffle that was with the NB medical system. Methinks a few people in Sussex Regional Hospital need their arses kicked, but that’s violent, and I won’t condone that. I’ll just kill them in a book. I’m digressing…) The final word is she did have a stroke, albeit a mild one. She was probably dehydrated too, so we’re trying to get her to drink more.
Good news followed chaos, thankfully. Hubby got a job at a local restaurant, cooking full time. It’s a little place called The Blue Bird, and he’s already having a great time. He went to cooking school, just didn’t quite complete his apprenticeship (so isn’t a papered chef). He got the job on the day of the interview, which was very cool. While he was supposed to start part time, he was quick and good enough the boss already bumped him to full time. This couldn’t come at a better time, what with Christmas / Yule just around the corner. Universe smiles on us. (Yeah, I’m anthropomorphizing. So sue me.) He even has a fellow metal head to work with. Of course, this makes him happy. He’s been busy downloading tunes to the ipod to take to work. (Cooks and metal and Libras–always in my life. I’m beginning to see a pattern here. Hmmmm…)
In my world beneath the rock, I’ve got two books on the editing hotplate. Writing is going well on the paranormal erotic romance. Plot and characters are fleshing out nicely. The other day, words flowed so well it almost wrote itself. I do love those writing sessions. I’ve been putting away no less than 1000 words over the last three days. My co-author is busy writing another chapter of our steampunk erotic romance collaboration. And I’ve just started re-drafting / re-outlining the dark humor dystopian. Had to make some corrections to plot aspects that just wouldn’t fly. Much tighter now, I think. I have to start the new beginning I’ve mapped out soon.
So if I’m quiet on Twitter and Facebook, it’s just because I’m neck deep in words–mine or someone else’s. Speaking of which, I better get back to the editing. Coffee, I hear its lovely call, and I must fill my cup. Hope September is treating you well, friends. Before I go, in the spirit of reoccurring themes in my life, here’s some Lizzy Borden for you:
*slithers back under the rock*