(Believe it or not, your esteemed Sick Pilgrim co-founders have kids. Jess has two and J has three. Two of our offspring have started ghost clubs at their respective schools. So, yeah, we are raising them right! We invited our two eldest to share ghost stories with us.) Charlotte’s Story One day I happened to be in Elk Rapids with friends. We went to an antique shop, and when we were entering, the lady at the counter leaned over... Read more
Of all the mysterious rites of Catholicism, perhaps the most mysterious is the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, known to the laity as ‘Benediction’. As an altar boy for six years, I served at countless masses, funerals and weddings almost every week, but only a handful of Benedictions, and only one or two of them were of the Solemn variety. They were that rare and that special. And what made them even more special is that we never really understood... Read more
I don’t remember where I hid the bodies or how I struck them down. Many are rotting in Louisiana. Others were tossed along the many roads I’ve traveled all around this country. Sometimes I can’t even recall their names. Part of me wants to doubt I did it. Another part insists an extenuating circumstance limits my culpability, no matter how guilty I know that I am. I’m not sure if I would condemn concerns over the reaction of my wife,... Read more
For my birthday this year a friend benevolently kidnapped me and took me on a road trip further up and further in to Northern Lower Michigan. We drove the Tunnel of Trees and window shopped in posh Harbor Springs, which I’ve heard called the Hamptons of the Midwest. In the middle of town stands the old French Jesuit church, now called Holy Childhood of Jesus. Inside, there’s a mural depicting a Jesuit and a Franciscan, the two orders that established Catholic... Read more
New Orleans, 1919. On the cusp of national prohibition, living in the Big Easy was, overall, classy, boisterous, and, well, easy. The largest port city in the south-central US provided ample opportunity for a mix of all different types of cultures, a tasty Creole gumbo of varied ingredients. From the suave fellows to the dapper flappers, life was good. Until a shadowy killer terrorized the city of New Orleans and its suburbs. The killer’s M.O. was to break into a... Read more
I’ve been doing some research on American saints and martyrs. A few of these stories seem to be ripped from a modern horror novel. For example, there are the five North American martyrs who underwent burning, flaying, and beatings. But one particular martyr caught my eye in Brian O’Neel’s book, 150 North American Martyrs You Should Know. Why? Because the martyrdom took place just before one of the most infamous events in American History: the Salem Witch hysteria. And this... Read more
The LORD will guard you from all evil; he will guard your life. The LORD will guard your coming and your going, both now and forever. R. Our help is from the Lord (Psalm 121) On Monday I binge-watched three episodes of The Exorcist, the new Fox show, and when I was done I had to face the dark hallway that led to my dark bedroom, where my children were asleep, as usual, in my bed. I made it to the... Read more
Like most of you, we are horrified at the progression of this presidential election. It’s unsettling, scary and hard to process. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve turned Sick Pilgrim over to the spooks this month. Because, really, these kind of scares can be cathartic when real life stresses us out so much we’d rather not get out of bed. So, if you need a good movie (or movies) to watch, Jess and I came up with a good... Read more
I am at my grandmother’s house, sitting with her at the kitchen table that’s been there since before I was born, a glass-topped table with a yellow-painted wrought iron base. I am an adult and visiting by myself, and, as she’s done many times before, my grandmother is sitting in her spot at the table and telling me things. She tells me that recently she’s had a quite vivid dream of my grandfather, and as she describes the feeling of... Read more
(Possible Spoilers Ahead) As a supernatural thriller writer, I’m asked all the time about my favorite scary books. My answers always surprise them, because most of my favorites are not recent. In fact, the only modern horror writers I read are Stephen King, Dean Koontz or Peter Straub. And, maybe more shocking, I’m not a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft at all. All of the things he supposedly does well can be found in the works of earlier and... Read more
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