Jack and Laura Ghost Series: The Magazine
INDEX
WELCOME TO THE JACK & LAURA MAGAZINE A message from Jack and Laura WE NEED A NEW PARANORMAL TV SHOW SPIN OFF – JACK & THE QUEEN MARY CATS PROTECTION Interview with Michelle Gent GHOSTS IN THE NEWS New Jack and Laura Photos
Jack and Laura launch their own mini-magazine along with HAUNTED magazine. Jack and Laura discuss the paranormal in their own ways. Jack and Laura are two teenage ghost hunters dubbed ‘The Next Generation…’
Jack and Laura Ghost Series: The Magazine
WELCOME To the Jack and Laura Ghost Series: The Magazine Thank you Thank you for picking up a copy of HAUNTED magazine in WHSmith! A HUGE thank you for then reading the magazine we have launched to be sold free with HAUNTED! This is our first issue of our magazine, and we really hope people who decide to read this will love it! It’s our serious side in the paranormal world, and our views on what goes on.
So enjoy the first ever issue of the ’Jack and Laura Ghost Series: The Magazine’, and we hope you continue to like what you read! We would love your feed back!
Jack & Laura
Jack and Laura Ghost Series: The Magazine
A message from Jack and Laura
Jack and Laura are two teenage ghost hunters, dubbed ‘The Next Generation’. They’ve branched out from filming a ghost series to launching their very own magazine! Here is a message from both of them: Jack: Hello! Thank you for reading this magazine! It’s our first magazine, and we really hope people enjoy it! This is to show a more serious side to us as ‘ghost hunters’. We want to share the things that happen in the paranormal field. It will get better as the issues go along.
Laura: Hi! Thanks for reading this; our own magazine! We hope you enjoy reading it, as much as we have enjoyed making it! We’ve included not just the paranormal, but history and what we believe in. Thanks again! Make sure you check out Jack and Laura by visiting their website! http://jackandlauraghostseries.blogspot.com Happy Reading!
Jack and Laura Ghost Series: The Magazine
We need a new paranormal TV show Jack and Laura Ghost Series anyone? I think we can all agree that with Most Haunted gone, we need something to ‘fill the void’. The TV show ‘Ghost Hunters’ just isn’t the same, while the Paranormal Investigation Live didn’t feel right on last years Halloween. It’s been confirmed that Antix Productions has the rights to make a deal for Most Haunted to go back onto our TV screens. Even if it does come back, do you think people will watch? It would have to be fresh, and have a lot more to it. We’ve read a lot that people have thought that Most Haunted was on ‘its last legs.’ Whether you believe or don’t, you can’t deny that Most Haunted was entertaining, especially when Derek got taken over. A paranormal show is great to watch in these winter months. Believers in the paranormal would love to see a new and good paranormal show, and would love it to be entertaining at the same time. Channel 5 would get a lot of views if it took on a good paranormal TV show. Big Brother has been one of the highest ratings for Channel 5. I think many people would agree we need a good and real paranormal TV show on our screens. We think we’re perfect for that role! Or maybe HAUNTED TV is?
Jack and Laura Ghost Series: The Magazine
Spin off: Jack & The Queen Mary Hi! We’ve decided that when ever both of us or one of us goes to a haunted location that is not for the ghost series, we’ll be writing about it in this magazine. So, I’ve decided to write about my time on The Queen Mary – a ghost hunters dream. I recently went to LA, which was a dream come true for me. America just feels like home, while the UK never has, and one day I do aim to live over there. While I was more interested in visiting the walk of fame, doing the stars home tours, and trying to meet Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, my dad was more interested in going to ‘The Queen Mary’. I had read about this ship in passing, but never went into detail about it. The ship was the largest ship built, over taking the size of the Titanic. She sailed in the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967. In World War 2, she was used as a troop ship. She transported 15,000 men across the seas in one voyage. She also holds the record for traveling 16,082 American troops from New York to Great Britain. This was the most any ship had carried on any journey. She was painted a navy grey to conceal herself in the war. She became known as ‘The Grey Ghost’. She was a prime target for Hitler, who wanted her sunk. Despite all the destruction of the war and the hits she took, she survived it all, taking her last voyage in 1967, docking at Long Beach, California, for the last time. That’s where she has remained.
When we got there, both my mum and dad were amazed by the size of the ship and how elegant and grand it looked. While me, being a typical teenager, came out with the line, ‘It’s just a boat.’ I didn’t know anything about the ship, so I wasn’t interested in it. But as soon as I got onto the ship, I felt comfortable, and found The Queen Mary quite interesting indeed. We first went to the ‘Ghosts & Legends’ tour that they had as an entertainment attraction. It took you to the First Class Pool, the Boiler Room and other places deep down in the ship. It told you all about the ghosts that are said to haunt the ship and those areas. But it was a ghost hunt with a difference. It played with your senses, using strobe lights and effects to create a scary, haunting effect. It was scary and fun.
After a great thrill, we decided to walk around the very long hallways. The rooms that lined the hallways are now used as hotel rooms, as The Queen Mary is not only a tourist attraction, but a hotel, too! You can also stay in a room that is designed to look exactly as it did when she was first built. Just looking down the hallways gave you a knowing feeling. You just knew that she was haunted.
There is a room on that ship is no longer rented out to the public after reports of paranormal activity became too much. This is Cabin B340. It is said that an 8 year old girl was murdered here. Reports of ghostly maids have been seen in the hallways. A baby’s cry has been heard in an empty room, and knocks on the doors are constantly heard. All around the ship, plaques were up of ghost sightings that have been reported on the ship. It was great to see how many things have been reported on this ship. It’s no wonder. So much emotion has been on this ship, it’s unbelievable. Happy memories, sad memories and death has filled the ship, and if there is such thing as residual energy, which I think there is, then The Queen Mary holds it. When I left The Queen Mary, and read up on the ghosts there, I was disappointed that I didn’t experience anything, until coming across a story that made me experience goose bumps. The ghost of captain has been seen to walk the decks, hallways and first class pool. The captain has been seen in old fashioned clothing, and sometimes he says a simple ‘Morning’ to people before carrying on with his ‘duties’. While me and my parents sat on the deck, a captain in a navy blue suit with medals walked by us, giving us a happy ‘Morning.’ He carried on walking the deck slowly, before going up to a higher level of the deck. Was the captain we saw the ghostly captain, or was it the current captain? I guess we’ll never know. As my time went on in the ship, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to do a ‘photoshoot’, so I could write about it in this magazine. I’m forever posing! Who cares?! You don’t go to The Queen Mary every day!
There were more, but I don’t think I should post them all!
But it wasn’t just rich passengers and soldiers The Queen Mary carried on her journeys. She also carried many famous names. She carried the actual Queen Mary! The ‘Queen Mary Suite’ was where she once stayed. Like every famous person that stayed on the ship, the suites that they stayed in have been named after them. Walt Disney once stayed on the ship.
Churchill even stayed on the ship! The ghost of him is said to have been seen in this very suite. He’s been seen sat at the table, before walking into the portrait of himself. There is so much history on this ship and so many other ghost stories to tell, like the death of John Pedder in the Boiler Room. If I told everything, the magazine would be full. I some day hope to go back to The Queen Mary, and would love for me and Laura to investigate the whole ship in one series we do!
Thank you for reading
Jack
Jack and Laura Ghost Series: The Magazine
Cats Protection
We saw that HAUNTED magazine was holding a competition for charities. Which ever charity won would be sponsored by HAUNTED magazine. We read each charity, and we decided we would support Cats Protection even though all of the other groups do a lot of good. If you watched Episode 6, you might have seen us wearing yellow badges; these badges were the ‘Cat Protection’ badges. We wear them in our episodes to show our support for what they do. Cats Protection has grown to become the UK's leading feline welfare charity. They now help more than 230,000 cats and kittens every year. They have over 250 volunteer-run branches, 29 adoption centers and a homing centre. It’s always sad to hear about animal abuse, so the work that Cat’s Protection does is very good indeed. If you want to donate, help in any way possible, or find out more, you can visit their website: http://www.cats.org.uk
Jack and Laura Ghost Series: The Magazine
Jack and Laura Interview… MICHELLE GENT Author Michelle Gent is an author from Nottinghamshire. She has been writing since her school days, and has now published two successful novels – ‘Deadlier…than the male’ and ‘Cruel…and Unusual’. Jack and Laura are excited to say they have secured an interview with the author herself!
Thanks for agreeing to do the interview! What gave you the idea to write the books you have? My idea came from the area that I was working in. I worked as Front of House Staff – Door Supervisor – in Mansfield and the view across the street is of an eclectic mixture of rooftops and as I watched the full moon cross the night sky above those rooftops I could easily imagine someone jumping from rooftop to rooftop on a sinister mission. I told the Receptionist, Loretta about my idea and she asked “Vampires?”
My reply was as surprising to her as it was to me. I said: “No, Vampires have been done to death now, I’m talking about Werewolves.” I went home at around 3am as usual and the very next day, I began to write my first novel.
How many books have you got out at the moment, can you tell us what they're about? I have two books out at the moment, Deadlier... than the Male and Cruel... and Unusual. They are both in my Werewolf series but are stand-alone novels, a story with beginning, middle and end all in their own right. I decided to do my novels that way because I dislike buying an interesting book, getting it home and finding out it’s the third in a series and I have to find and buy two other novels before I can read the one I just bought. Deadlier... is the first in the series and it’s about a female werewolf. The story follows her from when she was human and turned into a werewolf and then on five hundred years later to present day where she has progressed through the ranks of the werewolf ‘police’ force to protect their monarch and to also ensure that humans don’t catch on to the fact that they (we) do indeed live alongside these creatures from nightmares. Cruel... is based in 19th century England around the time and location of the Jack the Ripper murders. Again it is werewolf based and weaves an intricate story around shape-shifting legends, some of the werewolves that we met in Deadlier...
and the notorious murderer, Jack the Ripper. I had a great time researching the facts and figures for Cruel... and there really were some horrific facts to be found in autopsies and court transcripts of inquests and such like.
Have you got any new books coming out soon? I have a new book coming out very soon, in October in fact and there’s also a novel slant on the production of this book. The new one is called Blood...on the Moon and the launch will be at the New Writers UK Book Festival at West Bridgford in Nottingham on October 7th & 8th. The release of Blood... on the Moon will be on October 31st 2011. More details of that are to be found here: http://hubpages.com/hub/Brand-new-project-A-book-written-in1-month-just-over
With the obsession with vampires at the moment, thanks to Twilight, do you think books like yours are selling much better? I don’t really like my books being compared to Twilight because I believe that mine are of a more ‘grown-up’ nature, they’re more gritty and though the subject is based upon a legendary monster, they seem to be more ‘real’ somehow. I am of the firm belief that vampires, werewolves and the like are not lovely, angst-ridden and emotional creatures whose only wish is to protect the woman he loves, rather my monsters are exactly that... Monsters who don’t have to eat human flesh, glands and organs to survive but they do because they can! I also think that as a fad, the Twilight-style books will soon have run their course and people will want to get back to being scared of the vicious creatures that lie in wait for an unsuspecting human to walk by and donate their life-blood.
Would you say your books are slightly more creative than Twilight? I honestly cannot say that mine are more creative because I have never read any of the Twilight series. I watched one movie and I’m afraid that I can’t say I was taken with it. It’s just not scary. You know that as soon as the big, scary vampire... sorry, the big, scary... vegetarian vampire has fallen in love with the teenager, she has never been safer. She will NOT be attacked by other vampires because her pet veggie-vamp will do all in his considerable power to prevent harm befalling her. She will NOT be a victim to any human predators because his veggie-vamp senses are so acutely tuned in to her that he knows that she’s in danger before she does and he is always going to be there to save her. And then, there’s the werewolf that also falls in love with her... are there no other pretty teenage females on that island?
Have you got anything else planned other than book writing? Other than book writing, I am taking a course to enhance my proof reading and editing skills so that I can offer that service to other authors.
How do you come up with the ideas for your books? Do you have a place to go that inspires you or anything like that? As I said earlier, the first book (or part of it) was inspired by the rooftops in Mansfield. The other part of the novel, well that came from my love of local history and my desire to research and learn, which is why it is set in War of the Roses times. My characters are sometimes based on people that I know and at the first book signing I did, there were three of the characters
around the table at one point. I’m inspired by places though, if I see a wood or even a field in the right lighting, it can give an atmosphere that will help when I want to create a scene in my books. I tend to store them away and I’m lucky enough to be able to recreate the feeling when I start to write.
What would you say to anyone who wants to write a story and get it published? If anyone were to ask my advice, I would always say “Go for it, but don’t ever expect to become a millionaire from writing.” It takes hard work and tenacity to get a book published these days. It seems that Publishers want a book edited, proofread and ready to go before they’ll touch it and even then, if it’s not what they consider highly marketable, they’ll still not publish it. You virtually have to have your own publicity machine running before anyone will ‘pick you up’ but don’t let that stop you! If you have a story, write it and never take NO for an answer, there are always other people to ask and there’s always the chance of a YES!
Do you believe in ghosts? Ghosts? I believe that there’s something... not sure what though.
Do you believe that things like zombies, witches, UFOs? Zombies are only a scientist’s error away and that idea scares me. Witches are ladies that have a knowledge of things that we as a species have forgotten and so shame on us! UFOs... I’ve never seen one, but then again, I’ve never seen a lot of things so who can say?
Where can people buy your books? My books are available at www.gingernutbooks.co.uk where you can buy a signed copy. They are also available online at Amazon, Book Depository, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones etc etc and ebooks are on Amazon, Smashwords and very soon, www.gingernutbooks.co.uk. Thank you Michelle! Don’t forget to check out her books!
Jack and Laura Ghost Series: The Magazine
Ghosts in the news A great thing to read about is ghosts in the news! There’s something satisfactory about seeing ghosts go ‘mainstream’ in newspapers that write articles on boring things like that phone hacking thing… Reported by the BBC on the 5th of July 2011, was that Nottinghamshire Police have received more than 80 reports of paranormal activity, from ghosts to witchcraft. That’s right…witchcraft in 2011. It also included 3 sightings of UFO’s. Who was this found out by? None other than Paul Stevenson, editor of Haunted Magazine!
HAUNTED WALES? It has been reported that Wales is a ‘hotbed’ of paranormal activity. But, oddly enough, it is more of a hotbed for fairy haunting! While the idea of fairies being real isn’t talked about much, Janet Bord – fairy specialist - has created a Top 10 Fairy Haunting Hot Spots, and Wales topping the charts! Janet Bord has published many books about fairies, one of them being ‘Fairies: Real Encounters with the Little People’. She claims she has had personal visits from fairies herself, and also that her findings show more reported activity of fairies in Wales than anywhere else.
She said: “Some of the places recommended have been suggested as points of entry into Fairyland, or at least as places where our world and the parallel world of the fairies briefly overlap. So do not be surprised should you experience a sense of otherworldliness when you visit these places.” So, where in Wales is the most fairy haunted location? Apparently, a site in the Freni-fawr in the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire is the second most fairy-haunted location in Britain. A third most fairy-haunted site in Wales is a ‘magical lake’ in Llyn Barfog in the hills above Aberdyfi, Gwynedd. A remote lake in Carmarthenshire on the edge of the Brecon Beacons called ‘Llyn y Fan Fach’ made number nine on the chart, and is reported to hold a whole tribe of fairies and their cattle. But if you expect to see a fairy up-close and personal in these welsh locations, don’t count on it, as another welsh fairy expert says it is very unlikely and not to get excited about these sightings. Richard Holland says: “It’s very rare to have any modern sightings these days. But there are occasional stories from more recent times. I know of a story of a woman who was walking her dog in an area of Hiraethog, near Snowdonia, and found a very neatly made little wigwam-style cottage made out of little sticks, ferns and pine, and had a little palisade fence made out of twigs. She took a photograph of it, which I included in my book – but she never found it again, and it remains unexplained.” He went on to explain that fairies can also take other forms of mystical creatures like goblins and dwarfs. He then said that the idea of fairies is hardly talked about anymore, while the idea of ghosts is now taken much more seriously. He went on to say: “I’m perfectly willing to believe that other people have seen fairies. I fully believe that perfectly ordinary people believe extraordinary things. But it would be very hard to explain what a fairy is – in any kind of cultural context. But while ghost sightings are taken relatively seriously now, very few people are willing to admit to seeing fairies – it’s an embarrassing subject.” But you could see a fairy if you really wanted to! According to Richard Holland, seeing fairies is much easier than seeing a ghost! He explained: “Meeting a fairy may not be as difficult as it sounds, because fairies always seem keen to attract mortals into their ranks. You might hang around ancient burial sites, lonely lakes and other places already known for fairy sightings in the past. Do so at twilight or just after dawn in midsummer or on May Eve. You might even be able to attract them into your house. The fairies sometimes
like to visit human homes during the night. They approve of cleanliness, especially a well-swept hearth, and a bowl of water for washing or drinking is appreciated too.� Interesting!
Jack and Laura Ghost Series: The Magazine
Jack and Laura: New Photos We both decided that we needed new more professional photos to use as promotional photos for our ghost series, so we went out and got some new photos done! Hope you like them. This is just a page of us being incredibly vain.