Spooky books penned by GH authors
Sat, Oct 24, 2009 
to del.icio.us
BY MARK BROOKY
mbrooky@grandhaventribune.com
A pair of new books from two Grand Haven residents — who work just a block away from each other — are both tales of the creepy, spooky and downright strange.
Click to enlarge
But they have two different tales on how they each got to the point of publication.
Amberrose Hammond's very first book, "Ghosts and Legends of Michigan's West Coast," was published by a division of the History Press in Charleston, S.C., for its "Haunted America" series. It was released in September.
Kevin Collier's latest book, "Strange Grand Haven," is about the 20th book the prolific writer has turned out.
Some of their stories overlap, while others are unique to each book.
Collier, 52, has been the graphic artist for the Grand Haven Tribune for the past 28 years. He branched out into writing and illustrating books beginning in early 2005.
Collier's latest work is an 87-page soft-cover book he published himself. It features stories of local legends, along with international figures and events — such as "Baby Face" Nelson and the Titanic — but even they have connections to Northwest Ottawa County.
"It's about UFO sightings, ghost sightings, strange history and creatures in the Tri-Cities and the surrounding areas," he said about the book. "I kind of wrote it because I'm entertained by the TV shows 'Monster Quest,' 'Ghost Hunters,' 'UFO Hunters' — and I was curious as to how much of that activity would go on in a small town. And when I started researching it, and put an ad in the paper asking for stories from locals, I was surprised by how much material I got."
Click to enlarge
The book has 55 entries, some are just a page long, of events that took place — or allegedly took place — in Grand Haven, Spring Lake, Ferrysburg, Fruitport, Nunica and Coopersville. Some of the stories are hard to believe, Collier admits, and may be made up by "witnesses" from long ago — but the tales were all documented in one way or another. Some of the information came from stories he found on the Internet, conversations with people and old newspaper stories.
"It wasn't just people e-mailing telling me, 'I have a ghost in my house,' but also like Tribune coverage of a water creature in Stearns Bayou from 1909," he said.
Collier said he ended up with so many local stories that he may write a sequel. That's not hard to believe, since Collier has either authored or illustrated around 80 books in the past five years — most of them for children.
"I know Grand Haven is a curious
community," he said. "Everybody likes to know everybody's business, everybody likes peculiar stories and I was just curious as to how much of this could go on in a little town. ... I didn't think I would find so much to even make one book."
So far, the self-published book is only available at The Bookman in Grand Haven, where Collier said 50 or 60 have been sold to date. He is planning a book-signing event at the store in December.
Click to enlarge
Hammond, 28, is a library aide at Loutit District Library. She is also co-founder of a local ghost-hunting group and Web site.
Hammond said the History Press contacted her in November 2008 through the Web site she runs with Tom Maat of Ferrysburg, and the publishing house said they were looking for authors who were paranormal experts that would be interested in writing a book on the subject focusing on West Michigan.
Hammond said she put together some writing samples and pitched her own idea for a book to the History Press. Just a couple of days later, the publishing house called back and offered her a contract.
"I've been writing stuff like that for our Web site," she said. "That's just my interest — like hauntings and legends and urban legends, and the history behind it."
The publisher gave her six months to write the book. The 125-page soft-bound book includes black-and-white photographs taken by Hammond and Maat, and others culled from newspaper files and library archives.
In researching the stories, she found trying to find the truth behind local legends and tales was challenging — but surprises lurked around corners. For instance, in trying to uncover the facts behind the legendary ghost in the old Grand Theatre in downtown Grand Haven, she found a former neighbor to the movie house ghost, John Buchanan — when he was alive and working at the theater — was a friend of her grandmother.
"It was like a treasure hunt," Hammond said.
Hammond said she found exploring the legend of Charles Hackley haunting the Muskegon library named for him was both exciting and challenging. She said the library's management and staff didn't want to talk about it.
"If you look at the building, it's creepy," she said. "I do know from talking to people who work there that different employees did have experiences."
Other stories in the book include "The Legend of the Melon Heads," haunted cemeteries in Grand Haven and Nunica, "The Legend of the Dogman," a possession in Muskegon, and the ghost of a murdered woman said to haunt a Grand Haven second-hand clothing store.
Hammond said the book is available at several book stores around the state. It can also be purchased from her paranormal organization's Web site.
Hammond and Maat are making numerous presentations on ghost hunting and her new book around the state. They were at The Bookman on Friday night.
Next week, they will make a presentation at Loutit District Library at 7 p.m. Tuesday and a book-signing at the Barnes & Noble store in Holland Township at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Their presentations include a slide show and alleged paranormal sound recordings.
On the Net:
Information about Collier's book: http://strangegrandhaven.blogspot.com
Information about Hammond's book: www.michigansotherside.com
