*Halloween Giveaway!* UNDERSTANDING CEMETERY SYMBOLS by Tui Snider

UNDERSTANDING CEMETERY SYMBOLS 
A Field Guide for Historic Graveyards
(Messages from the Dead)

by

TUI SNIDER

  Genre: History / Landmarks & Monuments / Iconography
Publisher: Castle Azle Press

Date of Publication: August 19, 2017

Number of Pages: 250

Scroll down for giveaway!

Understanding Cemetery Symbols by Tui Snider helps history buffs, genealogists, ghost hunters, and other curiosity seekers decode the forgotten meanings of the symbols our ancestors placed on their headstones. By understanding the meaning behind the architecture, acronyms, & symbols found in America’s burial grounds, readers will gain a deeper appreciation for these "messages from the dead."

Praise for Understanding Cemetery Symbols:

"When I ordered this book I thought it would be good for information concerning cemetery symbolism. I was wrong. It is GREAT!!!! This has already become my go to guide for all types of cemetery information. By far the best book I have come across!"  
- Amazon verified purchase, wearylibrarian

"Wow! What a great book! I got bit by the bug doing genealogy research. I always wondered what the symbols meant and could not find a reliable resource for the info. With Ms. Snider's book along with the symbiology and great pictures, also a creative process of Tui's, are plenty of interesting tidbits! Useful and entertaining! The book is small enough to keep in the glove box or your handbag or backpack!!" 
- Amazon verified purchase, Rev. Joy Daley

"I always enjoyed walking through a cemetery and looking at the stones. Now it will give it a much deeper meaning. I really enjoyed reading this book!"  
- Amazon verified purchase, Deborah D.

"Perfect book to get an idea for symbols and meaning. Only glanced through it and already picked up a few facts! Welcome addition to our growing library..." 
- Amazon verified purchase, Toripotterfan

CLICK TO PURCHASE

Book ┃ Graveyard Journal Workbbook┃ Ghost Hunters Journal

What inspired you to write Understanding Cemetery Symbols?

Writing research often leads me to historic cemeteries. There’s no better way to resolve how someone’s name is spelled, for instance, than to see it carved in stone.

Plus, I just love old graveyards! But I kept seeing acronyms and symbols on the older stones that didn’t make sense to me. I’d come home and research them, but it wasn’t always easy to find the answers. I really wanted a small field guide on the topic that would fit in my glovebox. When I couldn’t quite find what I wanted, I wrote one of my own!

Like any reference book, I’m sure every person will have their own way of using Understanding Cemetery Symbols, but I’d really love it if my book inspired people to visit graveyards in their area for the fun of it.

How did our ancestors use symbols differently than we do today?

People often claim that the reason our ancestors used symbols on their headstones is because they were illiterate. Only recently did I take a close look at the literacy rates in the USA. This is a big topic in itself but - long story short - we have been and continue to be a highly literate nation.

That said, we have forgotten the meaning behind many older symbols. And while we all use symbols every day, us modern folks tend to use them in a much more literal manner than our ancestors.

I get into this more in the book, but here’s a quick example:

On a modern headstone, a horse’s bridle most likely means the deceased enjoyed riding horses.

On a historic headstone, however, a bridle and bit symbolize control over one’s less than saintly urges. If you look into this person’s life in more detail, you might learn that they were part of the Temperance Movement during the Prohibition Era, that they belonged to a strict religious sect, or some other thing that has nothing to do with horses.

One of my biggest realizations while writing Understanding Cemetery Symbols is that our ancestors used symbols in a much more poetic way. I think it’s an ability that we’ve lost to a certain degree in modern times.

Tell us about the companion workbooks you created for your book and what inspired you to create them.

I created two companion workbooks for Understanding Cemetery Symbols: Graveyard Journal, and Ghost Hunters Journal.

Graveyard Journal is a workbook for keeping track of all the cemeteries you visit. It has room to record the details for up to 50 different burial grounds.

Ghost Hunters Journal, on the other hand, is a place for paranormal investigators to keep track of the various experiences they have, whether they are in a haunted cemetery or elsewhere.

Why should people use these workbooks?

It’s a good idea to write down the details of your cemetery visits. If you don’t, details get fuzzy over time. You may forget which cemetery has your favorite angel statue, for instance, where the key to the gate is kept, or which farm to market road actually gets you there.

Keeping all this info in a handy-dandy notebook can save you a lot of time. Plus, notebooks make fun keepsakes!

What’s next? Will you be writing any other books about historic cemeteries, or will this be the only one?

While I knew that cemetery symbolism was a huge topic, it really hit home while writing Understanding Cemetery Symbols. In fact, there’s a lot of research that didn’t make it in, because every single chapter could easily be expanded into an entire book of its own.

There’s a chapter on crosses, for instance. Sounds simple, right? But not only are there well over 300 different types of crosses, but nearly every cross goes by at least four different names, and an extensive history.

I focused on the crosses you are most likely to see in historic graveyards for my book, but there are so many more. So there’s a possible book topic, right there.

The same goes for my chapters entitled “Saints, Angels and Other Beings,” “Cemetery Architecture,” and “Plants, Flowers and Trees.” I had fun researching these topics, but there’s much more than I could fit into a single chapter.

And don’t even get me started on the chapter about “Clubs, Secret Societies & Organizations.” Considering that at one time there were over 2000 active fraternal organizations in America, you can see how there’s another topic that could easily grow into a book of its own!

That said, when I give presentations, audience members really love hearing about all the quirky graves I’ve seen, such as the military grave for Douglas the Confederate camel, or the alleged space alien grave in Aurora, Texas. That one could well be my next book!

Why do you think exploring historic cemeteries is so worthwhile?

I think exploring cemeteries is a great hobby. It gets people out into nature and it helps us connect with art and history. I certainly hope Understanding Cemetery Symbols inspires other people to get out and enjoy these open air museums

Check Out Those Awesome Books, Yo!

Investigating Grave Symbols

Check out the book trailer! Music by Tui Snider!

Tui Snider is an award-winning writer, speaker, photographer, and musician specializing in quirky travel, overlooked history, cemetery symbolism, and haunted lore. As she puts it, “I used to write fiction, but then I moved to Texas!”

Tui lectures frequently at universities, libraries, conferences and bookstores. Her best-selling books include Paranormal Texas, The Lynching of the Santa Claus Bank Robber, Unexpected Texas, and Understanding Cemetery Symbols. She recently taught classes based on her books at Texas Christian University.

When not writing books, you can find Tui exploring the historic graveyards and backroads of Texas with her husband, Larry. 

WEBSITE    TWITTER    GOODREADS AUTHOR FACEBOOK      BOOK FACEBOOK  

-----------------------------------------

GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

Grand Prize: Signed Copies of Understanding Cemetery Symbols + wGraveyard Journal Workbook + Ghost Hunters Journal  2nd & 3rd Prizes: Signed Copies of Understanding Cemetery Symbols

October 18-October 27, 2017

(U.S. Only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

CHECK OUT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

18-Oct	Excerpt 1	Texan Girl Reads
19-Oct	Review	Chapter Break Book Blog
20-Oct	Guest Post 1	Books in the Garden
21-Oct	Review	The Librarian Talks
22-Oct	Author Interview	Books and Broomsticks
23-Oct	Excerpt 2	The Page Unbound
24-Oct	Review	Forgotten Winds
25-Oct	Top 5 List	Syd Savvy
26-Oct	Guest Post 2	A Novel Reality
27-Oct	Review	Bibliotica

  
blog tour services provided by

  

Follow Me On

Follow

*Giveaway Alert!* HIDDEN SEA by Miles Arceneaux

HIDDEN SEA

by

MILES ARCENEAUX

  Genre: Mystery / Thriller / Suspense

Date of Publication: November 2017

Number of Pages: 384

Scroll down for giveaway!

Charlie Sweetwater saw Mexico—especially the Mexican Gulf Coast—as a spiritual second home. He’d worked, played and lived there for much of his life, and thought the country suited him better than anywhere this side of his home on the Texas Coast.

But now a worrisome and potentially dangerous development has shown up on Charlie’s radar. Young Augustus Sweetwater, affectionately known as Augie, hasn’t reported in after completing a south-of-the-border sales trip for Sweetwater Marine. Raul, Augie’s father and Charlie’s nephew, is worried sick. Drug cartel violence in Mexico has reached epidemic proportions and Augie’s path took him through the heart of the narcotraficantes’ territory.

Charlie figures Augie just went off the grid to do some well-deserved fishing, surfing and beer-drinking at the end of his trip. He’d done the same in his time. But as Augie’s unexplained absence grows, Charlie and Raul become increasingly alarmed and set off for Mexico to bring their boy home.

What they unearth is far more than the sum of their fears. The familiar and friendly Gulf of Mexico has turned into a hidden sea plagued by smugglers, human traffickers, crooked politicians and even pirates. And Augie is lost somewhere in the middle of it all.

Charlie and Raul must summon an unlikely cast of characters to aid them, including a hilariously dissolute ex-pat musician, a priest whose faith struggles against the rising tide of refugee migration, a Mexican tycoon who may have secrets of his own and a beautiful maritime “repo man”. At the end of their quest, as the deepest secret of all is revealed, Charlie Sweetwater learns that neither Raul and Augie, nor the Gulf of Mexico, nor even himself, will ever be the same again.

Praise for Hidden Sea:

“A riveting story from Texas that wanders down the cartel-invested Gulf Coast of Mexico and drifts across to lawless Cuba. The characters are as salty as the sea and the plot pulls you along as powerfully as the loop current.

W.F. Strong, Stories from Texas, Texas Standard Radio Network

“Hidden Sea is a total blast: smart, funny, and riveting, with unforgettably colorful characters and a world so alive that you’ll swear you’re really there.”

Lou Berney, Edgar Award-winning author of The Long and Faraway Gone

  

“In Hidden Sea, Miles Arceneaux tosses us in the drink of a timely contemporary adventure tale with the Sweetwater clan, complete with pirates, slave ships, family secrets, and the mother of all plot twists, in his patented Gulf Coast noir style.”

Michelle Newby Lancaster, Contributing Editor, Lone Star Literary Life, NBCC Literary Critic

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT:
Amazon      Barnes & Noble

A friendly bartender behind the counter of one particular beachside bar asked Raul if he might like a cold beer “para la buena salud.” Raul took note of the man’s welcoming smile and sat down on a stool. He pushed a twenty-peso note across the counter and the barkeep served him the beer. After some small talk, Raul showed him his son’s picture. He took it and studied it carefully. When the man shook his head no, he hadn’t seen him, Raul thanked him for taking the time to examine the picture and then asked him why everyone else on Playa Bagdad barely glanced at it when he pulled it out.

“They think maybe the person in this picture has trouble with the narcos,” the bartender answered quietly, switching to English. 

Raul looked around to see who might be eavesdropping, but the place was vacant except for a young kid sweeping the wooden floor with a twig broom. “My son doesn’t have anything to do with drugs,” said Raul. 

“In Playa Bagdad . . . is not the drugs . . . is the fish.”           

“The fish?” 

           “Yes,” he thrust his chin seaward and said in a low voice, “los pescadores furtivos.” 

Illegal fishermen. Raul nodded. A Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden had told him about them. Almost every night, small motorized lanchas snuck into Texas waters to poach fish: sharks, mackerel, snapper, grouper, reds—all highly regulated species in Texas, and plentiful, too. Mexico had no such regulations, and as a result their waters had been mostly fished out. So, unsurprisingly, the local fishermen moved north to richer, albeit illegal, hunting grounds. Before long the cartels moved in and monopolized the racket.  

Raul swiveled around on his bar stool and surveyed the colorful wooden and fiberglass boats beached on the shore. They seemed harmless enough in the late afternoon sun, quaint even. The tourist guidebooks called them “artisanal” fishing boats, but come nightfall, packs of them would cross over to Texas waters and wreak havoc on the fish stock. They used gill nets five miles long, electro-shock devices, and deadly longlines hung with hundreds of baited hooks that killed all species of fish indiscriminately—sea turtles, dolphins, and birds, too.  

Their lines were difficult, but not impossible, to find in the open water. Game wardens looked for telltale plastic location buoys, but one officer said that poachers had recently started replacing the buoys with live pelicans which they lashed to their longlines. These illegal fishermen could haul in tons of fish worth tens of thousands of dollars in a single night. Whenever they sighted a U.S. patrol boat, it was a short run back to Mexican territorial waters where the yanquis couldn’t follow. Raul didn’t doubt the lanchas were handy to transport drugs, guns, and people, too. No wonder the narcos had decided to get involved.  

And no wonder nobody wanted to talk to him. The mestizo-looking kid in Raul’s photo might be in trouble with the cartel somehow. He might be a person on a hit list, an informer, a rival capo, a poor fisherman who had tried to cheat the narcos. Whoever the kid was, the locals wanted nothing to do with him, whether they’d seen him or not. 

Raul drained his beer and thanked the barkeep.  

The man shook his hand with a firm grip but didn’t release it immediately. “He is your son?” 

“Yes.” 

“Mexicano o Americano?” 

“Americano.” 

“How long is he . . . not calling?” 

“Four days.”  

The man released Raul’s hand and nodded knowingly, unable to hide the pity in his eyes. He might as well have told him to forget about ever seeing Augie again.  

“Miles Arceneaux” is the pen name of three long-time Texas friends. James R. Dennis is a former attorney turned Dominican friar who lives in San Antonio. Brent Douglass is an international businessman from Austin. John T. Davis, also of Austin, is a journalist and author. Together, as “Miles,” they have been featured authors at the Texas Book Festival, the San Antonio Book Festival, and the Lubbock Book Festival.

WEBSITE FACEBOOK   TWITTER GOODREADS   INSTAGRAM

-----------------------------------------

GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

Grand Prize: Autographed copies of all five Gulf Coast series books by Miles Arceneaux + a copy of Geoff Winningham's Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea -- The Gulf Coast of Texas and Mexico Two Runners-Up: Each win an autographed copy of Hidden Sea

October 11-October 20, 2017 U.S. Only

a Rafflecopter giveaway

CHECK OUT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

10/11	promo	Texas Book Lover
10/12	Review	Forgotten Winds
10/12	ICYWW #1	Bibliotica
10/13	Review	Missus Gonzo
10/14	Excerpt 1	Syd Savvy
10/14	Author Interview	A Page Before Bedtime
10/15	Review	Texan Girl Reads
10/16	Guest Post	StoreyBook Reviews
10/16	ICYWW #2	Chapter Break Book Blog
10/17	Review	Hall Ways Blog
10/18	Excerpt 2	Books and Broomsticks
10/18	Playlist	The Page Unbound
10/19	Review	Reading By Moonlight
10/20	Review	Tangled in Text
10/20	ICYWW #3	The Librarian Talks

  
blog tour services provided by

  

Follow Me On

Follow