Dallas – Joan Hall

Jagged Feathers – @jansikes3 #NewRelease #RomanticSuspense #WhiteRuneSeries

Published on February 10, 2022January 17, 2022 by Joan Hall57 Comments

Hey, readers! I’m excited to welcome back friend and fellow author Jan Sikes today. She has a brand-new release, the second book of her White Rune Series. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while and have already picked up my copy.

Please welcome Jan to tell you all about it.

Thank you, Joan, for inviting me to your blog site today to talk about my new book, JAGGED FEATHERS! I appreciate your generosity.

Since you are a fellow Texan, I wanted to share this historic piece of the story with you and your followers. I don’t know if any of you are familiar with The Longhorn Ballroom and Motel in Dallas, Texas, but a part of my story takes place there.

(Photo courtesy of Jay Lafrance)

First a little history. The Longhorn Ballroom was built in the 1950s by an eccentric Dallas millionaire specifically for Bob Wills. It was said he wanted a stage large enough for Wills to ride his horse onto. It is unclear when the motel section was built, but altogether it is a large complex. It sold to Dewey Groom in the 1960s and ironically, my late husband and Groom were great friends. I have a photo of Rick presenting a pair of longhorns to Groom.

The property changed hands many times and currently belongs to Dallas Developer, Jay LaFrance. I saw an episode of “Queen of the South” that was set at the Longhorn motel and it gave me the idea to include it in my story as well.

Excerpt

The exit sign came up, and her gut clenched. She (Nakina) was getting close. A mixture of anger, danger, and fear for what lay ahead snaked itself around her, almost cutting off her breath.

A glance in her rearview mirror assured her that Vann was with Bridger directly behind her, in a dark-colored van with tinted windows. The rest of the team were invisible but already assembled and in their places, waiting.

The sign for the motel loomed ahead long before she reached it. She didn’t realize this was part of a complex. A statue of a giant longhorn steer faced the street and advertised the Longhorn Ballroom and Motel.

When she turned in the entrance, her heart raced. This was it. This had to be successful. There was no other outcome she would consider.

A blue feather floated down and landed on her windshield.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Grandmother, stay with me. Help me.”

In an instant, her insides stopped shaking, replaced by steely determination.

As instructed, she parked in front of room 110, left the engine running, and car door open.

After a deep breath, she squared her shoulders, strode to the door, and knocked loudly.

No one answered. She knocked again, reaching out with her senses to feel any vibrations on the other side of the door. They had to be there. The rune tingled against her breast.

She knocked a third time, apprehension crawling up her spine.

Finally, the door cracked open.

A man with a long scar running from his temple down his cheek growled. “You alone, puta?”

She nodded.

He opened the door wider, and she leaned forward attempting to peer inside.

“Get in here.”

She took a step backward, shook her head, and her voice dripped ice. “No. Bring my sister out, and I’ll give you what you want, but I’m not coming inside.”

The man poked his head out farther and scanned the area. “No one followed you? Where’s the gringo?” He grabbed her arm and tried to pull her inside.

Holding onto the door frame, she attached a death grip. “He’s not here. I did as I was told. Bring my sister out and let go of me.”

“Shit! You are some kind of loco, puta. You think I’m just going to hand your sister over without getting what I want?” He released her arm.

“No.” She reached into the side pocket of the duffel bag slung over her shoulder. “Here’s the key. Give me my sister, and you’ll get the rest.”

The man jerked the key from her hand, and the skull on the end of the keychain glittered in bright Texas sunlight.

“You better not be bullshitting. You will regret it.”

The door closed, and scuffling sounds came from inside.

When he reappeared, a wide-eyed Adele stood beside him, tape over her mouth and her hands tied behind her back.

Were you familiar with The Longhorn Ballroom and Motel? Have you ever been there? I attended several events there in the last five years, but I don’t know if it is still operating as I haven’t seen anything about it in a long time.

BOOK TRAILER LINK

https://youtu.be/CwGRyRVMyLE

Blurb

Vann Noble did his duty. He served his country and returned a shell of a man, wounded inside and out. With a missing limb and battling PTSD, he seeks healing in an isolated cabin outside a small Texas town with a stray dog that sees beyond his master’s scars. If only the white rune’s magic can bring a happily ever after to a man as broken as Vann.

On the run from hired killers and struggling to make sense of her unexplained deadly mission, Nakina Bird seeks refuge in Vann’s cabin. She has secrets. Secrets that can get them all killed.

A ticking clock and long odds of living or dying, create jarring risks.

Will these two not only survive, but find an unexpected love along the way? Or, will evil forces win and destroy them both?

UNIVERSAL PURCHASE LINK

https://linktr.ee/Rijanjks

WEBSITE: http://www.jansikes.com

BLOG: http://www.jansikesblog.com

TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/jansikes3

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorJanSikesBooks

PINTEREST: https://www.pinterest.com/jks0851/

GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7095856.Jan_Sikes

BOOKBUB: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jan-sikes

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jansikes/

AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: https://www.amazon.com/Jan-Sikes/e/B00CS9K8DK

The Lady of The Lake

Published on January 17, 2022January 16, 2022 by Joan Hall37 Comments

Welcome to the first post of my new Legends and Lore series. After completing last year’s posts about the Native American moon names, I debated on something to take its place. Since I enjoy hearing stories about legends and folklore, I thought exploring them a bit more would be fun.

While somewhat similar to Mystery Monday, this series will feature either an urban legend or a bit of folklore. To kick things off, we’ll turn to an urban legend in my home state.

White Rock Lake is a reservoir located in the northeast part of Dallas, Texas. Construction began in 1910 to help satisfy a water shortage for the city’s growing population. After completion in 1911, residential housing began to spring up around the area. In the 1930s, the Dallas Park Board with the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), began developing the lake’s shores into a municipal park.

White Rock Lake as seen from the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens
Photo by Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0

During World War II, the U. S. Army used the CCC camp as an induction point for new recruits. In 1943, the barracks were used to house German prisoners of war.

Today, White Rock Lake and White Rock Lake Park serve as recreational areas, with more than nine miles of hiking and biking trails. There are also several picnic spots, areas for bird watching, and fishing piers. Motorized boats are prohibited on the lake, but sailing is popular there. The area is surrounded by major streets such as Mockingbird Lane, Buckner Boulevard, and Garland Road.

One of the many trails surrounding White Rock Lake
Photo by Eapender at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0

But White Rock Lake is also the location of a popular Dallas urban legend known as The Lady of The Lake.

For many decades, people have claimed to see a pale-looking woman in her twenties roaming the area on moonlit nights in search of a ride home. Over the years, the urban legend gained so much notoriety that Readers Digest named White Rock Lake as one of the most haunted bodies of water in 2018.

Sailboats on the lake near sunset
Photo by Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0

Tales of the Lady of the Lake date back to the 1930s. According to the Dallas Morning News, the first written account was by Texas author Frank S. Tolbert in 1953.

Tolbert’s account was from a conversation with Guy Malloy, a former director of displays at Neiman Marcus in the early 1940s. Malloy claimed to have given a ride to a young girl while driving home one night. The girl told him she had been at a dance with her boyfriend and they were later involved in a car accident at the lake.

Malloy wrapped her in a raincoat and placed her in his back seat. When he arrived at her Gaston Avenue address, she had disappeared. The raincoat remained.

Other versions of the legend began to surface. In some accounts, the woman is wearing a wedding dress, in others, she’s dressed in a nightgown. Some say the woman drowned in a boating accident, killed herself at the lake, or that her ex-boyfriend drove both of them into the water after she told him she was marrying someone else.

In each account, the woman stands beside the road, waving at passing motorists. She often asks to be taken to an Oak Cliff address. Witnesses say she prefers to sit in the back seat because her dress is wet. The woman sobs quietly throughout the car ride but doesn’t say anything else. Upon arriving at the designated address, has disappeared. Sometimes she’ll dash frantically from the car.

The legend goes that motorists who return to the home to inquire about the woman are told she previously lived in the house but drowned in the lake years earlier.

In 2019, Elvia Limon, author of the Dallas Morning News article, and a friend went on separate ghost tours of the area. While neither encountered any spirits, they both had some interaction with dowsing rods. Limon stated the dowsing roads told there was more than one spirit at the lake, but less than five. However, she was unable to determine if one of them was the famous Lady of The Lake.

Her legend lives on.

Babushka Lady #MysteryMonday

Published on November 23, 2020November 21, 2020 by Joan Hall23 Comments

Hey, everyone. I wrote this post a year ago, but held it when I decided to take a blogging break for NaNoWriMo. I found it in my archives, so this month, you get two Mystery Monday posts.

Yesterday marked the fifty-seventh anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. On November 22, 1963, as the presidential motorcade drove through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository.

The former Texas School Book Depository, now home of the Sixth Floor Museum.

JFK, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally, and his wife Nellie were riding in the presidential limousine. An assassin mortally wounded JFK. He was later pronounced dead at Dallas’s Parkland Memorial Hospital. Governor Connally was seriously wounded, but recovered.

Elm Street, Dallas. The presidential motorcade took this route on 11/22/63.

Seventy minutes later, police arrested former marine Lee Harvey Oswald and charged him with the murder of Dallas policeman, J. D. Tippit. He was eventually charged with Kennedy’s assassination.

Conspiracy theories surfaced almost immediately. Many claimed other shots came from an area known as the grassy knoll.

Dallas businessman Abraham Zapruder had a perfect vantage spot to watch the presidential motorcade. By chance, he brought his 8mm Bell and Howell movie camera. His film became an essential piece of evidence in the investigation.

A view of Elm and Main Streets from the Grassy Knoll. Zapruder shot his film from this location.

Among the many persons present at Dealey Plaza was a mysterious woman known as the Babushka Lady. The nickname came about because of the headscarf she wore, which was similar to those worn by older Russian women.

Eyewitnesses claimed this woman held a camera as she stood on the grass between Elm and Main streets. She is visible in the Zapruder film and in some taken by other witnesses. In one film made by a man named Mark Bell, she is holding a camera to her face. This was after the shooting, and most of the surrounding witness had taken cover.

Afterward, she crossed Elm Street and blended in with the crowd on the grassy knoll. In the last photographic account of her, she is walking east on Elm Street. Neither she nor the film she may have taken, have ever been identified.

In 1970, a woman named Beverly Oliver claimed to be the Babushka Lady. She stated she used a Super 8 film Yashica camera, and she turned the undeveloped film over to two men who told her they were FBI agents. According to Oliver, she didn’t get a receipt and claimed they promised to return the film to her within ten days. She did not follow up with an inquiry.

However, Oliver never proved she was in Dealey Plaza on the day of the assassination. Yashica didn’t make the Super-8 camera until 1969. When confronted with that fact, Oliver stated she received the “experimental” camera from a friend and was not even sure the manufacturer’s name was on it.

It’s doubtful Beverly Oliver was the Babushka Lady since she was only seventeen years old in 1963. The woman wearing the headscarf appeared to be older. Oliver was also thinner and taller than the woman in the photos.

It’s highly unlikely the Babushka woman is still alive these days. Whoever she was, the secret died with her, leaving more room for speculation and conspiracy theories.

Week in Review

Published on February 28, 2020February 27, 2020 by Joan Hall22 Comments

Hey, Readers. It’s been a rather strange week. On Monday, my husband, brother, and I had to make a trip to the Dallas/Fort Worth area for a funeral. We left my brother’s house at 7:00, got to the outskirts of Dallas (about 80 miles) in an hour and fifteen minutes. From there it took another 1.25 hours to travel another 35-40 miles. Five lanes of freeway and bumper to bumper traffic.

Can I say I’m glad I don’t have to drive in that every day? Funny thing, a couple of weeks ago, I talked about Dallas rush hour in a post for Story Empire. Never dreamed I’d be in the middle of that mess so soon.

Needless to say, I came home exhausted and I’ve spent much of the week playing catch up. But on the drive home, I did capture a photo of some wispy white clouds.