L.J. Smith ‘Strange Fate’ – WHEN?

The Night World series by L.J. Smith was my first real introduction into supernatural fiction, and is still one of my favourites today. Not only is Smith a fantastic writer, but the world she creates and the battles that are fought are utterly spellbinding. Like most, I read Witchlight, the ninth in the series and arguably the best, and then wondered when the final part of the story would come.

For those who don’t know, the Night World books are building up to an apocalyptic battle between good and evil, humans and supernatural. For this battle, four “Wild Powers” are being sought. The first, Jez, is found in Huntress. The second, Delos, is found in Black Dawn, and Witchlight finds Iliana – leaving only one left to find before the big battle. Sadly, it has been many years since Witchlight was published, and the concluding part in this fantastic series, named Strange Fate, has failed to materialise.

I’ve been keeping track of the promised release date of Strange Fate for the past seven years. So many different dates have come and go with no release, I was beginning to wonder if we’d ever see the final book. Now, however, on her official website, LJ Smith has announced Strange Fate will final hit bookshelves in summer 2009. And I, for one, sincerely hope this date is kept to…

Is Strange Fate the most heavily anticipated supernatural book of the Millennium? For me, most definitely.  You can put your name down for the book at the Amazon page here.

How To Make Fake Ghost Pictures

There are plenty of websites out there showing ghost photos. A particular favourite of mine is GhostStudy.com, which has a great range of images, some of which might actually have caught a ghost on camera. However, in researching this post, I found some truly terrible images that were so obviously fake, the maker’s lack of imagination was disappointing. So to prove how easy it is to fake ghost photos, I thought I’d done up some of my own. I’m quite handy with PhotoShop, but the techniques I used here required little or no skill with an image programme to make.

First, I’m going to start with my base image, a graveyard.

I got this picture just by doing a Google Image Search for “graveyards”. Next up, I’m going to show you where on the photo I’m planning to put my “ghosts”:

So, here’s my first ghost:

Spooky, huh? A white cloud of ghost-like smoke with a darker centre – it must be a ghost! Actually, not. This is simply a couple of paint strokes in white, then two grey dots in the middle. I then Motion Blurred it all and voila, a “ghost”. Some images you’ll find claiming to be ghost shots are even worse than this. This took me a good… ooh… minute and a half?

Right, on to my next “ghost”:

Now how can this be explained? Oh, that’s right, incredibly easily. PhotoShop has a handy little tool called Lens Flare. So to create this, I clicked on it, clicked okay, and there my ghostly spectre was.

So that’s how easy it is to create standard blurry effects that are often claimed to be ghosts. But what about photos that show an actual, recognisable human figure? Well, they’re just as easy to debunk.

Here’s my starting image:

I decided to use this figure for my fake, as it’s one that tends to do the rounds a lot. So here she is, my female ghost haunting a library:

Scary? Not so much. All I did was paste the image of the girl onto the picture of the library. I applied a soft, radial blur to her of just 2% to create an eerie feeling. I cut out all of the original photo around her, then lowered her opacity to around 80%. It took two minutes!

So how do you know if a photo you see on the web is real or not? Basically, you don’t. Unless you took the photo yourself, developed it yourself and loaded it yourself, you’ll never really be 100% sure – but that doesn’t stop it being fun looking at ghost photos!

Ghosts, Spirits and Demons Video

Real or fake? Some of the footage used in this video is obviously crap, but some of it is… interesting. Decide for yourself.

Vampires You’d Let Bite You #1: Henry Fitzroy (Blood Ties)

Oh, sigh. Henry Fitzroy, illegitimate son of Henry VIII, graphic novelist and starring vamp in Blood Ties is actually prettier than the lead female in the show. Played by Kyle Schmid, not only is Henry heart-stoppingly gorgeous, but he’s full of that vampiric flair that has made the vampire the sexiest of supernatural creatures.