M.J. Rose

Something wonderful from our friends over at A Bloody Good Read:

FROM HOMER TO THE HOBBIT: THE HISTORY OF THE NECROMANCER
By Nancy Bilyeau

“Vampire. Witch. Zombie. Werewolf. In films, books and TV series, it seems as if the supernatural run the show as never before.

I admit to a weakness for Dracula, whether it’s in the hands of the one-and-only Bram Stoker, the gifted Elizabeth Kostova (The Historian) or the audacious Francis Ford Coppola in his adaptation (fantastic soundtrack). Anne Rice, Charlaine Harris and Justin Cronin have taken the vampire myth in fascinating directions. And, yes, I admit it: I’m a Twilight mom.

My favorite “modern” witch has to be the determined and erudite Diana Bishop in Deborah Harkness’s wonderful novels, A Discovery of Magic and Shadow of Night. She’s come a long way from “Double, double, toil & trouble.”…”

For the rest click here.

A lost city, the legendary “City of the Monkey God”, was recently discovered in the Honduran rain forest…

Lost City Discovered in the Honduran Rain Forest

In search for legendary “City of the Monkey God,” explorers find the untouched ruins of a vanished culture.

A “were-jaguar” effigy, likely representing a combination of a human and spirit animal, is part of a still-buried ceremonial seat, or metate, one of many artifacts discovered in a cache in ruins deep in the Honduran jungle.

By Douglas Preston
Photographs by Dave Yoder

“An expedition to Honduras has emerged from the jungle with dramatic news of the discovery of a mysterious culture’s lost city, never before explored. The team was led to the remote, uninhabited region by long-standing rumors that it was the site of a storied “White City,” also referred to in legend as the “City of the Monkey God.”

Archaeologists surveyed and mapped extensive plazas, earthworks, mounds, and an earthen pyramid belonging to a culture that thrived a thousand years ago, and then vanished. The team, which returned from the site last Wednesday, also discovered a remarkable cache of stone sculptures that had lain untouched since the city was abandoned….”

For the rest click here to go to National Geographic.

This is one of the more compelling reincarnation stories we’ve encountered. Like many of our favorites, it involves the memories of a young child and includes incredible verifications that defy logic.

Is this child actually remembering a previous life?

10-Year-Old Boy Remembers Past Life as 1930’s Hollywood Actor

by Daniel Nussbaum

“Mom, I have something I need to tell you. I used to be somebody else.”

Those were the words that five-year-old Ryan Hammons told his mother as he was being tucked into bed five years ago, according to NBC News’s Today.

Ryan reportedly began having vivid nightmares at age four. The next year, Ryan told his mother he wanted to “go home” to Hollywood, and related stories about meeting actress Rita Hayworth, taking trips to Paris, and dancing on Broadway. The boy said he had once lived on a street with the word “rock” in it.

“His stories were so detailed and they were so extensive, that it just wasn’t like a child could have made it up,” the boy’s mother, Cyndi Hammons, told Today. “Then we found the picture, and it changed everything.”

Hammons had gone to the library to investigate her son’s claims when she happened upon a book that contained a still photo of two men from the 1932 film Night After Night, starring Mae West.

“She turns to the page in the book, and I say ‘that’s me, that’s who I was,’” now ten-year-old Ryan told Today…”

Click here for the rest.