Tracy Petry

  A picture is worth how many words? Lots. We got one of the rental properties back today. After poking our heads inside we called the former tenant and asked when he was coming to get the rest of his stuff. He replied that he’d gotten everything that he was taking. Yeah. Go ahead and watch the video. I dare you. Yes, there was liquified chicken involved. Yep, Kenny the Cockroach says HI. I wish there was an app that allowed y’all to smell this one. Welcome to the glamorous world of Property Management. Monday Morning Maggot Meeting

For the last year or so I’ve been focused mainly on the Cast Down series I’m working on. It’s a paranormal series; ghosts and demons and hauntings and such. I love horror movies. Love scary stories, always have. But it’s not the only thing I’ve written. My other child is a detective series. There are currently four installments available on Amazon (paperback and Kindle); The Orchids Killer, Fallen Angel, The Foreshadowing and Turn a Blind Eye. I love TV series like Law and Order, NYPD Blue, LA Law, CSI, NCIS… and I wanted to give readers something similar in format to those shows. The books follow a tightly knit group of detectives through several different cases; a killer going after high priced escorts, a deep undercover operation in the home of a drug lord that goes horribly wrong, a serial killer who’s weapon of choice is cyanide coated condoms and a blind profiler who comes on board to help catch him. I blindfolded myself for a weekend while I was writing it so that I could better...

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  When I was a kid growing up in Connecticut Ed and Lorraine Warren were very active doing lectures and slideshows around the state. Every year, around Halloween they'd come to Ridgefield and do a presentation in the evening at the high school auditorium. Most people now know them because of The Conjuring movies; The Conjuring 1 and 2, Annabelle, Annabelle Creation, Annabelle Comes Home, etc. and I remember all the stories the movies were based on because I heard them tell those stories. In person. In a dark auditorium. When I was about ten years old. Yeah, my parents took a ten year old to see the Warrens. They need some kind of special parenting award for that. So, I was about ten and sitting in the auditorium listening to audio tapes of people under demonic possession, and seeing pictures of this huge honkin' Raggedy Ann doll (the real Annabelle was a Raggedy Ann) that would move around the house and leave notes for her owners in crayon when they were at work... I don't ...

I'm pretty excited - both the Kindle and the paperback version of Cast Down; Remnants is now available on Amazon! Purchase on Amazon I started reading horror novels when I was a kid. In grade school my friends were all doing book reports on "My Friend, the Fireman" and I was doing them on "The Demonologist".  I think I freaked out some of my teachers. The Cast Down series is a work of fiction, but most of the people and places in the books are compilations of people and places I've known in my life.  Some of the situations in the books are based on actual cases I've been on back in my "ghost hunting" days, or have happened to people I've known. Yes, one of my real friends was actually pulled out of her bed by something unseen, and yes, it left claw marks on her leg.  So, I hope you all enjoy the reading, and I hope the books result in at least a little sleeplessness....  

I remember turning sixteen back in the early 1980s.  Sixteen. Wow. That was probably bigger than twenty-one or even thirty.  Sixteen was, for us at the time the age of Independence.  It was the age when we could start working, and start driving.  Back then there were no "conditional" licenses or permits.  On your sixteenth birthday you could go to DMV, take the test and walk out with your full license.  I already had a car waiting for me - a 1974 Ford Pinto. It was so long ago the CT plates were still all numbers, no letters. My first plate was 686-696.  Yes, it was a Pinto, and it was ten years old when I got it but it was the first slice of real freedom I had.  We lived far from town in a place where there was no public transportation.  Once I got my license, on my birthday, I was off and running.  I got my first job immediately.   I will never understand this thing where kids are turning eighteen and twenty years old and do...

I spend a lot of time in the courthouses of Gaston and Cleveland Counties (NC) lately.  Working for a property management company is never easy but the year 2020 has presented a lot of unique problems for people like us. Yep, there is this thing called Covid which has effected pretty much everyone - even people who haven't so much as sneezed since early spring. For some it's brought tragedy and to others it's just an enormous inconvenience. For still others it's an excuse. We manage almost 400 homes so we've got a pretty good mix of all the above as tenants.  We have tenants who have had Covid (yes, and recovered). We've had tenants who have lost their jobs because "non essential" businesses closed down. We've also had tenants whose income has been completely unaffected and haven't missed a beat. Unfortunately we also have tenants who have not only not lost any income but have profited from the situation (hello, Stimulus?) and have made the dec...

The following is an excerpt from one of the new Cast Down series novels I'm working on. This one is called "Remnants".  It's a companion novel to "A New England Haunting" and can be read independently of the first book, though it will make a little more sense if read as part of the series. Old friends from Ridgefield may recognize the location I've chosen and put a spin on for this book. I'm using the first concept for the cover art here, but there is a piece of original artwork being created for the amazing cover that will go on the book once it's finished! Revelation 12:7-9 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. ⸎       ...

The following is a brief excerpt from Cast Down. The series of three books (one available now, two coming soon) are companion novels that will not need to be read in any particular order to be enjoyed, although they are related with several characters making "crossover" appearances in each. -----            Branches scratched lightly at the window of the little girl’s bedroom as she chattered happily at the invisible friend in the rocking chair. “An’ then next year, I’m gonna go to school the whole day,” she announced happily. She paused and listened intently for a few moments, cocking her head and paying close attention. “You want another towel? Okay, Melissa, I’ll go ask Mrs. Henderson for one,” she agreed as she jumped to her feet and ran out of the room.           Maureen Henderson dried off the last dinner plate and put it back into the cabinet. She folded the dishtowel adorned with brightly colored roosters and ...

1st Corinthians 12: 4-11 "T here are different kinds of gifts. But they are all given to believers by the same Spirit.    There are different ways to serve. But they all come from the same Lord.    There are different ways the Spirit works. But the same God is working in all these ways and in all people.   The Holy Spirit is given to each of us in a special way. That is for the good of all.    To some people the Spirit gives a message of wisdom. To others the same Spirit gives a message of knowledge.    To others the same Spirit gives faith. To others that one Spirit gives gifts of healing.  To others he gives the power to do miracles. To others he gives the ability to prophesy. To others he gives the ability to tell the spirits apart. To others he gives the ability to speak in different kinds of languages they had not known before. And to still others he gives the ability to explain what was said in those languages.    All the...

RIP, old friend. My husband and I work for a property management company. We manage almost 400 mobile homes in 16 communities in 2 counties. The owner of the company likes to employ folks who live in his homes because they have a vested interest in the communities and it's a great way to get his monthly rent on time! We sometimes refer to the employment situation as "The Island of the Misfit Toys". Thomas was one such Misfit Toy. Thomas did odd jobs for us, wherever an extra pair of hands was needed. His very favorite thing to do was play "Repo Man", which consisted of cleaning all the belongings left behind when every anyone moved out of one of the units. It didn't matter how nasty the job was, he was happy to go. Thomas didn't have an overabundance of education but that man KNEW stuff. He'd walked a rough mile or two in his life, for sure. In the picture below, he and our office manager (who gets her hands dirty on a regular basis) were just about...

Divide and Conquer! How long has this tactic been employed? Since Satan divided man from God in the Garden? Everywhere I look now it's what I see, over and over. Black versus White, Gay versus Straight, Christian versus Muslim, everyone versus the Police and craziest yet; Christian versus Christian. There have always been conflicts between groups but the rate of escalation in just the last few months alone has been startling. In some parts of the country the Covid "shelter in place" practices have been much more intense than they have been for us down here in a fairly rural area of NC. We've been able to come and go pretty freely, and masks are not as much of a thing here as they are elsewhere. I can't even really blame the isolation for what I'm seeing just in our neighborhood alone. The hostility of neighbor for neighbor is something we didn't really have before this year. Attitudes are changing. People don't seem to have even common courtesy towards...

Today is Memorial Day.  It's cloudy, it's supposed to rain cats and dogs all afternoon. Marty is working today because it's double-time for him. It's a paid holiday for me, too, but I'm taking the day to stay home and process.  Friday night the Sabbath rolled in and was welcomed. It was a long week. It was a hectic week and we were both tired. Sabbath is our time to truly rest together, to set aside the worries of the world. We recharge. I cooked dinner for a change and we ate together. We turned in early. It was nice. Before I headed to bed I took the card I'd bought for Marty and left it on his chair so he'd see it first thing in the morning since he gets up so much earlier than I do. Saturday morning came. It was Marty's 56th birthday. It was a nice quiet day, which we needed. We couldn't visit with friends - some were out of town for work, one had just had knee replacement surgery, others are more in the "at risk" group and really aren...

"Don't forget to be an asshole today!" They were the first words I heard the other morning.  I was sitting on my new deck (that is a whole 'nother story, but the deck is almost done), having my cup of coffee with Bodie.   It was about 8:30 in the morning and the neighborhood was quiet.  For a community this size it is a surprisingly quiet place to live.  The silence was suddenly broken by a familiar voice from next door.  Lisa.  I love Lisa.  She was "hand picked" to be our neighbor and then to be our coworker as well.  Lisa's Italian.  She's from Chicago.  Soft-spoken she is not.  "Don't forget to be an asshole today!" she yelled back in to her husband as she walked out the front door.  "And if you forget how , just call me and I'll remind you!" I mentioned that Lisa works with us.  She was hired to handle sales because she has real estate experience and she could sell ice water in Siberia.  Her husband, Joe also wor...

One more benefit to this recent "Great Pause" we've all been going through is that I've had some time to get back to writing.  A little here, a little there as my brain-fog has been clearing from my bout with elevated blood sugars. One of the projects I've gotten back to is the long overdue sequel to Cast Down; A New England Haunting. The new book will be titled Cast Down; Masked and is the story of one of the characters we meet in the first novel - Carrie. Here is a brief excerpt from the current work in process.  - - - - - - - - - - - Carrie sat in the front passenger seat of the minivan and watched as the other members of her team went up onto the front porch of the old house and spoke at length with the young woman who’d answered the door.   She assumed that was the person who’d made contact with Mike and arranged for them to come out.   She glanced at her watch and noted their time of arrival on the small notepad she carried with her.   It was 7:3...