This is the follow-up to The Kentucky Book of the Dead; in fact, both books were written at the same time. Hopefully, I will continue to find strange historical incidents while doing research. (Do you know of any stories I should look into? E-mail me about them!) There are only a few ghost stories this time around, because the weird tales in this book are of a more earthly type. Chapter synopses are as follows:

“Kentucky Monsters.” Lists a wide variety of hideous and unique critters who frightened our hapless ancestors in incidents occurring as long ago as 1795 and as recently as 1968.

“A Vegan’s Worst Nightmare Comes True.” A detailed account (I think perhaps the most detailed account) of a semi-famous event: a rain of a bloody meatlike substance that fell in Bath County in 1876. Many explanations have been offered, both scientific and supernatural, but none is truly satisfying.

“Light Beetle Showers This Morning, With a Chance of Knitting Needles This Afternoon.” Further accounts of unpleasant and unlikely things falling from the sky, including fish, insects, plums, and knitting needles. Most incidents can be explained as stuff being picked up by distant storms, carried through the atmosphere, and eventually dropped, but that doesn’t make the incidents any less bizarre and unexpected.

“They Might Be Giants.” When you find example after example of people uncovering giant human skeletons, after a while you have to wonder what was going on. Surely they weren’t all journalistic hoaxes? Surely our forebears had enough sense to tell a dinosaur skeleton from a human skeleton? Especially since, in most cases, a complete set of remains was found, not merely a stray bone or two.

“The Lexington Catacombs.” An enormous cave full of mummies lies under modern-day Lexington—or so it is said.

“Tales from the Graveyard.” More graveyard lore of the sort found in The Kentucky Book of the Dead.

“Treasure in Kentucky.” Pirates never resided in Kentucky, but the state housed plenty of eccentrics who buried their money instead of putting it in the bank. As these stories attest, sometimes lucky people found treasure years after its interment.

“Random Strangeness.” A potpourri of strange incidents that didn’t fit well anywhere else in the book, involving such matters as haunted windows, a manlike form seen flying over Louisville in 1880, mysterious shaking houses, people sold into servitude long after the Civil War, and—yes!—the delightful Tooth Vomiter.

Forgotten Tales of Kentucky may be purchased via Amazon.com , numerous other online retailers, and by special order at your local bookstore.