RAS Spotlight – J.D.R. Hawkins

On this edition Ron’s Amazing Stories – The Blog we point the RAS spotlight squarely on Civil War novelist J.D.R. Hawkins. She is an amazing writer who takes us into the War to Make Men Free using real facts and places with fictional characters. She is an award-winning author who has written for newspapers, magazines, newsletters, e-zines, and blogs. She is one of only a few female Civil War authors, and uniquely describes the front lines from a Confederate perspective.

Her award winning books the Renegade Series includes A Beautiful Glittering Lie, A Beckoning Hellfire, and A Rebel Among Us, which has just been published. These books tell the story of a family from north Alabama who experience immeasurable pain when their lives are dramatically changed by the war.

Ms. Hawkins is a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the International Women’s Writing Guild, Pikes Peak Writers, and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. She is also an artist and singer/songwriter. She is currently working on a nonfiction book about the War Between the States, as well as another sequel for the Renegade Series.

If you want to learn more about J.D.R. Hawkins head to this link to her website.

This Week’s Podcast:

On the podcast this week J.D.R. Hawkins comes to the show. She reads from her new book A Rebel Among Us and then sticks around to talk about the book and answers questions about the Civil War. You can listen to this podcast this Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from iTunes, stream it on TuneIn Radio or listen on your radio Friday night at 8pm Eastern time. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link.

The Calendar:

December 01 – The Horror Express #13
December 08 – Gigantopithecus – (RAS #268)
December 15 – Special Guest – Julie Hawkins – (RAS #269)
December 22 – Christmas Break 2016
December 29 – Year in Review podcast – (RAS #270)
January 05 – (RAS #271)

RAS #268 – Gigantopithecus

Gigantopithecus On this episode of Ron’s Amazing Stories titled, Gigantopithecus, a UFO crashes in a family’s backyard. The story is expertly narrated by John Dehner. Also, we tell the true story of a camping trip gone very wrong, and we have another five minute mystery. So, press that play button!

Gigantopithecus:

What is it? It is a very large fossil Asian ape of the late Miocene to early Pleistocene epochs. That is a fancy way of saying that it is probably extinct. We say that because many believe that this ancient fellow just might be the modern day bigfoot.

Our OTR Story – Heavens To Betsy

This week’s story comes from Suspense, and it could have made today. It tells the tale of an everyday suburban family who discovers a crashed UFO in their backyard. It is titled, HEAVENS TO BETSY and originally aired: October 11, 1955.

Spotlight – John Dehner

There were stars during the golden age of radio and one of the biggest and brightest was John Dehner. He was also one of the few that broke into the first age of television. On this edition of Ron’s Amazing Stories – The Blog, we look at the life and times of one of the best, John Dehner.

Dehner was born in Staten Island, New York. His father was a painter, so during his younger years he lived in some pretty incredible places like: Oslo, Copenhagen, London, and Paris. Dehner initially went into art after studying at the Grand Central School of Art in New York City, New York. One of his many jobs was as an animator at Walt Disney Studios.

If you were ask Dehner about how he got his start in show business he would probably begin by talking of his extensive radio career. His early radio jobs included being a news editor and a disc jockey. As a radio actor he appeared as a lead or supporting player in such series as, The Whistler, Gunsmoke, Suspense and many others. He starred as Paladin in the radio version of Have Gun – Will Travel and in Frontier Gentleman, another western series.

John Dehner He made his film debut in the 1940s, and has appeared in dozens of films. A tall and distinguished looking man with a rich voice and somewhat flamboyant demeanor, Dehner often was cast as an outlaw leader, crooked banker or saloon owner in westerns and adventure films, although he was occasionally cast against type in comedies, and played a crusading newspaper reporter in the TV series The Roaring 20’s. Dehner had over 250 television and film credits to his name. His earliest being in 1941 to the motion picture classic The Right Stuff in 1983. He finished his work with the award winning mini-series, War and Remembrance in 1989.

Whether he was working as an artist, actor or professional pianist John Dehner was one of a kind. He died of emphysema in 1992 at the age of 76 in Santa Barbara, California.

This Week’s Podcast:

On the podcast this week a UFO crashes in a family’s backyard, we tell the true story of a camping trip gone very wrong and we also have another five minute mystery. You can listen to this podcast this Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from iTunes, stream it on TuneIn Radio or listen on your radio Friday night at 8pm Eastern time. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link.

The Calendar:

December 01 – The Horror Express #13
December 08 – Gigantopithecus – (RAS #268)
December 15 – Special Guest – Julie Hawkins – (RAS #269)
December 22 – (RAS #270)
December 29 – Christmas Break 2016
January 05 – (RAS #271)

HE #13 – Vampires Revisited

The Horror Express #13 Welcome to the 13th episode of the Horror Express. On this episode Jason and Ron tackle an old topic, Vampires Revisited with guest Douglas Robinson. Also, the new onboard computer takes over the show and presents a tale from Boris Karloff himself. If that wasn’t enough, Jason has collected some interesting emails from you guys! So, come join us for this horrific train ride. How? Press the play button.

Vampires Revisited:

We talked about Vampires back on Episode #3 of The Horror Express. Jason and I both thought there was something missing in that show and that was someone who knew all about them. Enter Douglas Robinson from Silently Publishing who has written a series of fictional books about the REAL Vampires that exist today.

The Silently Series Storyline is about vampyric blood-drinking people. When we meet Majken she has come to the city of Trenton seeking a new life. She meets Thomas, a young college student, but Thomas does not know who or what his girlfriend really is. Another vampyric person has come to Trenton: a killer. His name is John. Thomas is exposed to blood during a fight to save his life and he becomes vampyric also. The story is about their relationship in the modern-day and also takes us back historically and reveals Majken’s life from the early eighteenth century.

-Ron

The Return of The Vampire

This weeks podcast marks the beginning of the month of December and the Return of the Vampire. You are probably thinking that I have lost my mind and confused Christmas with some twisted Tim Burton type story. The truth is simple we begin the Christmas season with The Horror Express, and the topic for HE#13 will be Vampire’s Revisited. So, to start us off on this spooky week here are some facts about vampires that you may not know.

-Ron

Return of the Vampire – Just the Facts!

The Word Vampire – Many scholars argue the noun Vampire is either from the Hungarian Vampir or from the Turkish Upior meaning Witch. Other scholars argue the term is derived from the Greek “to drink” or Nosophoros meaning Plague-Carrier. It may also derive from the Serbian Bamiiup or the Serbo-Croatian Pirati. There are many terms found in literature and folklore that suggests that the vampire story is part of every culture on the planet.

Dolmens – Celtic for Stone-tables, dolmens would have been placed over graves to keep vampires from rising. Prehistoric stone monuments have been found over the graves of the dead in northwest Europe. Anthropologists speculate they have may been placed over these graves to keep suspected vampires from rising.

Vampire Illness – A rare disease called porphyria (also called the Vampire or Dracula disease) causes vampire-like symptoms, such as an extreme sensitivity to sunlight and hairiness. In extreme cases the teeth might be stained a reddish brown and eventually the patient can go mad.

The True Vampire – One of the most famous “true vampires” was Countess Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614) who was accused of bathing in blood to retain her youthful beauty. She was by all accounts a very attractive woman. Also, the vampire legends may have been based on Vlad of Wallachia, also known as Vlad the Impaler (1431-1476). He had a habit of nailing hats to people’s heads, skinning them alive, and impaling them on upright stakes. His name, Vlad, means son of the dragon or Dracula. Though Vlad the Impaler was murdered in 1476, his tomb is reported empty.

Tales of the Vampire – The first full work of fiction about the vampire was John Polidori’s 1819 book, The Vampyre. It was first published incorrectly under Lord Byron’s name. Polidori was Byron’s doctor and based his vampire on Byron himself. Of course the masterpiece of the genre, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, was written in 1897. It was famous for introducing the character of Count Dracula and tells the story of the monster’s attempt to move from Transylvania to England. It also introduced Dracula’s nemesis, Professor Abraham Van Helsing.

There you have it, some facts to get you started for this week’s podcast and The Horror Express #13.

This Week’s Podcast:

Coming up this week we have a bran new Horror Express podcast for you to enjoy! You can listen to this podcast this Thursday at Ron’s Amazing Stories, download it from iTunes, stream it on TuneIn Radio or listen on your radio Friday night at 8pm Eastern time. Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this link.

The Calendar:

November 24 – Thanksgiving Replay 2016
December 01 – The Horror Express #13
December 08 – OTR Tale From Suspense – (RAS #268)
December 15 – Special Guest – Julie Hawkins – (RAS #269)
December 22 – (RAS #270)
December 29 – Christmas Break 2016