About the Author

Beth Brown is a connoisseur of freckled faces, anthropological oddities, and dry wit. Her creative career began not with writing, but with visual art and illustration. This probably explains why she still prefers to write with a paper and pen.

Beth turned her focus toward words after learning that the history and legends she had been researching as a hobby were quickly slipping away with the previous generation.  Her non-fiction books became a mission to preserve the events of the past while making them fun and entertaining for modern readers. She managed this by pairing her love of history with another passion - the search for ghosts.

Beth began investigating the paranormal in 1989 when a mentor sent her to interview the owners of a 250-year old home practically overflowing with spirits. Photographs and audio recordings made that day ignited her curiosity about life after death and set the wheels in motion for two decades of research. In 2007, Beth founded the Virginia Society of Paranormal Education and Research (VASPER) to provide a venue for training, networking, and resource-sharing for paranormal investigation teams throughout the region. She is a Professional Member of the Rhine Research Center in Durham, NC, and is currently conducting ongoing experiments with real-time spirit communication.

Beth and her research of the paranormal activity at Sherwood Forest Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia, were featured on the Emmy-award winning program Virginia Currents, episode #1923, which aired March, 2010. She has served as a paranormal consultant to several media outlets, including A&E Network, CBS, PBS, and Discovery. Beth appeared as a recurring judge in the new Travel Channel series Paranormal Challenge with Zak Bagans, which debuted in June, 2011. She instructed one of Hollywood's finest, Eric Roberts, how to investigate a haunting in Celebrity Ghost Hunt with Chip Coffey (of Psychic Kids and Paranormal State) on the Biography Channel in July, 2011.

A passionate supporter of the DIY arts movement, Beth founded the publishing house Iron Cauldron Books in 2007. The company's goal is to provide a publishing outlet for writers of "fringe" topics without having the artistic merit of their work altered to suit the market, and they are scheduled to release two new titles in 2011. Beth currently serves as the Senior Editor at both Iron Cauldron Books and Haunted Times Magazine.

Beth Brown lives in Richmond, Virginia. She is available to lecture about writing, publishing, Virginia history, Voodoo and other folk religions, and paranormal phenomena for libraries, museums, festivals, and independent bookstores in the Southeast. Please contact her for more information or to secure her as a speaker for your event.

If you are a member of the media and would like to schedule an interview, please request a Press Kit (pdf)


Latest Works

(Click Images to Purchase)

NOW AVAILABLE! Richmond Macabre: Nightmares From the River City offers fifteen short stories of ghosts, vampires, zombies, and unnamable terrors that dare you to peer into the shadows of the River City, but you must first be certain you are prepared to glimpse the horrors that lie within...


NEW! Wicked Richmond exposes a closet full of historical skeletons in Virginia's capital city. Tales of murder, deception, and even of pirates tried and executed in the heart of downtown will lead readers on a journey into the evil side of the city's past.
 

 

WINNER - 2010 Library of Virginia People's Choice Award
Haunted Plantations of Virginia spotlights 20 historic homes and the author's explorations of the ghostly encounters reported at each.  Find out why the tales of murder, suicide, hidden fortune, and heartbreak at these sites cause spirits to linger.

 

Haunted Battlefields leads you on a literary journey to thirteen of Virginia's most haunted Civil War sites in search of spectral residents. Visit Cold Harbor, Henry House Hill, and the Bull Run Bridge at Manassas, Fredericksburg's Sunken Road, Grant's Headquarters at Appomattox Manor, and many more ghostly places!

 

Conducting a Paranormal Investigation - a Training Guide
Originally developed as a training manual for the Virginia Society of Paranormal Education and Research (VASPER), this guide is now available to all beginners and would-be ghost-hunters hoping to capture evidence of the supernatural for themselves.

 

From a Witch's Kitchen - Celebrating Seasonal Magic in Every Meal
This cook's reference balances the comforts of winter, the fresh tastes of spring, the revitalizing flavors of summer, and the abundant harvests of autumn in one spell-binding book. Brown has packed nearly 100 vegetarian recipes into this collection that showcase nature's bounties at their peak from three generations of kitchen witches.

 


Special Projects

PAGE A DAY 365
Beth's yearlong writing adventure, "Page a Day 365", comes in the wake of her recently completed Trinket a Day project. Every day during 2012, she is drafting at least one page of her upcoming Southern Gothic novel entitled Whitehall. Readers are invited to follow the book's progress while learning about valuable writing resources, methods of motivation, and tips of the craft.

TRINKET A DAY 365
Inspired by fellow Richmonder
Noah Scalin's "Skull a Day" project, Beth began a creative journey on January 1, 2011 that ended on December 31, 2011. The "Trinket a Day 365" adventure spotlights her jewelry-making skills and offers readers a look at her unique daily creations. Artists of all types are invited to participate in creative challenges, explore visual and written art prompts, and absorb a little motivation from Beth's blog posts about the processes involved in making art. The project and a bit of Beth's advice on setting goals for creativity can be found in the book Unstuck from Voyageur Press.

THE FULL SPECTRUM (RADIO)
Beth Brown and Rusty O'Nhiall, the team who brought you Mysterious & Unexplained, are together again on this exciting and informative talk
show. On The Full Spectrum, Rusty and Beth have stepped outside of their usual format to bring together a show that explores a wide variety of topics including science, history, current events, forensics, parapsychology, conspiracy theories, the paranormal, and more. Nothing is left out in their search to bring listeners a show that will leave them questioning and wondering about the world's mysteries.

The Full Spectrum airs internationally on digital radio via PsiFM Radio. In the US, catch the show every Monday night at 8 PM Eastern on the web.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

©2011 Beth-Brown.com