Sunday, May 12, 2013

L'immortalite: Madame Lalaurie and the Voodoo Queen to haunt New Orleans' Hotel Monteleone Next Month


The Hotel Monteleone is known for its ghosts and its writers, so it is hardly surprising that this hotel was picked  for the 2013 Horror Writers Convention, which, this year, is also incorporating the World Horror Convention. The  HWA/WHC weekend runs June 13-16, culminating with the gala presentation of the 26th annual Bram Stoker Awards.
The Hotel Monteleone is designated as an official literary landmark by the Friends of the Library Association. Writers who often stayed at the hotel include Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemmingway.  John Grisham, Stephan Ambrose, Eudora Welty, Anne Rice and numerous other popular authors have also been guests.  Truman Capote once claimed (jokingly) to have been born there.   
According to the International Society of Paranormal Research, at least a dozen ghosts haunt the Monteleone, the best known of which is a child ghost who has been lingering in the hotel for over a century.  Just a mile down Royal Street from the haunted Lalaurie Mansion, Hotel Monteleone is the ideal setting for a meeting of horror writers, and I will be there daily at Table #5 (Nonius LLC  Press) in the dealers room (La Nouvelle Orleans West). Stop by and say hello.