Behind the Scenes of Valaner’s Gate
Behind the Scenes of Valaner’s Gate
With the True Accounts on Which the Paranormal
Events Are Based
Dowsport
Readers might guess that the town of Dowsport is based on Bucksport, Maine. While the geography and streets of Dowsport mirror those of Bucksport, many of the names are different in my novel. For example, Silver Lake Cemetery in Bucksport is Sutler Lake Cemetery in Dowsport, and some features of Silver Lake Cemetery and the surrounding terrain have been altered.
Dowsport Animal Hospital
In Chapter 1, it is first mentioned that the Dowsport Animal Hospital became busier after one of the animal hospitals in Orrington closed. It is a fact that the River Road Veterinary Hospital in Orrington closed on May 31, 2023, just about four months before my story begins on September 29, 2023. The closure of the Orrington clinic fits well into the story. The location of the Dowsport Animal Hospital corresponds to the location of the Bucksport Veterinary Hospital on Gross Point Road.
Smokey Hollow
In my novel, Smokey Hollow is situated at the northern tip of Dowsport’s town line. Since Dowsport shares its location with Bucksport, Smokey Hollow would be at the northern tip of Bucksport’s town line, near Copeland Brook, between the southeast end of Brewer Lake and the town of Dedham. Smokey Hollow is a concept that incorporates elements from various sources—the epitome of a dilapidated and long-forgotten ghost town from a nineteenth-century settlement, where dark entities are said to linger and
are best left undisturbed. I chose the name “Smokey Hollow” after discovering a road by that name in Aroostook County, Maine. The address for Kevin and Lisa Browning’s home in Smokey Hollow: 58 Bald Mountain Drive, mentioned in Chapter 17, was my childhood address in Bangor, Maine, and it evokes thoughts of Modest Mussorgsky’s musical composition, “Night on Bald Mountain,” and the demon Chernabog who calls forth demons from the mountain top in Walt Disney’s Fantasia.
Dowsport’s Weather and Moon Cycles
While I usually customize the weather and moon cycles to fit a story’s needs, I was surprised to find that the weather and moon cycles in Bucksport and the nearby area worked perfectly in Valaner’s Gate. For instance, Tropical Storm Philippe, first mentioned in Chapter 11 and described in Chapter 12, is a real event. The killing of the Winterport man in September 2023 during Atlantic Storm Lee, when a fallen tree crushed his car, is also a true event. Chapter 11 mentions Hurricane Idalia, which struck Florida’s Big Bend in August 2023. Additionally, the unusually high temperatures on October 28, 2023, with a forecasted high of 75 degrees, accurately reflected the actual temperatures in Bucksport that Saturday, helping to explain why Jason didn’t succumb to hypothermia after being submerged in the lake.
“It was looking at me; it knew I was spying it” (Chapter 4)
In Chapter 4, during Ms. Matsumoto’s description of her vision of the beast, she recounts that it turned and looked directly at her, and she knew it was aware that she could see it. Her bone-chilling fear was inspired by my own experience many years ago. On a Saturday evening in the autumn of 1996, while napping on the living room couch, I woke around 5:30 p.m. to the sound of scraping across the carpet. Just then, a small, shadowy, translucent humanoid creature appeared, climbed over me, and sat between my right hip and the back of the couch. I was horrified, but my body, from my shoulders to my feet, seemed paralyzed. He was about four feet tall, dressed in unusual clothing that included patchwork pants, strange-looking shoes, and a collarless shirt, complete with a small cape attached. He had straight, coarse hair that extended a few inches below where his earlobes would have been, if he had ears. His face was strangely indistinct, resembling a dark void. He began kicking his legs like a child, looked around the room, and then his “face” turned as if looking directly at me. I was terrified. I knew that he knew I could see him! That scared the hell out of me. Suddenly, my body could move, and I rolled off the couch onto the floor and looked up, but he was gone. Descriptions of several of my paranormal experiences are on this website, under D.R. Parks’ Paranormal Experiences.
The Haunted Winterport House (Chapter 5)
I spent my early childhood in the haunted house mentioned in Chapter 5. Built in the late 1700s, it was located at the corner of Whig Street and Main Street in Winterport, Maine. In the chapter, I was one of the two boys with the red wagon who played on the swing set, and the man exiting the house through the back door was my father (in 1972). The paranormal occurrences said to have taken place in the house by Lena Walker—such as the rocking chairs moving by an invisible force—actually happened.
Our family had three rocking chairs kept in the west corner of the third-floor room on the west side of the house (visible on the left side of the picture above). The chimney and fireplace were between the two windows in the room. To enter the room, a person would have to go through a locked door on the second floor, located in our parents’ bedroom on the east side of the house (with a lock near the top of the door), and then go up the stairs to the third floor, where another locked door was. Many times, my family heard the third-floor creaking from the rocking chairs or the scraping sound as they were moved across the upstairs floor. Several times, my parents and my oldest sister, Brenda, found that the chairs had been moved across the room, more than twelve feet, to the windows beside the fireplace. During the summer of 1969 (when I was 3 ½ years old), on a Saturday around 1:00 p.m., while our mother was out shopping and our father was working in his barber shop (visible in the picture above on the east side of the house), Brenda (10 ½ years old) and her sister Polly (8 years old) were in the first-floor kitchen when they heard the sound of the rocking chairs above them (on the third floor). Polly asked if they should get our father to investigate, but Brenda said it would be better not to disturb him on his busiest day, and instead, she banged a broom against the kitchen ceiling (which she had seen our mother do). The rocking sounds stopped for a few minutes, then started again. This happened many times, often on a Saturday night. Sometimes, our family could also hear the moaning and travailing of a woman coming from the third floor.
When Brenda was 8 years old (1967), she took a nap in the upper bunk of the bunk bed in the first-floor bedroom at the house's northeast end. She woke up feeling invisible hands gripping her and throwing her from the bed to the floor. The fall knocked the wind out of her. Our father rushed in, scooped her up in his arms, and then she felt her breathing return. She saw the spirit of a man in the room with them, shaking his finger at her as a warning not to tell her parents about him. She didn’t talk about the incident until years later. That was not the only malevolent spirit in the house.
In the same first-floor bedroom, my younger brother, about 3 ½ years old at the time (1972), was playing and placed his hand on the windowsill of the open north-side window. Suddenly, the window slammed shut on his hand with such force that it shattered the glass.
One day, Brenda opened the closet door in her bedroom (second floor, southeast corner of the house), and the rocks Polly, her sister, had collected and kept at the back of the shelf flew off and hit her on the head.
Many times, my sister Brenda experienced psychic dreams in the house. When she moved her bed to the wall next to our parents’ bedroom, Brenda repeatedly dreamt of being in a car accident. Believing the dreams were connected to the bed's position in the room, she moved it to another wall. But then she started having dreams of being suffocated. Moving her bed to other spots in the room, she also dreamt of being sexually assaulted and of hundreds of snakes crawling on the bedroom floor.
I recall one day climbing the stairs to the second floor, when I saw several translucent people for a moment; one of them looked at me, and they disappeared. I was probably 6 or 7 years old.
The house had a cellar with its floor and walls made of 2-foot-thick quarry stones, and it had no windows. Its door was on the east side of the house, which was the side closest to the barber shop. Hung from the ceiling were kerosene lamps, used before electric light bulbs were invented. Before kerosene lamps appeared in the mid-1850s, homeowners might have used Argand lamps (from the early 1800s), candles, or torches (in the late 1700s). Brenda recalls the cellar being “the creepiest.”
In April 1973, our parents sold the house, and we moved to Anson, Texas, where, in May of that year, we nearly lost our lives to one of the two monster tornadoes that swept through the area. Several years later, after we had moved from Texas back to Maine, the house’s new owner happened to run into my father and asked if he knew the house was haunted. The new owner and his family also heard the rocking chairs moving on their own and experienced poltergeist activity.
If the house had remained to this day, it would be the subject of paranormal investigations, but many years ago, it was torn down, and the Winterport Winery was built in its place (279 Main Street, Winterport).
In my novel, Lena Walker’s apartment is in an old house built in the early 1800s that is on the lot next to (north of) the Winterport Winery (the blue house with white trim at 4 Whig Street, Winterport). As of my latest check, it still stands today.
Beth (Chapter 6)
In Chapter 6 of my novel, Mark and Janet talk about Beth and her extraordinary psychic abilities. Beth’s abilities are not only based on those of my sister Brenda, but the incidents of Beth’s psychic sight mentioned in Chapter 6 were, in fact, Brenda's, without any exaggeration (discussed below).
Brenda began seeing specters and having psychic dreams as early as age 8 (but probably earlier, supporting the theory that psychic abilities are congenital but predominantly dormant). However, her first psychic vision while awake (during the day) occurred when she was about 9 or 10 years old in the haunted Winterport house (discussed above and briefly mentioned in Chapter 5). Involuntarily and instantly, Brenda saw herself walking down a winding staircase of a Southern mansion, wearing an elegant gown. As she descended, she heard the dress swish and noticed a sweet fragrance she was unfamiliar with at the time. (Almost 30 years later, after moving to North Carolina, she would learn that the scent came from blooming magnolias.) In her vision, she saw young men and women in the foyer. The men wore uniforms, and the women wore gowns. Years later, when she saw a picture of Confederate uniforms, she understood her vision was set during the Civil War.
In March 1987, Brenda was 28 years old and lived with her husband and two children in Brewer, Maine. She drove to work along the same route at the same time every day. While driving on Wilson Street, she passed an auto repair and tire shop, and as she did, it seemed to burst into flames. The incident felt very real until she kept driving and realized the explosion had only happened in her mind. The next day, on her way to work, it happened again. It occurred a third time the following day, and when she arrived at work, she shared her vision of the explosion with her coworkers. However, the next day, on her way to work, she “spaced out” and missed her turn onto Wilson Street. The different route caused her to arrive at work five minutes late. When she arrived, all her coworkers were talking about an explosion and fire at the auto repair and tire shop on Wilson Street, as well as a passing car that had been struck by flying debris and crashed. Knowing Brenda’s usual route, they were worried her car might have been involved in the crash.
In the spring of 1990, Brenda’s younger sister, Polly, was living with her husband in Big Piney, Wyoming, about 2,300 miles from Brenda’s home. Polly suspected that her husband was hiding money from her and knew of Brenda’s psychic ability to locate lost items, so she phoned Brenda and asked for help in discovering whether her husband was concealing cash and where it could be found. Although Brenda had never even seen a picture of Polly’s house, she sat quietly for a moment, cleared her mind, and was immediately able to see everything Polly could see in her bedroom. She described the room, and Polly confirmed what Brenda said. Brenda told Polly to check the left front pocket of her husband’s blue jeans on the floor at the foot of the bed, where she would find several coins and other objects. Polly looked and found everything. Brenda also described some other clothing on a chair and various items on the bureau. Then, Brenda perceived Polly’s husband entering their garage, opening the trunk of their car, and hiding cash in a hidden compartment he had apparently created, as if recalling an earlier event. After their phone conversation ended, Polly checked the trunk of the car and discovered the hidden compartment containing cash. (The psychic event was the basis for the example of Beth’s psychic sight mentioned in Chapter 5 of my novel, Valaner’s Gate.)
In December 1997, one of Brenda’s friends, Marsha, asked if she could tell her where her husband had gone and whom he had seen when he left the house so often. Marsha handed Brenda one of her husband’s T-shirts. Holding the T-shirt, Brenda could see everything Marsha’s husband could see, as if she were him driving and stopping to visit some people at a house. Brenda described the road, the house, the garage, and the people. Marsha knew exactly who they were and where her husband had been, and she was glad he wasn’t cheating on her. Later, Marsha told Brenda that she had spoken with friends who confirmed that her husband had been there, just as Brenda had described.
The concept of psychometric sight through the eyes of the deceased was based on my sister Brenda’s psychometric reading from Polly’s necklace. Near the end of August 1993, Polly was killed in a car accident. Several days later, just before the funeral, Brenda asked to be taken to her deceased sister’s bedroom. I accompanied her, unaware of her psychic ability and her intentions at the time. I observed as Brenda searched through Polly’s jewelry box for the cross necklace that her sister often wore. Brenda knew that Polly wore it wherever she went, so she suspected it might reveal information about the accident and how Polly had sustained fatal injuries. She clasped the necklace in her hand, sat on the bed, and immediately had a vision of what Polly experienced during the car accident, as if she were her sister, tumbling down an interstate embankment at night while feeling intense pain. In the vision, Polly was in and out of consciousness in the ambulance and the hospital, where Brenda suddenly felt that Polly was being quickly pulled out of her body and saw starry lights streaking by as she moved toward a brighter light. Just then, Brenda released the necklace and seemed a little more fatigued than usual (she suffered from chronic fatigue). She said nothing to me about what she saw. I thought her behavior was strange, but she was mourning the loss of our sister, and I had no indication whatsoever that she had a psychometric vision. Years later, after becoming a Christian, Brenda speculated that her vision revealed Polly’s experience as her spirit was taken to heaven. In 2014, Brenda disclosed her psychic abilities to me, including her vision of Polly’s death.
(Brenda currently lives in North Carolina with her husband [her second husband, since her first died of a heart attack in 1995].)
MacDuhl’s Seafood & Steakhouse
In my novel, Valaner’s Gate, the scene at MacDuhl’s in Chapter 7 was inspired by photos I had seen of themed restaurants that evoke the feeling of being on an old wooden sailing ship. However, a small part of the inspiration also came from MacLeod’s restaurant in Bucksport, Maine.
The Penobscot Expedition
The Penobscot Expedition is a significant event in U.S. history that took place in Penobscot Bay off the coast of Maine, near the Bucksport area, during the Revolutionary War. I wanted to honor those who made great sacrifices and lost their lives in battle.
Abu Ghraib Prison (Chapter 8)
The prison is real. It is located in Iraq, where tens of thousands of Iraqis were tortured and killed under Saddam Hussein’s regime. Soldiers reported seeing the blood-stained walls and hooks used for torture. The brief mention of Jake Browning’s nights trying to sleep in prison was inspired by my experience (in 2006) when, out of investigative curiosity, I took home a copy of Witches Magazine that a coworker had discarded in a wastebasket. Very unexpectedly, that night while sleeping, I was harassed by three or four hairless, pale humanoids hovering above my bed and touching me as I tried to sleep. The next morning, I suspected that my horrific night had something to do with the magazine (and perhaps also Tarot card readings months earlier from an occultist) and promptly tossed the magazine into a dumpster. That was the end of the harassment. For a while, anyway.
The Haunted Bangor House (Chapter 11 and Chapter 32)
In my novel, a backstory describes paranormal events at Lily Lankhorst’s house on Savage Street in Bangor. Savage Street is about four miles from my childhood home (at 58 Bald Mountain Drive) and less than half a mile from where Stephen King wrote his novel, It. Although the house that inspired the Lankhorst house is in a different state, the paranormal events described are real, as told to me by a seasoned police officer who witnessed them. There was another paranormal event at the house that the officer saw, which I left out of my novel. An old woman died of a heart attack in an upstairs bedroom. The officer stood in the front yard while a young EMT woman went inside and came out, her face as white as a sheet. He asked her if anything was wrong. She said she left the bedroom to get some equipment from the ambulance and walked back into the house, where she saw an apparition of “the lady walking down the stairs with an evil look on her face, and then she disappeared down through the stairsteps.”
The Alberta Bear Attack (Chapter 9)
My novel mentions two people and their dog in Alberta, Canada, who were killed by a bear in September 2023. This event is factual and fits well into the story.
Near Death and Out-of-body Experiences (Chapters 3 and 10)
The mention (Chapter 3) and discussion (Chapter 10) of near-death and out-of-body experiences are based on several of the most credible reports, including veridical NDE/OBEs from people of various ages, educational, and cultural backgrounds, some of whom were blind. You can find a tiny sample of my research and a description of my wife’s out-of-body experience (which was confirmed by witnesses and physical evidence) on this website, under Investigation of Paranormal Claims.
The Cocaine Bear Movie (Chapter 11)
My novel references the film Cocaine Bear. The movie was released in theaters in early 2023 and is based on true events in Georgia in December 1985, where a black bear ate a large amount of cocaine left behind by a drug smuggler who died while parachuting. The movie portrays the bear on a killing spree while high on cocaine; however, in reality, the bear overdosed and died. The film and its plot integrate smoothly into my novel.
The Arizona Bear Attack (Chapter 11)
In my novel, a man is killed by a bear in Arizona in September 2023. This event is factual. The attack and its timing fit perfectly into Chapter 11.
Mr. Creepy (Chapter 11 and Chapter 32)
Mr. Creepy, mentioned in Chapter 11, is based on an actual criminal suspect from a state other than Maine. He was indeed suspected of murdering his grandmother by slashing her throat and eating her face. However, even more shocking is the suspect’s paranormal ability, as described to me by the police officer who witnessed it. The suspect really did jump onto the wall like Spider-Man and was stuck to it seven feet above the floor. He continued climbing the wall while talking before dropping to the floor as if nothing unusual had happened. Later, a clergyman told the officer that he had made a mistake speaking with the suspect, especially considering the chilling paranormal events he experienced afterward. He encountered a creepy woman in a store whom he had never seen before, who stared at him and described past events of his life that she could not possibly have known (hidden knowledge, one of the hallmarks of a serious demonic possession [Gallagher, Demonic Foes, 81]; go to Investigation on Paranormal Claims on this website).
The Floaters (Chapter 15)
A retired Bangor PD officer (who was my next-door neighbor when we were teenagers) told me about incidents of people trying to cross the Penobscot River in the Bangor-Brewer area during winter who fell through the ice and died. Some of the bodies were found in the spring near Bucksport, Maine. The decomposed body of a man found near Gunnvald Marina in my novel was based on a case the retired cop told me about. Yes, its torso split open, fish had feasted on its soft organs and eyeballs, and when they pulled the body out, its skin peeled off. It fits perfectly into Chapter 15, where Dowsport’s spooky atmosphere is mentioned.
Dowsport’s Halloween Festival
Considering that Dowsport is modeled after Bucksport, Maine, which hosts an annual Halloween festival, it made sense for the town in the story to have its own October event. The talk of canceling it for safety reasons added to the sense that something bad might happen.
Fright at the Fort event at Fort Knox (Chapter 1, Chapter 13, and Chapter 15)
Fort Knox’s popular annual Halloween event is a real occurrence. Fort Knox is situated on the western bank of the Penobscot River at 740 Fort Knox Road, Prospect, Maine. It can be seen from across the river in Bucksport (and Dowsport). In my novel, the Fright at the Fort event took place on October 14, 2023, as mentioned in Chapter 13.
Matching Fireplaces Opposite Each Other (Chapter 16)
One night, while I was writing my novel, I had a dream of matching fireplaces facing each other in a hallway. The next morning, I decided to add them to Karen Rouchard’s house, first mentioned in Chapter 16.
Central Street Congregational Church Building (Chapter 20)
The church building in Chapter 20 of my novel combines elements from several churches; however, much of the inspiration came from the Elm Street Congregational Church in Bucksport, Maine.
Professor Denis Alexandru
The professor’s character is modeled on a university professor who teaches outside of Maine. He is quite skeptical about the existence of psychic abilities. He conducted tests with individuals claiming they could psychometrize artifacts. They failed his tests, which, according to the professor, disproved the assertion that psychic ability could benefit archaeology. However, his tests had flaws, and his research on psychic ability was severely lacking. My sister Brenda’s psychometric readings alone (discussed above) provide enough evidence to eviscerate the professor’s opinion.
Balan’s Fight with Dracula
Balan’s revenge against Dracula is rooted in the history of Transylvania from the fifteenth century. Wolf attacks on Dracula’s soldiers are a historical fact, as mentioned in Chapter 2.
Balan’s Castle
Balan’s castle fort isn’t real, but it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. Its inspiration came directly from research on fifteenth-century Transylvania.
The Dark, Shadowy Phantoms of Chapters 25, 26, 28, and 30
The descriptions of dark, shadowy phantoms in Chapters 25, 26, 28, and 30 are based on my clairvoyant encounters with these entities over more than twenty years. Descriptions of several of my paranormal experiences are on this website, under D.R. Parks’ Paranormal Experiences.
Chased by Demons in the Moonlight (Chapter 27)
My writing of Valaner’s Gate began with three scene ideas, one of which was the concept for the scene in Chapter 27. I happened to see an old movie on TV where an elderly fortune-teller told the protagonist he would be chased by demons in the moonlight. More inspiration came from the soundtrack of the film The Wolfman (starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Emily Blunt). Track 16 of the CD soundtrack (Reflection / 2nd Transformation) fits this scene perfectly, where Jason runs for his life through the woods, reaches the brook, and looks up at the full moon, recalling the warning he received four weeks earlier. The paranormal events in Chapter 27, which include speaking an unknown language, great strength, and levitation, are some of the classic signs of serious demonic possession (Gallagher, Demonic Foes, 81).
“Stupid monkey doctor!” (Chapter 27)
The demons’ name-calling in Chapter 27 had nothing to do with Jason climbing trees, but rather was inspired by the experiences of psychiatrist Dr. Richard Gallagher and a priest who met several times with the demon-possessed Julia, “the Satanic Queen,” to gain her agreement to undergo an exorcism [Richard Gallagher, Demonic Foes (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2022)]. Dr. Gallagher witnessed Julia in a trance, speaking with a deep, raspy voice that told the priest, with colorful language, that an exorcism would not save her. “Leave her alone,” the voice said, “you f---king monkey priest... She is ours. We will never let her go. You’ll be sorry, you stupid monkey priest.” Dr. Gallagher felt the term “monkey” was a fair indication of how evil spirits view humans. Later, while on the phone with that priest, Dr. Gallagher and the priest heard the same voice on the line, warning them in the same language to leave Julia alone. The priest said that kind of phone line disruption had happened to him before. More about Dr. Gallagher’s experiences with the demon-possessed Julia can be read on this website, under Research on Paranormal Claims.
Shadowy Phantom Kicking Its Legs Like a Child (Chapter 28)
In the scene, shadowy phantoms appear, gliding through the air, and one of them sits on a gravestone, kicking its legs like a child impatiently waiting for the bloody show to start. This brief scene was inspired by my own experience many years ago. On a Saturday evening in the autumn of 1996, while napping on the living room couch, I woke around 5:30 p.m. to the sound of scraping across the carpet. Just then, a small, shadowy, translucent humanoid creature appeared, climbed over me, and sat between my right hip and the back of the couch. I was horrified, but my body, from my shoulders to my feet, seemed paralyzed. He was about four feet tall, dressed in unusual clothing that included patchwork pants, strange-looking shoes, and a collarless shirt, complete with a small cape attached. He had straight, coarse hair that extended a few inches below where his earlobes would have been, if he had ears. His face was strangely indistinct, resembling a dark void. He began kicking his legs like a child, looked around the room, and then his “face” turned as if looking directly at me. I was terrified. I knew that he knew I could see him! That scared the hell out of me. Suddenly, my body could move, and I rolled off the couch onto the floor and looked up, but he was gone. Descriptions of several of my paranormal experiences are on this website, under D.R. Parks’ Paranormal Experiences.
Nearing the Edge of a Precipice (Chapter 31)
The idea of approaching a demon (fallen angel) for answers to humankind’s most significant questions originated from my frustration with God’s lack of revelation of his existence when I was a skeptic investigating (with utmost analytic curiosity) the evidence for Christianity. At the time, I was experiencing frequent clairvoyant encounters with both benevolent and malevolent specters. Looking back, perhaps it was part of God’s answer to my sincere interest in discovering the truth behind the origin of human life and the cosmos. But most of my frustration persisted. So, I considered the logical possibility that if fallen angels (demons) exist, they could be questioned and might be all too glad to fill in the gaps of our ignorance left by God’s hiddenness (if God would let them). In this, I shared a curiosity with the story’s chief protagonist, Jason Pinard. However, while considering the possibility during an evening walk in the park one night, I suddenly felt the presence of an enormously powerful dark entity that paralyzed me with fear. I felt utterly powerless and emotionally shaken. I then forever gave up any notion of contacting a demon (and, years later, put my faith in God). In Chapter 32, Reverend Bruce Lambert encapsulates the wisdom of this, where he says, “It is better to suffer with a hidden God than trust the father of lies who twists the mind for demonic incursion and destruction.”
