I have been haunting for the past 6 years or so and LOVE EVERY FREAKING MINUTE OF IT!

I have even turned my 11 year old nephew into a haunter!

See.. it all started when I was a young child and was TERRIFIED at a local haunted house. Some guy in a gorilla suit thought it would be scary to pick up the cute little blonde kid and pretend to abduct her. That was the 70's folks... it was the days of wooden lincoln logs and tin dollhouses - if you got hurt you got a bandaid not a lawyer.

Anywho! All through my teen years I avoided haunted houses like the plague. Oh sure - it always SOUNDED like fun - but when it came time to go through I either chickened out or went through with my eyes closed. What a waste now that I look back.

So fast forward years and years into the future and now we are dealing with a grown adult who is TERRIFIED of haunted houses - and feeling like an IDIOT. Some friends were working in one and thinking that I would be big and brave I decide to take my (then) 4 year old nephew and his little friend through a daylight lights on low scare walkthrough. BIG BIG BIG MISTAKE. My idea of low scare and theirs was COMPLETELY different and I managed to traumatize yet another generation.

The next year I made up my mind that maybe the way to overcome my fear was to actually work as an actor at the same haunt since I knew several people that were there. It worked.

Since then, I have been able to be a part of what we think is one of the best haunts in Southwest Virginia. And we have plans... big plans.

We don't have money but that can force you to be very creative in building. We have managed to keep our noses above water each year by seeing more people each year and growing ourselves at a steady pace - adding more props each year.

We are proud of our haunt. And we have so many of the larger haunts out there to thank. We have been watching how many of you have grown, researching the progress and attempting to do our haunt the right way.

Kudos to each of you out there who have proven to be such wonderful mentors without even knowing it.

Next up for us is hopefully finding a way to sell advertising and get sponsorships which will in turn free up some more revenue for us to build more and more. Possibly adding additional vendor space (we have a year-round store on premises now that is celebrating it's 1st anniversary).

Anyways - that is me in a nutshell... I am eager to talk to any of you and all of you who have time to chat.

Also - visit my Myspace page: www.myspace.com/notesfromtheasylum.

There are lots of pictures there and I am sure there will be bunches here too soon enough!

Hugs and Screams from Virginia!

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