Paranormal paperback: Author donates newest book to Nocturnal’s lending library
MONROE — Sporting a knit hat, Nocturnal T-shirt and sipping a sugar-free vanilla latte, dark fiction and comedy writer Bryan Prince sat at a table inside the corner cafe and thoughtfully inscribed his latest book, “28 Years Haunted The Life and Adventures of World-Renowned Psychic Medium Brandy Marie Miller.”
“To Nocturnal, Congrats on your Grand Opening! Happy Haunting!” Prince wrote before sketching a spider on the page. The inscription can be found under Miller’s signature.
Prince and his wife, Deanne, were visiting Hannah and Zach Holdwick’s Nocturnal Penny University for the second time. The first was on opening day. Their next visit was to drop off a copy of his recently released book as a gift to the shop’s lending library.
“We came down for grand opening night and we saw that the atmosphere is as delicious as the drinks are and I saw the books in the back and found out it’s a lending library,” Bryan Prince said. “I immediately thought what a great grand opening present it would be to donate a book.”
“It was very generous and awesome he thought to include a small business,” said Hannah Holdwick, owner of Nocturnal, 2 W. Front St., Monroe.
Prince penned Miller’s biography under the name B.D. Prince and offers a glimpse of what life is like for the fifth-generation psychic medium who starred in the Netflix series, “28 Days Haunted.” He also designed the book’s cover.
“Horror and suspense is what I gravitate to, but I also like writing comedy,” he said. “I got started in comedy but I’ve always had a passion for horror. I grew up on reruns of 'The Munsters,' 'The Addams Family,' 'Bewitched,' and 'The Twilight Zone.' My brother, Terry, was a huge horror fan and he started me from a young age.”
The former Flat Rock resident moved to California to pursue a career in screenwriting. His biography includes short stories and screenplays to one-liners for comedian and actress the late Joan Rivers. For the past five years, he and Deanne have lived as full-time RVers.
In 2019, Prince and Miller met at an asylum. They were working together on a paranormal investigation at Eloise Psychiatric Hospital in Westland. A year later, they haunted the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio.
Miller, who grew up in Taylor, reached out to Prince in 2022 after the Netflix series aired about the idea of writing her biography.
"My first thought was ‘I write fiction. I don’t write non-fiction, let alone biographies,'" he said. "… We started talking and she started sharing her life story with me and I thought ‘Oh, I can work with this.’”
After all, Miller can see dead people.
The duo collaborated via telephone conversations, Zoom meetings, emails and texts.
In the 347-page paperback, Prince writes about “The Man in White,” which Miller remembers seeing in her bedroom at the age of 5.
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Throughout the book, Miller mentions other entities like "The Whistler," "Rose" and her experience with ghost children along with filming at Madison Dry Goods and Country Store, a haunted historic building in Madison, North Carolina. Now a museum, the upstairs once served as a funeral parlor.
Apprehensive about spending 28 days locked in the haunted location, Miller talks about noticing a dime on the sidewalk in front of the store.
“Before my mom died, I asked her to give me a sign to let me know if she ever visited me from the afterlife,” Miller said in the book. “The sign we agreed on? A dime placed heads up. I bent down and looked at the coin and saw the face of Franklin D. Roosevelt shining up at me. I believe my mom was letting me know she had my back.”
That same location is where the book was launched on Oct. 20. It was officially released on Halloween.
Throughout the book, Miller shares personal photos, what it’s like to be psychic and have children with the same gift. She talks about investigations, the lingering effects and her goal to expand her career as a psychic medium. In addition to promoting her book, she’s returned to doing psychic readings for clients and helping them in “their spiritual journey.”
“The book has been getting some rave reviews. Everybody keeps telling us what a page turner it is. People are reading it in two sittings,” Prince added. “It’s in distribution in North America, the UK, Europe and Australia.”
On Saturday, Nov. 4, “28 Years Haunted” reached No. 1 in paid downloads on Amazon’s new releases in Midwest U.S. Travel Guides and can be found at Adventure Ink Books in Milan and Barnes and Noble.
Prince is currently working on a variety of projects for film and television. Many of which he’s excited about. His screenplay, “Simon Says,” placed second at the 2023 Horror Fest International in the short screenplay category.
His next project will be finishing a feature script for the short film before starting a novel. Deanne is the first one to read his work and offers honest feedback.
“On my computer are folders filled with short stories, novellas, novels, screen plays, TV series,” Prince said. “I have more ideas than I have time to write in my lifetime.”
More information on Prince and his work, including “28 Years Haunted The Life and Adventures of World-Renowned Psychic Medium Brandy Marie Miller,” can be found at bdprince.com.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Paranormal paperback: Author donates newest book to Nocturnal’s lending library
