About Alexandra Heep

About Alexandra Heep: The internet has allowed allowed Alexandra to maintain a semblance of life when encountering an unexpected, lingering health crisis. The Internet is a lifeline which not only allows her to remain connected to friends, but also survive, via writing.While Alexandra Heep is her pen name, she does not hide behind it. Instead, she used it to brand herself on the Internet and to create opportunities.

Alexandra published her first book, a collection of her best poems, on July 11, 2012. You can buy it at Lulu.com

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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

What Was Your Childhood Monster?



It's funny how things work: I was at a loss for a blog topic and stumbled across a blog hop hosted by Christine Rains. The topic is, as you guessed, about childhood monsters.

Now, growing up in Germany with the original Grimm Brothers tales, not the child-friendly American versions, I did not really have any monsters under the bed or in the closet. Then again, we have wardrobes, not closets, and they do not lead to Narnia either.

Besides, the Grimm Brothers wrote their grim tales to show children that life is not all puppies and kittens. However, I have an experience I've been meaning to share that I am going to sneak in under this topic, as it is a real event that frightened me for years and could take the place of the monster under the bed.

It was a weird day, charged with a strange kind of energy. You know, the kind they describe in books and show in movies when you feel something sinister is about to happen. I am not sure how old I was, perhaps 10, perhaps a little older or younger.

I was in my second floor bedroom and was leaning out the open window. I don't think it was raining. All of a sudden I saw this glowing sphere slowly rising up behind the roof of the neighbors building. Scared, yet fascinated, I was unable to look away, even as the object starting hovering towards me. By the time it was in front of the window, I was screaming and my mother ran up the stairs to see what was going on.

Well, it came into the room, if I remember right, unless my mind has made that up in the 30 plus years since then. My mother saw it too, I asked her what it was, but she just shook her head. The sphere eventually left, the same way it had come in, through the window. To this day I remember the burning smell it left behind, another reminder that what we had seen was very real.

The following day, we asked around in the neighborhood and watched the news and read the paper to see if there were any strange occurrences. Remember, this was way before Internet, social media and all that. All we came up with was a family who said they had seen something that looked like a burning plane in the sky, but none was reported to have crashed of course.

From then on, I have had the occasional nightmare about strange things in the sky attacking us. Research revealed this might have been a "Kugelblitz" or ball lightning. Why it seemed to be attracted by me or my body heat or whatever is still a mystery to me. However, at least if it has a name it's less frightening .... don't you think?




19 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Now that is freaky. I've read about ball lightning before and how it doesn't act like normal lightning.
And with that story, I think you win!

Alexandra Heep said...

Thank you Alex, it's funny how long it took me to write it down, and this was the perfect opportunity.

Glorygarden@msn.com said...

How bizarre! You didn't feel anything though? Couldn't imagine what it could be, but my guess would be a disgruntled spirit. Eerie!

Alexandra Heep said...

Eerie it was for sure.

Conny said...

How very strange Alex. Quite a unique experience.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Ball lightning is so weird. I used to read about stuff like that as a child all the time.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

I remember seeing something like that as a child. The sky was wide open out in the country, so we often say meteors and shooting stars. They're scary as a child.

Christine Rains said...

That is a freaky experience. I was about to say ball lightning too, or even something like a willow-the-wisp. Thank you for sharing your story with us and for helping to promote my novella. :)

Diane said...

There is another explanation of the X-files type--documentation about balls of light in connection with alien presence in our skies. Apparently these balls of light are scouts seeking information. The fact that the light came into your room and then exited the same way, points toward this possibility. Before you think I'm "one of those crazy people," let me assure you that I'm not. Twenty years ago I was in a position to learn much about the possibility that aliens visit and scrutinize earth and also the paranormal world as I worked for a super wealthy man and this genre was his hobby passion. His name is Robert T. Bigelow and if you visit the website listed here, you'll see that he turned his interest about space into a business reality at bigelowareospace.com. His space efforts have been written about in Forbes and Time's magazines as well as other science type publications. His goal is to send the first motel into space. When I was his Ex. Sec, he had just begun to explore unexplained phenomena. Balls of light was just one event that I remember. In fact, I saw a large ball of light in the sky myself once, but that's another story. This comment is already too long!

God is Love said...

That is eerie and scary. I have seen ball lightning and I don't think that was it. I also saw green fire balls that just whizzed by. Is that the only strange thing that happened to you?

Alexandra Heep said...

Great balls of fire, did this open up a can of worms!

L.Diane and Susan, thanks for sharing your observations.

Christine, I never heard of the willow-the-wisp, I'll have to research

Diane, for many years I thought about that, but it's a frightening thought so my explanation is safer. If they did gather info, my family was the wrong one to pick ...boy oh boy. If they measure us by the standards of my family, they'd obliterate earth.

Akalinus, my whole life has been strange, so ... no.

Mina Lobo said...

Wow, what a terrifying experience!
Some Dark Romantic

Robin said...

hi, I'm visiting from the bloghop.
Oh man, I would have crapped my pants if some floating orb came into my bedroom window.
And it's true, giving something a name makes it less scary. I'm off to research Kugelblitz.

jaybird said...

I think this was the freakiest story I've read so far. Oh my gosh! Giving it a name, would just solidify it's creepy factor in my head. How frightening!

Great entry!

Lauren said...

Ball lightning is usually seen in planes (it runs down the middle of the metal shell), but if for some reason there was an electromagnetic anomaly in and around your house it could have used that. It's happened before, but I haven't ever seen a first hand account like this.

Alexandra Heep said...

@Mina, I was almost sorry I dug it up out of my mind, but the comments here makes it worthwhile.

@Robin, I guess I was too young to do so, but as an adult I might have!

@jaybird, that is a fantastic idea.

@Lauren, not sure if I want to be that special ... but I am loving the feedback.

Guilie Castillo said...

Ooooh, creepy! Great story, though--thanks for sharing!

Shannon Lawrence said...

Definitely scary! Did it make you fear aliens at all, or did you ever connect it with anything else that was scary?

My monster: http://thewarriormuse.blogspot.com/2012/08/childhood-monster-blog-fest.html

Alexandra Heep said...

Shannon, at the time I did not think aliens. However, in time with strange dreams occurring you could say that I did.