Sylvia Shults — Author And Speaker
Sylvia Shults is the author of 44 Years in Darkness, Fractured Spirits: Hauntings at the Peoria State Hospital, and other books of true ghost stories. She has spent the past twenty years working in a library, slowly smuggling words out in her pockets day by day to build a book of her own. She sits in dark, spooky, haunted places so you don’t have to. She lives a short, ten-minute motorcycle ride away from the haunted asylum that features in so many of her books. She considers it the highest privilege to share the incredible, compassionate history of the Peoria State Hospital.
After battling an intense, lifelong fear of the dark, Sylvia decided to become a ghost hunter. (What WAS she thinking?) As a paranormal investigator, she has made many media appearances, including a tiny part in the Ghost Hunters episode “Prescription for Fear”, about the Peoria State Hospital. She is a recurring guest on Ron Hood’s podcast Ron’s Amazing Stories, with the monthly segment “Ghost Stories With Sylvia”. She is also the writer, director, producer, and host of the true ghost story podcast Lights Out, available on YouTube, iTunes, iHeart Radio, Spotify, and anywhere else great podcasts are found.
Sylvia loves hearing from her readers, especially when they have spooky stories of their own to share with her. She can be found at www.sylviashults.wordpress.com, and on Facebook at the pages for Fractured Spirits and Ghosts of the Illinois River.
Conference Presentation
Lizzie Borden: A hot day in August. Tempers fray in the oppressive humidity. Anger explodes into tragedy. The story of Lizzie Borden has become one of the most intriguing mysteries of our nation’s past. But what really happened on the muggy morning? Sylvia Shults, collector of history and real ghost stories, takes us back in time to the August day that saw the brutal ax murders of Andrew and Abby Borden, and asks the question…did Lizzie really give her mother forty whacks, and her father forty-one?
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