Naturally, all this reaches a terrifying crescendo as Halloween approaches on Tuesday. Over the next five days, you can celebrate Edgar Allan Poe at the Astors' Beechwood Mansion, go on two scary hayrides, check out a horror film festival at the Jane Pickens Theater, take a course in ghost-hunting and attend a Halloween Ball at Belcourt Castle. People like to be scared' Haunted Newport 2000 was created by writer Eleyne Austen Sharp, head of Austen Sharp Publishing and Promotions. It started last year, as Haunted Newport Week, and did so well that it expanded to a full month this year. You can be a princess, or a monster, or a Teletubby if you want, and people don't think you're weird.
People like to be scared, and they like to scare other people.
Sharp got her start in the supernatural business in 1996, when she wrote a book called Haunted Newport , which described ghostly experiences in Newport. I thought, because of its atmosphere and colorful history, a book on haunted Newport would work especially well. For the Newport County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Haunted Newport 2000 is one of many ways to turn the city into a year-round destination instead of just a summer resort. People are so jazzed about vampires and ghosts . . . We're a colonial town, and we have the ambiance of places like the Common Burying Ground.