{"id":2278,"date":"2026-09-02T21:27:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/?p=2278"},"modified":"2026-09-02T21:27:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:27:47","slug":"a-curious-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2026\/09\/02\/a-curious-presence\/","title":{"rendered":"A Curious Presence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019m a 100% certified nosey bitch. I\u2019m always curious about people, what they do, why they do it, what they think about, etc. So, it should come as no surprise why I HAD to read a review copy of \u201cA Curious Presence: Explorations of Ghosts and the People Who Haunt Them\u201d by Margo MacDonald. That subtitle, right? Dare I say perfection? I dare! I dare!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MacDonald has worked as a tour guide for haunted ghost tours, and as a paranormal researcher, who describers themselves as a \u201cbenevolent skeptic.\u201d The book has interviews and investigations. For each investigation the author brought along a friend, or two, that they describe as \u201cghost bait,\u201d because MacDonald has found some of the most activity has occurred when they\u2019re with someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe the author is based in Canada, which is wonderful because I got to read about locations that were new to this ignorant American. \u201cA Curious Presence\u201d features investigations at Dean Court Hotel York in York, England, Mackenzie King Estate in Quebec, Canada, Oxford Castle & Prison in Oxford, England, Fort Henry National Historic Site in Ontario, Canada, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MacDonald interviewed an interesting assortment of people connected to the paranormal community: Jim Dean, director of the Haunted Walk and host of the Haunted Talks podcast, Alan Murdie, lawyer by day, Chairman of the Ghost Club and author by night, Dr. Ciaran O\u2019Keefe, applied psychologist, ghost hunter, and self-described skeptic, Greg and Dana Newkirk, curators of the Newkirk Museum of the Paranormal, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether an investigation or an interview, MacDonald explores the reasons we experience hauntings, why they happen (or if they really do), and why we may need them. \u201cA Curious Presence\u201d by Margo MacDonald isn\u2019t afraid to explore the difficult questions about the paranormal and be comfortable with landing on never knowing for certain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can learn more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preorder your copy here.<\/a> (This is an affiliate link to my Bookshop, which supports independent bookstores throughout the United States. If you use this link to purchase the book, I will make a small commission at no additional cost to you.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you enjoy The Magical Buffet? Considering supporting The Magical Buffet on Patreon! For only $5 a month you\u2019ll receive monthly tarot\/oracle forecasts, classes, and behind the scenes updates! https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/magicalbuffet<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interested in an exploration of ghosts and the people who haunt them?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2278"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2281,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278\/revisions\/2281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}