With Halloween approaching, Nicole and Michael Kobrowski’s ghost tours are naturally extremely popular.
But this year, they have been busy since March. They usually offer weekend tours April through November.
“This year, we have been absolutely slammed,” Nicole said. “Business has been very good. We’re actually booked through December with private and public tours.”
The Westfield couple run Historic Indiana Ghost Walks & Tours in Westfield, Noblesville, Anderson and Indianapolis. They also write books about the paranormal.
The couple’s most recent paranormal book is “Cursed Circle City,” which was released in July and is about Indianapolis spots that are reported to have paranormal activity. Nicole usually does nearly all of the writing, but Michael contributed four chapters.
“He helps with the research on all of my books because we love history so much,” Nicole said. “He and I collaborated on this because it was a long-overdue book, writing about a lot of the places we love in Indianapolis. The stories are very intensive. They have a lot of history and a lot of ghosts, seven of the 10 we’ve investigated, so that makes it even better for the readers who hear not only our version of things but other people who have had experiences as well. Some of the places are on the tour we can’t dig in as deep in the history because we have a limited amount of time.
“There is so much more to these places than what we present. Michael was really excited because he gives a lot of the Indianapolis tours.”
Nicole said her husband was nervous about writing the chapters.
“But I’ve had many years of experience writing and editing and was able to guide him through that,” Nicole said. “I think he did a great job.”
One story is about the Slippery Noodle Inn in Indianapolis, which was formerly a brothel.
“There are the ladies of the night that haunted the upstairs and who aren’t too awfully excited about men,” Nicole said. “The building The Rathskeller is in and my favorite ghost of all time, Dr. Helene Knabe, haunts that building. She was a doctor who was murdered down the street (in 1911). She spent a lot of time in that building because it was the German community center.”
Knabe’s murder was unsolved. Nicole also wrote a book about her life and murder.
Nicole said another book, called “Ghosts of Hamilton County,” is due out in November from their publishing house, unseenpress.com. Nicole said they also have books about Indiana history.
Nicole recently wrote “A Letter to Krampus” that was published in October.
“I consider the Krampus books as folklore,” Nicole said of the horned figure who scares children who have misbehaved before Christmas. “The book is about a little boy who wants to be an apprentice to Krampus, and he is extolling his virtues on why he’s fit for that job.”
The next book is called “Krampus Starts the War,” where Krampus gets other folklore figures together. He tells them they are cramping his style and they need to move out of the way. Nicole has created two accompanying coloring books for the books.
For more, visit unseenpress.com.
