More on haunted houses

It is October, after all.

As someone who grew up fascinated by ghost stories and “Creature Features” I think haunted houses have always been at the top of my list. From the old black and white movies - The Haunting, The Uninvited - to the next generation - The House That Would Not Die, The Amityville Horror - it wasn’t a huge leap for me to want to write about haunted houses, starting with LIVING CANVAS. I’m a little sad that more modern interpretations turn into slasher flicks, as if the only thing that can scare us now is being sliced and diced. I prefer to stick with the fear of the unknown.

As I write my next haunted house book, I’m trying to stick to “the rules” that I have established for my ghosts, which is often colored by the rules of other authors and screen writers over the years. Ultimately, I come back to my own limited (and probably questionable) experiences, and the experiences of “sensitive” people I’ve met. Those seem to be supported by the ghost hunter shows I’ve also been watching to get the mood. At a recent author event, a reader asked me if I’d had any encounters in the cemetery where I started the EPITAPH series. The simple answer is no, although I walked the cemetery in the middle of a crisp September afternoon. 

Which asks the question, why do ghosts only show up at night? And why do the ghost hunters only work in the dark? I suppose the easy answer is because it’s easier to see a “manifestation” in the dark. The hazy, misty, amorphous shapes that make up a ghost. However, the sensitive person I spoke with in my recent research saw her manifestations in broad daylight. So what are the rules?

1. The dead can’t speak. This is supported in the Bible when a dead man wants to go back to warn his family to straighten up. Similar to what Dickens references in A Christmas Carol. The Lord tells the dead man those he wants to warn have the information they need, the same as he did. The result is in what we do with that information.

2. In order to see a ghost, you need to be open to the possibility. As much as they need to expend energy and intent to be seen, we need to expend energy and intent to see them.

3. When a person passes, their energy remains. Sometimes only for a moment, and sometimes as residue, like seasoning in an iron skillet. 

Finally- do ghosts really exist? The answer is very subjective. For me, its a matter of entertainment. When my parents talked about dying, I asked jokingly if they would come back and be my guardian angels, which earned me a resounding “no.” I read a book not long ago about a woman whose little sister died, and she was so overwhelmed with grief that she wouldn’t let the spirit go. As a result, the dead sister’s ghost couldn’t move on and grew more grisly as time went on. When we keep the people we lose dear in our hearts, they always walk with us, whether we see them or not. More memory than ghost.

For more about spirits and haunted houses, I stumbled on this blog that you might enjoy. 

https://samanthagentry.blogspot.com/2022/10/7-signs-your-house-could-be-haunted.html

Haunted House vs. Abandoned

Dear Husband and I took a trip up to his hometown last week, and while we were there, he took me to several places I haven't seen in all the years we've been married and visited there. We also walked "out and about" around the neighborhood, and as in most neighborhoods these days, there was a house that was empty. I stopped and took a picture for my "haunted house" files. We're back home this week, and while we were driving to the gym to exercise, we passed the same old empty house we pass every time we go that direction, one that never struck me as haunted. The property has several buildings that are falling down and in severely bad shape. It's more an eyesore than anything else. 

That got me to thinking. What's the difference between an abandoned house and a haunted house? Are there criteria?

One of the reasons this struck me this time, I think, is that the house where DH's grandparents lived was in sad shape for a long time, and while it wasn't abandoned, it housed some shady people for a while. There are "those" types of houses that don't strike you as haunted, just ill-used. Let me just say that the current residents in his grandparents' house bought it as a fixer-upper and have fixed it up. It's beautiful now, restored to some of its old glory (although they closed off the old coal chute and ice chute).

Back to the "haunted house." Even in our neighborhood, we had a house that sat empty for a long time - abandoned. Haunted? No. Ill-used. With that being said, the neighbor who lived next door pointed out the difference one day, telling us how "vampires" lived in the house on the other side of them. A creepy vibe, as opposed to the abandoned vibe the empty one gave off. 

There's a certain aura around a "haunted" house, to my way of thinking. Character. The most recent example on our walk had a clearly abandoned feel to it, not the least of which was a satellite dish still on the roof and a boarded-up front door. But there was something more. Maybe because it was an older neighborhood, an older home. Maybe it was the balcony over the front porch, where I envisioned a ghost keeping watch. A big, welcoming front porch. The sense it had been recently occupied. Whatever it was that perked up my imagination, I stopped to take the picture as inspiration for "what comes next."

When I was growing up, we had a big old Victorian up the street that we always designated as the haunted house. It had been subdivided into apartments, and while we were playing in the yard next door one day, one of the tenants came out on the balcony and did an "Igor" impression to scare all of us. We all screamed with delight, but it also took away some of the haunted feel after that.

Do you have a "haunted house" in your neighborhood?

Ghost stories

I'm full speed ahead on the new book, and I have a date with the editor. You can look for the final Hoffman Grove installment (yes, this is definitely the last one) to hit the shelves in July. 

In the meantime, I'm also preoccupied with the new series plans. Two very distinct fieldtrips leading to three very definite story lines, which I intend to jump into as soon as this one is done. (More fieldtrips planned.) Since I'm going back to the "haunted" theme, one of the inevitable questions people ask me is "Do you believe in ghosts?" Most recently, the docent on my last house tour. My answer? "I don't NOT believe in them." Have I had ghostly experiences? I'd have to say yes, because I've been able to supply examples when people ask me. Are they the typical hauntings you expect when you think of ghosts? No. They will, however, hold me in good stead as I dream up scary stories to tell you! Hoping I don't scare myself! I have to say writing the Epitaph series scared me a few times.

I'm thinking I might share a few ghost stories right here on my blog as I prepare to spend more time in haunted houses. 

Which brings me to my question today. Have you ever had a ghostly experience?