Going dark this week.

Life is busy this week with outside distractions. Will be back next week with more musings. In the meantime…

Today is the last day to enter the booksweeps.

Looking for something to read? Like books set in small towns? Have I got a deal for you! Fifty books - including BEING NEIGHBORLY. Also up for grabs is an ereader. Contest runs August 15-August 31.

The ghost in the basement

I should probably adopt a Vincent Price tone of voice for this post (hint, I missed the mark when I tried). And speaking of Vincent Price, did anyone else ever see his appearance on the Carol Burnett Show years and years ago where they sat on the stage and had an innocent dinner together while he demonstrated the difference between a normal conversation and one where everything he said took on a different aspect when he turned down the lights and changed his tone of voice? (Does anyone know who Vincent Price was?) Maybe I should craft an alternate blog post, the way he did an alternate "dinner conversation." In the meantime...here's the "innocent" version.

The other night, I was having trouble sleeping. I got up to retrieve my iPad and send an email to my buddy, because that’s what she and I do when we can’t sleep. As I reached for my tablet, which was turned off (and not just sleeping), there was a flash of light--the size of a lightning bug, but no lightning bugs in the house--at the corner of the cover. Odd, but maybe just tired eyes. I fired up the tablet and found a notification from one of the “nanny cams” in the basement. Dear Husband has them set up to monitor his workshop when he leaves his machines to work without him. At night, in the dark, there absolutely should not be “motion in the basement.” So there I sat, in the dark (because I don’t need to bother DH just because I can’t sleep), debating if I want to know what’s in my basement.

For someone who writes scary stories, you’d expect my imagination to work overtime. I thought about it for about half a second, then called up the video. Let it be said I had watched an episode of Ghost Hunters recently that discussed orbs of light and energy, and all of that, which might have made me suggestible. So why did my thoughts immediately go to the rational explanation?  Not scared. Not concerned. I will say I watched the entire 90 seconds recording looking for a ghostly face to go with the orb. No such luck. (And that's a nightlight on the ceiling, so nothing odd there.)

The next morning over breakfast, I showed the video to DH, who absolutely does NOT believe in ghosts, just to see what his reaction was. His guess? Tinkerbell. 😂😆

What do you think? 

Who wants free books?

 

Looking for something to read? Like books set in small towns? Have I got a deal for you! Fifty books - including BEING NEIGHBORLY Contest runs August 15-August 24. 

Destination: Galena

We made it! We finally visited Galena. Between bad weather and other responsibilities, it wasn't as easy as it seemed.

Holograms of Ulysses S. Grant
and his wife Julia

Those rooms under the stairs...

Galena is a beautiful town and tourist destination. It has a wealth of haunted history, along with a wealth of history, period. I used it as a setting in one of my Epitaph books, when Garth takes Sandra out of town to get away from her psycho ex. It's the perfect place for a girls' weekend (I've done one there, myself) and this year they're doing a romance writers event in connection with their official girls' weekend in September. Since I'm always looking for an excuse to go, I signed up to be there next year. 

In addition to a cute downtown area with all kinds of specialty shops, Galena has outdoor activities. Golf. A zipline. Hunting, for those hunter/provider types. Fair warning. It's a tourist destination, so as charmed as you are by the corner candy store, they're going to charge you twice what you'd pay for that saltwater taffy than you would at home. They have ghost tours every night -- not ghost hunting expeditions, mind you, just historical tours with ghost stories. And the history is rich. If you're walking down the main drag, make sure you look up. You might see a horse looking down on you from a second-story window. I've never been there when there wasn't a significant amount of foot traffic. And did I mention the recreational options? 

We went specifically to see the holograms in the history museum, which we'd seen before, but which had new appeal for me with my current project. You'll note in the photo I took that you can see through Julia Grant--sort of like you might expect to see through a ghost. Galena is a day trip, so we had to justify the time and gas to get there. I would have preferred to go for a weekend but will save that for another time (maybe next year!). 

While we were there, we toured the home Ulysses S. Grant occupied when he wasn't in St. Louis or Washington (after he was elected president). There are also homes of other historical notables available to tour, and a mansion - Belvedere - that is as much a museum as anything else. When nearby Dubuque failed to build their art museum, many of their treasures were sent to the mansion, where they are on display. 

The town has a wine tasting room, and there is a bourbon distillery in addition to the vineyards. They also had (and I wish I'd remembered this while writing my Hillendale books!) mystic shops. Herbology. Tarot readings. When I was writing THE TWINS (Epitaph 2), I'd been trying to find a place to buy Palo Santo so I could accurately describe the scent. I ended up mail ordering some (not sorry, because I have an adorable cat carved from the wood). In Galena, I found Palo Santo sticks packaged with sage smudges in a store that also sold spell books. 

Going from one block to the next.
Good cardio!

As with most tourist towns, the specialty shops come and go, so there's always something different. We had lunch at a little pub called Durty Gurt's, filled with fun, snarky signs to read while we were waiting. There's an Italian restaurant with a front door on the "low" street. When you walk up the stairs to the next block (the elevation between blocks is significant), there's a terrace for the restaurant halfway up the hill. Some of the streets between blocks aren't navigable by car and consist of staircases or brick-paved ramps. 

The trip accomplished what I'd set out to do, and then some. The weather was beautiful, and it was nice to get out of the house for the day.

Ghost Busting

I've always been intrigued by "ghost" shows. Sometimes they're fun, and sometimes they're just silly.

In my research for the new series, I've searched out a couple of the more popular ghost hunter shows. Permit me a minute to digress before I tell you what I've seen.

Digression #1: When I was writing my novella, LANDSLIDE, I watched a Bigfoot hunting series. Pretty sure I told you all about that before - you can read about it here. Long story short, there were more holes in their data than science. As a result, the Bigfoot in the novella is more of a joke than a flight of imagination. (PS: Sign up for my newsletter and you can download Landslide FREE!)

Digression #2: Once upon a time, there was a ghost show on television with Linda Blair and that creepy lady from Poltergeist (Scariest Places on Earth). The show was shot "dark," which meant creepy voices in barely visible film to enhance the experience. I found the show interesting at the time, even with my Dear Husband making fun of it. 

And back to today's point. I actually contacted a local ghost hunter -- or tried to -- as a reference for the new series. We traded emails and texts but never actually connected. As I research HIM, I discovered a YouTube channel and a blog. Turns out he had one "maybe" ghostly encounter at a Halloween haunted house that is supposedly a portal to hell. Beyond that, his YouTubes entail driving by great big houses and saying "gee, I bet there's a ghost or two in there! I'd really love to get inside." He lost me when he sat outside one of the houses I actually toured in my own research. Hey buddy, if you want to go inside, why don't you? In our brief correspondence, he'd mentioned Ghost Hunters. So I DVR'd a couple episodes of that. What did I think? Jury's still out. I have a few more to watch this coming weekend, but the one I did watch (with Meatloaf as a special guest star) was silly. Yes, I blogged about it already, about ghosts that push people downstairs, and yet the "team" determines the ghosts aren't dangerous. The data they collected was sketchy. And these new-fangled boxes they have that are supposed to help us "hear" the ghosts speaking? If I have a radio that changes frequency every three seconds (or whatever time interval), I'm likely to hear a voice or two, too. That doesn't mean they're a ghost, it means someone else is using that radio frequency. Phooey! But hey, that's what these shows are meant to be. Entertainment.

I grew up reading Stephen King. I like his deliciously creepy vibe and the way he weaves the extraordinary into the ordinary. Not sure any of his books ever "scared" me, per se. Some grossed me out, but in the end, I always enjoyed the entertainment. That's what I'm striving for. The extraordinary in the ordinary. I can't dig as deep as Mr. King does. Sometimes when I'm writing spooky stuff (like in the EPITAPH series), I scare myself. I admit it. The imagination is a fertile thing, after all, but as the series tagline indicates, some things are scarier than ghosts.

Rule #1 when corresponding with authors

As a lot of authors will tell you, they didn't just wake up one day and decide to try their hand at writing (although that is true for some of them). For me, I started writing stories when I learned to write. Then, when I learned to address an envelope, I sent my story off to Random House Publishers. Needless to say, they turned me down.

I continued to write stories, graduating to my mother's typewriter. Eventually, I bought a typewriter of my own, but my stories were nothing more than wild ramblings of my imagination. Playing Barbies with words. I eventually sent a proposal to a publisher, but I still wasn't seasoned enough. The stories weren't developed enough. I went back to the books that inspired me, Gothic romances by Victoria Holt, and tried to figure out the recipe for success. Still, I was missing something.

Then I read A DRAGONFLY IN AMBER by Diana Gabaldon. I was so enamored that I began email correspondence with Ms. Gabaldon who, at the time, was just taking off. She was very gracious and responded promptly. I wanted to write like her, but by this time, I didn't have the confidence that I could string words together properly, so I pitched my story idea to her. This is when I discovered Rule #1 about corresponding with authors--don't try to pitch ideas. She very kindly told me she had plenty of her own ideas and told me to write the story myself. I was too embarrassed to continue sending her emails. She also went on to be fabulously famous and no longer has time to correspond with just anybody.

So I wrote the story myself.

I went back to school, enrolled in classes, and wrote the story that had insisted it needed to be written - TOUCHED BY THE SUN, previously titled THE TREASURE OF ST. PAUL. The book is currently out of print as it is hopelessly outdated, but I had the most fun writing it! I spent hours in the library, learned Italian, interviewed several people who have visited Pompeii. One of those people told me I couldn't possibly write about a place without visiting it--until she read what I wrote. I had done EXTENSIVE research. Travelogues. Guidebooks. I'd done a creditable job. Years later, I did visit Pompeii. I might have included other things after living the experience, although what I wrote held up. Most importantly, the extra effort I put into writing paid off. I learned the things I'd been missing in all my earlier attempts. 

As I continued to practice my art, I learned more things. Like, just because I have a large vocabulary doesn't mean I should use it. Like, figure out what genre you're writing. Find your theme and stick to it. Twenty-five books later, I can rein in the ideas buzzing around inside my head into coherent stories, all thanks to Diana Gabaldon. I'm grateful to her for giving me the push I needed.

Moral of the story - stick to your guns. Learn everything you need to know about the things that you are passionate about. As Joseph Campbell said, Follow Your Bliss.

Ghost stories. Next stop, the Holodeck

I've spent the last month working to finish my latest projects. The home stretch is always intense. With BEING NEIGHBORLY out in the world, and the audio for FAMILY ALCHEMY finished, it's time to redirect my focus to the new series.

Abraham Lincoln Hologram

If you've been following along, you know I've made several field trips ahead of the new series to visit some spectacular places. I've started the next book, but there's one more stop I'm planning to help with the research -- the Galena History Museum. When you walk in, you're greeted by a hologram of Ulysses S. Grant. For my friend Sarah who asks how I research ghosts, here's an example. 

I've also been tracking ghost hunters as research for the new series. For those of you with a healthy dose of skepticism, I'm right there with you, especially based on the shows I've watched and gadgets these people use. I watched an episode of Ghost Hunters and was unimpressed by their findings, and how they regularly talk about "friendly" ghosts, even after they've been called in to investigate ghosts that push people down stairs. Doesn't sound so friendly to me, but what else are they going to say? I also contacted a couple of local ghost hunters. Let's just say I'm again unimpressed. I prefer to think of these people as opportunists. 

When it comes to "real" ghosts, I've found you have to draw the stories out of people who have had encounters. For myself, I've had a couple of experiences that could be within the realm of ghostly. They're unexplained, for sure. Have I "seen" a ghost? Can't say I have. However...

I did talk to someone who witnessed a "manifestation." In fact, she told me about two. (I need to go back to ask her about the second one!) Is she telling me "ghost stories" as entertainment? Certainly, that's a possibility, but she doesn't have a reason to dupe me, and she had several stories at the ready the first time I talked to her. When she has these encounters, she looks for validation. When the ghosts carry a message, what proof can she give to people? If you can't back up what you see/hear, why share it? (Well, in this day and age, there are plenty of people who tell stories with no substance, so I suppose that question is better suited to the type of person you're talking to and what they have to gain from their story.) In talking to Fran, we discussed the desire to see ghosts. Neither one of us would choose that experience, which I think is true of most people. Without us extending the energy to invite them to reveal themselves, spirits don't have enough energy on their own to make themselves known. Or at least that's the theory. It requires energy extended from the receiver as well as the sender. An open mind and a willingness to communicate. 

Or there's the theory of hypnagogic hallucinations. These are dreams you have upon waking, or when drifting off to sleep. Hearing voices. Seeing things. For the most part, they are associated with an illness, but 35% of the population experiences them even when they're healthy. At least one of my personal experiences can likely be written off to this phenomenon. 

Whether ghosts are real or imagined, they make for good stories, from the campfire and beyond.