Ghost stories!

Assembled by Mary Jo

As regular readers know, in the middle of each month we run an “Ask a Wench” post where every Wench who has time kicks in with a comment.  We usually get quite a variety of opinions!  This is October’s question:

“Do you like ghost stories, or don’t they interest you?  Have you ever written one?  Or do you have a favorite read that’s a ghost story?  Have you ever seen a ghost yourself?

Generally the Wench who is organizing the post suggests topics and others weigh in on whether they think the topic is feasible.  This month Susan suggested “Ghost Stories”  since it’s October and Halloween is coming–and also because Susan and I are both in the Dragonblade Halloween anthology, A Wraith at Midnight.  The parameters for the stories were Regency, a spooky house or castle, a ghost who wants to drive a protagonist toward their doom!  Plus a romance and a happy ending, length between 10K and 15K words. Piece of cake! <G>

Susan’s story, The Ghostly Lady of Braemore, is full of proper Scottish ghosties while mine is a piece of Fluff.  Literally!  My title is The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, and the one line summary is “Can a pair of feline ghosts give two lonely people a second chance at love?”

Two of the main characters are ghostified versions of my cats, and one of them, Riley the Rogue is actually on the cover on the lower right side: a handsome black cat with white whiskers.  <G>  I’m not usually interested in ghost stories, but I’m not fond of time travel either, yet some how I’ve written four time travel books.  Ultimately, it’s all about the story.

Andrea here:

I’m afraid that I have a VERY boring and uninteresting answer to this month’s AAW. No, I don’t particularly like ghost stories; no, I don’t write them; no I don’t read them (except for Wenchly ghost stories); and no, I have never seen one.  Clearly I have no imagination. It may have something to do with an interlude in my childhood when I was terrified that mummies were hiding in my father’s workshop (We had just paid a visit to the Egyptian wing of the Met Museum) and I made him check both my bedroom closet and his workshop each night before I went to bed for about a month. That was enough scary stuff for a lifetime! (Needless to say, no ghostly apparition came to snatch me away in the middle of the night!)

Nicola here:

When I was in my teens, I adored ghost stories and read loads of them. I think I enjoyed the tingle of excitement mixed with apprehension that they gave me. I was hoping to see a ghost myself but never did. I stopped reading them when I got a bit older and never started again.

In my late twenties we bought a cottage in a village in Somerset that we were told was haunted. We didn’t pay much attention at the time – until mysterious things started to happen! There were unexplained noises, footsteps on the stairs, lights and music turning themselves on and off. Then one evening I saw the ghost of a cavalier crossing the little courtyard at the back of the house and disappearing through a blocked-up doorway. My husband, who hates anything that can’t be rationally explained, was very unhappy about sharing his space with a ghost but I found it a benign presence. When we sold the house seven years later, we had to declared the “extra” occupant on the sales form!

Over the years I’ve had a few other ghostly experiences. I don’t go looking for them but sometimes they find me. I’m happy to accept that not everything in our world can be explained by science. I’ve never written a ghost story but the occasional ghost might feature in my time slip books, especially in The Winter Garden.

Anne Gracie:

I’m not a reader or a teller of ghost stories, and while I’ve never seen a ghost, and basically don’t believe in them, I also don’t exactly disbelieve in the possibility of them, either. It’s a case of “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

When I was a teenager and my friends had seances or played with ouija boards, I felt very uncomfortable and didn’t want any part of it. In later years, when friends moved into a big old house and claimed there was a ghost in one of the rooms — a room that stayed cold and empty even though it was a share house and every other room was filled — I respected them enough to accept it, even though I didn’t really believe it. So I don’t discount the possibility of ghosts, and certainly won’t go looking for them — in fiction or in real life.  (Photo by Josh Olalde on Unsplash)

This month, we have a contribution from our site manager, Laura Resnick, because she has relevant experience!

Laura Resnick:

 So here’s a personal ghost story:  I guide underground tours in Cincinnati, taking visitors into man-made tunnels (large caverns) deep beneath the city that German immigrants here built in the mid-1800s as part of their brewery operations. Over time, and in part due to Prohibition, these tunnels around the city were lost to memory, and they’re being rediscovered in our era.

Well, in the most-recently discovered tunnels, which are also some of the oldest, during our history tour some people were encountering paranormal phenomena. So now we guide a “haunted” tour there, where we help visitors do their own paranormal investigations in the dark tunnels.  One of the various mysterious phenomena that people report encountering there is the shadow figure of a tall man in a hat who vanishes while you look at him.

Last November I was working a haunted tour down there, with about a dozen visitors roaming the dark tunnels on their investigations—including two tall men who wore hats. At one point as I made my rounds, I saw one of those men standing alone in complete darkness.  No one else was present in that tunnel, and I was using a small green flashlight, so I could see the man’s shape, but no details. He appeared to be looking down at his hands. I assumed his flashlight had just gone out. So I approached him to offer to replace it… and he vanished.

I was pretty startled.

Did I see the ghostly shadow figure others have described down there? My co-workers are convinced I did, but I’m the group skeptic and not easily convinced. It was dark, and it’s possible my eyes were playing tricks on me—those tunnels in the dark are very atmospheric. But who knows? Perhaps I did see the mysterious man in black.

It was, in any case, an interesting experience—and an example of why I keep going back there to explore.

If you’re ever in Cincinnati, pay us a visit!

Pat here:

I’m sure it’s no surprise to my readers that I adore ghost stories. I grew up reading Nancy Drew and Victoria Holt and all sorts of lovely gothic mysteries where, even if there was no real ghost, there were spooky encounters. And then we had all those romantic ghost movies like Truly, Madly, Deeply and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and. . .  of course, followed by the paranormal romance craze and suddenly, there were ghosts everywhere.

A ghost that watches over you is romantic, but a physical hero is necessary for romance, so I prefer the spirits I write about to be useful or entertaining but not breathing down my heroine’s throat. <G> I’m Truly, Madly, Deeply opposed to scary ghost stories, but ones that bring a touch of history or emotion or action. . . bring it on. I’ve thrown ghosts into various books, including Aura of Magic,  where my psychic Malcolm can inevitably see local spirits.

Unfortunately, I, personally, have never actually seen a spectral figure. I’ve felt “vibrations,” as many of us had. I swear, one bounced on my bed in my old Tudor-style house. There are old hotels and mansions that practically breathe ectoplasm. Maybe I have the wrong kind of eyesight to see beyond the veil, but I’m perfectly happy to believe that there is more to life than we are aware!

Susan here:

I’ve always loved ghost stories, and especially love tales of actual experiences and evidence. Years ago, I devoured ghost stories, soaking up that deliciously creepy feeling—Poe, Wilkie Collins, Dickens’ A Christmas Carol; The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The Canterville Ghost, the spooky novels of Barbara Michaels and more, along with collections about the ghosts of England, Scotland, Ireland—those books and stories are still on my shelves. I’m not a fan of horror or demon stuff, but give me a ghost trapped between our realm and another, and I’m fascinated. Then came Ghostbusters (one of the best movies ever!), and all the ghost hunting shows that followed. In our house, we were first hooked on the long-running series Most Haunted, and we still love investigative shows about hauntings. {My kids gave me a ghost hunting kit with instruments and such, and I’m determined to use it someday!}

I’m most curious about the connection with the other world—what’s beyond this life, what are the ghosts experiencing, and how can trapped souls be helped? I especially appreciate the tales and shows where effort is made to resolve issues in hauntings and release the ghosts to find peace. Though I haven’t personally had a ghostly encounter, family and friends have, and I’m sure their experiences were real.

With my own ghost story in A Wraith at Midnight, I wanted to write a nicely spooky and romantic tale. In a haunted Highland castle, a Scottish laird and a winsome scholar encounter stubborn ghosts and find a chance to rekindle lost love – with resolution for the hero and heroine and the ghosts too. I had such fun writing it, I might try more ghost stories!

Christina here!

 I’ve read quite a few ghost stories but don’t like the horror ones – I prefer benign ghosts or the mischievous kind like the one in The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde. (My favourite ever and I love the TV/film adaptations of this too!)

I’ve never encountered any paranormal phenomena myself, but I know people who have seen and heard ghosts and I believe them. I might have mentioned before that I used to stay at a 600-year-old manor house which was definitely haunted. There were unexplained footsteps, doors opening and closing on their own, and the owner saw a handsome man in chain mail standing by the inglenook fireplace one evening. Although I never had the pleasure (?) of encountering him myself, this sighting became the basis for my novel The Silent Touch of Shadows  as I was intrigued by his presence. I wondered what on earth would make a soul hang around for 600 years? Why was he there? What had happened to him? Did he have unfinished business? Of course, I had to make up a story to account for it.

My grandmother also told me of her experiences as a young girl. She lived in a house that was next door to one where a murder had taken place, and several times she was woken in the night by terrified screams coming from that direction. No one else ever heard them, just her. She was understandably frightened! She also said that when she was older, she woke up one night and just knew that something was wrong so she went and sat next to the telephone. A moment later she received a phone call to say that her sister-in-law had been killed in a house fire that night. Very spooky!

Mary Jo again.  Where do you stand on ghosts and ghost stories?  Have you had any ghostly experiences?  Tell us more!