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i think any world you create can have ghosts because they get to be the kind of ghosts that you create. if they want to sit around and drink margaritas,or something like that, then that could be fun. if they are serious type ghosts then that could be fun, too.

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Consider the foggy mirror yours. Must say I think what disturbed my sis-in-law the most at the time was realizing she’d been naked.

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I live in Japan, where there’s a ghost story around every corner, and even I felt the willies when great-grandmother passed away. It would be nice to think she’s still looking after us, and enjoying her morning offering of rice.

Anyway, I don’t care what the *reality* of ghosts are, but I do know they make fantastic fiction. I liked Topper as a kid (wasn’t so crazy about the re-read in my 30s), and the Ghost and Mrs. Muir certainly survived the decades with style and class.

You know what one of my favorite parts of Faking It was? The teeth on the little animals in the quilts. Jenny knows how to handle the Dark Side of the Psyche, and I trust her with ghosts.

(Marta, I loved your stories, too.)

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One. I like supernatural stuff in books and would read a Jenny ghost story in a heartbeat.

Two. Most of us believe our spirit lives on after we die. Isn’t that another way of saying ghost?

My nephew died at age 17, and my mom swears he has talked to her. I believe her.

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I worked at Disneyland while I was in college and one night near closing time had an incident at the Haunted Mansion – I kid you not. I was alone on the loading dock and thought I heard the next group coming down the hallway – laughter and running footsteps – and no one came ’round the corner. I hightailed it to the office and refused to be down there alone the rest of the night.

Jenny – I picked up Fast Women at the Denver RWA in 2002 in the goody room and couldn’t get out to the bookstore fast enough when I got home to slurp up your backlist. You could publish your grocery list and I’d buy it. Hardcover. TMI??

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Also, I 635th the idea that we will read whatever you write, as long as you write as you.

I personally enjoy a good paranormal novel. Reality is much too boring.

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First, *I* classify your work as funny/humorous. Regardless of which road to Oz you take to tell a particular story, the voice I hear tickles my funny bone. Whether you set out to do that or not, that’s the overall feel that I get from your books. I didn’t have a problem with the stalker thing. You didn’t set out to make stalking funny and I didn’t see stalking as funny in your book. There were places where your characters were scared or reacted seriously, and that was appropriate. But the “Crusie-world” was still one based in general self-confidence, optimism, and snark, and that always colors the situation. I’ve read dark, grim, scary, and icky stalker books. I prefer your presentation.

In general, I am ready to read anything you write. Based on your books to date, you like to write stories that travel on paths I enjoy taking. So whether you put in stalkers or ghosts or radioactive rutabagas, I will still read your books and I expect that I will still enjoy them.

And even if you start to take writing roads that diverge from the paths I want to travel, I think you should still write what you want to write. I might stop reading your work, but others will find you and take my place. Nobody can be all things to all people. It’s my opinion that you have to write what’s in your gut, otherwise you’re just wasting your time. ;=)

As far as ghosts and stuff go, my personal opinion meshes with the line from Hamlet, “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” And while I think there are indeed weird things out there that go bump in the night, I also think there are a lot of charlatans and histrionic folks out there. I got fascinated looking at the supernatural from the sceptical perspective. From a sceptical investigator’s viewpoint, you might want to look at some of James Randi’s books. He was a professional magician, who now investigates psychic stuff. If you have a sceptical character, you might be able to use some of his investigation material in some way. I particularly liked the book “Flim Flam”.
Here’s a link to his website: http://www.randi.org

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And the research I’ve done makes the whole ghost thing seem completely believable and possible. Not the ghosts who come to kill you in the night, but the kind of thing you’re talking about.

I love my work. I learn such interesting things and get to hear such great stories from people. I may steal that writing in the foggy mirror bit. That’s terrific.

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I also know that my late brother haunts the family farm up to and including manifestations. He’s not Casper either. He’s just Mike doing Mike-like things.

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Reality-wise, the majority of the world’s population believes in God in some form or other, and that concept’s a lot more difficult to explain scientifically than the concept of ghosts. In fact, one of my favorite sayings is, roughly, “Some people say they don’t believe in God because they don’t understand how He’s possible. Well, I don’t understand electricity, but I’m not going to sit in the dark until I do”.

On a personal note, my in-laws are about as grounded in reality as any group of people I’ve ever met. There’ve been a couple of incidents, though, that have made us aware of, well, possibilities. My sister-in-law, a level-headed junior-high special education teacher, was in the shower one afternoon when she got the feeling she wasn’t alone in the bathroom. Assuming it was her husband (only other person there), she spoke to him. When she didn’t get a response, she peaked around the curtain. Nobody else was in the room, but in the fog on the mirror was written “good-bye”. Of course, she assumed her spouse was being cute about running out to the store or something. So, she gets out, dries off, and walks into the bedroom to find her husband on the phone getting the news that his grandfather had died unexpectedly. She dragged him into the bathroom to see the fading message. It was a pretty emotional moment for him.

The other incident, or series of incidents, happened when we came home from overseas and moved in next to my mother-in-law (an absolute peach of a woman–I can definitely say I’m the envy of all my acquaintance in that department). The place hadn’t been lived in since DH’s aunt died the year before. Well, the next month my brother-in-law came home for Christmas, bringing his dog. When the dog walked into my kitchen, he stopped just inside the door and started shaking so hard we thought he was having a seizure. It wasn’t until we carried him out of the house that he quit shaking. Turned out that’s where my m-in-law found her s-in-law, just inside the kitchen door. Could there have been a lingering scent? Possible, but I personally bleached the heck out of that floor when we moved in. Couple months later, we kept a friend’s dog for the weekend. Now, this dog was the biggest chowhound on the planet, and the most obedient, but he would not step foot in that kitchen no matter what you offered him, not then or at anytime in the next 3 years. Also, the clock on the stove (working previously) stopped at 7:03. The m.e. put the aunt’s time of death at around 7pm.

I’ll take oath on whatever you like that I have not exaggerated these strange-but-true experiences. They may have many non-ghost explanations. I’m pretty much a “show me the empirical research” kind of girl, though, and I’m now a believer in, at least, the possibility of ghosts. Isn’t it a statistical law or something about unexplained events that there comes a point when you’ve ruled out all other possibilities, the next most likely possibility is a miracle?

Anyway, apologies for way too long a post! Just wanted to add my voice to the ‘reality and the supernatural are not mutually exclusive’ chorus.

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Therefore, it would seem to me that whatever you think belongs in Crusie World, would ultimately be a good fit.

Besides, I would think you have one of the most rabidly loyal fan bases ever, and I’m pretty sure they would follow you anywhere.

And if not, eh, you’ll pick up some new ones along the way.

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What happened to You Again?

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You may also want to watch the BBC show MOST HAUNTED on the Travel Channel on Friday nights. This Friday, June 1, this Britshteam, which works with a parapsychologist, is investigating Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. LIVE for 7 hours. Really interesting stuff.

And I’m a reasonably intelligent 55 year old. Who’d buy anything you write. No matter what. In hardback.

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Syne

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http://www.wintersteel.com/Superstitions.html

Great ghosty superstitions, here, and a little past half-way down, under Sudden Silences, you’ll see the “20 minutes past” superstition.

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