Jul 07 2008
Ghost Stories
I have long been fascinated by ghost stories. I don’t mean horror, bloody knives in movies where co-eds get slashed up or other such nasty stuff. I mean real ghost stories, told by people who lived in haunted houses, who saw some glowing mass of something in the neighborhood cemetery, who heard some weird cries coming from a ravine late at night. When I lived in SE Kansas, I researched these stories, including touring some homes, bridges, and graveyards that were currently being haunted by spirits, and wrote a book about them, Ghosts of Southeast Kansas (yes, I know the title isn’t inspiring, but it was the best I could do).
I had a great time interviewing everybody, and the stories were fascinating, but now I’m finding myself a bit jaded about ghost stories. My husband and I walked a ghost tour in Victoria, BC a few weeks ago, and I found myself NOT scared at all. With each story, the guides tried really hard to creep out all of us, and many responded well, but I just thought it sounded interesting. I wanted them to let me into the buildings, so I could see it all for myself, when two years ago I would have been reluctant to go in. I still recommend the tours. They take several different routes each week, so you get totally new stories if you go two nights in a row. I also recommend the ghost walks in Charleston, SC…fabulous stuff.
Even “Ghost Hunters” doesn’t freak me out at all. The lighthouse episode was AWESOME, but it didn’t give me the shivers. It’s as if I have become used to the idea of ghosts living all around me, of the unseen affecting what’s going on, and I find that it’s not chilling to me anymore.
I’m currently writing a novel about a woman living in a haunted house on the water of Puget Sound. But now I fear I’ll make the story too frightening because I want to feel chills about it myself, and I have developed too much of a tolerance for the paranormal. I suppose I won’t know if some scene is too much until one of my faithful readers tells me it is. Thankfully, I’m not opposed to revision. I’d rather have it too scary than make it too boring…then I wouldn’t like it, and neither would my readers.
Well, off to write…let’s see how creepy I can make it all.
I love ghost stories too. But you’re right, after hearing so many you start to become desensitized. It’s like building up a tolerance to morphine- you need more and more to get the same effect. I always want to go inside the buildings too, and have a story to tell myself. My favorite tour was in New Orleans, it was a vampire and ghost tour. Very interesting, and the tour guide (Lord Chad) was a fascinating character. So lively, you know? And he was dressed in victorian gothic attire with long red fingernails and long black hair. He definetly made it worth not being able to go inside the haunted buildings.