A Little Inky

I just might have come up with the title for my on-again-off-again "ghost story" novel.  I have it in quotes because it's not your typical entry into the genre.  Many parts of it have been or are elusive for me.  Some have been solved, others explored - yet the title has always been not even a ghostly vapor.  But I think the Muses have granted me what it shall be called.  Maybe I'll revisit what I've got on virtual paper for that book.

Speaking of revisiting, I've also been on the NeverWorld.  I had a re-read of what currently amounts to Book Two.  I had begun writing it too many moons ago.  So many that counting in moons makes no sense.  I'd probably not seen it for a decade.  I'd put it down when the window shut.  Since then I've had some ideas for it and the next book (and other beyond three).  I also, of course, reworked my original writings of Peter Pan: Betwixt-and-Between.  But I'd actually been writing both of them at the same time.  I'd bounce back and forth from the mid-past to the far-future from the story that began on stage.  Well, a little while ago I felt an itch to bounce (Calm down, Pogocat!) back onto the magical planet.

I won't lie.  It's terrible.  But that's only a half truth.  The story isn't terrible.  It's the execution of it.  But then, I'm being hard on myself.  It's a relief to remember it's a mere first draft.  I'd just been unfolding the story onto paper, heedless of craft.  But it's also a fact that I can't help but try and shape it as it should be as I go.  Attempts at emulating Barrie abound but I could see right through them.  It just needs some tinkering there and lots of rewrites and cuts elsewhere.

The story, on the other hand, is still quite fun in my opinion.  It has the same feel as the first book in that many characters are running/flying around engaged in various activities, shifting in and out of the situations which are actually all tied to the main event.  I'm once again borrowing from folklore for this tale.  A really interesting character shows up.  I wish I could say I invented all of the quirks and traits.  But it certainly is a blast playing with them.  I also think it has a grand feel, worthy of the magnitude of the adventure planet.  Yet there's not as much as I remembered.  I'd been saying (and believing) that I'd half written.  It's actually more like one-third. (Stop scowling, Halfway!)  But that's just on paper.  The tale is all there, just needs to be told.

So it looks like it might get a little inky for me in the future.  Plenty to splash onto paper... even if it is sometimes virtual.

Good Spirits Last Night

I hope you all had a great Halloween.
Truth be told, it's my favorite holiday... yet I barely (if ever) do anything special for it.  I'm no longer the "wild party" type, so going to a spooky bash isn't really my thing.  I'm no longer Trick-or-Treat'ing, so I don't make rounds that way.  And I am often too lazy to decorate (but I do put some stuff out.)  Although I love the concept, I'm not all that into dressing up.  But otherwise, I find it the most intriguing and delightful.   (Except for the giant spider decorations on my block! - But that's rather the point, isn't it?)

However, yesterday I had a perfect Halloween!

This might sound pathetic to some, and it may be, but I rather enjoyed lounging around the house watching the many TV shows about the paranormal and hauntings plaguing the airwaves on account of the date.  Much to my chagrin, I had to keep switching around since I'd seen most of them before.  My fault for watching them whenever I can, I suppose.

Late in the afternoon, Bart left to go accompany his pseudo-cousin's kids on their Trick-or-Treat'ing.  Rather young kids - and they already had a gaggle of adults hovering around them, so I stayed home and kept watching spooky stuff.

Then, at dark, I decided I couldn't just sit around with no candy!  (We don't get Trick-or-Treat'ers since we're a building and not a house so there hadn't been any around.)  Thus, knowing myself to be deplorable, I paused the TiVo just as the skeptic husband would have his paranormal experience and ventured out anyway for something to snack on while watching.

I'm not out through the gate and I get a text message from Buttercup... who wants to know if she can come over.  Hosah!  I tell her I'll be right back (and it will take her a bit to travel to my place anyway.)  While on my way to the corner drug/convenience store to obtain my candy, I decide to cross the street (safely of course) at a place where one is not supposed to do so... why?  Because down the sidewalk going the proper way I see a tall, dark humanoid shape.  Looming.  Oooooo!  Not that I had any real reason to be scared but it did seem a little eerie.  Just standing there.  All dark, like a shadow person.  Not moving.  And here I just eariler had been watching a 'true' story of shadow people in a home!  It had been a real person and not a decoration, I'm sure... so I relished in the spooky nature, glad to have a 'fright' in fun and decided on an assortment bag of treats at the store.

Buttercup arrived and we talked for a while... and then Bart came back home.  Buttercup brought some spirits with her so we partook...and put on It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  I had already caught it randomly the other night on TV (turned it on and voila! special treat) but Bart hadn't seen it yet this year... and Buttercup hadn't in many, too many, years.  Yes, I laughed at it all over again, as Peanuts is a favorite of mine.

Then we watched my favorite 'scary movie' - The Changeling.  I've been trying to convince Buttercup to watch it for many months now... but it's never happened either due to scheduling or the fact that she had been a little too scared to watch.  She actually loves scary movies, but, knowing that I revel in watching hauntings (as I did all day) and barely (if ever) get spooked by them and yet I find this one scary... well, she hadn't been so sure she wanted to see it.  (She's also been freaked by other movies that I didn't find frightful at all.)  But what better night than Halloween?  Once again, I found myself tensing up and ready to cry at a certain point, as always, but tears never come.  I just find it SO unnerving.  Other than that, though, I think I've seen it so many times that the paralyzing effect no longer applies.  Darn.  Buttercup truly liked it, though, in the sense of yeah...she got totally creeped out.

As an added bonus... I found myself scribbling down ideas for the novel I'm hammering out.  Yep!  Inspired by one of my favorite films.  No... not in the sense of stealing from it.  It's just that several of the scenes and/or subject matter sprung up ideas in my mind that I could find useful in other ways.  That spark I spoke of the other day turns out to be viable... and it looks as if I have something I can work with after all.  I still need the motivation from the one character... but then, I might start writing anyway without knowing that wherefore yet.  I'm sure he'll tell me as I go.

And so... that, to me, constitutes a great Halloween!

Make Sure to Catch Wind of THIS...

Perhaps you recall me griping about the NEW new remake of The Amityville Horror. In that post, I do say that perhaps someone is gung-ho about getting the story "right" on the screen. But I have what I believe to be a better idea.

I watch quite a bit of the "haunting" shows on TV. It seems like there's always one playing, across two or three networks. I have stopped watching the "Ghost Hunter" type. I quickly learned they're really just a bunch of people giving themselves the willies. There had been one moment that really creeped me out. But I think it reached its peak for me then, and I have not watched one since. (From boredom, not fright.) So anyway, I find myself drawn to shows that are "documentaries" of supposedly real cases of people being traumatized by "the other side" in their homes. Sometimes they're hilarious (such as the people who had NO idea how a Shadow Demon could have entered their home - only to find out from a brother that they'd used a ouija board to summon a Shadow Demon not too long ago - but they have NO idea how it got in or tormented them!) and sometimes they're a little creepy. No, I'm not frightened by them. Intrigued and mildly weirded out on occasion. A particularily fun one is Celebrity Ghost Stories.

So, bearing in mind that I have seen a LOT of these shows, there is one that I felt had some great twists to it as well as an interesting backstory/history of the haunted house. I also, therefore, have seen a great many depictions of spirts. And I have to say the one in here gave me the undeniable creeps. Horribly so. Oh, sure, from the right "angle" it's laughable. But you know how things can be both stupid and upsetting. I have to say... if I had the particular experience of the people in that program, I wouldn't be the same for weeks, or for never after.

I'm talking about The Summerwind Mansion. How many other haunted house stories do you know where it's entirely plausible that after escaping the horrors of the house the residents have to go back inside years later? In this 'true story,' the father of the woman who lived there doesn't believe in the paranormal and buys the house himself to "fix it up." Her brother, too, is a non-believer. Sure enough, the dad soon comes to wonder (and the brother is scared out of his wits.) Obsessed with knowing "what the hell?!" they use hypnosis (though not originally for the purpose of uncovering information about the house) and wind up with a mild possession (of the ghost from Summerwind) and information about what he's looking for - thus the need to return to the inner depths of terror.

I'm probably not "selling" it right, but believe me when I say this one is truly unique. After a while these types of stories can all run together. But not this one. It stands alone as not just a cool variation on themes but also having the power to seriously have freaked me out.

So... anybody from Hollywood who is looking for the next great ghost story... look no further than Summerwind Mansion. (Now burned to the ground after being stuck by lighting despite the tall trees surrounding it!)

LO and behold... after looking for links to the TV show I watched so that you can experience it for yourself if you wish... I found out there is in fact someone writing a screenplay. They are on Facebook (along with a "fan page" of it.) Best of luck to Lee of Dark Latitude Pictures.

Unfortunately I did not find the entire Discovery Channel show, either legally or illegally posted online. It's probably being repeated, though. The show is called A Haunting and if you're into being scared by ghosts, I strongly recommend trying to catch this one. It's well above par.

By the way, besides my genuine lifelong interest in this subject matter, I am also collecting ideas and stories for a ghost story that I will one day write, which is the one I've been talking about lately.

Summerwind Mansion Official Website

Summerwind Mansion Facebook "Fan" Page

Dark Latitude Pictures Facebook Page

Ghost of a Chance

I spent some of Halloween watching shows of A Haunting on the Discovery Channel. No, I'm not going to tell you that it scared me. No, I'm not going to tell you I believed what I saw. Then again, I'm not ruling out the experiences as true. Not saying they are... I just tend to believe in the paranormal in general. So what am I going to say?

It got me thinking about the show Ghost Hunters. Again, I am neither crediting nor discrediting. But they spend so much time going to old prisons and hotels and such... where "activity" has been "known to happen." Seems logical, sure. But often it's someplace where it happens "occassionally."

I watched on A Haunting where a family had been, shall we say terrorized, by not only a few ghosts... but a demonic force as well. The strange occurences increased and very rarely ceased. Yada yada yada... they had to move out to maintain their sanity and lives. At the end of the program we're told that another family has moved into the house. So far the little boy has been haunting them, but they have no sign of the evil entity bent on descruction. Well, okay... but the "first" family began with such minor hauntings and it steadily progressed... so...

Here's the idea. Why don't we get the Ghost Hunters to that place (or any other) in A Haunting since we "know" that the activity can be seen on a regular frightening basis? Why are they hoping it might maybe happen on the one night they're allowed to have free reign of the otherwise non-activitied tourist traps?

Does that make sense? If we really want to "prove" such phenomena, why aren't we doing it logically?

Or maybe we just like telling ghost stories...