Sylvia Shults's Blog, page 73

A Little Background

This marketing crash course has been a week’s worth of interesting. The prompt generator is … well, it’s not reeeeealy set up for what I need to do. It’s geared more towards business applications, I think, which makes for some interesting prompts.

So after a couple of false starts (“What are some tips for saving time with ghosts?” “What is the #1 WordPress plugin for ghosts?” “Which tasks should be outsourced when it comes to ghosts?”), I finally landed on “How long did it take to get where you are with ghosts?”

Well, I figured THIS was a question I could take a stab at answering with a straight face. So here goes.

I blame my dad for starting me down this dark path. JK, I’m really super glad I grew up with a dad who loved to tell ghost stories. I grew up in the Chicago area, and so did Dad, so he was the one who passed down all the local Chicago ghost lore to me. I grew up enthralled with tales of the monks of Saint James-the-Sag, the screaming mummy of the Field Museum, and all the lovely spots on Archer Avenue. (He never mentioned the Grimes sisters case, though. Dunno if he wasn’t familiar with it, or if he wanted to shield me from that particular ugliness.)

Growing up steeped in ghost stories was wonderful, but I reached my adult years believing that ghosts were something that happened to other people. I didn’t grow up in a “haunted” house, so I figured that ghost stories were something I could enjoy, but at arm’s length. I started writing horror fiction, keeping the monsters safely on the page.

In 2009, though, I got a very interesting phone call — at work. My coworker came up to me and said, “Hey, I took a phone message for you. It was a publisher. I put the message in your mailbox in the staff room.” I almost thought she was pulling my leg, but sure enough, there was a pink phone message slip in my inbox. I called the 800 number on the paper, and got Bruce Carlson of Quixote Press.

Turns out Bruce was a publisher of true ghost story collections, and he had tapped me to write a book called Ghosts of the Illinois River. I couldn’t believe my luck; here I was, a struggling fiction writer, being asked — no, invited! — to write a collection of true ghost stories, about the river that flowed almost through my own backyard. It was a childhood dream come true.

While doing the research for that first nonfiction book, I started going along on investigations with different groups. That, in turn, led to the Lights Out podcast, and all those wonderful true experiences people have so graciously shared with me. But first, foremost, and always, it has been the writing of stories that has driven me forward. Ghosts of the Illinois River led directly to Fractured Spirits: Hauntings at the Peoria State Hospital, which led in turn to 44 Years in Darkness. Now I’m working on Spirits of Christmas, and I am happy as a pig in … well, I’m exceptionally satisfied with the path my writing career has taken.

And it all started with my dad telling ghost stories around the supper table.

Marketing Challenge Continued

Okay, okay, yes, I suq. I was supposed to be doing a whole week’s worth of blah blah marketing things, buuuuut I work full-time, so, that didn’t happen this week.

But I had fun looking at the writing prompts. The second prompt was “What’s your favorite book about ghosts?”

Well, I thought at first that would be a pop fly, an easy question to answer. My favorite book about ghosts? Pfft — all of them! I’ve been reading true ghost story books, and filling my porous little brain with ghost stories, ever since I was a little kid. When our cousins would make a summer visit down from Madison, Wisconsin, as soon as we giggled over my cousin Karl’s latest batch of dirty jokes, we’d get down to the serious business … scaring each other silly with ghost stories. I read (and loved) them all: The Thing at the Foot of the Bed, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, all the lovely dark books the library and Scholastic Magazine had to offer.

But then I grew up, and Scholastic Magazine just wouldn’t cut it anymore. Luckily, I have met and become friends with many wonderful authors of ghost stories. So I can, with complete confidence, recommend books by Troy Taylor, Michael Kleen, Dale Kaczmarek, Jamie Davis, David Youngquist, Ursula Bielski — because I KNOW these people. I know their integrity. And I know that if their name is on the cover of a book, what’s inside those covers is going to be a great story.

And then — and then! — I discover new authors day by day. (That’s the totally awesome part of working at a library. I’m surrounded by books. Plus they PAY me to be there!) I recently discovered a new author (well, new to me), Stephen Lancaster.

I’ve been reading ghost tales for YEARS. And nothing has spooked me more than Stephen Lancaster’s writing. If you’re looking for good spooky stories, his books fill that craving admirably. And if you’re a paranormal investigator yourself, or if you just believe solidly in supernatural phenomena, then Lancaster’s books are a real treat. They’ll either have you cowering in bed with the covers pulled up over your head, or yelling out loud, “DANG, I wish I could go ghost hunting with this guy!” There was a bit in his second book, Dark Spirits, where I actually yelped out loud with surprise and terrified delight. Marvelous stuff!

I’m pleased to say that Lancaster has a new book coming out in April 2018. It’ll be called Norman: The Doll Who Needed to be Locked Away. (Now, how could I possibly resist a title like that? I ask you…) And for fans of Lights Out, be on the lookout for an episode early next year where Stephen and I will be talking ghosts, paranormal investigation, and hopefully, this doll Norman!

More Lights Out Goodness!

There’s more podcasty yumminess that’s fresh just for you on iHeart Radio and other venues. (I think we may now be on iTunes, too.) So if you’re into it, go check out the latest episodes, including an interview with horror writers Tamara Thorne and Alistair Cross, what it’s like to live in a haunted house, and the 2016 Halloween show. Enjoy!

 

[image error]Now available on iHeart Radio

Monday, Yay!

I am on the first day of a “marketing challenge”. I signed up to get five posts this week, one a day, giving me marketing prompts. It’s kind of fun, so far–of course, I’m only one day in!

The program is neat, in that you can keep hitting the “refresh” button until you get a prompt that resonates with you. The first one I got had something to do with, I dunno, pimping a consulting business. Which is SO not what I do. I do me, and I don’t presume to tell other folks what to do, unless they ask really nicely.

But the second prompt made much more sense. It was, “What is your background with XXXX?”

Okay, now THAT I can work with. It may come as a surprise to people, but I did not grow up in a haunted house. I don’t see dead people (much as sometimes I’d like to). Someone could be following me, carrying their own severed head, and I’d be completely oblivious.

My personal draw to ghosts is this: I have always adored true ghost stories. It’s that delicious combination of history, real people, and the unknown that melts my butter every single time. I love the power of story, and I truly believe, with all my being, that telling ghost stories is the oldest and purest form of storytelling there is. Humans have that unique gift of wondering what comes after death, for ourselves and for the ones we love. We’ve been sharing those ideas around campfires for millenia.

THAT is why I write these books.

In other news, I spent much of this weekend typing, and Spirits of Christmas is now up to 33,000 words typed. I have loads more to type, and SCHLOADS more to write. But it’ll get done. I’m working on it for you guys, because I love you, and I want you to have the Best Christmas Ever.

Stay tuned for more posts this week!

Progress Report

I’m pleased to say that I have just finished a whole big section of Spirits of Christmas! The section called “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”, ghost stories of Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, is done. Can’t give you a word count yet, because it hasn’t yet been typed, only written. But it’s coming along nicely!

 

Lights Out: Table Tipping

Oh, those crazy Victorians! Always with their seances, and their creepy spirit photography, and their table tipping. Yes, it’s a thing. Just like putting your fingers on the planchette of a Ouija board, it is possible to make a table move (okay, a small table, but still) just by putting your fingertips on it and concentrating really hard. There’s some help involved from the spirit world, of course, because it’s the Victorians we’re talking about here. Listen in as your hostess with the mostest ghosties helps lift a table … with her fingertips.

[image error]Now available on iHeart Radio

Small World

The place: work. The time: last Friday, about twenty minutes before I was done for the day.

A patron came up to me as I was pulling books from the New Shelf, right as you come in the front door of the library. He caught my eye, and held out a book of mine. He’d bought it on Amazon, and wanted me to sign it for him.

Now that, to me, would have been a good story right there. But wait–it gets better.

It turns out that that very book–an older version of a collection of short stories (Voices in an Empty Room, as opposed to The Dark at the Heart of the Diamond, which came out a few years later and had twice as many stories in it), had actually come off of the library’s shelves. OUR library’s shelves.

The patron sheepishly pointed out our barcode in the front cover of the book. “I don’t want you to think I stole it off the shelf!” he said. I could clearly see the red Discard stamp on top of the book, so I wasn’t worried. But I thought it was funny that the book made its way from our shelf, to the book sale when it was discarded, to someone snapping it up, to someone ELSE buying that copy on Amazon.

I always threaten to sign my books “To the lucky eBay winner…” I guess this time it really would have been prescient of me to do just that! No, for reals, I signed it to the patron, and thanked him for sharing the story.

New Book News!

Why, yes, I’m working on a new book.

And it’s going quite well, thanks for asking.

As a matter of fact, I had another author offer to write a foreword for it. Which is super cool.

I relax by reading. I read omnivorously and voraciously. Just last night, I read all five books in the children’s series Phoebe and Her Unicorn (think a middle-grade Calvin and Hobbes), a book on paranormal investigation called Ghostly Tales, and finished up a YA novel called Such a Good Girl.

A couple of weeks ago, I read a really wonderful book on paranormal investigation by an author named Stephen Lancaster. His first book was True Casefiles of a Paranormal Investigator, and I just devoured it. There was a story in that book–in the first chapter, as a matter of fact–that captured my attention immediately. Not only was it a real doozy of a terrifying true story, it happened in December.

Now, any author who can tell me a true ghost story I haven’t heard before is aces in my book. And speaking of my book, if you haven’t yet heard, it’s going to be about haunted Christmas … and there’s a whole section in it about true stories that happen in December.

It took a bit of digging, but I found contact info for Stephen Lancaster, and I wrote to him. I told him how much I enjoyed his book, and asked very politely for permission to share his December story in my own book. He was very gracious, and wrote back nearly immediately.

Long story short: not only did he give me permission to share his story (yay!), he also offered to write the foreword to Spirits of Christmas.

So come November, you guys are in for a treat. The new book will have a thoughtful  foreword written by a fellow investigator, a real professional in the field. (He has a new book himself, that will be released in April 2018, about–get this–a haunted doll. I’m hoping he’ll agree to a guest appearance on Lights Out, so look for that in the future too.) I’m pleased to take Stephen up on his offer, and I think you’ll find it a good addition to the book.

Now I’m off to write some more!

Campfire Dinner

Ah, summer! Time for dinner and a cold cider around the campfire. Or the fire pit, if you don’t have a huge yard.

The first sandwich was on soft 12-grain bread, smeared with spready port-wine cheese, with ham tucked inside.

For dessert, there was Camembert cheese slices inside Hawaiian bread, with fig jam on one side and a little smear of red pepper jelly on the other.

And grapes on the side, because even I can’t justify cherry hard cider as being in the Fruit & Vegetable group.

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Lights Out!

It’s time for another episode of Lights Out, your virtual campfire. I’ve got something really awesome planned for you guys this time!

Come along on an investigation of the Borden House, in Fall River, Massachusetts. On August 4, 1892, Abby and Andrew Borden were brutally murdered in their own home, by someone wielding a hatchet. That someone may have been Lizzie Borden, Andrew’s younger daughter. Let’s see what the spirits have to say about it!

https://youtu.be/4KzW6wNHt1U

[image error]Now available on iHeart Radio