A sense of place is all
important in writing fiction. Readers can sense the credibility in your writing
if you’ve been there. To be able to write about the supernatural you have to
believe ghosts and paranormal events exist. How can a writer describe how it
feels to encounter a spirit unless they’ve experienced terror when confronted
with a mist that is slowly taking human form? Paul, Samantha, and Andy Barlowe,
the principal characters in my new novel, The
Haunting of Aaron House, to be published by Rogue Press in September 2015,
have never seen a ghost, although Sam declares she can “feel” the previous
owners of the antiques she finds. Writing this book, about ghostly possession
and hauntings was easy for me because spirits have always been a part
of my life, taken for granted. I grew up believing in ghosts,
spells, and the supernatural in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the setting for
the book. Today I live in Eureka Springs, Arkansas where all things
metaphysical are accepted as real.
My paternal grandmother was a faith healer who
cast spells. They were called PowWow Women. In the novel, I use a spell given
to my mother when she was a young girl to rid her of a persistent boyfriend,
although for a different reason in the story.
In Aaron
House, Paul Barlowe, and his
company, Barlowe Films, are shooting a documentary history of the region. He’s
brought Sam and Andy to help on the film, so they are all staying in a rented
farmhouse, by chance furnished with the antiques Sam loves.
They
don’t know that for the last 170 years it has been haunted by two ghosts, Amalie and
Phineas Peale, waiting for a human couple, because each needs human energy to
gain enough power to destroy the other. Since the Civil War only men have lived
there, the Aaron Brothers being the last.
The plot follows Paul, Sam
and Andy during the making of the film at various historical sites while Sam,
who has been told of the ghosts, tries to unravel the mystery of what has kept
them from moving on. Soon, Amalie, who by now inhabits Sam's body, causes her
to flashback to the 1860s, and gradually revealing the sinister secret that has
kept these two ghosts at war. Paul knows there is something wrong, but cannot
believe in ghosts, no matter what Sam tries to explain. One day, when he is alone
in the house, he encounters the evil personage of Phineas and realizes they
need help to get free. Even worse, Phineas later possesses him during an
intimate moment with Sam, which terrifies him.
The book has a
roaring climax, but I won't tell you more, except, to relieve the tension of
the ghost scenes and add some humor, I've added a very tender love story
between Paul's wealthy playboy partner, Lloyd, also working on the film, and
Penny, the terribly repressed and shy assistant working as a script girl. Penny
is confused. She's never had a boyfriend, especially a millionaire hunk like Lloyd.
He is totally smitten and pursues her. There is also a stray dog who is not
exactly what he seems.
The book will be
available on Amazon, as are all my books, in both e-book and paperback,
sometime in late September.
