Specters and Manifestations - The Haunting of Aaron House

    From that day in first grade when words began to emerge from the jumble of letters on the page, I knew I wanted to write. My father raised me from the age of six, in Lancaster, PA, the setting for The Haunting of Aaron House. He was a voracious reader, so I became one. This was the 1930’s and 40’s when television, Internet, and Xbox didn’t exist. We got our information and entertainment from movies, radio, and reading. Folklore, superstition, and the supernatural were accepted as facts of life in this then rural community. My paternal grandmother was a folk healer, or Pow-Wow Woman, or sometimes witch, as they are called. She could cast spells. I listened to many frightening stories as a child--of ghosts and supernatural happenings--so I developed a natural interest in the subject, and later, while growing up, began a reference library. My prize possession is John George Hohlman’s, Pow-Wows, Or the Long-Lost Friend, a compilation of spells to heal and ward off spirits, published first in 1830. I use the book a lot in Aaron House. The exorcism at the end of the book is from here.
     When I was ready to become an author, I decided my first novel would be about an unsuspecting family haunted by ghosts who need their energy to become strong enough to destroy each other.
The main protagonists in Aaron House are Paul and Samantha Barlowe, and their son, Andy, who come to Lancaster from Chicago to shoot an historical documentary film. They temporarily reside in Aaron House as guests of the local chamber of commerce. Immediately upon their arrival the haunting begins. Your first hint is in the novel’s prologue. My characters know nothing about ghosts, and have a lot to learn about the awful dangers of ghostly possession. If you don’t believe in ghosts now, you might when you finish reading the book.
     You’ll discover there are seven classifications of ghosts, according to their power. Most Western religions teach that man is two beings: the physical, which dies, and the spirit, which lives on, encouraging the idea of life after death. Thus, right after death there is Stage One, or the memory impression.  Many of you have experienced this, but ignored it. This is the sense you get in a space when a presence lingers, but is not visible.
This happens often at historical sites in Eureka Springs, especially at our local cemetery, and some of our local hotels, but most visitors are not open to the idea, so don’t feel it. As the spirit lingers, instead of passing on, usually because of some unfinished business or violent death, it becomes stronger with time, taking the form of a mist, and gradually grows in strength until there is form. This is the way Amalie first appears to Sam and Paul. Older spirits can transmit thought, and move objects. Finally the last, Stage Seven, is achieved. This is the most dangerous and powerful.
     Phineas is here. He has form, can enter bodies, and take over completely. He can kill. It takes years, and feeding on the energy of many humans, to reach this strength. Amalie hates Phineas and needs all of Samantha to reach level seven, so she can destroy him. When she enters Sam, flashbacks to earlier times in Amalie's life begin, and Sam experiences some of the early American history of the region. Paul refuses to believe this can happen until Phineas invades him, during a very inopportune moment.
     If Paul, Sam, and Andy are going to survive, they need the wisdom of a Pow-Wow Woman to succeed. Let the fun begin.

Where Do You Find Ideas To Write About?

Where do ideas for novels come from? From a lot of sitting, and thinking, and reading. Newspaper articles are fertile ground. The scene in my Accidental Alien, where the medics at a murder scene argue if the victim is dead or not, came from an actual account in a newspaper.
     Conversation yields ideas. One day a friend of mine expressed her negative opinion of another woman with the remark, "Once she gets off the subject of herself, she has nothing to say." That statement gave birth to a character in The Haunting of Aaron House, which you'll get to read this February.
    When I read Lady of Hay, by Barbara Erskine, published in 1986, I knew someday I'd write about reincarnation, past life regression, and time travel. My latest book, Love Out of Time, is that book. The story unfolds on the New Jersey seashore. I love the ocean, and if I can't live there, I can at least be there in my imagination. The main protagonist was going to be a modern day woman who falls in love with the ghost who haunts the beach house she rents to spend time recovering from the trauma of a sudden divorce. My passion is American History. I try to include it in all my books, so I made the ghost a captain of a whaling ship who lived during the Civil War, about 1865. All I needed was some little-known event from the Civil War to cement the whole thing together. Research led me to The Stone Fleet, an idea so far-fetched it is hard to believe it really happened.
     Back in 1865 the whaling industry in New Bedford, Massachusetts was thriving, but the end was in sight. Oil had been discovered in the ground at Titusville, PA, the whales were becoming scarce due to uncontrolled slaughtering. The tall-masted sailing ships were being replaced by steam engines, which were faster, and a lot of old ships, not worth repairing, sat unused and rotting in the harbor.
     The Southern Confederate Army was gaining strength, defeating the Northern Union Army at every turn. The Southern Navy threatened Yankee shipping by sailing up the Chesapeake Bay to strike at Northern ports.
     The War Department in Washington decided to purchase some of the old sailing ships at New Bedford and fill them with rocks so they could sail to the mouth of the Chesapeake and be sunk, thus blocking enemy ships access to Northern ports. The plan was called The Stone Fleet. Thirty of these old ships were purchased and local farmers were paid to bring rocks to fill them. Well, as usual, something went wrong, or, as we would say today, it became one huge clusterfuck. The old wooden ships were so filled with worm rot that they started to fall apart and sink on the way south. Some actually reached the mouth of the bay, but they disintegrated when they sank, and the army discovered that the bay was so deep at the mouth that the Southern navy sailed right over them. Unbelievably, they tried this a second time and the same thing happened. It makes one wonder if some of these people serving in the government today might be reincarnations of past officials.

Book of the Month
If you liked Gabaldon's Highlander, or Dragonfly in Amber, you will enjoy reading Lady of Hay, by Barbara Erskine. An experiment in hypnosis and past life regression goes awry and  journalist Jo Clifford finds herself caught up in royal politics in eleventh century England during the reign of King John, of Magna Carta fame, and his child bride Matilda. Jo's past life identity becomes hopelessly entangled in the unspeakable treachery of King John's court, and affects her in her present day life as she realizes those she knows in her real life could be reincarnations of those inhabitants of her past. This is a long book (over 500 pages) and it sometimes moves slowly, but it is fascinating history. 
The book has gone through numerous printings since it first appeared in 1976 and has sold more than a million copies worldwide.