When my Grandma Bruce died, I knew it before I was told. I was six or seven years old. I woke up in the middle of the night--or dreamed I woke. Standing at the end of my bed was Grandma Bruce. Even though she no longer lived in the house with us, her appearance didn't surprise me. She was saying something, but there was no sound. I assumed she was telling me to stop being a saucy girl*.
The next morning my mother came in to tell me that Grandma died and I could have the day off school if I liked. Of course I said yes. I didn't say anything at the time, but I was convinced, right then, that Grandma Bruce's ghost has visited me to say good bye...and not be a saucy girl.
That experience stayed with me. I can remember not being afraid of what I was sure was a ghost. I can also remember feeling faintly guilty that I was taking advantage of the situation to get a day off school. It also stuck with me that, although I could see my grandmother, I couldn't hear her.
The ghosts I have experienced were friends and family members and the ghosts I loved in stories always turned out to be helpful or in need of help. So, with few exceptions, ghosts don't scare me. People scare me. People who perpetrate hate crimes, or take pleasure in the pain of others scare me. People who, for personal gain, knowingly hurt others, directly or by inciting others, scare me and make me angry. The idea of someone like that haunting me is horrifying.
That's the stuff of nightmares and that brings me to one particular nightmare...the one that inspired Ghost Writer.
Hey! I'm going to try to keep a regular schedule again: biweekly on Mondays. I even have a calendar and someone to nag me.
Next post will be Monday 12 November and the topic will be who I remember on Remembrance Day and how they have inspired me.
Meanwhile, Like, Follow & Share me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/alisonbruce.books
I'm also on Twitter @alisonebruce... but not as much. Also check out:
She has to deal with two kinds of spooks: spies and ghosts.
But which one is trying to kill her?
Jen Kirby has seen ghosts since she was a child, but she can’t talk to them or help them cross over. And, after a violent death in the family, she doesn’t want to see them anymore.
In her role as ghostwriter, Jen joins a Canadian Arctic expedition to document and help solve a forty-year-old mystery involving an American submarine station lost during the Cold War. The trouble is, there are people—living and dead—who don't want the story told, and they’ll do anything to stop her.
Now Jen is haunted by ghosts she can’t avoid or handle alone. That means confiding in the one man she doesn’t want to dismiss her as “crazy.” But can he help? Or is he part of the problem?
http://getbook.at/GhostWriterAB