FOX NOTE (ABOUT) MY LOVE OF GHOST STORIES

When October falls with brown oak leaves and frost, I grudgingly put away my summer sandals and shorts, fish for fall bass ravenous for fat for the winter, and indulge my love of reading ghost stories and zombie books. I write a few too, like my novella, New World, as part of the Realms of Undead Novella collection from May December Books.

My favorite stories are the true ones, though there are no true zombie stories—at least not yet. I love reading stories of real hauntings and paranormal experiences, times when we’ve touched the otherworld. Samhain for shamans is a sacred time when this world and the next come into alignment. The walk between shortens. Many cultures celebrate this time, and for us, it’s the new year. The cycle turns again.

So I figured to feed my appetite for true stories, I’d ask friends to share their experiences. Now I didn’t want to do a formal publication. I’m far too busy for that between writing, promotion, fishing, rolling dice for my tabletop D&D game and playing Mists of Pandaria. And I swore I’d never be a proper editor. So I thought, let’s have some fun. Out there is a fabric, enough exposure and information to show us there is something more beyond what our senses can sense. X-rays exist, but it took us centuries to develop the mechanical eyes to extend our own peepers to see them. Science hasn’t proven or disproved the existence of ghosts, and if we trust our hearts, we feel that there is something more.

Now I love a good scare. I think it goes back to evolution. When a force operates beyond our senses in ways we don’t understand, our Fight or Flight response triggers. I enjoy stories of hauntings and demonic infestations ever since childhood reading the Amityville Horror at my Grandmother’s cottage in Maine. I found it on the magazine table. It started an obsession that lasts and which, amazingly, I’m now making money with. It scared my parents. I enjoyed that a little.

Now answer me honestly: How many of you secretly would like to find themselves in a haunted house where the walls bleed?

However there is another classification of tale besides scary. Many of these stories are tales of comfort, contacts with lost loved ones. I’d so love to see my grandfather again, just to say a few words and know he is there. So these stories need not be scary, nor do they need to be professionally written. Think of it as an email to a friend about an experience you had with Casper.

I may not be able to use all of them, but I’ll do my best. And please check back or follow the site. I’ll be live all through October.

And pass the word to writers and readers, friends and family. There’s something out there. With our collective experiences, maybe we can work it out.

Author & Wild Bard

T. Fox Dunham

Thank you Belle. You fell the leaf from my tree.