Ghost Stories, Not Just for Halloween

Halloween. A time for stories about ghosts and hauntings.

The first time anyone approached me with the idea of writing about ghosts I said "I don't believe in ghosts. I think they are tricks of the eye and brain." Well, I may not believe in ghosts, but a lot of people do and they want to hear about them and the places they haunt.

Now, though I still don't believe in ghosts, but because I do believe in ghost stories, when approached to research and write stories for various ghost tales anthologies I usually accept the project. People need stories to reiterate the importance of avoiding certain places and actions.

"But doesn't this encourage people, especially kids, to go looking at such places?" is a common question. It certainly does. As a kid there were several sites near my home and neighborhood reputed to be haunted, including a big, old, deserted mansion. That place drew every kid for blocks around, especially around Halloween. The upside of ghost hunting and checking out haunted places is that it is a group activity. Checking out a haunted spot is no fun if you don't have someone along just in case you do see a ghost. It is much safer to have several people along when prowling hazardous sites. If someone gets into trouble others can come to the rescue or call for help.

My first ghost story, written for Ghostly Tales From America's Jails, was about a prison. The editor Joan Upton Hall is a member of San Gabriel's Writer's League, as am I. She mentioned during our monthly she was doing this project and had plenty of stories about Texas jails, but the publisher wanted stories from other parts of the country as well. After the meeting I approached her and asked if the piece about the Moundsville State Prison in West Virginia was still open. No one had taken it so she told me to go ahead and write the article.

I knew about Moundsville prison, not because of the ghostly aspect, but because my husband comes from West Virginia and one time we'd gone to Moundsville to look at the mounds the town is named after. At that time the prison was still in operation. I thought the Gothic structure was as scary as any Hollywood horror movie producer ever imagined. Bram Stoker's Dracula would be right at home in that place.

I wrote the piece, turned it in, and was asked if I could do another one. I vaguely remembered a similar structure we'd seen on some of our travels back east and tracked down a State Reformatory in Ohio that was also Gothic design and has a reputation for being haunted.

I turned my stories in and got busy on other projects. Somehow the anthology was delayed for several years and I forgot all about it. Then one evening we watched a program about haunted places. When Moundsville State Prison was mentioned as "The most haunted prison in America." My husband asked, "Didn't you write something about that place?"

"I did." I paused my computer and watched the program. When it ended I mused out loud, "I wonder what ever happened to that book?"

A few months later Joan mentioned that the book was finally coming out. When it did other projects related to ghosts and haunting presented themselves and, eventually, I realized that while I still didn't believe in ghosts I was beginning to believe in ghost stories. The stories themselves are not just tales to be told around the campfire, while consuming S'mores, to scare kids. A good ghost story is a mortality tale or warning of what might happen if someone does something foolish or dangerous.

By the way, I am currently researching ghost stories centered around NASCAR. If anyone knows about a good haunting involving NASCAR please contact me. Considering the sports origins and danger there's got to be some good ones circulating.