By Erin Kellison
To prepare
for this blog post I took a very informal and non-scientific poll on Facebook
with
that very question. I had about seventy responses, the overwhelming answer
being yes. Many people posted that they’d had a personal experience witnessing
a ghost. A handful said that they didn’t know if they believed. And a few gave
me an outright, “No.”
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| Erin |
My husband is
an emphatic non-believer, but then he doesn’t like to encourage my overactive
imagination. Our conversation goes like this:
“Do you
bel—?”
“No.”
“But—?”
“No.”
One of my
friends (via text) said yes, and another said no, then rephrased, not the
Scooby-do kind. I texted a couple of my sisters and they both referenced a
haunted house my family lived in when I was a baby. Apparently one of my
sisters got so scared while babysitting that she left the house. (I hope she
took me with her.) That haunted house is part of our family lore, which makes
me all kinds of happy. I love lore.
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On numerous
occasions I’ve been scared breathless by a shadow in my peripheral vision, but
whether a ghost was present or not, I have no idea. I’ve been scared in the dark, of the dark, of things in
the dark. And I write dark stories because my imagination is obsessed with the
more frightening aspects of the What if?
question.
But I can’t
say, “Yes, ghosts exist.” I can say, “I believe everything.”
I don’t even
know if I want to know the answer.
The What if? is pretty compelling as
it is, and it gives me all sorts of license to do what I want with the
possibility. I particularly don’t like the “THIS is the way it is” kind of
answers; I’ll do the opposite on purpose because I’m cranky that way.
It’s the
possibility that is so intriguing to me as a writer. When I look into a
night-darkened corner of a bedroom, I’m thrilled—in both good and bad ways—by
what may be lurking within. And since I have a decidedly romantic bent to my
nature, the entity hidden in darkness may be frightening or seductive…or both
at the same time. Thrilling, I tell you.
In the
smallest hours of the night, when the house is sighing in its sleep and I’m at
my vigil, covers up to my chin as I contemplate the blackest shifts of
shadow…yes, I most definitely believe in ghosts. And if I get a little too
scared (happens all the time), my husband will throw an arm over me, as heavy
as his “No (there are no ghosts),” and I can go to sleep. That’s romance.
Do you
believe in ghosts?
Bio: Erin Kellison is the award-winning author of the Shadow series,
the Shadow Touch novella series, and the Shadow Kissed series, all of which
share the same world, where dark fantasy meets modern fairy tale. RT calls her
latest, Soul Kissed, “a
dark fairy tale with a twist, perfect for readers who love passion with their
fantasy.”
You can find Erin at:
Website: www.ErinKellison.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/erinkellisonauthor
Twitter: www.twitter.com/ekellison
Goodreads: www.Goodreads.com/ErinKellison
