Do You Believe in Ghosts?
By Toni Noel
I do. I always have, not because I've had any
close encounters with ghosts, but because I'm more gullible than the average
reader. This may be the reason ghosts keep showing up in my novels. My
September 1 eBook released by Desert Breeze Publishing, Fairy
Dusted, has the latest ghost.
In it, Drew O'Malley takes his wife Jill to
visit relatives in Ireland, a trip he hopes will save his troubled marriage,
and finds the two of them sharing their Treehouse Inn accommodations with a
ghost.
At first Drew doesn't believe it possible, since
only Jill's personal items are being moved around their room, or disappearing. Then
his favorite San Francisco Giants baseball cap disappears and Jill's spots her
ghost wearing it. The ghost looks so much like Drew's niece Megan, when they
checkout of the room, Jill leaves the troubled ghost a note.
Wikipedia explains ghosts this way:
"A ghost is the soul or spirit of a
deceased person or animal that can appear in visible form or other
manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary
widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible shapes, to
realistic, life-like visions."
Jill clearly sees the translucent red-headed
being who seldom appears to men, and believes she is the ghost of Drew's
ancestor who died in childbirth. Jill may be right. The Treehouse Inn was built
on property the ghost's large family once occupied.
She believes the ghost is searching for the baby
daughter taken from her at birth, and tries to put the ghost's mind to rest by
leaving her a note.
Many photographs exist of supposed ghosts. The
most well known is a published photo
many believe a fake called the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall taken by Captain
Hubert C Provand. Ghost sightings have been reported on trains, ship, and of
course in haunted houses and cemeteries. The notorious ghost of Whaley House in
San Diego's Old Town draws tourists to the clapboard structure where narrow
stairs preclude rapid escape, should the ghost decide to put in an appearance.
Sometimes ghosts appear on film, many of those
are fakes, but enough repeat sightings exist to make even a non-believe wonder.
I grew up among kids afraid to pass a cemetery
at night. Perhaps that's why I included the hint of a ghost in Decisive Moments, my novel about a
gutsy photographer and a reclusive architect, but the ghost in that book is not
the kind of ghost to be feared. She
only wants her traumatized son to find happiness.
You can visit Toni on the following places:
To read more about Jill O'Malley's ghost,
download Fairy Dusted from one of
these sites:
Or from your favorite eBook store.
Excerpt from Fairy Dusted
If
only Jill didn't want a baby so badly.
Better
still, if only he wanted a child.
Things might work out for them if he
did, but he wouldn't change his mind about this. Not when another young life
would hang in the balance.
Drew's
gut clenched. Sure as day followed night Jill would never forgive him for not
coming clean with her on this.
The
sudden clang of a pot lid and footsteps moving about in the kitchen ended
Drew's reverie.
Exhausted
from trying to solve his clients' marital problems, he was more than ready to
seek refuge inside. Enjoy a tasty meal seated across from his beautiful wife in
their well-appointed dining room.
As
if he would.
Dread
kept Drew glued to the spot, afraid to open the back door, hesitant to face his
one-hundred-ten-pound wife.
The
pot lid clanged again. Drew yanked open the door and strode in.
Jill
stood at the stove, stirring something in an iron pot, her dark auburn hair
pulled back from her face with a silver clamp.
"Gosh
that smells good." He grabbed a long-handled spoon and sampled the
bubbling stew. "How soon do we eat?"
She
glanced at him and smiled, a good sign. Lately, he never knew what to expect
when he came home. Fertility drugs played havoc with Jill's hormones. With
their relationship, too.
He
constantly worried about their marriage. He'd be satisfied if they never had a
child, overjoyed, actually. He and Jill growing old together, walking through
life hand in hand.
Just because we're married
doesn't mean we have to have a child.
To
Jill, it does.
She'd
make too much of his action if he patted her softly yielding butt. Before his
next breath she'd have him stripped and stretched out on the bed.
Fertility
drugs changed Jill. Gave her the upper hand in their sex life. Made her lust
for him, and had gradually eroded their love for each other in her determined
rush to give him a child. A child he was afraid to father.
So
far, his prayers had been answered and Jill hadn't conceived, but how long
could he depend on his luck lasting?
"How
was your day?" he asked, giving her a tight hug, his hands firmly planted
at her waist.
Toni
Noel's love of books started in childhood, when her mother first read The
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew to her. She helped start church
libraries in two rural Tennessee towns and appeared before the City Planning
Commission and the San Diego City Council to urge a site be purchased. As the
neighborhood spokesman for the new library the City Councilman for her district
invited her to turn the second shovel of dirt at the groundbreaking for the new
library. Toni's fondest dream, to see one of her safe-haven-for-the-heart
novels available for checkout there may soon be fulfilled. Her first
release Law Breakers and Love Makers
will be released in print in November.
Toni Noel's Novels... Safe havens for
the heart.
