DON'T Haunt Me. Please...

Call me a wuss if you like, but creepy things creep me out. I have never read a Stephen King novel, though I have seen one movie, Secret Window. Johnny Depp was the obvious draw for that one, otherwise I'd never have watched it.



















Towards the end when people were being murdered, I kept waiting for the last minute rescue by the police or the Mounties or the National Guard. It never happened. Then I remembered what I was watching. Needless to say, the perpetrator got away with his crime.

I don't like that idea, nor do I particularly like crime shows in general. I don't like to be reminded of the horrible things people are capable of doing to one another. You will never catch me watching a slasher movie or any other kind of horror flick. It still amazes me that I actually sat through Alien (on the front row of the theater, no less), though it was, technically, science fiction. I don't like gore, and I don't like evil zombie vampire stuff, either.

That being said, I do, however, read the Harry Potter books over and over, and enjoy the occasional ghost story, especially those that are comedies.


















I got a big kick out of Ghostbusters and one of my all-time favorite movies is the Ghost and Mrs. Muir--the 1947 original with Gene Tierney and (be still my heart!) Rex Harrison. The ghostly aspect of it might have been what made it unique, but the basic appeal was the romance.



















Romance is, and always will be, my genre of choice. Romantic comedies are best; even Ghostbusters contained an element of romance. I find it difficult to read, let alone watch or write, horror for horror's sake. Being scared to death doesn't do a thing for me. I'd much rather be swept off my feet by my hero, as opposed to having him slay vampires to save me from certain death.

Yeah, I know. This is coming from a paranormal author. But if you look closely at my body of work, you'll see that magic and the supernatural usually don't enter into it. My aliens are what they are: they don't shapeshift. Even Tisana, the witch in Warrior, came by her abilities as a result of her alien ancestry. Those "powers" were normal for her and the others of that race.

In real life, I have never met a ghost, though I know others who have. My mother had several stories she liked to tell--particularly the one about the ghosts in the old house that was once the Louisville School of Art, where she taught metalsmithing. There were reportedly two ghosts there, and if you'd ever seen the building, which, last time I saw it had been absorbed into the U of L campus, you'd understand the reasons for the stories. The house was a dark, two storied structure with ivy covered brick walls and a creaky stairway at each end. Late at night, if you happened to be there alone, you might hear footsteps coming down one staircase. When you went to investigate, the footsteps would then be heard coming down the other.

Never having been there alone late at night, I never had this experience, nor have I seen ghosts anywhere else. Apparently I'm another of those who, like Joanne, must be so based in the real world that I scare the ghosts away, which is fine with me.

Unless it's the ghost of Rex Harrison.

He can haunt me anytime.