Guest Post by Lynne Connolly!
There are many different theories, so in my research for “Rendezvous at Midnight,” I read a lot and finally decided on the course I’d take.
To take ghosts as unknown might have been an interesting way to go, but instead, I decided to incorporate ghosts into the paranormal world that runs through all the books I write in that genre, whether it’s a Department 57 story, a STORM book or a Ghosts at Home book. It makes for consistency and a better flow between all the books.
For “Rendezvous at Midnight,” Michael, the son of a vampire, but not a vampire himself, has the ability to talk to ghosts. The main ghost in this book is the spirit of a murdered woman and that is why Lisa, her daughter, decides to go aboard. That, and her job as presenter for “Ghosts At Home.” She wants to discover what happened to her mother, and Michael, a true medium, is her chance. The fact that she has wanted him for a long time only gets in the way of her ambition.
So in this book, the ghost is someone with an unresolved issue, finding and bringing to justice the people responsible for her death. She is also deeply vengeful about the whole business, understandably, since she’s been haunting the ocean liner where she was killed for thirty years now.
It makes sense in this paranormal world, and it gives purpose to Michael. Some ghost-hunting programs on TV are exploitative, or simply fake, either in the results or the way it’s presented, and all follow a formula. So by using the author’s mantra of “what if…?” I got to “What if the ghosts are restive spirits, people who remain around with issues to resolve? What if ghosts can be dangerous?”
From that, I added a power that ghosts have. In my paranormal world, everyone, be it vampire, shape-shifter, Sorcerer, mortal or ghost, has a special power. Some aren’t aware of their Talent, but others are, and they hone it to a fine art. In my paranormal world, ghosts have the ability to take over the body of someone else. The circumstances have to be right, but they can also manipulate the person to recreate the circumstances they need, and then they can destroy or evict the spirit of the original person inhabiting the body, and use the body themselves.
Creepy, eh? I hope so, anyway, because now I’ve written “Rendezvous at Midnight,” I really want to do some more in that same vein!
What do you think? Do you like the idea?
A haunted ocean liner, a woman with a family mystery to solve, and a man who can talk to ghosts—what do they have in common? A timeless love and the very real threat of murder, that’s what.
Lisa, a host for the TV program Ghost at Home, and Michael, a medium also for the program, share a past together. But it remains to be seen if they have a future….
When the program gets offered to spend a weekend of ghost-hunting on The Gem of the Sea, Lisa sees her chance to discover what really happened to her mother the day she died on the great ocean liner. But over the course of one passion-filled weekend, Lisa and Michael must fight a malevolence the likes of which neither has encountered before.
Will they win or become two more of the unquiet spirits haunting the old ship?
I was born in Leicester, England, and lived in our cobbler’s shop with my parents and sister. It was an old house and most definitely haunted, but I didn’t find out until I left that my great uncle had hung himself in the living room! But I think our ghost might have been older than that. It was built on the site of the old Roman cemetery, and the land had been constantly inhabited, being in the centre of town. Then, when the council bought the house from us to build a road, my grandfather retired and my father went and worked for the Post Office. My mother was a sample machinist; that is, she worked with designers on the prototypes (models or samples) of garments. So I was very well dressed! We bought a relatively modern house in the country, and my mother was blissfully happy. It’s all very well living in a large old house, but it’s a dreadful task to keep it clean and warm!
My mother's side of the family are Romany gypsies, although sadly we haven't any of the old trailers that are so astonishingly beautiful. I was taught to read the Tarot cards, and I usually use two packs; the Rider pack for simple readings and the Crowley Thoth pack for the complex stuff. I've always had an interest in the paranormal and it's been a delight to be able to put some of this into my novels.
2 comments:
I like the idea of ghosts with special powers and the one that you have given your ghost sounds like a very useful and practical gift to give them. "Rendezvous at Midnight" sounds like a fun book to read and I'm adding it to my list. Good guest post!
Thanks so much! I enjoyed writing this one a lot, and I'm thinking about doing more.
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