Monday, June 15, 2009

Exactly what are bejeebers, and why are they so easily scared?

By Jenna Byrnes

A woman named Mrs. Andrews was visiting the grave of her daughter in a cemetery in Queensland, Australia in 1946 or 1947. Her daughter Joyce had died about a year earlier, in 1945, at the age of 17. Mrs. Andrews saw nothing unusual when she took this photo of Joyce's gravemarker.

When the film was developed, Mrs. Andrews was astonished to see the image of a small child sitting happily at her daughter's grave. The ghost child seem to be aware of Mrs. Andrews since he or she is looking directly into the camera.

Is is possibly a double exposure? Mrs. Andrews said there were no such children nearby when she took the photograph and, moreover, did not recognize the child at all – it was no one she would have taken a picture of. She remarked that she did not believe it was the ghost of her daughter as a child.

Investigating this case, Australian paranormal researcher Tony Healy visited the cemetery in the late 1990s. Near Joyce's grave he found the graves of two infant girls. ~ About.com on paranormal

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I love ghost stories. Some of them scare the bejeebers outta me, but I think they're fun. I like writing about ghosts for the same reasons Lisabet mentioned yesterday. There aren't as many pre-existing rules about ghosts. I'll never forget the first time I discussed writing vampires with a group of authors. They were quite serious about what a vamp can or cannot do. I had always figured if I was writing fantasy, I could have the characters do whatever I wanted. Apparently, that is not the case.

I've done one book about vamps and one about werewolves (also a loose interpretation!) and they were fun, but I love ghosts. In several of my first short stories I used the old "person has sex with someone and finds out later he or she is a ghost" routine. I used to think that was a blast. I still like the twist at the end, but I believe I've evolved from that particular plot line.

In the Kindred Spirits series Jude Mason and I are writing, there is no sex with ghosts. Each of the ghosts/spirits has a story, and part of each book is spent uncovering one of the tales. Ethan's Choice dealt with Angry Annie, and exactly what made the chick so angry. One of my favorite lines (which Jude created and I use liberally) is when Cade told Ethan that Annie "has a scream that will shrivel your nuts". LMAO!

Part of what I'm enjoying about writing this series is giving an interesting history and delicious description to the ghosts. Even now as I'm writing about her, I can picture Angry Annie in my mind. It's my hope that after you read the book, you can, too.

*door slam*

Annie? What are you up to?

*Jenna stomps off to find out*

5 comments:

  1. Hey Jenna,

    I LOVE Angry Annie! When we were dreaming up the series and she came up, I knew I'd love her. She's snarky and has attitude. LOL

    Yeah, and her scream could shrivel any guys nuts. Hehehe!

    Great post!

    Hugs

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  2. I love the subject of ghosts. I love the photos. Its all so hopeful. Its would be easy for the photo to be a double exposure though. I'm old enough to remember cameras you had to wind by hand like the old Argus C3. If you got sloppy you could make a lot of double exposures. There's just something romantic about ghosts stories, a sense of pathos that you don;t often get in paranormal stories.

    Good topic.

    Garce

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  3. Thanks for commenting, Jude and Garce. Garce, I think there are people with equipment set up to do just that- figure out if 'ghost' pictures are real or not. The web page I found online has both, some that are widely considered real, and some famous hoaxes.

    Jenna

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  4. Interesting story about the grave site in Austrailia.You'd think if it was a double exposure, there would be other things in the photo besides just the baby. IMHO
    I bought Ethan's Choice, sounds like it will be a good read. I've never regretted buying one of your stories yet.

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  5. Thanks Pat, as always, I appreciate the support!

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