It runs in my family to see ghosts. And when I asked the librarians at my local library what kind of book they wanted, they said, "We need a book of Ohio ghost stories!"

When did you write your first book?

In first grade. It was called something like The Mouse that Scared the Bear that Ate the Witch. Even then I was interested in scary stories. I told it to my mother because I couldn’t write very well, then I illustrated it in crayon and stapled it in a red construction-paper cover.

I’ve written Haunted Ohio: Ghostly Tales from the Buckeye State (1991), Haunted Ohio II: More Ghostly Tales from the Buckeye State (1992), Haunted Ohio III: Still More Ghostly Tales from the Buckeye State (1994), Spooky Ohio: 13 Traditional Tales, (1995), Haunted Ohio IV: Restless Spirits (1997), Ghost Hunter's Guide To Haunted Ohio (2000), and Haunted Ohio V: 200 Years of Ghosts (2003). I’ve also written a book called The Wright Stuff: A Guide to Life in the Dayton Area (1989) which is out of print, and a number of children’s math and spelling textbooks.

What are you working on now?

Right now I’m working on various Ohio projects as well as several mysteries and a series of historical novels for young adults.

Why can’t you be photographed?

That’s my little joke. I don’t like being photographed, so I put that under the blank box. After all, ghosts can’t be photographed. Actually, if you look on the back of Haunted Ohio, you can see my legs sticking out from behind the tombstone. There is also a picture of me when I was very little in the back of Spooky Ohio. And Jessica Wiesel, the illustrator of that book wants to tell everybody that her picture was taken when she was in 4^th grade. She is now more or less grown-up, although she’s still a kid at heart.

Did you always want to be a writer?

I said in first grade that I would be a writer. I also wanted to be an archaeologist. I think the first thing I published was a poem about a flowering tree in our school paper when I was in 6^th grade. I used the pen name "Teri Martin," after St. Therese of Liseaux, one of my favorite saints. I edited the yearbook, and sent lots of poems and stories to contests. I usually won something because I imitated published writers very well.

What authors did you like to read when you were a kid?

I liked reading Nancy Drew mysteries, books about dolls that came alive, like Miss Happiness and Miss Flower by Rumer Godden, books on Egypt, Japan, and medieval times, cartoon books by Charles Addams (creator of the Addams family), and anything on archaeology or doll houses. When I got a bit older, I enjoyed Victoria Holt, the Sherlock Holmes stories, O. Henry, Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn), and the stories of Rudyard Kipling.

Where did you go to school?

I went to Indian Run Elementary School, then Dublin High School, in Dublin, Ohio, near Columbus. When I went to school there, it was a tiny farm community. There were about 95 people in my graduating class.

In English and history, yes. In math, no. I was 25 before I learned to balance my checkbook. I’m still not very good at it. I learned to read before I started school and I was very, very bored just sitting there while the other kids struggled through, "See Jane run." So I made up stories to keep myself entertained.

Did you have lots of friends?

No. Even though I was pretty smart. I was also the second-ugliest kid in my grade. And the other kids thought I was very weird when I talked about seeing things they couldn’t. I didn’t really like school very much.

Do you have any children or pets?

My family is my husband, who is a computer engineer and my 12-year-old daughter, as well as a younger sister and assorted aunts and cousins. We don’t have any pets because everybody is allergic to animals except me. I used to have a guinea pig named Charlie Brown who went to the great Pen in the Sky. As a college student, I had a fluffy black cat named Norton. And I once took care of a bat named Barbie who used to snuggle into a suede glove in my hand.

Are your stories true?

I always like to say they are "true, in spirit." The people who told me these stories believed they had had some supernatural experience they couldn’t explain. I do not make up stories out of nothing. Even if a story is a "traditional" tale or folklore, it may still have a grain of truth to it. And, of course, I also tell stories about things I’ve personally seen.

I often see ghosts and I’m often asked to visit houses to tell the owners if there is anything there. Usually the people in the house just want me to reassure them that they are not going crazy—there really is a ghost. My rule is that nobody is to tell me anything about the place before I go in. I’ll hear the peoples’ stories afterwards. That way I’m not influenced by what they tell me. Then I walk around and I take notes about what I see or feel and where I see or feel it. Afterwards, I sit down and talk things over with the people living in the house and see how what I experienced matches up with their own feelings. It often does.

When I see ghosts they look perfectly real and solid—like a living human being. They are not misty; I can’t see through them; they don’t wear sheets or bloody mummy bandages. They don’t have their heads tucked under their arms. They just look like ordinary people, in living color, and sometimes it is hard to tell who is a ghost.

I am usually scared when I see ghosts—scared and fascinated at the same time. There is no good reason for me to be scared—I compare it to the dog who hears the whistle that we humans can’t hear. That dog is whimpering and in pain. Sometimes I feel like I am picking up things that most people can’t see or hear and it is physically painful. Sometimes it feels like I was just punched in the stomach. But it is always interesting to see how close I can come to finding a ghost.

Why can you see ghosts and other people can’t?

I have no idea! I’m told that one out of ten people can see ghosts. It does seem to run in families. I think seeing ghosts is just another kind of sense, like touch, smell or hearing. I’ve got really bad eyesight and can’t smell much of anything unless it’s on fire, but maybe this is nature’s way of compensating for that!

Have you ever seen the same ghost more than once?

Only a couple of times. Usually once I’ve investigated a house, I don’t go back to it. And ghosts tend to stay in their own place, not wander around.

Aren’t you afraid a ghost might follow you home?

Like I said, ghosts usually stay in the place they haunt. I don’t allow anything to follow me home.

Do ghosts talk to you?

Only occasionally, and usually I only hear a word or a phrase. More often, I just get a feeling about what they want or what is bothering them. I DO NOT hold seances, channel spirits, or use a ouija board or any other communication device.

Ouija boards only attract lying spirits who will tell you anything—including things that later come true—just to make you believe it’s all real. They are a negative force and I don’t like it that they are sold as a harmless game. I’ve seen too many kids get obsessed with them and do stupid, dangerous things because "a spirit told me." Think about it: is your beloved grandmother going to hang around slumber parties pushing around a plastic pointer for a bunch of giggling teenagers? I don’t think so! But you might get a spirit pretending to be your grandma! Stay away from ouija boards, seances, and other ways of talking to the dead!

Are you a ghostbuster?

I jokingly call myself that sometimes, but I’m not really a ghostbuster. I don’t drive a hearse or have a laser-pak. The only time I’ve been slimed was by my baby daughter with some creamed spinach. I don’t get rid of ghosts, although I can tell people how to do it. I just wander around and identify the ghost and maybe find out why they are still haunting.

Where do you get your stories?

People send stories to me in the mail, which is the best way to reach me since I really don't have time to talk on the phone. I tell people who have a story to write it down and send it to my publisher: Kestrel Publications, 1811 Stonewood Dr, Beavercreek, OH 45432-4002 or e-mail: invisiblei@aol.com. I also ask librarians all over the state, get clippings out of magazines and newspapers, and read lots of old books on ghosts all over the US, trying to find Ohio stories.

What books do you like to read now?

When I’m tired of reading books on ghosts, I like to read books about archaeology, biographies (especially of royalty), Dilbert cartoons, travel books by Bill Bryson or a funny novel by Tom Holt or PG Wodehouse, and books on art, antiques, and dollshouses. Other authors I enjoy are Richard Altick (nonfiction Victorian history), Eric Newby (travel), Sylvia Townsend Warner (fiction), and Patricia Finney (mysteries and historical fiction). My favorite authors of ghostly fiction are Robert Westall, M.R. James, and Josephine Boyle.

Do you have any other hobbies?

I like to spend time with my husband and daughter, play tennis, walk in the woods, canoe, go to the movies, eat Japanese food (especially raw fish), visit museums, and go shopping at antique shops and used bookstores. I collect dollhouses and miniature things as well as manger scenes and the little castles that go in fishbowls.

Do you have any advice for young people who want to be writers?

First, read everything you can get your hands on—local newspapers, fiction, comic books, cereal boxes—whatever. I don’t care what you read, but do yourself a favor and read something published before 1970—or even before 1900. Much of what is being written today is dreck and you need to see what writing was like before the complete commercialization of publishing. You need to be able to tell good writing from bad; or at least find the kind of writing you want to do. Very often writers are urged by publishers or agents to produce "a product for people who like Stephen King" or "a book we can sell in Hallmark card stores" or "a book that Oprah will want to put on her show." They aren't told to produce their best work, carefully written in their hearts' blood. They are producing a commercial product.

Now, as someone who enjoys writing books that sell, I have nothing whatever against a publisher wanting a book to be commercially successful. I just haven't seen a lot of great writing coming out of today's successful writers and I include R.L. Stine and Stephen King in that group. They are terrific storytellers (although I secretly think R L Stine has a random-plot generator program on his computer) but they are not the best literary models to follow--unless, of course, you want to be a multimillionaire who writes for 12-year old boys

Second, if you want to be a writer, you need to learn how to do research. I get calls all the time from people who want to write ghost books like I do, for different parts of the US. I'm amazed at the number of them who don't even know how to use a library, can't do even the most basic research, and don't even know enough to ask a librarian for help. Research skills are one of the most important things you will ever learn if you want to be a writer. One of the most valuable things I got out of my college education was how to do research.

Let's imagine you want to write a horror book based on the legend of the zombie. You can't just make it all up out of your head because there are readers out there just waiting to pounce on your slightest error. I accidentally placed the headless ghost of Ladybend Hill in Guernsey instead of Belmont County and I heard from dozens of readers! Every writer I know reads books and more books to make sure they've got their details right. Where do they have zombies? What is the climate like in Haiti? What kinds of houses do they have there? What do they eat and wear? How do they bury their dead? What are the names of the various Voodoo spirits? I read all the time and I'm constantly taking notes from this book or that—not even ghost story books, just details I know I will eventually use.

Third, if you want to be a writer, you have to write. It's easy to get distracted by Life, but young writers should write as much as possible, beyond school assignments. If you write just a page a day, that's a book in a year. And don't think you have to start at the beginning and then write straight through. That's way too intimidating and it has stopped many a promising book dead. I always jump right into the middle and work my way sideways, upside down, and backwards until the book is done. You can make notes on scraps of paper, throw them into boxes, then cut them up, rearrange them and tape them back together. You can talk a book into a tape recorder and then type it up. You don't have to sit down at the blank screen of your computer and begin perfectly at the beginning. That's what editing is for. The first time I write something, I think it's terrific. But even a few hours later, I'll come back and think, "Geez, that's rotten!" I edit my books 12, 13, 15 times--until I'm happy--and even then, I still see things I'd do differently after they are published. Even years of writing, years of practice will not make you so perfect you can write without rewriting. So, don’t just talk about being a writer—WRITE!

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