Hazards of the game

This week, my publisher and I have been working on the final edits and revisions for the manuscript, Spook City. The book is scheduled for publication next month. When I first started writing about the paranormal, my mother warned me that this might invite the attention of ghosts and spirits, or it might stir up activity in my home. I always shrugged that off, but my mother was right: I ended up seeing quite a lot of ghosts (and not just in my home), picking up the sensation of "others" being in the room with me, have smelled perfume or cologne which I didn't recognize, and even had other things happen like my bedcovers moving up and down on the bed (with me under them!), doors closing on their own and shadowy figures on the walls or moving through a room. These kinds of things are things I grew used to seeing and experiencing, but one particular thing happened today that gave me some serious goosebumps!

There is a popular haunted doll in Key West, Florida named "Robert." Stories of Robert the Doll can be found in books and on the Internet. Because Key West is in my book, I thought it appropriate to include a short summary about the doll. My publisher wanted some extra information on something I wrote, so I hit Google and started searching. Since the information she wanted had to do with videos shot around the doll, I started watching a bunch of videos of the doll. (One particularly creepy video can be found here. After someone removes the doll's hat, you can see a frown on his face towards the end of that video.)

Well, I got caught up watching one video after another, reporting back on what I found. After one video in particular, I was about to look for another video to watch when I felt a pounding on the wall behind me. And even though I am profoundly deaf, I even faintly heard a BOOM-BOOM-BOOM accompany the pounding!

I jumped out of my chair and ran to the front door to see if there was someone pounding on it. I looked out the window and there was no one there! I unlocked the door, opened it, looked around on the porch and went outside. I looked all around. Nothing. No one. I went back into the house and looked out all the other windows, including out the backdoor. Nobody and nothing.

I had even checked on my dog. He wasn't barking, but he did have his ears up and was attentively looking around the room.

I got really spooked. WHAT had happened?? Where had that come from?

I got goosebumps and told my publisher that maybe that was enough video-watching for one day.

And even as I typed up this blog post, I felt a stomping on the floor right behind my desk chair, like a child was angrily stomping his foot on the floor. I know this feeling well because my preschooler often angrily stomps his foot on the floor. However, he was in school at that time, and there was no one there behind me.

Perhaps Robert didn't want all this attention? Perhaps the video clips of Robert the Doll are haunted, too? Perhaps Robert didn't want me to watch those videos?

Whatever it was, it was enough to creep me out. I suppose that's what I get from writing about the paranormal.