Last night I was ambushed by my past.  Again.  I was watching an old black and white movie made in 1939, filmed years before I was born, and yet strangely enough it seemed to be about me.  Well, in a way.  It’s a persistent theme in my Requiem series of supernatural mysteries: the way in … Continue reading The Merry Outlaws of Sherwood

Near the beginning of my novel Requiem for Thursday, Detective Weiss arrives at the Hamilton ship canal to investigate a drowning. Looming over the scene is an old lighthouse—no longer used and no longer lit against the night sky. I imagine him looking up at the old grey stone relic, it’s shape setting the mood … Continue reading To the Lighthouse

Seems to me that, at the most basic level, there are three types of supernatural tale. The first is a kind of cheat. The author weaves a dark web of words, building up atmosphere and dread, and in the end it turns out there’s a mundane explanation for the scary goings on. These stories can … Continue reading The Unhappy Psychic

In my upcoming supernatural mystery, Requiem for Parish, number four in the series,  Detective Eilert Weiss and Carly Rouhl are in pursuit of serial killers. Weiss has a current open case, but Carly is caught up in a mystery that is all but forgotten. Between them lies a lake house jammed with boxes of memorabilia … Continue reading Sweet Metaphysics

The tinkle of a distant player piano, a room jammed to the walls with crates and cardboard boxes full of antique memorabilia—lost in this narrow jam of memories, Carly Rouhl just might find herself squeezing out into the world of a long forgotten serial killer.  I’ve always wanted to write a time portal story—you know: … Continue reading A Portal in Time

Why ghost stories? It’s a fair question. The first wave of ghost stories were buoyed up by the spiritual angst that followed the American civil war.  These tales flourished within a culture dominated by religious belief, but spiritualism wasn’t exactly a mainstream genre. Ghost stories were subversive, flouting church orthodoxy—and in particular, affording women a … Continue reading Why Ghost Stories?

Download The Holidays The holiday season can get kind of layered around here. We have friends and relations of different faiths, or no faith at all—which is fine too. I suppose religion is baked into the season one way or another, though. I imagine that the derivation of ‘holiday’ comes from the notion of holy … Continue reading Holidays

The detective sits across from his partner at the back of the diner where he can see the door. His coffee, strong and black, warms his fingers. The remains of a slice of apple pie sits on a five dollar bill at the edge of the booth, for the pretty waitress when she can pull … Continue reading Gumshoe