Have you ever had a paranormal experience that scared you badly? As you were writing about ghosts, did you ever have a shiver of awareness of the spirit world? If you were at a seance and could channel the ghost of anyone, who would it be and what would you ask them?
I’ve never had a really scary paranormal experience, or even an experience I’m sure was paranormal. I talked here about the time one of my family’s cats may have seen a ghost–that was kind of freaky. There was also one time my friend and I tried out a Ouija board at her house when we were there alone at night. I don’t think we actually got in touch with any spirits, but halfway through the lights in her living room suddenly went off, and I jumped about a foot. (It turned out it was just that they were on an automatic timer for when the whole family was away from home for the weekend, that she’d forgotten about.) Even writing GHOST, I can’t say I ever felt closer to any sense of the supernatural. I definitely don’t have Cass’s talent or anything like it!
I think if I could talk to any ghost, I’d probably ask for my maternal grandfather. He was always my favorite grandparent when I was a kid, but he got sick (lung cancer–he smoked) when I was in my preteens and I only saw him once in the year before he died. He had a lot of really interesting experiences–he was a pilot for the British air force during WWII, for ex–and he was very happy and fun to talk to, but as a kid it never occurred to me that I’d want to spent all that much time finding out more about him. And then by the time I was old enough to want to get to know him, he was gone. So it’d be neat to be able to talk to him adult-to-adult and learn more about him and his life.
How about the rest of you? Whose spirit would you summon?