Spirits and Hauntings

It's time for my weekly confession. This week, my absolute belief that there are such things as ghosts.

Hey. Stop looking at me that way. I've not lost my mind, I'm perfectly sane. I even have science on my side. The body is made of energy- when we die the energy has to go somewhere. It doesn't end, it just changes form. Given that the possibility for what happens to that energy is endless, including being trapped in an earth-bound state. Do I think every bump and hiss and crack in a house is caused by something ethereal. No. There are more explanations to be found in the known world than the unknown. Do I think sometimes there are paranormal explanations - sure. Why not.

I'm a devotee to the ScyFy Channel sow Ghost Hunters. So far they are the only program I've seen on TV that actually tries to disprove hauntings rather than the Goober and the Ghost Chaser antics you find on Travel Channel where the people investigating jump and scream at every little noise they hear. I say Goober because they aren't even compatent enough to be compared to the Scooby Doo Gang. As a matter of fact they are so bad, I can't even remember the name of the show in question. Anyhow, my point is I'd rather see a group trying to eliminate the obvious before slapping a label on something that truly doesn't belong. It makes the things they can't explain just that much more compelling.

But I digress.

I love ghost stories. Reading them, writing them, contemplating them. My latest is part of my erotic fallen angels series. Originally, the heroine was a mortal set up against the fallen angel Malachai. Well, the first two books in the series had the exact same configuration of hero and heroine. I thought I needed to change it up a bit. For some reason the word wraith popped into my head. Even though I'll confess to not knowing the true origin of the word. Of course, this only compelled me to look into the background and figure out how to best use it in my story, because after I had a taste for in my mouth, I knew I had to use it. - So, the definition and origin were pretty damn compelling. Scottish. All right, I like it. Used to describe a ghost. Groovy. One that has separated from their body at around the time of their death to warn or visit their loved ones. Oh, Yes!!! I'm so there. I mean the ideas I can get from are so vast. It actually gave me a good jumping off point for my villians. Let's face it, they couldn't be just any villians either. They had to be special. Enough so that my heroine would want to separate from her body in order to save herself.

Now, here's the rub - or not - how does your hero and heroine have sex if one is ethereal? Does one go for the Dan Akroyd/Donna Dixon scene in Ghostbusters? Or try to find another way around the problem? For me, I have it worked out in my head how it will all go down (oh, yeah that pun was intended). Now, all I have to do is get working on the actual story.

So, what are you contemplating?