Third Book Finished

Well, the third book of ghost stories, is finished. I wrapped up the last story this morning. Started out as a book of ghsots stories gathered from along Interstate 55/Route 66. As always, however, writing is a business. As such, as I was working on this book, my publisher and I had a falling out. I won't go into details, but lets just say that he decided to write the book himself and cut me out of a verbal agreement to write this book for him.

Needless to say, I was upset. I put the manuscript aside, and went to work on other projects. I wrote a series of short stories (the first of which is published at www.talesofworldwarz.com/stories/), edited a novel manuscript, and sent out some query letters. Basically, I ignored the ghost stories I had saved here on my hard-drive. Besides, I was burned out on ghost stories. I had read and researched so many ghost stories over the last three years, I had absolutly zero interest in writing another. A huge factor involved with with this was the limitations my publisher put on me. It was to the point where I felt like I was writing a high school lit paper.

A lot of that changed when a buddy at work told me his story. Great story about his ice fishing experiances on a local lake, and footsteps on the snow as he was fishing at night. I thought these stories deserved to be in a book, mine specifically, and it occoured to me that without the restrictions put on me by my publisher, I could add this story.

With this little epiphany, I went back to work on the book. In the last few months, I've collected a number of stories from across the Midwest and South. Everything from the first recorded haunting of the Alamo by six specters bearing flaming swords, to the ghost of the miner hauling on the warning rope who died as the shaft filled with water in Minnesota. Great stories, bloody stories, stories of the bizarre I wasn't allowed to use before.

This little book, which I've titled Southern Fried Ghosts and Their Midwest Cousins is ready. I'm going to put it aside for a few weeks, then come back to it sometime in August to edit it. After that, I'm shopping it around. I've got a few publishers in mind, and hope to have it sold by the end of the year. We'll see what happens. I'll keep everyone apprised. I think it's the best of my work on ghost stories. I know I had more fun researching this one and writing the stories than I have lately. I may put a couple of the stories up here if anyone's interested.