Twelve Around a Campfire

From the plains of eastern Colorado, to those hills of northern Georgia, from the cold climes up north, to the Creole legends of south central Louisiana, one of the favorite genres of books, especially, but not limited to young people, is Ghost Stories. I have loved hearing them and telling them since I was quite young. There's something about a story that raises the hairs on the back of your neck. I actually wrote these myself, some, many years ago. I typed a copy or two or three of these, and brought them to the 4-H camp at which I used to tell these stories.

A rather enterprising, if not very ethical young man, got into our cabin, took a copy, went to the administrative office, and ran off about a hundred copies, of which he sold all of them at a dollar a pop. Heck, I didn't make that much in several years of writing. I took the three best, according to the kids, and added nine more.

Since practically every place has its spooky legends and lore, I wanted to get a rather diverse set of stories across many cultures, although a majority do take place down in my homeland of Louisiana, with its many swamps, bogs, cypress wetlands, with thousands of trees covered with Spanish Moss. This was a perfect setting for eerie tales around that campfire. I added what information I could glean of stories from Europe, Ireland in particular, from the French Cajun and Creole lore down here, from some Native American lore, of their mounds which were once all over our lands. There's a story of the Chinese tale of the "Hungry Ghost Month" (which incidentally begins this year on August 4th, and it's big day being August 19th, in these parts.) That would be the 5th and 20th in other areas of the world as it's entirely based on the Chinese lunar year. The amazing thing is that if you research the topics in these tales, you'll find they are quite on point. Every area has local legends, haunted houses, things that go bump in the night, and things many laugh at... that is until the lights go out and strange things begin to happen. I think it's one of the finest works of fiction I've written, excepting my own attachment to Star for Waggoner and Dares Go Last, and, my own personal bias for the Alone Again Naturally trilogy which is autobiographical.

So if you wish to go hunting for the dreaded Rougarous in the swamplands of Acadiana, the shape-shifting Revenant, better known as the Soucouyant in some areas of the swamplands, maybe the Grunch of Grunch Road lore, or funny statues that wink at you at night, this is the book for you. Maybe you prefer the horror of a banshee wailing and keening outside your house at night, or the demons and spirits released from hell on Zhong Yuan Jie!, perhaps it's the haunted house known as the Grussen Place, that has been rotting in place for a century, and claiming, allegedly, several lives, that will interest you. Or maybe you'd prefer what Geoff can see near Rhett, but Rhett never sees, perhaps the little girl who talks to her deceased Mommy every night, until the night before she announces she's coming for Daddy, and others, all which are fit for any campfire with wide-eyed kids listening to what will likely give them shivers for a while until they realize-they are just stories. Or are they?