My BFF's Aunt is a Monster

I want to write scary again, soon.

I am in the thick of revising (nay, rewriting) my historical novel, and I keep wanting to put ghosts in. Alas, its plot won't have any in the way of ghosts unless I put in a nightmare scene.

Anyway, about this story itch.

I keep thinking back to this trip I made with my girlfriends between high school and college. What if my BFF's aunt was a monster?

Mmm.

Haunted?

This past Friday, my family and I went to see a house built in 1907. (We are looking for horse property, and this house sits on nearly two acres in the old section of our small town.)

I held no high hopes for this light-yellow two-story house. The brick around the foundation looked like it was crumbling or sagging. A lone, overgrown pine tree was its only front yard accent. A black cat provided color and life in an otherwise bland facade. We walked around the grounds first as another realtor was showing the house, and peered into the crawl space towards the back of the house. (A perfect place for a child to hide and discover something terrifying.) There was a shed labeled "Danger: Chlorine Gas" with a metal container for "Gas Masks".

But inside was something else. It made me think of pioneer houses in the memorial parks in downtown Salt Lake City. Lovely and possibly - with the help of my overactive imagination -haunted.

***
There was a spacious entry with hardwood polished to a high sheen. There were french doors on both sides. To the right was a front room with a carved fireplace mantle in gorgeous wood and framed with painted tile. To the left was a dining room with a built in china hutch and another ornate fireplace. From the dining room, you go into the kitchen, which, for an older home, felt spacious, with modern-day amenities; no original wood stove.

To the back of the house, a more recent occupant added onto the building with a rectangular family/work room which is probably where they did laundry because there were water hook-ups. The room smelled of turpentine because of the various paints and stains being stored there. (Mmm, or maybe there was a former occupant who painted at the first light of dawn or late into the evening by candle night?)

There was one bedroom downstairs. I loved the bathroom, with its clawed bathtub and tall ceiling. It reminded me of a bathroom we had in the Philippines when we rented this old Spanish house.

As we went upstairs through this narrow stairway, a musty smell overpowered me and gave me goose bumps. There was a plant ledge at the turn of the stairs in front of a window. The three bedrooms upstairs all had interesting shapes that followed the sloping roof line. There was also an attic, where one could keep an insane relative under watch from a servant (a la Jane Eyre). One door led to the house addition's roof, which was spongy under our step and led to an unrailed edge which was a good drop to the lawn below.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't really a haunted house, but I already decided I want this house as a setting for a ghost story someday.

Scare The Dickens Out Of Us

Have you heard of the "SCARE THE DICKENS OUT OF US" short story contest 2010? It is a contest sponsored by the Clark Library Friends

$20 ENTRY FEE First prize, $1,000 and a trophy.Second prize, $500 and a ribbon. Third prize, $250 and a ribbon.Junior contest prize $250 and a trophy.

The contest is a Friends of the Dr. Eugene Clark Library fundraiser and is privately funded. All entry fees go to the Friends and are used for library projects. The contest is open to published and unpublished writers alike. The ghost story must be 5,000 words or less, in English, and typed double-spaced. Deadline October 1, 2010.

From Hope Clark's Fund For Writers