Introduction

Hello!! I'm so excited about being the new Paranormal editor here at Gotta Write Online. This is going to be a monthly column in which I'm going to cover a lot of different aspects of Paranormal activities, including interviews with those who work in the various fields, the different types of Paranormal writing, how-to articles, and numerous aspects of phenomena, what it is and what it includes.

Since my main focus centers on ghosts, I'm also going to be covering hauntings, articles that help you determine if you have a ghost, definitions of ghostly activity, types and personalities of ghosts and the difference between ghosts and guardian angels. I have lists of places you can go to interact with them. I will also feature websites documenting their activity and, of course, market news about where you can submit ghost/paranormal stories, both fiction and nonfiction, and interviews with Paranormal writers.

I'll also have a Question and Answer section, where you can ask me a question, and in the next month's issue, I'll provide you with an answer. For example, think you have a haunting, but can't wait for that particular article to appear? Ask me. Want to explore a local home or building where you can interact with a ghost and my list of haunted places hasn't come out yet? Ask me.

I'm also going to feature a mini-term directory, which will be updated each month.

So come here often and look for my monthly column, starting soon.

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Ayn Hunt is a Paranormal Mystery author who resides in the Houston area. Her first book, Unwilling Killers, will soon be available in Trade paperback from PublishAmerica, and her second book, Obsessed, is online at www.londoncircle.com. In addition to working on her third book, she writes a monthly newsletter, Ghostly Gatherings, which is featured on this website. Throughout her 20 years of writing, she has also written various articles and short stories. She can be contacted at AynHunt@aol.com.

When New Hope Calls You Listen
An Interview with Horror Writer P.D. Cacek

GWN ONLINE (June 20, 2001) -- P.D. (Trish) Cacek is a winner of both the Bram Stoker Award and World Fantasy Award for short fiction. She recently edited "Bell, Book & Beyond," the first Affiliate Member anthology for the international Horror Writers Association. Along with nearly 100 short stories in various magazines and anthologies, Cacek has also published "Leavings," a collection; "Night Prayers," a humorous vampire novel and "Canyons," a modern fable of urban lycanthropy. She is currently working on "New Hope," a neo-gothic ghost story, and "Night Prayers - One-Fanged Bandits," the sequel to Night Prayers. She resides in Arvada, Colorado…but left her heart (and spirit) back in New Hope, PA.

Have a seat and listen to what she has to say.

FYI: This interview was requested and arranged by GWN staff writer S.F. Willems. She was feeling a bit under the weather and asked if I'd take over and here it is. You can thank her for this interesting interview.

Denise: In Kenneth Robert's Biographical Sketch of you for the MileHiCon 32 program book, he states that "horror firmly rooted in historical facts is fast becoming one of your trademarks. That you are determined to get the facts straight. Is this what drives you to write?

PD: I honestly don't think I could point to any one thing and say, "This is what drives me to write." As far back as I can remember, I've always been a scribbler . . . always writing something. The fact that I try to use historical facts and realistic settings, is to create a strong sense of the tangible. In this way, I have an outlandish plot cocooned within solid fact, so the reader, if he or she wants to, can actually go to the place I describe and see it for themselves. That's always good for a few self-induced shivers. I also think this is why I don't write a lot of "off-world" science fiction stories. I personally feel that fantastic setting can sometimes compete with whatever emotion or "got cha" twist I'm trying to create.

Denise: The same year you were introduced to New Hope, Pennsylvania, your ghost story, "Dust Motes," was nominated for a World Fantasy Award. What turn of events lead you to develop scenes, dialog, a detailed outline and endless questions about this town you were destined to write about? What happened when you crossed Main Street in New Hope?

PD: "How" I came to New Hope, PA is almost a story in itself. A ghost story, actually. In 1998, while I was visiting the east coast, a friend of mine, another writer, suggested I might like to see a little "artsy-fartsy" town on the Delaware River called New Hope. Being a lover of all things "artsy-fartsy" I jumped at the chance.

The town of New Hope, nestled along the western banks of the Delaware River in Central Bucks County, is beautiful and quaint and, literally, bursting at the seams with art and antique stores. It also has some of the best restaurants I've ever eaten at and has, for good or bad, been "discovered" by the upwardly mobile. But, still, there was "something" else about the town that felt almost . . . familiar to me. Now, keep in mind, I'd never been to New Hope before and had, at that time, only visited parts of Philadelphia and New York on my eastern sojourns.  

The feeling continued getting stronger . . . and then, deciding I "needed" to look at the river from the old ferry dock, I crossed Main Street. And stopped dead in my tracks half way across . . . much to the dismay of the driver of the fast-moving truck I stopped in front of. Fortunately, my friend hauled me out of harms way and asked what the hell I was doing. All I could do was tell him was that the reason I stopped was because an idea of a novel had come to me -- fully formed; beginning, middle and end with characters and plot twists. The thing was, I told my friend, I'd have to come back to New Hope in order to write it. Which, at the time, I thought would never happen. I live in Colorado, knew no one in New Hope, and being a writer, really couldn't afford it. That was in May, I believe. Two months later I was back in the east to attend a small convention at a college in Providence, Rhode Island. One night, while walking across campus, a man appeared, asked if I was P.D. Cacek and introduced himself as Peter Schneider. He said he was one of the judges for that year's World Fantasy Convention and that, having read "Dust Motes," just wanted to come up and tell me how much he liked the story.  

He then asked me if I had any new projects.  Generally, I don't every "pitch" ideas or projects . . . but suddenly I was spouting out the idea for the novel, NEW HOPE (yes, I even had the title). Peter got very excited and said he knew all about New Hope, PA and that his brother, Chris, owned a house there. And that was that . . . until October, when "Dust Motes" won the World Fantasy Award for short fiction and Peter again asked if I'd done anything with my New Hope novel. I told him no, that I really needed to live there to write it and . . . the following February I got an e-mail from Peter telling me his brother's tenant died and that I could rent the apartment for as long as I needed in order to finish the book. I moved in that March and it wasn't until I'd been there a few weeks that I discovered New Hope is recognized as not only the most haunted township on the Delaware . . . but possibly, the most haunted town in America.  Strange, don't you think?

Denise: You actually rented an apartment out there to research New Hope's background. Did the first draft (some 550 pages) seem difficult to write or did your fascination fire up your creative energies?

PD: Not at all. I wrote the first draft, all 500+ pages of it, in seven months, and never once had a moment's difficulty or mental "mis-step." It was almost as if I was just taking dictation for someone else. Given the history of the place, maybe I was.

Denise: Something called out to you, made you look past the tourist attractions along the Delaware River and the Delaware Canal. While others took ferry rides, toured historic sites and visited quaint craft shops, you checked into Pineapple Hill Inn. You also choose to stay in the most haunted room there. Why?

PD: I can't really explain it, but I don't feel like a tourist when I visit the town. New Hope feels like home. I'd seen the Pineapple Hill Inn on previous visits, but only at a distance and only from a moving car . . . but I do remember looking at one window - the attic window - and wondering what it would be like to look down from there. Well, I got my answer. The window was in the haunted room: My room for that dark and stormy night.

I'd gone back to New Hope this past March to work on a documentary about the town and its ghosts so, naturally, I suggested it might be "fun" if I stayed in the most haunted room the Pineapple Inn had to offer. I already had heard the story of the "haunted spinning wheel" and figured, since I have spun wool, the ghost and I might have a lot in common. Besides, what would be the fun of staying at the inn and not being in the most haunted room? But I should add here, that from the first moment I stepped into the room, felt completely at ease. And the same can be said of the inn in general. There are no cold spots, no terrors lurking in the shadows . . . the inn's haunted, but not in the usual Hollywood-movie sense, it's occupied.

Denise: Can you provide us with a description of the Inn and some background information about its history? Did anything unusual or unsettling occur there in the past?

PD: The Pineapple Hill Inn (Bed and Breakfast) is a beautifully restored 1790's colonial manor house, less than five miles from New Hope and set on a small rise, surrounded by six acres of woods. According to local legend there are two resident ghosts, John Scott and a nameless man on horseback who seems to appear most often in dreams. Guests of the inn have reported having identical dreams in which a man wearing black boots and a black woolen coat adorn with gold buttons comes riding up the tree-lined road right outside the inn. The horse then bolts and tries to toss the man, but the man hangs on and struggles to regain control of the animal. This is when the guests wake up. So far no one has stayed asleep to find out the man's name.

John Scott, who owned the inn in the early 1800s, is the "Kissing Ghost." Guests staying in his room have heard him "creeping" up the back steps and then "feel" him standing next to their beds. A few women have even felt lips graze their cheeks just before they woke up. He's also famous for turning lights on and off.

These two, as I've said, are the most recognized and agreed on resident spirits . . . but I know there's at least two. A child, perhaps an infant, in the sitting area of John Scott's room and, of course, the Spinning Ghost.

Denise: One dark, rainy night with a tempting glass of cream sherry in your hand you met the Innkeepers of Pineapple Hill, Charles and Kathy. When you were taken on a tour, what guest just happened to make an appearance?

PD: John Scott.

(Editorial note: At about the same time as John Scott's footsteps where heard, Rob Child, the director of the New Hope "America's Most Haunted Town" entered the establishment to tape an interview with the inn's owners.

Denise: What happened when the camera crew set up the lights?

PD: Kathy Triolo, Rob Child (the documentary's director) and I were sitting in the bedroom section of Mr. Scott's room when we heard footsteps out in the hall, coming toward the room. At first, Kathy thought it might be her husband, "Cookie," since the steps were obviously those of a man. There were no guests in that wing of the inn (in fact, I was the only tenant in the older section that night), but we'd shut the door to keep out the hall light. The footsteps continued down the hall until they got to the door and stopped. When the door didn't open, Rob Child asked Kathy and I if we'd both heard that and, after we confirmed that we had, opened the door to - nothing. Kathy and I had heard these sorts of things before, if you stay long enough in New Hope you almost can't avoid them, but this was a whole new experience for our poor director. I think the documentary took on a whole new meaning for him at that moment. I have to add that neither Kathy nor I got a kiss.

Denise: Tell us about your experiences in the "Sitting Room." Will you visit the Inn again in the future?

PD: It was about ten at night . . . still raining and stormy . . . and I was totally alone in the Inn. There was another couple on the second floor of the new section and a man on the ground floor, across from the kitchen. I had the entire third floor to myself. Well, if you don't count the ghosts.

Basic description first: From the kitchen you take the back stairs to the second floor landing, make a sharp left, open the attic door and continue up the stairs. My room, the spinning wheel room, is at the top of the stairs and opens directly into the bedroom. Between the bedroom and sitting room is a wide hall, closets to the right, bathroom to the left. The window I so wondered about is directly opposite the bed. I left the shade up all night.

Now, I'm alone but not the least bit frightened. In fact, I'm so relaxed I decide to watch a little TV before turning in. About fifteen minutes later I was having a hard time breathing and my heart was pounding as though I'd just run a marathon. I wasn't frightened - I just couldn't catch my breath. The air was "heavy." I remember that even as this was going on, it felt as though it was happening to someone else. Fifteen minutes later (I checked my watch) the feeling began to go away and by eleven I was fine. Confused, but fine. Which was probably why I stayed up until almost 1 a.m.

Before I went to bed I set up the night-scope video camera Rob Child had left and aimed it at the spinning wheel . . . even though I had a feeling the spinning wheel in the room wasn't the haunted one. Sometime later, I was startled by a loud rattling sound and, yes, it did sound like someone had spun a wheel fast so it would make a lot of noise. The sound became a steady "thump thump thump" for the rest of the night. I didn't get up to investigate because I couldn't move. My body had fallen asleep which was a strange sensation but, again, I wasn't scared or worried. Everything felt natural. So much so, that I thought the sounds must be the heater coming on and fell back to sleep. I was very comfortable but, every now and then, the loud spinning sound would wake me up. I decided to tell Kathy and Cookie to check the vents.  Of course, when morning came and I was able to move I heard the heater come on . . . and it didn't thump at all. The ghost kept me company all night and I thought she was bad pipes. I will have to apologize when I go back again. And I plan to go back as many times as I can - it's a wonderful place.

[SIDE NOTE: There are Guest Books in each of the rooms, in which guests are asked to jot down comments. The book in the Spinning Wheel Room has a number of comments about the "heavy air" in the sitting room. I was discussing this with the director and suddenly got an image of the woman in the attic. Although I may never be able to prove it, I strongly feel that she died of consumption - she couldn't breath so naturally the air would have felt "heavy" to her.]

Denise: Have you included this paranormal rising in your book?

PD: I include a bit. For instance, New Hope has a Ghost Tour and I make use of that in the novel. New Hope has ghosts . . . and I definitely use them. But I try to stay away from the real paranormal incidents and focus more on my own "imagined" one. For instance, in my New Hope, the living are given an opportunity to literally say goodbye to their loved ones. I won't tell you how - that would ruin the surprise.

Denise: Has the manuscript been completed and does it have a publisher?

PD: I completed the second draft in January and it is currently being looked at by TOR. Any and all fingers crossed now would be much appreciated.

Denise: What books will follow this one?

PD: Funny you should ask. Actually, while I was back in New Hope to film the documentary another novel did come to mind - again fully formed. This time, however, inspiration struck while I was out of traffic. It's called BEVELED GLASS and, again, is a ghost story set in New Hope.

I don't know who my "Ghost Writer" is . . . but I'm very happy with the results.

Denise Fleischer, GWN Online Editor
F.S. Willems, GWN Staff Writer
6/20/2001