Being An Outsider
The Ghost Comes Out follows the residents of a small town who experience a summer of events that change the residents for life. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
Throughout our childhood summers, Stacy and I would spend some time in a small town very much like Grayton in the 1960’s and 70’s with our grandmother. The people were always very nice to us however as we grew older, we wondered what they did for fun since there were no movie theaters or restaurants in the area. They seemed very content to go to church and walk around the town. Being an outsider ( from the city) we began to create scenarios that helped us as we created the characters in our story.
What is the collaboration process of working together to write such an in-depth story with complex plot twists?
My sister Stacy did all of the story telling. She was retired and I wasn’t. So to get the book written, she would write a couple of pages and send them to me to read and then we would discuss how we wanted to move forward. I collaborated with her on certain topics but she was the master story teller.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
We really felt impelled to explore: strong women, sisterly love, domestic abuse, and racism which seem to be as pertinent then as it is today.
What is the next book in the series about, and when will it be available?
The next book is the second book in this trilogy series. It will take the reader to a more present time( 1990’s) and follow the same main characters in depth. As of this writing, we are still working on the second book- now that we are BOTH retired- and so our hope is to have it available by the summer of 2023.
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Situated in a time shortly after the JFK assassination, the residents of this community–with all their secrets and mysteries to hide–come alive and reveal themselves when the Ghost Comes Out is played. The town is left questioning who in their close-knit community could the “ghost” be as neighbors lock their never-latched doors and question each other with distrust and fear. After the summer of ’64, no citizen in that town is ever quite the same.
This is a moral tale in its way in which the good get their reward and the bad their punishment, but it also recognizes that good people can get caught in the cross fire and that no one is perfect.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2022/08/21/being-an-outsider/