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STORY CONTEST DEADLINE LOOMS!

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Ghost HourGhost Hour. Illustration: Alice Popkorn

Submissions Closed!

The contest is now closed to submissions. Thanks to everyone who participated. We’ll be announcing (and publishing) our winner and honorable mention on Halloween. Visit our contest page for information about the next Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award competition.

If you’re a writer of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror, or magic realist fiction, beware the witching hour as September 30th draws to a close. That’s when we’ll stop accepting submissions to the short fiction competition in which we will award $1,000 to the writer of the best supernatural story, and $100 for an honorable mention. Of course, we’ll also publish both stories here on TGS.

If you’ve already submitted your tale, we’ll be in touch with you about the results before the end of October—and your work will be published here on Halloween. If you’re still working on your piece, keep at it; the more polished your prose, the better your chances, and you’ve still got a few days left. But don’t let the sand run out of the hour glass; that midnight bell inevitably will toll.

And if you’re still thinking about entering, you might want to have a look at our complete contest guidelines.

Good luck!

HOW TO WRITE A GRIPPING SUPERNATURAL STORY

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Advice From The Masters On How To Write A Chilling Supernatural Story
What Now? Getting Their Attention is Easy—But Maintaining The Suspense Is Hard! Image: Curtis MacNewton

Our Writing Tips On How To Craft a Ghost Story Or Other Eerie Tale That Keeps Your Reader Riveted

In reality, a supernatural story isn’t all that different from any other piece of short fiction. Most of the same good, technical practices apply for creating any tale that is truly memorable. Nonetheless, writers of stories that contain a supernatural element do face a few additional hurdles that need to be surmounted. For just one example, how do you structure and pace your story so that your readers remain with you for the complete ride, that delightfully icy feeling running up and down their backs the entire time?

As it is once again the season in which a lot of writers are polishing their submissions for The Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award, we thought this would be an ideal time to offer an array of tips on writing, revising, and presenting ghost stories, vampire stories, horror stories, fantasy stories, literary magic realism, and other tales with a strong supernatural kick. But keep in mind that most of the advice we give here will be effective regardless of the fiction genre in which you’re working. [Read more…] about HOW TO WRITE A GRIPPING SUPERNATURAL STORY

PRESENTING THE WINNERS IN OUR SUPERNATURAL STORY COMPETITION

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An Illustration For Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Painted In 1793-1794 By Swiss Artist Johann Heinrich Füssli
An Illustration For Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream Painted In 1793-1794 By Swiss Artist Johann Heinrich Füssli

It’s Finally Midsummer—And Time To Publish The Three Top Stories In The Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award Contest. Happy Reading!

The competition was ferocious—especially considering that this is the first time we’ve run this contest. Of course, the high quality of the submissions probably had at least something to do with the fact that the winner was going to walk—or in this instance, dance—away with $1,000. . . .

In any case, out of an impressive selection of short stories sent to us by writers from around the U.S. and Canada, we’ve chosen three, as Winner, Honorable Mention, and Second Honorable Mention, that really astonished us. Come on inside for the names of the winners, and to enjoy a chilling summertime read.

MIDSUMMER SPIRITS

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The Midsummer Sun Sets At Stonehenge
The Midsummer Sun Sets At Stonehenge

Tradition Has It That Mischievous Ghosts And Fairies Are Out And About On The Shortest Night Of The Year

To this day, in some parts of northern Europe Midsummer still is observed with bonfires and revelry. The custom goes back at least as far as the time of the ancient Druids, who on each solstice entreated the spirit world for help in keeping livestock healthy and producing an abundant summer crop. Sacred rituals—which sometimes included the sacrifice of live animals and even people—were held at numerous religious sites, including England’s Stonehenge.

In later centuries, christianized Europeans continued the celebrations, often on St. John’s Day, which usually falls a couple of days after the year’s longest day. And while the cooperation of pagan spirits no longer was enlisted, the spirits themselves continued to haunt people’s minds. Midsummer was thought to be one of a handful of days each year when the boundaries between the natural and supernatural realms faded, allowing ghosts, fairies, trolls, and even dragons to cross over into the living world, often to do mischief or harm. It was no accident that Shakespeare decided to set his most magical play on a Midsummer night. [Read more…] about MIDSUMMER SPIRITS

STORY CONTEST DEADLINE LOOMS

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Ghost HourGhost Hour. Illustration: Alice Popkorn

Submissions Closed!

The contest is now closed to submissions. Thanks to everyone who participated. We’ll be announcing (and publishing) our winner and honorable mention on Midsummer’s Eve, in June. Visit our contest page for information about the next Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award competition.

If you’re a writer of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror, or magic realist fiction, beware the witching hour as April 30th draws to a close. That’s when we’ll stop accepting entries to the short fiction competition in which we will award $1,000 to the writer of the best supernatural story, and $100 for an honorable mention. Of course, we’ll also publish both stories here on TGS.

If you’ve already submitted your tale, we’ll be in touch with you about the results by the end of May. And if you’re still working on your piece, keep at it; the more polished your prose, the better your chances, and you’ve still got a few days left. But don’t let the sand run out of the hour glass; that midnight bell inevitably will toll.

And if you’re still thinking about it, you might want to have a look at our complete contest guidelines.

Good luck!

THE TURN OF THE SCREW

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Image: Shannon Wise[/caption] Image: Shannon Wise

Henry James And The Psychology Of Ghosts

The Turn of the Screw, Henry James’ 1898 novella about a naive young governess and her desperate but misguided efforts to shield two children from a pair of predatory wraiths at a lonely country estate, may well be the most important ghost story written in the English language. Of course, some critics would claim that honor belongs to Shakespeare’s Hamlet—and they might have a point if only Hamlet’s single ghostly element—the demanding, vengeful shade of the eponymous protagonist’s father—were more central to the play. However, the spectral elder Hamlet has his final scene in Act III of the five act play, thereby making Hamlet—one of our most powerful literary works in so many other ways—something less than a full-fledged tale of the paranormal.

Another obvious contender is Charles Dickens’ classic novella, A Christmas Carol (1848). The story of Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, and Tiny Tim certainly is the world’s most popular and well-loved ghost story, by far. However, A Christmas Carol, with it’s pervasive sentimentality and shadowless moralism, contrasts as much more of a lighthearted (though, of course, still thought-provoking) entertainment and much less of a serious literary accomplishment when matched against the subtleties, ambiguities, and superb character complexities of James’ story.

Both books have had profound and long-lasting effects that extend even into our current popular culture. While Dickens’ book appealed to the conscience of Victorian society, permanently changed attitudes toward the working poor, and reshaped the spirit in which Christmas is celebrated, James’ work exerted a powerful influence on the literature and cinema of the 20th century—particularly on fictions that combined uncanny or fantastic elements with psychological ones.

The relative importance of the two books therefore depends on the lens one chooses to view them through. [Read more…] about THE TURN OF THE SCREW

WHAT DO GHOSTS EAT?

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White Asphodel: What Ghosts Ate In The Ancient Greek Underworld—At Least, If They Were Lucky. Photo: Isidre Blanc
White Asphodel: What Ghosts Ate In The Ancient Greek Underworld—At Least, If They Were Lucky. Photo: Isidre Blanc

Ghost Food

What do ghosts eat? It depends on where in the world you are, and what millennium you’re in.

The ancient Greeks believed that the spirits of the dead descended to Hades, a very dark and bleak underworld, with some neighborhoods darker and bleaker than others. While military heroes and people who were especially virtuous ended up in the relatively penthouse-like Elysian Fields, the vast run of ordinary Greek ghosts found themselves wandering the sunless Meadows of Asphodel. Asphodel, a flower whose gray-white color represented death to the Greeks, was often planted on graves. In addition, poorer Greeks in the ancient world ate parts of the asphodel plant because it grew abundantly in the wild and they didn’t have to cultivate it or pay for it. So the Greeks believed that unless a person did something particularly heroic or otherwise notable in life, his or her spirit was destined to wander through, and dine on, white asphodel for the remainder of eternity. But this was at least a better fate than that of the spirits of criminals and cowards; post-death, bad or disreputable people found themselves in the deep, dark precinct of Hades known as Tartarus, where there was nothing to eat at all.

In contrast to ancient Greeks ghosts, spirits in the Buddhist and Taoist parts of Asia have usually been offered decent table fare. At least since medieval times—if not much earlier—many Asian peoples have made a periodic practice of setting out favorite foods and drinks for the spirits of their departed ancestors. And in some areas, this generosity sometimes extends to ghosts who are not even part of the family. For instance, in China, Thailand, and other countries, the midsummer month is called Ghost Month, and people make a special point of feeding wandering hungry ghosts during this period. On the 15th night of Ghost Month, people celebrate a special Ghost Festival. [Read more…] about WHAT DO GHOSTS EAT?

HOW TO WRITE A GHOST STORY

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Advice From The Masters On How To Write A Chilling Supernatural Story
Words From The Masters On Writing A Chilling Supernatural Story. Image: Curtis MacNewton

Advice On Crafting A Scary Supernatural Tale

In the early 1800s, when Ivanhoe author Sir Walter Scott was writing, the short story was a fairly new fictional form, with novels having comprised most of the fiction published up to then. However, the rapid proliferation of newspapers and magazines throughout the 19th century made the short story both a practical and a highly popular commodity to produce.

Scott found this new form to be superior to the novel for telling his ghostly tales because he thought it was far too difficult to keep a reader sufficiently frightened over the course of several hundred pages. In his opinion, it was far easier and more effective to maintain that icy grip on the spine of his audience throughout a read that lasted only an hour. In his essay, On the Supernatural in Fictitious Composition, he wrote: [Read more…] about HOW TO WRITE A GHOST STORY

GHOST JOKE

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Ghost Walks Into A Bar, And He Says. . . . Image: Justin Brown
Ghost Walks Into A Bar, And He Says. . . . Image: Justin Brown

Did You Hear The One About The Ghost?

So this ghost walks into a bar.

No, wait. That’s not right. A store. He walks into a store. And he doesn’t walk; he floats. Because he’s a ghost.

So this ghost floats into a store, drifts up to the counter, and he says to the cashier, he says, “I want to buy a pint of vodka.”

The cashier studies the ghost for a moment, and then he says, the cashier says . . . [Read more…] about GHOST JOKE

HAUNTED TRAILER

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The World Is Full Of Ghost-Ridden Castles And Mansions. But Even A Humble Trailer Can Be Haunted. Photo: Carolyn Srygley-Moore
The World Is Full Of Ghost-Ridden Castles. But Even A Humble Trailer Can Be Haunted. Photo: Carolyn Srygley-Moore

Ghost Light

Sure, ghosts prefer haunting big, rambling places with a lot of history behind them. But not every disembodied spirit can afford spacious digs. And, come to think of it, it’s certain that a lot more people give up the ghost in cramped apartments, mobile homes, trailers, and hovels than in Victorian mansions.

Photographer Carolyn Srygley-Moore captured this image while waiting for a ride home after working a nightshift job in upstate New York. The trailer is unused, and she’d never before seen a light on inside of it.

She tells us she decided not to investigate further, which probably was a wise choice. . . .