The paranormal author is an unusual brand of writer. When researching and discovering about
historic locations, many paranormal writers also take into account local
stories, legends and experiences and examine them side by side. The real test of a historic writer and a
ghost story writer is how the material is researched and presented.
For the most part, paranormal investigators also have a big
interest in history and unearthing stories of people and places from the past
(and sometimes even the present). I also
noticed that there are those that simply collect the stories and legends and
call them 'ghost stories.' They don't
really research what is fact and what is fiction, they simply tell the tales as
they are relayed to them or passed down from the past (or those still alive to
tell them). They rely on memories from
those they meet and encounter, those that indicate they were there and
witnessed the events of the story, or know somebody who knew somebody who was
involved.
Without research and facts to back those stories up, they
are simply to remain as such; stories.
They are fun to read and marvel at the possibilities, but without facts,
we can never really be sure that we are getting the full story.
I can honestly see the benefits of both kinds of
authors. With the author who collects
the 'ghost stories', they are capturing important social folklore of
geographical regions, states, towns, and buildings. They showcase often a period of time for that
location or people who live there, and maybe the ideals of the time leading to
the specifics of the 'ghost story.' In a
way, they are capturing the social history of the paranormal, whether the
events actually occurred or not.
Authors who do the research, looking for dates, property
records, waterline maps, probate records, and old maps, not to mention local
newspaper articles, they are even more important to the paranormal
investigator. With this type of
information, we can fact check with investigation evidence, correlate names and
experiences, and see if we can make concrete connections between them.
The novice investigator is excited to learn of the stories
and often accepts whatever is found, simply because they are excited to
investigate and discover. The seasoned,
veteran investigator looks for the historical facts and local stories, and
using both of these lines of research, can come to a variable and often
revealing outcome.
There are paranormal authors who collect and research, and
those are the books I look for and wish to add to my own library. Ghost stories can be re-written and
re-cycled, but research and fact finding is the real hard work for paranormal
authors.
I myself have a few books in the cooker, while researching
them I have found it’s not always easy to locate the answers for the questions
that arise. When digging you also find
surprises along the way and this also encourages you to dig deeper and find out
the outcome of situations and events that transpire.
When I was writing my "Alcatraz: 200 Years of Historyin 3D," I had numerous, well-written books on Alcatraz so information was
bountiful, but I also gathered facts from both prisoners and former guards that
I didn't find in other books, and added them as well. My book is sectioned on a timeline over 200
years of the islands history (not just the Federal Prison) and was written as
'True' or 'False' questions,
featuring color, 3D photos on every page. I also included photos of places on the
island the public can never visit due to the dangers and regulations of the
National Park Service.
Writing paranormal books, can be one of the more difficult
than other history books, you really have to question your sources, and make
determinations if the facts you find, line up with those that you already
have. In this field, making that
important distinction between what was legend and what 'really' happened is a
tough road, even against popular folklore.
As I work on a current paranormal book project, I have also found
that newspaper articles are not always factual, and that you should check the
findings against other articles and newspapers to be sure they are
accurate. You might even find facts that
nobody else has even considered while working on a project. Paranormal research can be important
historical fact the same as conventional historic records.
A. Anderson
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