This blog is something I started as a place to talk about fiction writing. The problem today is that I’ve been doing far more nonfiction writing, which is kind of a new genre for me. So to get everybody caught up on what I’ve been doing, I’m going to bridge that chasm in my brain here and leave a breadcrumb for folks to follow.
First off, I did a modernized version of the Jefferson Bible. It’s a pretty modestly sized little book, so why not? Derivative works don’t usually get updated as often as scripture, and I thought that it would be pretty interesting to see how well it works in today’s English. You can read more about that project at http://jeffbible21.com. It dovetails nicely with my loves of history and language, and many years pondering theology.
The other project I have just completed is the Haunted Homeowner’s Survival Guide. There is a ton of misinformation out there, and ‘reality’ TV shows of folks chasing spooks doesn’t help the situation. I’m condensing the web site content into a downloadable PDF just to help people out. There will be a version on Smashwords for other eBook readers, and I will ask a modest price for the download to help cover the costs of my domain setup. There will be a coupon program too, so no fears there.
I think my favorite part of the web site (http://hauntedhomeowners.com)is when I short circuit a lot of the preconceived notions about paranormal events by letting you think about something parallel but completely different.
Let’s put the shoe on the other foot for a minute.
Suppose I say that I have an invisible unicorn in my closet. I want you to find him and get rid of him for me, okay? He throws clothes off the hangars and into piles in the corner. He turns the lights on and off, and I hear his hooves on the floor sometimes.
How do you catch a unicorn? I’m glad you asked, because there are two basic schools of unicorn catching.
1) Believe there may be a unicorn. You give me the benefit of the doubt, and try to find the unicorn. Set up your cameras, thermal detectors, magic field finders, and hoof sensors. If you find any evidence that way, you’ll be inclined to believe you really did find a unicorn. That’s what you were looking for, isn’t it?
2) Believe there might not be any unicorn. Using this method you would investigate the hangars to make sure the clothes should have stayed on them. Is there anything in the closet that could have knocked the clothes off? Check the piles of clothes to see if it is just normally discarded laundry (ew!) or if it has anything else going on. Does the light switch have a second circuit, a faulty switch or a loose lightbulb? Check out the floor carefully for construction faults, noises caused by seasonal expansion and contraction from heating systems or air conditioning. Lastly, you’d think about getting an evaluation of me at the hospital, because most sane people don’t believe they have unicorns in their closet.
In this case, if you use the term ‘unicorn’ with me, it is an agreement that something odd is going on, even if there is no invisible beast in there with a horn growing out of its forehead.
With either method you may find a simply unexplainable phenomena. Or you may decide it was all just my cat.
What is a ghost? Many people would commonly answer that it is the remaining spiritual energy of a human who is no longer alive. What is a demon? Many people would commonly answer that it is an energy force or a spiritual entity of a being who is not human, probably with hostile (or at best not friendly) intentions.
Great! But what does that mean in measurable, scientific terms? How can anybody know for certain the difference between a ghost and a demon? What kind of spiritual energy is this, exactly? Does it have a voltage? How many milliwatts does it take to create an apparition or a moving shadow? Energy fields are measurable, so this should be a piece of cake, right?
So if you happen to find a piece of ectoplasm, please save it for me. I want to see if I can charge my cell phone with it…. I’ve decided that creativity can be used in nonfiction writing. Maybe that is a lesson appropriate for this page after all.
