Sydney Talks about Ghosts, 11-8-2014

Last night I shared center stage with the world’s most elegant raven (a sculpture by Greg’s mother) and talked about ghosts to a standing-room-only crowd. They (well, not the raven) drank hot chocolate, told some ghost stories of their own, and seemed to have a great time. Me too!

Greg Rogers at the Oysterville Store knows how to put on an event! Candlelight and chocolate eyeball candies for kids gave just the right touch of eeriness to the evening. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate – none of the slashing rain or moaning wind that Greg had hoped for. Too, there was a competing clam tide but that was probably just as well – it was a packed house!

Oysterville Store Raven

There was high interest in the ‘behind-the-scenes’ tidbits concerning Ghost Stories of the Long Beach Peninsula – lots of great follow-up questions about the details. Plus, I actually got a lead or two on another possible ghost story – maybe a sea captain who hung himself long ago in a house in Seaview.

The ‘Lamplighter Story’ surfaced again, too – the woman who appears now and then in the Ladies Room at the Seaview restaurant  à la Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It’s the only enduring Peninsula ghost story that I did not include in this book and seems to be calling out for me to get busy with a sequel.

Signing “Ghost Stories of the Long Beach Peninsula”

I also learned for the first time that there is a “Lady of the Bay” who rises out of the waters of Willapa Bay now and again. Apparently she appears out of the fog on the lonely, curvy stretches at the head of the bay. “She doesn’t appear on this side of the bay – just on the other side,” we were told. I’ll have to ask my friends in South Bend and Raymond if they know of her.

I loved it all. I don’t know how the raven felt about it, but at least I didn’t hear him say “never more”… so maybe there will be a next time!

(Many thanks to Greg Rogers and Stephanie Frieze for these great photographs!)