February 12, 2018: Going through the pages...

It has been four years since I began writing seriously now, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I look forward to the stories still to be written, and if God grants me the days, I will get them all down on paper for the pleasure of those who follow my work.

The first story that I published was "The Picture of the Ghost", and was not what I expected to be writing when I decided to make the effort. Rather than the science fiction that I planned to write, it was a gentle ghost story, not scary at all, and in some places funny. It came about from watching some of the reality shows on television where groups of paranormal investigators go into haunted buildings, and using sophisticated equipment, try to detect and communicate with the spirits of people who have passed on.

I felt that some of these investigators analyze the data they collect and jump to conclusions that I found hard to swallow. The question in my mind was, "How do they KNOW that the ghost is saying what they think he is saying? What if they have it all wrong, and something else is going on behind the scenes?"

That was where Jake came into the picture. A poor country boy who stumbles onto the wrong side of the law, Jake finds himself in prison, supposedly for only a few weeks. Poisoned by some bad food that he ate, he dies in his cell one day, but does not realize it. Time blurs for him as he continues to keep his normal routine every day, tracing the steps he made in life. He wonders why no one takes any notice of him, but it is not until an inmate swings a mop through his body that he understands that he is actually dead.

Years pass, and decades fly by as time progresses until one day, alone in the abandoned prison, he is visited by the crew of paranormal "scientists" who have heard of a solitary ghost who continues to walk the cell blocks and courtyard outside. Running through their usual processes, they discover Jake and interact with him in a most unfortunate manner, coming to some terribly wrong conclusions about him.

It was a fun story to write, but I almost did not publish it, considering it my first attempt at writing and most likely not worthy of public consumption. Through the encouragement of several friends and family, I did go ahead with it, to some positive results that helped me continue to write. I thought I might move on to the story that I really wanted to write, but there would be three more stories before I finally had the chance to write that one...