Dear Readers,
As the 13 month Full Moon Ghost Story promo went on, I could not meet the deadline for month number four--December's Cold Moon. Due to work and family obligations making a super-busy schedule, I had to punt. So, what is the opposite of a full moon? A new moon? I decided to publish this month's ghost story on the new moon in December, Monday, the 30th.
It also happened to be a Black Moon. Just what is a Black Moon? A second new moon in a month that happens when a new moon falls on the 1st of a month. Come 29 days later, you get the 30th of a month and a second new moon called the Black Moon.
So God worked it out for me to publish a ghost story in the month of December!
Due to Amazon shutting down Kindle Vella, I had to find another platform to publish these short stories. (In fact, I will have to republish the first stories as Kindle Vella will eventually be taken down and wiped clean). You just have to roll with the punches. I decided on Substack because more than a few journalists use it. Sure, that's nonfiction so why not use it for short fiction and more newsletter. (Yep, another email in your box--if the nineteenth century was the age of penmanship and epistles then the twenty-first century is the age of push notification and blurbs).
Kindle Vella only allowed a max of 5,000 words or about 7-9 pages. Substack is no different, so I had to divide up this 16 page story between two parts. It's built rather like "Most Dangerous Game": it has seven pages of introduction and rising action to build towards the climax: a bet on ghosthunting between two groups: the fraternal Branscombe twins along their new found friend, Cecilia Hamilton and the Norman sisters who fancy themselves witches.
Note: The Meridian Coffee House was a real place on Broadway in Alton, Illinois. I was in a local band that played a few shows there. We got to know the co-owners who were gracious enough to discuss some activity in the building. This was the first time, I had heard of orbs and I got a good look at them on the monitor feed. There were several orbs and they did make a circuit of coming down the stairs and going over the bar and through the back wall. We did take turns sitting at a table and the orbs started to drift towards us. One did land on my leg and then took off. There was a picture reportedly of a partial manifestation but I couldn't make much out of it.
There was a person who did live in the upper apartment. That place was clautrophobic and it did have a doorway plastered up which always struck me as distrubing the natural flow of order. And yes, the co-owner and I did hear a voice, a young man's voice, while we sat at his kitchen table as he relayed his evidence and stories to me.
The other part, the murder, was based off an incident that happened at the Earl Bros'. practice pad further down the block on Broadway. A truly strange incident that deserves its place in this story.