In this month’s instalment of “Author(ized) Accounts of the Paranormal and Unexplained,” Terry Friedman, author of Bone Pendant Girls, will tell us the about the dark energy she’s sensed while visiting historical places…
My confession. I am sensitive to dark energy. On rare occasions, I can feel a heaviness where dark spirits are, and I come to a dead stop at the doorway. In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the upstairs room of an antique store had that heaviness, and when I watched an Amish boy race in and out of the room, I suspected he might feel it too. Years later when I shopped there, it felt lighter. Whatever object that held the dark energy must have been sold. Somebody got more than what they paid for.
At Hobcaw Barony, an old rice plantation in South Carolina, I stopped at the basement door of Belle Baruch’s house and would not go down the stairs. I didn’t fear the stairs or the musty smell. Something down there carried a dark energy.
When I traveled internationally with students as a teacher-leader, we spent the night in a French boarding school. I remember happily spitting cherry pits out the window before the sun went down and teaching a very proper leader how to spit pits. Despite the oppressive heat and no air conditioning, I was thrilled to have my own room for a change.
After the sun went down, the fun began, and it wasn’t pillow fights. Windows and doors opened and closed of their own volition. Old windows on metal frames. Blam! Solid wood doors. Blam! Like cracks of gunfire. At first I explained it away as the wind, but I think we all felt something dark up there on the second floor, something that wanted us to know it lived there and we weren’t welcome.
At the end of the corridor, the dorm door was locked. From the inside or the outside, I wasn’t sure. If I’d spoken French, I might have asked the guard that. What if a fire started, I worried.
Dread kept me awake. Too many loose variables. Maybe too many loose spirits. I kept my door open, hoping the girls would feel some comfort knowing they could easily reach me. All night, frightened girls came to me. Some pulled beds together. Others slept together, trembling on single cots. The window and door slamming was no lullaby.
A security guard patrolled the hallway. A man in a girls dorm? I felt less safe having him there, and why did we need a security guard? Each time he passed my room, I knew. He’d perspired through his uniform and left a trail of body odor. As the night progressed, I wondered about poltergeists. Whatever it was, I dared not close my eyes. By the morning, I’d decided a boarding school student must’ve jumped out a window, and her restless spirit communicated by slamming doors and windows. I looked up boarding schools near Paris the next day, and this one had history from centuries past.
Years later, I attended a Wilkes University night class at Kirby Hall when a noisy ghost pestered our prof. It rattled the door handle as if a late student wanted to come inside. The prof would stop talking, get up, and check. No one was there. This happened several times which convinced us rumors about the beautiful mansion being haunted were true. All ten of us were working on a creative writing degree, so why wouldn’t our minds create a boogieman like Freddie Krueger or Hannibal Lecter? Nobody walked home alone that night.
According to local legend, on the second floor of Kirby, there had been a billiard room where Poker Pan (Kirby Hall’s spirit-in-residence) and another gambler got into a heated argument. Poker Pan, described as a colorful character, lost the argument and his life in the music room downstairs. Perhaps his spirit still waits for a better hand of cards.
Author Interview
The Night Librarian: Spooky! I’ve felt dark presences in historical places before–there’s no other explanation for why I’d leave a bookstore empty-handed! I love how a pesky ghost disturbed a classroom full of budding writers–maybe he wanted to become a source of inspiration? Tell us, who is your writing idol?
Terry: Of course, I have a writing crush on Edgar Allan Poe, but my modern day writing hero is John Connolly. I love his Charlie Parker mysteries because they combine detective work with the Otherworld. Charlie is a flawed protagonist which makes me cheer him on. Connolly’s villains always have a supernatural nature. I also love Connolly’s lyrical style. Oh, that I could write like John Connolly.
The Night Librarian: Stories that meld real-world investigations with the paranormal are so compelling, and your book Bone Pendant Girls does just that! My next question is: How do you do your research?
Terry: Any allusion to Wikipedia receives a side-eye from me. Often the best resources are humans who have experience in crime investigations. My character Eli was an FBI agent until a retired real FBI agent explained why that didn’t work. That’s how he became a P.I. One of my first research problems was how to determine the kind of bone in the pendants. I’m a Google and YouTube junkie and can now show you the difference between ivory and other bone if you have a magnifying glass. There is a way to identify species forensically, I learned from a forensic anthropologist. Delaware Valley Sisters in Crime provided a field trip to a morgue which gave me insight on that scene. For the ghost body reveal, South Carolina newspapers provided information about a cold case. Given, I didn’t marry a serial killer or know one intimately, I read a book called Mindhunter. It helped me understand the characteristics of serial killers, and I also learned about the South Carolina case where the victim’s sister was used as bait. The Irmo Police Chief gave me the procedural help for the final scene. Writers Digest Howdunnit series provides me with constant answers to questions from guns to poison to body bags. The books are always within my arm’s reach.
The Night Librarian: Can you tell us a little bit abour your work in progress–Eleven Seconds?
Terry: The premise of this novel is that Andi must help her mother create eleven seconds of peace. Only then can her mother and the soldiers who died this year cross over. This novel will take place in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where Andi has inherited a decrepit plantation property she plans to open as a B & B. As she rebuilds the property, she rebuilds her life. Eleven Seconds will feature the dynamic trio of Andi, Eli, and Fiona, and they’ll resolve the kidnapper portion of the last book. Her supporting cast will be two dead soldiers, a ghost dog, and a girl named Laurel who holds the key to making peace. The antagonist is a charming, wealthy loser who is determined to prove he can command an army.
Terry Friedman began her writing career freelancing for a small newspaper outside Philadelphia. She earned her M.F.A. from Wilkes University and also graduated from the FBI Citizens Academy. Twenty-four of her fiction and non-fiction articles have been published, and she co-edited Delaware Valley Mystery Writers’ short story anthology, Death Knell V. She is a Pennwriters Board member and a longtime member of Sisters in Crime. Currently, Terry writes paranormal thrillers from coastal South Carolina. She has traveled the world from Fiji to Delphi and brings to her writing a solid respect for things that go bump in the night.
Follow Terry: Website | Amazon| Instagram | Twitter/X | Facebook
In the paranormal thriller, Bone Pendant Girls, a reluctant clairvoyant buys two pendants and discovers the faces on them belong to missing teens. She follows clues left by the dead girls, but the predator who targets runaways is stalking her too.
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