What’s In A Name?

Finding the theme for the next book in my series, The Shadows of Miskatonic, is often a haphazard affair.

Each story develops differently. As a writer, you must respect the messiness. You need to see each of your “children” to help them develop, to realize their true potential.

In Darkness Below, the narrative was driven by a minor character, Ivan Leibowitz, a ghost who took on more importance as the story evolved.

In Thin Places, it was an image of an otherworldly creature materializing in a remote corner of the Pine Barrens.

In Shadow Zone, it was the setting, a retirement home, that set the stage.

And now, with my fourth novel, the inspiration comes from a phrase.

Crisis apparition.

What’s a crisis apparition?

A crisis apparition occurs when a person knows they are about to die and reaches out to someone close to them. To paraphrase Salman Rushdie, ghosts are all about unfinished business. Crisis apparitions are there to tie up the loose ends.

The following account is a typical experience.

When Nina De Santo was about to close her New Jersey hair salon one Saturday night, she saw her friend Michael standing outside the shop’s glass front door. Upon opening the door, she saw Michael smiling.

“Nina, I can’t stay long,” he said, pausing in the doorway. “I just wanted to stop by and thank you for everything.”

Then Michael left and DeSanto went home. On Sunday, she received a shocking call. Nine hours before she talked to him in her shop, Michael’s body had been discovered by his cousin, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.

Crisis apparitions are known to manifest during moments of extreme trauma.

Not surprisingly, reports of increased activity occur when there is widespread death.

Swarms of crisis apparitions appeared during the American Civil War and World War One. This led to an increase in seances and other spiritual activity as people tried to contact loved ones “on the other side”.

They also occurred during one of the deadliest events of the twentieth century-the Spanish flu pandemic.

We have just gone through another pandemic. Although not as devastating as the Spanish flu (which killed between fifty and a hundred million people), seven million people died from Covid.

This led to the big what-if question for my fourth book.

What if the epidemic has led to an increase in crisis apparitions?

And what if some unscrupulous entity took advantage of the energy generated by these restless spirits to manifest in our world?

I’m not sure how the creature is going to accomplish this (not yet), but that little speck of sand is now in the oyster.

Let’s hope it develops into a pearl…