The lovely
Megan Crewe has written a very clever post
on how she created her ghosts
for her new book:
Give Up The GhostLet give her a round of applause, people!
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Creating a ghostYou can find stories about ghosts going back thousands of years. So when I
started writing
GIVE UP THE GHOST, I had to decide which bits of ghostly
mythology I might use, and how I would shape them to fit my story and make my
ghosts unique.
Here are a few of the things that define my ghosts:
1. My ghosts have a confused sense of time. This was inspired by the stories of
ghosts who seem to be living out or mourning a tragedy over and over, even
though it happened decades or centures ago. In
GIVE UP THE GHOST, the ghosts
have strong memories of their lives, and have trouble remembering anything that's
happened afterward. They can recall recent events for a few hours or even days,
depending on how long they've been dead, and then they forget again. The only
things that start to stick are changes that stay the same. For example, when one
ghost's parents first cleared out her old bedroom, she would freak out over it every
few hours when she'd forgotten and was surprised by it again. But after a few
weeks, the change "sank in" (as Cass puts it) and she accepted it as if it'd always
been that way.
2. My ghosts can travel, but they have a relatively small location they feel most
comfortable at. Most ghosts in stories seem to be stuck to a particular place,
often the place where they died. For my ghosts, it's a place where they felt at
home when they were alive. One ghost who had an abusive father hangs out in
the halls at school where he used to meet up with his friends; another, who
dreamed of becoming a ballerina, lingers near the gym where she used to practice.
But because they're more human than many ghosts, they can decide to leave their
comfort place if they want to--they just won't feel totally at ease until they come
back.
3. My ghosts have an individual smell. This wasn't based on anything specific in
ghost mythology--it just seemed to make sense, that wispy and ethereal as ghosts
are, they would carry something wispy and ethereal like a scent. Each ghost's
scent is related to their life: one ghost trails of a whiff of the hair oil he always
used; another travels with the smell of his favorite tea.
All of that added together, I hope, makes for ghosts who seem appropriately
ghost-like, but a little different in their own way, too!
Thanks for hosting me,
Megan
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What an interesting post! Really!
I loved having you, Megan!
Come back any time! ;)
Give Up The Ghost hits the shelves
TODAY!*deafening round of applause*
Make sure you go to your nearest book store a snatch a copy of this amazing book!
AND, I'm guessing you'll be needing a bookmark to go with your copy of GUTG.
So, I'm giving away (thanks to Megan, of course)
a bunch of this awesome GUTG bookmarks!
Just go to
The Clock Monkey, and leave your e-mail in the comments section, and you're in to win this beauties!
There'll be two winners!
(US/Canada addresses only, please, we don't want to leave Megan penniless!)
In the meantime, I'm leaving you with the GUTG Book Trailer (which I love <3)
