Ghost Stories with Keena Kincaid Back to Blog

Update:  Time to announce the winners!  (And wow, there sure were some good ghost stories posted!).  Keena picked the winner of ANAM CARA…and the lucky winner is Edie!!  The winner of TIES THAT BIND is Kathleen! Congrats, ladies!

Once upon a time, as I toured a castle in the English fog, I looked up and saw a medieval re-enactor standing on the battlement, looking over the tourists gathered in the lower bailey. The authenticity of his costume was impressive, and then some. His tunic was a dull red, worn at the edges. His chain mail looked more like pewter than bright steel, and his battered helm obscured his nose and hair.

Curious as to why he was standing there alone, I pointed him out to the guy standing beside me. “Is there an English heritage event today?”

The man frowned at me, puzzled, so I pointed upward. “The re-enactor.”

He looked up the wall, then back down at me. “Who?”

I looked back up at the man, standing there in his tarnished armor. “Nothing,” I muttered and followed the tour group deeper into the castle. I saw the “re-enactor” several more times during the tour, but kept my observations to myself.
To this day, I still wonder who—or what—I saw that day. A random re-enactor? A ghost? Or did my imagination just go wild?

I will never know, but I always tell it as a ghost story simply because I love tales of haunt houses, restless spirits and things that go bump in the night. The spookier the better. So it’s no surprise that my book ANAM CARA and its sequel, TIES THAT BIND, have a ghost. The restless spirit is an underlying presence rather than active participation in the plot, but I like that he’s there, hanging out and protecting of the family who lives in the castle.

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My current story is set in the fall, and though including All Hallow’s Eve would be anachronistic, I do have a scene in which someone foolishly tells my hero’s daughter a ghost story that will keep her up all night and spoil my heroine’s plans to get closer to her new husband.

The tale is a made-up one of five sisters who didn’t get along in life and now squabble in death, but for fun, I’d love to include a real-life ghostly encounter to round out the story.

If you want to play, leave a comment and a story. One commentator will win a copy of ANAM CARA just for leaving the entry (I’ll draw a name at random on Friday and announce the winner, who can chose an digital or print copy). I’ll also give away a copy of TIES THAT BIND when it comes out on Dec. 18 to the person who leaves the best ghost story.

I’m looking forward to some scary tales.

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Keena Kincaid had a degree in medieval studies, which should explain why she sometimes spends a rainy afternoon reading the Domesday Book or the Oxford English Dictionary. After careers in journalism and public relations, she set out to write a medieval murder-mystery with a minstrel sleuth. At some point, her hero opted to woo the local innkeeper instead, and the murder-mystery transformed into an historical romance—a lucky break for the intended victims and her career. In addition to her debut book ANAM CARA, she’s written ART OF LOVE (the story of Abelard and Heloise the way it should have been) and TIES THAT BIND, which will be released Dec. 28. You can find her Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, http://keenakincaid.com/ and her blog, http://www.typosandall.com/.


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54 responses to “Ghost Stories with Keena Kincaid”

  1. homere says:

    I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.

  2. Thanks. I enjoy your writing.

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