Hey Mixed-Up Filers!
Kerrie Hollihan
I jumped at the chance to interview author Kerrie Hollihan about her new book, Ghosts Unveiled!, because it’s exactly the sort of book I would have fought over with my friends in the school library when I was a kid. It’s spooky, well-researched, and best of all, it’s part of a series of similarly enthralling titles (the next one is about bones – how cool is that?). I asked Kerrie about her experiences, her writing methods, and obviously her favorite halloween costume.
CL: Thanks for talking with me, Kerrie! In the introduction of Ghosts Unveiled! you write about some of your personal experiences with the supernatural – were there any specific experiences in your life that motivated you to explore the topic of ghosts?
KH: Are you surprised if I say “No”? Abrams Books for Young Readers had Mummies Exposed! in the works when they proposed a series called “Creepy & True.” They had my proposal for a next book (Bones Unearthed!), and suggested I write a second title for the series about ghosts. Little did I know how much I’d learn.
CL: The book lists LOTS of different kinds of ghosts – do you have a favorite?
KH: Hmmm. I think my favorites arise out of doing research, so my favorite stories have pointed me to my favorite ghosts. One would be the ghost of the English soldier from the Gallipoli battle in World War One, and another is whatever tugged at the leg of Vernon Peterson, the elderly cemetery groundskeeper who questioned the odd-looking Civil War grave and spurred the identification of the Black soldiers buried there.
CL: Yes! I really loved that part of the book! Ghosts Unveiled! is full of well-researched anecdotes and snippets from historical accounts. Can you share some tips or strategies for doing research?
KH: Often I dig into my memory bank for events I’ve studied or places I have been, and then my research starts. Unlike Mummies Exposed! or the new book I’m writing, Bones Revealed!, for Ghosts Unveiled! I pinpointed “my” ghosts, then I went to historical societies, old newspapers…and online research is a godsend when you want to dig up old accounts of ghosts, so I started with contemporary reports published in the early 1900s, 1800s, or even earlier on archive.org or Project Gutenberg. Some accounts are online, but for others I relied on my wonderful Cincinnati Public Library for old books, many of which are referenced in the endnotes of Ghosts Unveiled! (Hereward Carrington’s Psychical Phenomena and the War, for one!) Magazine articles and blog posts are also a good start, though I pay careful attention to the details, because often these are wrong. For fact checking, I go to Britannica.com—and not Wikipedia, although their footnotes often lead me to other prospects.
CL: So how do you organize all that information?
KH: I organize my research two ways: I find three or four big nuggets of info that will become individual chapters in each book, and then I spend time thinking about other chapters that will round things out. I use Evernote to clip articles and posts from the web and organize these by topic. When I want to get an impression of a very long passage in a book, I often dictate a note into Evernote as I read through. If I find a good quote, then I dictate that with the citation, as well. Ha…in the end…it’s all about the endnotes!
CL: Well, speaking of individual chapters – one of my favorite parts of the book is the section on animal ghosts (which I did NOT realize was a thing!) – was it hard to find research on that subject?
KH: Surprisingly, no. They just appeared as I was looking things up. The “black dog” ghost is a super big presence in the British Isles, but I was looking for an American dog ghost. I wrote an entire section on the ghosts who hung out with of the famed dog author Albert Terhune from the early 1900s, but then I read that he was a notorious racist. I decided not to get into any controversy, so I ended up with a better choice, and that would be the Black Dog of the Hanging Hills, whose tale I found on archive.org.
CL: The haunted locations in the book span the entire globe. Are there any specific locations you’ve been to or hope to visit?
KH: I’ve been to many, as it happens. I think after I’ve traveled someplace, my psyche is left with a bit of the vibe, as it were. I’ve traveled in the UK and Ireland, the American Southwest (my dad lived near the scene documented by Antonio Garcez of the ancient ghost that creeped out the boys on the road outside Tucson.) In 2011 I was in Japan as they prepared to celebrate Obon, to welcome back the spirits of their ancestor, by lighting up a massive display on a hillside – little did I know I’d be writing about Japanese ghosts a few years on!
CL: Yeah, really! Was there anything else that surprised you as you were working on the book?
KH: At first my research covered ghost legends and ghost folklore, and I learned that these are meticulously cataloged in volumes of books. About 1950, students at Utah State collected and cataloged ghost stories. Here’s an example from the “Vanishing Hitchhiker” …
- Supernatural Non-Religious Legends
2.1. Revenants
2.1.1. Revenant or Evidence of Appears Along Roadway
2.1.1.1 Vanishing Hitchhiker (Folder 1)
…2.1.1.2 Driver vanishes. (Folder 2)
2.1.1.3 In Payson, Utah, female appears in middle of road, is hit and leaves blood and scratches on car.
2.1.1.4 Old woman appears in front of car at place where she was killed long before.
2.1.1.6 White ghost dog appears and disappears along roadway.
2.1.1.7 Old sheepherder who was beaten to death searches roadway for his lost body.
2.1.1.8 Mysterious man gives aid at accident site. …
CL: Wow – that’s really wild that it’s part of recorded history like that! Your books all focus heavily on history and science. What motivates you to write on those subjects?
KH: It’s truly gratifying for me to read your observation, though I’m not quite sure why I write like this. I guess it’s how I look at the past and how I like to explain things to my young readers. The crossroads of history and science is fun to research and to write about. “You can’t have one without the other…”—like that old Sinatra tune😊
CL: And what would you say to a skeptical reader who doesn’t believe in ghosts?
KH: Seeing ghosts is a personal experience. I could go into a long discussion about God and science and worldview and so on, but let’s leave it at that!
CL: Okay, Kerrie – now comes my favorite part…the lightning round! Here we go…Favorite place to write?
KH: In my son’s old bedroom, still with the stars he pasted on the ceiling for nighttime.
CL: Favorite authors?
KH: George Saunders, Jennifer Winspear, Eric Larsson, Ian McEwan
CL: The BEST scary movie is…
KH: The Exorcist
CL: Do you have any pets?
KH: A black Ausiedoodle named Maleficent for my favorite Disney (cartoon) villain. But she’s Malley for short.
CL: Best desert?
KH: Cherry pie a la mode
CL: Spookiest book you’ve ever read?
KH: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Spooky, informative, and theological all in one.And a short story!…“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
CL: Best Halloween costume?
KH: My Maleficent costume that I sewed myself about 30 years ago….I still have it.
CL: Thanks, Kerrie! It was so fun getting to talk with you!
Kerrie Hollihan writes award-winning nonfiction for young people. Her new book is Ghosts Unveiled!, second in the Creepy and True series for Abrams Books for Young Readers. The first, Mummies Exposed!, garnered four four-star reviews. Kerrie’s books have been honored as “notables” by the Children’s Book Council/National Council for the Social Studies and more. She’s especially thrilled that Mummies! is accessible for vision impaired readers through the Library of Congress.
To learn more about Kerrie, you can visit her on her website, and Kerrie also belongs to the highly regarded nonfiction author group iNK Think Tank and its interactive partner, Authors on Call – www.inkthinktank.com/. She blogs with other authors at Hands-on-Books, and you can catch her three-minute talks about lots of things at iNK’s Nonfiction Minute.
Thanks, everyone…and don’t forget to leave a comment below for a chance to win a free copy of Ghosts Unveiled!
See you next time!
Eleven year-old Celia lives with her Great Aunt Agatha. Although she must act in a proper way when out and about with her aunt, Celia has her room — her sanctuary — where she can be on her own. One day her aunt says that the attic needs sorting. It’s full of boxes, and books. That’s a chore for Celia. Then her aunt adds: “Oh, and it would be nice if you could find a book to read.” And so it is that Celia’s adventure starts….
Things have changed as a new school year begins, and young Neeghan (with a native Alaskan name) wonders how she’ll fit in. Then she finds a book that seems to have the answer she needs.
BOOK SCAVENGER by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman / Emily, with new friend James, goes on a scavenger book hunt that an author has set up around the United States; particularly one in her new hometown of San Francisco. They search, guided by clues in puzzles. Then they discover an odd type of book they believe has something to do with the author, but something is missing. They find out, also, that the author has been injured and is in a coma, so he can’t reveal any more clues. And then there’s a feeling each has had ever since their discovery. Are Emily and James being followed?
Fiona and her family move to where her older sister is working on her ice skating career, but Fiiona feels alone. She finds the town library (a renovated mansion donated by its owner). In this place of respite or solace, Fiona discovers a book that captures her attention. However, the book soon disappears and Fiona is told that there isn’t such a book! Fiona sets about aiming to unravel the mystery of this elusive tome.
THE LIBRARY OF EVER by Zeno Alexander / Lenora spends most of her time in her town’s library. One day while there, she discovers a secret doorway. Curious, of course, she enters. Suddenly she finds herself caught up as a library assistant helping library visitors with unusual searches. Meanwhile there’s something sinister in the air and she must uncover secrets and answers among the library shelves.
REBEL IN THE LIBRARY OF EVER by Zeno Alexander / Lenora came back to the secret library area she had discovered. Now, however, things are dark all around. She eventually finds some others, called members of a resistance group, who are striving to bring light back to the library. She, too must now face, stand up to, dark forces that are keeping the library in darkness.
ESCAPE FROM MR LEMONCELLO’S LIBRARY by Chris Grabenstein / When a popular game maker becomes involved in the building of a new library in Kyle’s hometown, Kyle gets caught up in a contest, and wins one of the prizes offering a night of playing games in the library. He and the other winners have a fun night, but then when morning comes, they try to leave, but the doors are still locked. They discover that they must play another game, following clues and puzzles, to find the exit.
NIGHTMARE AT THE BOOK FAIR by Dan Gutman / Just as he arrives to try out for soccer, Trip is asked by his school’s PTA president to help her with something. Not really wanting to, but doing it anyway. Suddenly a pile of books falls on him. He gets knocked out. When he wakes up, he’s in a strange place. Now he just wants to get home, but strange obstacles are blocking his way!
MARY ANNE AND THE HAUNTED BOOKSTORE by Ann M. Martin (Babysitters Club Mysteries #34) / For a school assignment, Mary Anne gets a book from a local bookstore, where she is introduced to the works of Edgar Allen Poe, who may have visited this town where she lives. Caught up in Poe’s stories and poems, and must figure out a presentation for her school project. Eventually, Mary Anne is able to get a job at the bookstore, but then, she wonders, what’s that tap tap tapping? Are the spirits of the raven and Edgar Allen Poe lurking in the shadows?
PAGES & CO.: BOOK WANDERERS by Anna James, with illustrator Paola Escobar / Tilly enjoys visiting her grandparents bookshop, wandering around the bookshelves; then one day she finds unusual wanderers wandering about, and she decides to follow them… into books…
THAT BOOK WOMAN by Heather Henson / Cal wonders why a strange woman always comes to where he and his family live on a mountainside in the Appalachian Mountains. She comes in any weather, rain or snow, and on horseback! All she seems to do is just to leave books for his sister to read. “There are better things to do,” Cal muses; or so he thinks.
THE LIBRARIAN OF AUSCHWITZ by Antonio Iturbe, translated by Lilit Thwaites, retold from a true story / Thirteen year old Jewish girl, Dita Kraus, is imprisoned in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in NAZI-occupied Poland during WW II, only because she is Jewish. Then she’s suddenly given a job by the camp’s Jewish leader. She is asked to be in charge of books for other children at the camp. The books come to her whenever prisoners secretly smuggle them into to the prison area when they are given the task of emptying suitcases taken away from new prisoners. / Dita’s future husband (a teacher at the camp) was called ‘a living book’; telling stories from memories of great works read before imprisonment.
LOST IN THE LIBRARY by Josh Funk / Illustrated by Stevie Lewis / Imagine. The library lion statues (named Patience and Fortitude), who guard the front entrance of the New York Public Library in Manhattan, New York City, are alive one night. A story in clever rhyming verse tells of Fortitude waking up and discovering that Patience is missing. He ventures into, and wanders about, the wondrous big library to search for his companion.
Ever wonder about the houses and other dwelling places in classic stories, including Robinson Crusoe, David Copperfield, Alice in Wonderland, Little Women, and Charlotte’s Web? Here you can discover something about them.
Have you ever wondered about the house where young blind and deaf Helen Keller learned w-a-t-e-r and other words in sign language with her hands? Have you wondered what life was like in the pioneer houses where young Laura Ingalls Wilder lived? Have you thought about the house where iconic American poet Emily Dickinson spent her life, or the places where Mark Twain grew up or wrote some of his novels, or where Robert Frost wrote his poems? Have you mused about the house where Longfellow penned “The Children’s Hour”? Here you can get glimpses of them, and more.
