Ghosts and ghost stories have always fascinated me. I’m not sure if I really believe in their actual existence, though I am beginning to wonder if some kind of reincarnation might not be with us.

Above all a ghost story sends an apprehensive thrill down the reader’s spine. Ghosts are unpredictable, unknowable and can be either good or wicked. They lend atmosphere to a story, yet even the hero and heroine often questions their reality, and of course, their own sanity.

Ghosts usually appear in stories when a life have been cut short and there is still some clearing up to be done.

There are marvellous classical ghost stories: “The Turn of the Screw” being possibly the best known.

In my own ‘Penelope’s Ghost’, I have 2 lots of ghosts: the first being the small child who drowned in a dam or lake, the second the ghosts of natives cruelly pushed off their land.

 Even if I am writing a story primarily meant to entertain, I like to use a serious theme. Hopefully, using spirits in “Penelope’s Ghost” achieves this.”