This afternoon I was at the Seymour museum telling ghost stories for a Halloween party. I don't think the historical society had really thought this one through when they hired me.
They had me outside in the gazebo as the day got colder and colder. I found out that's where I was going to be from their poster for the event. I noticed it as I was putting up posters for our book signing on November 14. OK, that would be fine because I have a lovely robe that works as a costume but also covers long underwear.
The real problem was the audience which was filled with toddlers with a smattering of teenagers. Now how does one tell ghost stories to pre-schoolers? Anything too scary and they'll be up all night and my specialty is really scary stories, the kind that get into your mind and wiggle around forever. Those stories are exactly what the teenagers want but not right for the small children.
I've done this for years so I have several solutions.
First I told them the old storytelling trick. "Tonight put one shoe facing your bed and the other beside it facing the other way. That way the ghosts don't know if you're coming or going and you won't have bad dreams."
Then I explained the rules to the parents. I would sing a song first, then tell a not so scary story. Then another song, and a scarier story and so on. As I went on the stories would get more gruesome. The parents should know when to leave with their children as the stories got more intense. They agreed and sure enough, after the second story, they went to get some cider out of the museum leaving me with the teenagers.
But when they had the cider, the little children came back because they wanted more stories but I was in the middle of the story about a ghost cougar. I couldn't stop then, and the parents weren't doing anything about it. I saw one very nervous little girl twisting her feet, trying to get them to go in opposite directions.
I finished with that story and finished with a song.
I wonder how those parents are coping tonight.
If you want to read one of my ghost stories, check out Black Coffee Fiction at http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com
They had me outside in the gazebo as the day got colder and colder. I found out that's where I was going to be from their poster for the event. I noticed it as I was putting up posters for our book signing on November 14. OK, that would be fine because I have a lovely robe that works as a costume but also covers long underwear.
The real problem was the audience which was filled with toddlers with a smattering of teenagers. Now how does one tell ghost stories to pre-schoolers? Anything too scary and they'll be up all night and my specialty is really scary stories, the kind that get into your mind and wiggle around forever. Those stories are exactly what the teenagers want but not right for the small children.
I've done this for years so I have several solutions.
First I told them the old storytelling trick. "Tonight put one shoe facing your bed and the other beside it facing the other way. That way the ghosts don't know if you're coming or going and you won't have bad dreams."
Then I explained the rules to the parents. I would sing a song first, then tell a not so scary story. Then another song, and a scarier story and so on. As I went on the stories would get more gruesome. The parents should know when to leave with their children as the stories got more intense. They agreed and sure enough, after the second story, they went to get some cider out of the museum leaving me with the teenagers.
But when they had the cider, the little children came back because they wanted more stories but I was in the middle of the story about a ghost cougar. I couldn't stop then, and the parents weren't doing anything about it. I saw one very nervous little girl twisting her feet, trying to get them to go in opposite directions.
I finished with that story and finished with a song.
I wonder how those parents are coping tonight.
If you want to read one of my ghost stories, check out Black Coffee Fiction at http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com
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