Blazing Reader,

Novelist Jodi Picoult told David Perell on a recent episode of How I Write that:

"For my book Second Glance, I wanted to write a ghost story. And I knew I had to find a ghost. So when I was doing research for this, I actually started with the Atlantic Paranormal Society... I wrote to all three founders, thinking these guys were never going to get in touch with me. Literally, within 20 minutes, all three of them had written me back. And they were like, 'Come on down, we'll teach you about ghosts.'"

Not just teach. Picoult describes the ghastly encounters she had as they explored a derelict psychiatric hospital and an old home where the taps tend to turn on by themselves.

She shares all the spooky details in her interview on David Perell's YouTube channel.

Happy Halloween!

John C.A. Manley

P.S. Picoult went looking for a ghost. I never had to: The ghost of Franz Schubert haunted me for a decade.

P.P.S. And did you know that my current novel-in-progress, COVID Disobedience, stars the ghost of one of America's greatest philosophers? Check out: One brave baker, a "14-day" lockdown and the ghost of Henry David Thoreau

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.