A new year’s wish
- At December 29, 2012
- By Karina Machado
- In Haunted Places
0
As my children lay asleep upstairs and the bush wakes up outside my window, I sit with my laptop in bed, relishing the calm and quiet. I love when I’m the only one awake in a still-slumbering house, it’s one of those simple things I’m most grateful for. The year creeping to a close has enhanced, for me, the importance of embracing simple joys and pleasures, and the older I get, it seems the more I can appreciate this.
At the train station where I get off for work every day from Monday to Thursday, there’s a billboard advertising a company that offers “dream” experiences, like driving a speed car, or hot air balloon rides. The ad popped up before Christmas, the idea being that giving something like this to a loved one would surely trump other mundane gifts. But to me it suggests something else: do we really need to experience a hot air balloon ride to feel alive? I don’t think so, I don’t subscribe to the notion that a big-ticket experience once a year (or a lifetime?), while you drag yourself through the days the rest of the time, is a recipe for happiness.
I prefer to savour small pleasures every day, and be grateful for them. A coffee in bed on a Saturday morning, with a book in my lap. The sound of my kids laughing together upstairs. Hearing those raucous kookaburras outside. The little library at the back of my house. Perhaps the books I write—particularly my next one, about the ways our late loved ones continue to make themselves known to us—have also given me perspective. People lose the ones they love. It’s something I think on a lot at this time of year, since so many of my interviewees (all of those in the upcoming book) would be having a harder time than most during the festive season.
Cherish your loved ones and those tiny everyday pleasures. What are some of those small things you’re grateful for? Thank you for your support throughout 2012—in 2013 I’ll deliver the new book to my publisher and I’m hopeful it will be a worthy successor to Spirit Sisters and Where Spirits Dwell. In the meantime, I wish you and your family peace, good health and joy for the new year, and beyond.
One of my biggest little pleasures: my home library.
Where Spirits Dwell, coming soon!
Where Spirits Dwell, Australian cover
Hello, am so excited to announce that my second book, Where Spirits Dwell, is on its way to the printer. Writing it has a been a trying and thrilling experience, in equal measure, but I hope the end result will make it all worthwhile.
Here is the link to more information on my publisher’s website:
http://www.hachette.com.au/books/9780733624988/
Am looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
It’s been a while …
Ravello, Italy, the setting for a story in WHERE SPIRITS DWELL
But I have a good excuse for neglecting my blog, I think … I’ve been finishing the sequel to Spirit Sisters and yes, I confess, there have been a few less than productive moments in there too, though I like to think it all contributes to the general melting pot of, um, creativity … Googling the music on the Corona TV ads (“A Journey,” by Taylor Steele and “Run River” by Jon Swift); fantasising about million dollar haciendas on the Uruguayan coast; watching Modern Family and The Biggest Loser and reading non-paranormal literature. I loved loved loved Mr Rosenblum’s List, by Natasha Solomon and Dark Matter by Michelle Paver—actually, that is paranormal, but fiction, which is still an indulgence in these last stages of writing.
Aside from that, I waded through seventy thousand freecycle messages and procrastinated about putting my own clutter up for collection (I’ll get there). And then there were the endless stream of offers from “deal of the day” websites, few of which I can resist. My latest acquisition is a brilliant bed-sanitising deal. Who knew that there existed people with special UV-machines who’ll come and zap our beds clean? All they had to do was bang on a bit about bed bugs and their revolting emissions and I was sold.
Somehow, despite all of the above, Where Spirits Dwell is now in the very final stages of submission to my publishers. I’ve been haunted by stories set in my hometown of Sydney to far flung places, like Normanton in Far North Queensland, to Ravello, on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, where a scandalous literary personage made a surprise post-mortem appearance in an interviewee’s tale. To know more, you’ll have to wait for Where Spirits Dwell, out in Australia in September. I hope you’ll love it.
Famous Picton Ghost Hunts under threat
I was disappointed to read that the days of the Picton Ghost Tours in NSW may be numbered. It’s literally been years since I first made a mental note to travel to Picton, a small township about 80 km southwest of Sydney, and soak in its haunted heritage. Now, according to news.com.au, locals are calling for the tours to end, citing vandals and hooligans wreaking havoc after hours.
St. Mark's Anglican Cemetery, Picton
Picton became a talking point back in January when a woman noticed two strange children in one of her photographs. I’m not sure what the truth isi behind that image, but the disappointing fact is that the children appear to be wearing modern clothing. Personally, I like my ghost kids in Victorian knickerbockers and ringlets. Hoops optional.
Anyway, I hope the council does away with its plans to end the tours. The late local historian Liz Vincent began them many years ago, igniting a wealth of spooky sightings and anecdotes for the files, and boosting tourism in the local area. I interviewed Liz during my research for Spirit Sisters and her enthusiasm for history and the paranormal (preferably together) was contagious. Today, her husband John and daughter Jenny are doing a great job keeping her passion alive. I wish them the best, but in the meantime, I’ve moved that mental note a little higher up the ‘to do’ list.
Oxford tourist captures historical ghost?
A tourist on a ghost tour in the beautiful university city of Oxford, UK, has captured what she thinks may be the ghost of a woman in period dress strolling along New College Lane. “I thought it looked so beautiful glowing with All Soul’s College in the background I had to take a photo,” Sue Tomlinson told the Oxford Mail. “When I first saw [the photo] I thought it looked strange and wanted to get home and put it on the computer so I could see it bigger.
You can see the image here: http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8427740.Tourist_captures_spooky_image_on_camera/
Looking at the photo, I can make out what appears to be a woman in a skirt (and perhaps a bustle?) Peer a bit closer and she might be wearing a hat and cape and carrying something in her hand. Set your imagination free and she even looks to be in something of a hurry … Then again, I’m ever wary of pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon of a random image being perceived as significant, like seeing patterns in clouds, or deities stamped onto toast …. What else this could be? Well, as the owner of a very sub-standard point-and-click digital camera, I’ll have to reserve judgment, but I’d welcome your thoughts.
