Authors discussed an array of ghosts, spirits, apparitions, revenants, spectral residue, and other scary things that go bump in the night at “The Other Side: Ghosts and Spirits in UF” Saturday at 8 PM on the Urban Fantasy YouTube channel. Carol Malcolm moderated the mesmerizing panel discussion by A.J. Hartley, Leanna Renee Hieber, Walter H. Hunt, and Catherine Scully.
Hartley began a recurring theme of “happy books” when he mentioned that the protagonist in his novel Cold Bath Street dies in the first chapter but continues in the point-of-view role as a ghost. Scully facetiously agreed that her YA novel Jennifer Strange is also a happy book. She said that it is very bloody and borders on fantasy and horror. In addition to ghosts, the book involves very real demons and monsters.
Hieber and Hunt shared a common time-period in their novels, the Nineteenth Century. Hieber, who has served as a New York City ghost tour guide, writes gas-lamp fantasy. Her new series, the Spectral City novels, features the “Ghost Precinct,” a special arm of the NYPD.
Hunt’s novel Elements of Mind dealt with the pseudo-science of mesmerism (a real science in his fictional world) and incorporates the four elements from classic Greek mythology. His most recent release is 1636: Atlantic Encounter with co-author and 1632 series creator Eric Flint.
