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I’m delighted to welcome paranormal mystery author Margaret Morse as a guest essayist on my blog. Margaret’s mysteries feature an attorney with magical abilities.

 

                         Add a Witch or a Ghost to Your Story

by

Margaret Morse

Are you ever temped to include a ghost or haunted house in your stories?

If yes, you’re in good company. Authors have successfully written about the paranormal in such famous works as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Christmas Carol, Dracula, and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Writing about the paranormal is demanding and fun. You’ll write about more than the physical world, wonderful as it is. Your imagination takes off as you bring to life witches, wizards, elves, dwarfs, vampires, ghosts, and demons. In paranormal stories, supernatural powers challenge characters and add zest to the plot.

Readers have some expectations about the traits of paranormals, but writers tend to add their own spin to the stereotypes. In stories about vampires, the setting possibilities expand if the undead can walk in the sun rather than just skulk in the dark.

Paranormal stories often use the “coming of age” pattern: the protagonist suddenly develops magic powers. The story arc naturally follows the new wizard’s struggles to control magic. A well-known example is young wizard Harry Potter, who faces the trials of adolescence as he learns to do magic accurately.

Bringing ghosts and demons into a story inevitably shakes things up, because characters have to rethink their beliefs. In Juliet Blackwell’s Haunted Home Renovation Series, historic home remodeler Mel Turner finds ghosts in each of her projects. When the ghosts disclose why they’re haunting the houses, their stories make the homes come alive as past loves and hatreds are revealed.                                                 

 Some writers of the paranormal prefer to set their stories in a world apart from the everyday one. Traditionally, one must enter a portal into the magic world. In Anabel Chase’s Spellbound series, lawyer Emma Hart accidentally stumbles into a town populated by only magicals. Having the paranormal world be an isolated community makes it easier for the author, who doesn’t have to explain why no one notices the vampire who lives next door.

 In my Petra Rakowitz series, wizards and witches live alongside non-magicals. The conflict that results adds tension to the story, but explaining how it all works can get complicated. In the first entry in the series, Murder Casts a Spell, Petra strives to save a friend and co-worker from a murder charge while struggling to learn to use her new-found powers as a witch.

Be aware that some people are not interested in reading stories with magic They say they don’t do “woo-woo.” My response is to write a story with vivid characters who believe in magic so deeply they take the reader along for the broom ride.

If you’d like to see how the paranormal works out in a murder mystery, I’m offering a free version of the first book in my Petra Rakowitz series, Murder Casts a Spell. Go to https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cynxkgc8rz. Along with the book, you will be automatically signed up for my wonderful newsletter, but you can opt out at any time.                         

 

BIO:

Margaret C. Morse writes mysteries set in Phoenix about a lawyer with magic powers. The series has three entries, the most recent being Murder Hexes the Reunion. After twenty-five years as a public defender, Margaret knows a lawyer can transform into a witch. She lives in Phoenix with her wonderful husband and many mutts. If Margaret is not planning how to kill someone, she loves cooking, bird watching, and visiting stark landscapes.

LINKS:

https://www.facebook.com/margaretcmorse

https://margaretmorseauthor.com

email: marmorse@gmail.com