From my acre of the world...

Photos I found…my first book signing at Fat Cats in Johnson City, NY, 5/2/2009

Really…those poor old glasses bit the dust, I loved them until they fell apart and were beyond repair…oh, they got me through many hair-pulling edits of that little ghost story I’m holding in my hands…

As I reflect on it four years after its publication, I still love it, and have found the reactions of readers very interesting—no surprises—it’s one of those ‘love it’ or ‘hate it’ books. Dusty Waters, A Ghost Story is a literary fiction novel, it is not the usual ghost story with a haunted house—oh, yes, Tanglewood is very haunted, but it’s a ghost story as much about life as it is about death. It’s a coming of age story and a story about coming to terms with the past. Dusty Waters, as a little girl with a gift of seeing ghosts, is haunted by the spirits drifting in the hallways of her ancestral home, and haunted by the past containing a family history, a nation’s history, and a generation’s history, as well as her personal story. Dusty Waters, as a woman, standing well over six feet tall, wild curly hair with big feet and a big nose, is a folksinger in the tradition of folksingers of the Boomer generation with a growling voice like Janis Joplin, but her guitar is tuned with the Punk edge of the Gen-X kids who show up at her concerts looking to hear songs about the truth of “what was” and presently that “it goes like this.” She pulls no punches as she belts out her songs, but in her own personal life, she’s barely scratching the surface of being honest with herself. She’s scared to go home to face the ghosts that haunt her there, and scared to live without them. Coming home at last, she has steeled herself to sit down with her friend, Katharine, to tell her story for the official biography of the folksinger—but there are parts of that story she will never tell a soul—except maybe one, but she lost him along the way and needs to go find him.

Yes, yes, shameless self-promotion…sorry! But I gotta do it from time to time just in case you might want to read it someday. I’m an indie author and my books are indie published, I’m on my own in this little adventure. Dusty Waters is available as a paperback original via Amazon.com and as an e-book for Kindle and NOOK. 

There are people in our country who can’t figure out why so many people around the world hate America. At the age of six, I couldn’t comprehend why anyone would hate us, especially with Lady Liberty holding up her torch in the New York Harbor with her promise of freedom for the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses—but now that I’m all grown up—I can understand why. As I line up our presidents from my short history—Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and then Junior Bush—there are people out there baffled by the animosity toward our country because they don’t want to believe the worst in others—especially the ones in charge. If there is a lesson to learn in all of this, it is important to know your history—all of it, not just the whitewashed parts that they tell you in school. Take the time to look up some of those important dates they expect you to memorize for college entrance exams. Read about what was going on at the time, not just the great achievements of great men, read about the injustices and the ignorance, read about the arts—there’s a lot of history in those paintings hanging in the Louvre, the monuments in Rome, even the pyramids in Egypt. Read literature, especially guys like Shakespeare, he can tell you a thing or two if you use your head and think about what he’s saying—read between the lines. It is important to read what’s out there—it is food for the mind. If you happen to read the Bible from cover to cover, don’t accept it as gospel, and please don’t take it literally. Always keep in mind that it has been translated from a few ancient languages before English. Keep in mind who did the translation, and investigate who has been implementing the word of God and what political agenda inspired them. The Bible offers a written backbone for the things that are happening now, don’t view it as a prophesy of things to come—history has a bad habit of repeating itself—politicians and nations with special interests have manipulated an entire region, trying to mold it into something it will never be. Between you, me, and the post at Coogee Beach that some might say looks like the Virgin Mary in the right light, history tends to repeat itself, just like some people like to tell the same fucking story over and over and over again—and I’ve heard this story all before, only this time we are Rome. Be sensible, don’t let yourself be spoon-fed rhetoric, pick up a newspaper, watch the news—the journalists are documenting the present for history later. Please, for your sake, arm yourself with knowledge—there is no bliss in ignorance. Apathy is the overrated protection of that rock you’re hiding under—your apathy is a crime against yourself, and it is a crime against society.

–pages 105-106, from the novel, Dusty Waters, A Ghost Story by Laura J. W. Ryan, Field Stone Press, ©2007.

I write about ghosts in this novel, it isn’t a traditional ghost story in the paranormal sense of genre, so don’t go into it expecting a “boo”…yes, there are ghosts and a haunted house in it…but I also tap into the metaphorical ghosts…the that haunt us from the past…yeah, it’s about that…it’s a book about the living as much as it is about the dead.

Ghost to Ghost…front matter from Dusty Waters, a ghost story

The bird’s nest above the door, c. 1985 (at the Fox Sister’s Homestead, Hydesville, NY)

This is the photo my Fred picked to design the book cover for Dusty Waters: A Ghost Story…

The Burned Door at the Fox Sister’s Homestead, Hydesville, NY, c. 1985

The Fox Sister’s Homestead, Hydesville, NY (c. 1985)

The site of the birthplace of Spiritualism…this building no longer exists, and I’m glad I got the photos when I did. One photo from that day is the book cover of my novel Dusty Waters: A Ghost Story

My debut novel Dusty Waters: A Ghost Story is now available for the Kindle…

Finally, right? I diddled around long enough formatting it for the darn gadget…anyway…it’s out there for those who wish to indulge in digital reading.

So, here is where I’ll give you the gist of the story…

The past is a long rattling chain of events that haunts Dusty Waters well into the future…Dusty Waters is a ghost story, a family saga, the history of a haunted house, and a biography of a folksinger. Dusty’s friend, Katharine, has volunteered to help her write the official biography, but there is one piece of her life that will not be part of the biography, she can see ghosts; Dusty’s ancestral home Tanglewood is filled with them. This inherited sight adds a vexing dimension to her psyche that becomes an uneasy burden. (Kindle Edition, 2011)

Just so you know…this little ghost story isn’t the usual creepy kind of book about the “Boo” of ghosts and haunted houses, it’s more literary fiction than paranormal and it’s not quite horror… it’s a story about life and death, it’s about the past and how the past influences the future…Dusty being a folksinger has strong liberal political views like the usual timeless and timely folksinger…oh, yeah, there’s a love story in there too…

Gosh, I hope you like it. If you do give her a read, please let me know what you think of her, and put a review up on Amazon…

Thanks a bunch.