One way or another we all live with ghosts. Although I don’t relish the idea of direct encounters, I’ve always had a fascination for ghosts. I am by no means alone. During my travels throughout the years, I’ve taken a number of ghost tours. New Orleans is among my favorite cities and also among the most haunted in the U.S. with ghost tours so large they get split into groups.
I was once joined on a ghost tour by a caustic ex-girlfriend who was nearly as scary—if not more so—than the spirits. During my only other vile experience of these tours a guide glamorized the human suffering behind hauntings in a manner that outmatched my fear of ghosts. (And, for the record, I fled the haunted jailhouse because of the guide and not the tormented spirits she described.) Let’s face it—the living can be more terrifying than the dead.
Although grim and bloody tales drum up the requisite horror, I’m most drawn to messages that beckon from beyond. Writing ghost stories, hair-raising or not, also appeals as a form of catharsis for the haunted interactions that shape our mortal worlds. As I read the stories and poems in Haunting Muses, I was struck by how passion, more often love than hatred, causes a spirit to cross over from the other side. Like so many ghost storytellers and readers, I’m captivated by story, history, and by what drives a character to linger. And the ghosts of our lesbian lives and loves, be they remnants of the past or true tales of the paranormal, generate messages that must be told and heard.
Happily, Bedazzled Ink embraced my offbeat subject in this GusGus anthology, and its theme of literal and metaphorical ghosts generated a wealth of global submissions. Its exceptionality shines through the voices of established and emerging authors who deftly integrate the shadow world into their words. The perceptive writing within these pages ranges from internalized slipstream, stream of consciousness, memoir, Gothic, to zombies and even sci-fi ghosts, historical fiction, and more traditional tales—all with a lesbian twist. I’m personally inspired that Haunting Muses features such unique glimpses into the afterlife, fused with insightful moments set within the here-and-now. Savor this anthology as a literary offering into which the otherworldly is interwoven through the rich and varied fabric of who we are.
Doreen Perrine
September 5, 2016