Ring Twice for Ghosts

By Linda Maye Adams

Five twisted tales of ghosts from the beyond…

 

In Teddy Bear Man, Nanette Perry fears placating a haunted house as her marriage crumbles. Can she solve the puzzle in time?

 

A Silver Honorable Mention from Writers of the Future.

 

Abby Gregg inherits a ship graveyard. Facing family pressure, she must make a decision that will change her life forever in Gregg Bay.

 

The house with the strange stones in the yard frightens Maricruz. Dark secrets hide in those stones, chilling secrets in The Stones Next Door.

 

In Map-Mage, Pap and his mage partner Ariana investigate the mysterious death of a mapping team. But when a pirate ghost threatens them, they must risk it all to uncover the truth.

 

Much to his family's embarrassment, Marc never had showy magic like fire, levitation. Instead, he cleans magic residue. Now he faces his greatest cleaning challenge—a ghost! Find out how he tidies a ghost in Magic Tidying.

 

If you like ghosts, read these exciting stories for paranormal thrills and chills!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Turquoise Sunset Publishing
• Release date: Feb 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201337070

Linda Maye Adams

Linda Maye Adams is published in Kevin J. Anderson’s anthology Monsters, Movies, & Mayhem.  She is the author of the military-based GALCOM Universe series, including the novel Crying Planet, featured in the 2018 Military Science Fiction StoryBundle, and is working on a superhero novel. 

Book preview

Praise for Linda Maye Adams

Linda Maye Adams’s especially delightful ‘Alien Pizza’ features friendly aliens so enamored with low-budget monster movies that they make one of their own.–Publisher’s Weekly

Mask Pretty–Writers of the Future Silver Honorable Mention

Teddy Bear Man – Writers of the Future Silver Honorable Mention

Family Places–Writers of the Future Honorable Mention

Vagabond of Blood–Writers of the Future Honorable Mention

Map-Mage–Writers of the Future Honorable Mention

Watcher Ghost–Writers of the Future Honorable Mention

A Quartet of Clowns – Writers of the Future Honorable Mention

Sign up for Linda’s newsletter and get a free short story and exclusive behind the scenes of the Dice Ford, Superhero Series: https://sunny-hustler-2102.ck.page/2112121da0

Introduction

I grew up fascinated by ghosts, from the first time I saw them in the TV show Scooby-Doo, Where Are You to reading them in Fate Magazine. I loved reading the heartwarming tales of ghost encounters.

When I attended Superstars, a writer’s conference, in 2019, I discovered everyone has a ghost tale. Either they’ve had an encounter with one or a family member has.

This is one of mine:

In 1991, I had recently returned from Desert Storm to what was then Fort Lewis, Washington. War left me feeling like I no longer fit in the world I’d left behind only six months earlier. I’d lived a lifetime in such a brief span, and now everything stared back at me, too bright, too sharp, too pungent.

I dove into everything I could find for a similar experience. The books from Vietnam veterans were starting to come out, but few of anything for women. Still, I devoured them, both satisfied and craving more.

One day, I drove out to the state capital, Olympia, and explored the government campus. Being on a weekend, it was eerily vacant.

The sun knocked the chill out of the air as I spotted a sign for the Vietnam Memorial. The memorial was like the one in Washington, DC, a wall of black granite embedded into a hill, names in perfect rows.

As I stepped across the entrance, a frisson washed over me. Not cold, or frightening. More like a door opened. Then a thousand voices spoke, fluttering like wings: Welcome, sister.

And it was gone.

But after that, I felt like I wasn’t as alone.

I hope you enjoy my ghost stories!

Happy reading!

Linda Maye Adams

Arlington, Virginia

January 23, 2022

Teddy Bear Man

Six feet from the antique store, The Object (as how Nanette Perry had referred to them) began keening.

She would have bolted right into the store, save for her husband Eric, who gripped her shoulder firmly. His eyes warmed in the spring morning’s sunlight, hair dappled by shadows of a sycamore tree’s leaves.

Nan, he said, you can’t go in there like that. The owner will double the price on the spot.

But the friendliness he had before the move, before the house, before the magic was gone, was replaced by a hard edge. Her heart fluttered against it, but she swallowed it down, reminding herself he was also right. She pressed her face against his chest, wishing she had her teddy bear man back.

She didn’t know if anything would ever be the same again.

The Object wailed again, shattering through her thoughts.

I’m coming for you, she told The Object with as much annoyance as she could put in her thoughts.

It felt silly talking to The Object. But it was magical, and they always had their personalities, mixed in with the person who had selected it. From her research, this was Opal, her great aunt, known for going to bed when the going got tough.

The weight of The Object’s stink eye landed on her as if it could have eyes.

It’s not my fault, she said.

Opal’s idiot great-grandson was at fault, greedy guts that he was, always looking for the silver bullet and never finding it. Now he could add thief to his list of accomplishments.

Then the wailing receded, mulishly, and very reluctantly.

Nanette gazed up at Eric, who stood a head taller than her, and nodded. "I’m