Tamara Thorne's home is far from the shadow-drenched worlds that she recreates in her horror novels. At home in her California ranch home she shares with GHOST! Magazine her previous stint as a paranormal investigative journalist, her personal philosophy on ghosts and the afterlife, and her career as a horror writer.

GHOST! MAG:
Thanks for having us here in your home!

THORNE:
You're welcome, glad to have you all here.

 

GHOST! MAG:
So, I guess the first question I wanna know is if you have any ghosts, here, in your house. (laughs).

THORNE:
Not exactly. I've lived in a couple of fiesty houses and we were very careful to get the "feel" of the one we actually bought -- I prefer to visit hauntings, not live in them. This house was neutral to pleasant. We do have some anomalies here, though they don't feel like hauntings. There's an annoying aport/deport phenomena that, over the years, has boggled us three or four times. The most spectacular was the first incident. Long story short, an expensive camera flash disappeared from the camera case when I needed it for a newspaper article I was doing. The case was kept in a locked closet in a locked room. I had to borrow a flash. For six weeks, we hunted for the flash. Finally, I decided to buy a new one. When we got home, we got the camera bag from the locked closet, opened the case, and there was the old flash, right on top, where I'd last left it six weeks before.

 

GHOST! MAG:
Are you afraid of ghosts? Or are you one of those ghost researchers that is able to separate herself from what she is seeing and experiencing?

THORNE:
(laughs) Well, if I have an audience, I'm never afraid. If I'm alone, I can get spooked but only if I let myself. (groans) And it's that fun 10-year-old kid spookiness. Unless I'm in a place I have no control over -- in a place where other living people might be lurking. That's really all I fear -- bad people, rabid weasels, you know, things you should be wary of. I've never experienced a haunt that could panic me, and I think panic is the true danger in ghost hunting. If you are afraid, you don't pay attention and can get hurt. You also feed your energy to the phenomena and fear is negative, so bad things are more likely to happen, even around neutral or pleasant-feeling phenomena.

GHOST! MAG:
Everyone has their own theories, of course. What do you think you are experiencing on various investigations?

THORNE:
I've experienced nothing that leads me to think that haunts are souls hanging around the earth. Souls have better things to do -- they aren't ruled by the caveman aspect of ourselves. I think though that some ghosts are personalities that stay behind -- that part of us that fears death, that loves those deadly sins, the part of us that made us an individual in a particular body. The personality-ghosts are often negative (angry or sad emotions are noticed) and they're especially easy to feed, usually subconsciously. The angsty-teen poltergeist haunt is the prime example. All the emotional disarray in the live human is honey for the bear. I find that these things -- polts, personalities, whatever -- back off if you're fearless. Some people repel them with religious or pagan incantations. Personally, I find the Language of the Sailor works perfectly. What you say is less important than your intent. My intent in ghost hunting is to not let anything do any psychic sucking on me. That anger keeps me safe. Also, it's a good idea to use handrails on the stairs in an active-poltergeist building. . . just like buckling up when you drive. Common sense.

 

GHOST! MAG:
Most of your readers don't realize that you started out as a paranormal investigator, that you actually got paid to write columns for a newspaper about ghostly goings on.

THORNE:
(grins) I guess I did start that way. I hadn't thought of it like that -- how insightful you are, my dear. I did stringing for newspapers and started writing up local haunts on the side -- they're so much more interesting than city council meetings! I wrote, they bought. I proceeded to use journalism to get into every haunted place I could. Journalism is a very handy major. Almost as handy as being a novelist.

 

GHOST! MAG:
Do you have any pet peeves where ghost hunting is concerned?

THORNE:
The Trues. True Believers and True Disbelievers/Debunkers. Both are fanatics. Both are closed-minded. I hate the abuse of the word "skeptic," too. Skeptic does not mean a disbeliever or debunker. It means a non-believer. Big difference. It means the jury is out. A skeptic observes and looks to rule out all the obvious and not-so-obvious answers before considering the inexplicable ones. I usually call myself a Fortean these days since it means the same thing as skeptic really does, but hasn't been abused.

I also dislike frauds and charlatans that make the reputation of paranormal research even muddier than it already is. Of course, they also make it interesting, and I do love to do what my childhood idol, Houdini, did -- expose them.

 

GHOST! MAG:
The Forgotten and Haunted are two of my favorite books of yours. You have a new series out now, though, don't you?

THORNE:
Thank you -- those are pet books, so I'm glad you like them! The Sorority Samantha is a serial novel, actually, a trilogy. It came out in June, July, and August. It's on the fun side, with some obvious homage to Animal House and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but there's a heavy-duty ghost story throughout that was inspired by my mother's tales about a town she lived in that was rebuilt on higher ground before the original was flooded to make a reservoir. Also just out is the reissue of Moonfall with a new cover by Simon Marsden. It's ghost ghosts, witches, evil nuns, sex, bad puns, and takes place during the Halloween season.

 

GHOST! MAG:
Thank you so much for letting Ghostmag share your space for a while.

THORNE:
And thank you! Maybe next time we can share space in the sprawling hacienda instead of the comfy little ranch house! Either way, wear orange so the cat fur doesn't show too much after your visit!

 

GHOST! MAG:
It's a deal!