Why are there so few gay "ghost" horror stories?

[W_L]

I've been looking around and I've found a few books listed under LGBT and gay horror with actual gay ghosts, it doesn't seem like a very big genre with gay fiction.

Ghosts are major mainstream horror concept though, they can be malevolent or benign, comedic or dramatic, and incredible sources of storytelling about human existence. It just seems weird that so few gay fiction writers ever explore this area nowadays. I can find hundreds of shifter gay fictions, vampire gay fictions, demonic gay fictions, wizard/witch/magic gay fiction, and psychic gay fiction stories, but actual pure gay ghost stories are far and few.

I'm reviewing and recommending one of the best ones I found for next month in my book review series, The Ghost of Ellwood by Jaclyn Osborn, but I am curious too as to why few gay authors even on here favor writing about gay ghosts? We write about monsters, the undead, and heaven/hell, but ghosts just seem so exotic.

[JamesSavik]

I can't tell you why there are so few.

The best one I've ever read was Tappings by Kit.

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by jamessavik

[Aditus]

In contrast to vampires, you can't touch ghosts, or if you do it's rather unpleasant.

I wrote a story with gay ghosts, and it even won a contest. 

[W_L]

5 hours ago, Aditus said:

In contrast to vampires, you can't touch ghosts, or if you do it's rather unpleasant.

I wrote a story with gay ghosts, and it even won a contest. 

Patrick Swayze's Ghost would disagree (RIP, I loved that movie and I hope he's somewhere other can appreciate his talent)

Thanks for the pre-Halloween reading suggestion

Ghosts do have the power to possess human bodies, so they can be physical and quite pleasant if they want to be. Of course, horror is by its nature supposed to be scary, more often than not a ghost's powers are used in the pursuit of vengeance or anger at those who wronged them in life. Still the ghost romance stories are intriguing to me, it's like loving a memory of someone, not quite there but not imaginary either.

Edited September 21, 2021 by W_L

[Aditus]

2 hours ago, W_L said:

Patrick Swayze's Ghost would disagree (RIP, I loved that movie and I hope he's somewhere other can appreciate his talent)

Thanks for the pre-Halloween reading suggestion

Ghosts do have the power to possess human bodies, so they can be physical and quite pleasant if they want to be. Of course, horror is by its nature supposed to be scary, more often than not a ghost's powers are used in the pursuit of vengeance or anger at those who wronged them in life. Still the ghost romance stories are intriguing to me, it's like loving a memory of someone, not quite there but not imaginary either.

It may sound weird, but I never liked that movie, I found it too unrealistic. 

Ghosts do have the power to possess human bodies. *shudder* LOL.

I expect you to write a romantic, gay ghost story now. Proof that ghost are as cool as vampires.

[W_L]

2 hours ago, Aditus said:

It may sound weird, but I never liked that movie, I found it too unrealistic. 

Ghosts do have the power to possess human bodies. *shudder* LOL.

I expect you to write a romantic, gay ghost story now. Proof that ghost are as cool as vampires.

Well Stephenie Meyers did use glitter to glam up Vampires and shirtless muscled bodies to make Werewolves wet-dreams, I guess I can do something with an ordinary quiet ghost. 

That's assuming I can find an editor

Edited September 21, 2021 by W_L

[BigBen]

On 9/21/2021 at 9:19 AM, W_L said:

Still the ghost romance stories are intriguing to me, it's like loving a memory of someone, not quite there but not imaginary either.

If you are not wedded to having an element of horror, there are a number of Hollywood movies that could easily be adapted to gay themes, though they are all romances or comedies.  I am thinking of, for example, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Topper, plus a few others that refuse to come to mind at the moment.  Even in Ghost, the supernatural element is romantic, not horrifying; the bad guy is Tony Goldwyn's character, who is alive.  Ghostbusters could also easily be made gay, though the horror is counteracted by comedy.  But perhaps starting with the premise of one of these movies, making it gay, and then adjusting the horror level to taste might work.  Hmmmm . . . .

Edited September 23, 2021 by BigBen

[astone2292]

On 9/21/2021 at 8:19 AM, W_L said:

Ghosts do have the power to possess human bodies

A funny thought came from this line. I'm imaging a ghost going on a date, and has trouble picking the right body to possess. Whether his date is another ghost or a living human would be up in the air, but I'm putting this on my "to-write" list.

[W_L]

14 hours ago, astone2292 said:

A funny thought came from this line. I'm imaging a ghost going on a date, and has trouble picking the right body to possess. Whether his date is another ghost or a living human would be up in the air, but I'm putting this on my "to-write" list.

Sounds like we're both interested in writing a ghost story

Can't wait to see your take

On 9/23/2021 at 3:21 PM, BigBen said:

If you are not wedded to having an element of horror, there are a number of Hollywood movies that could easily be adapted to gay themes, though they are all romances or comedies.  I am thinking of, for example, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Topper, plus a few others that refuse to come to mind at the moment.  Even in Ghost, the supernatural element is romantic, not horrifying; the bad guy is Tony Goldwyn's character, who is alive.  Ghostbusters could also easily be made gay, though the horror is counteracted by comedy.  But perhaps starting with the premise of one of these movies, making it gay, and then adjusting the horror level to taste might work.  Hmmmm . . . .

There's a lot of Ghostbuster spoofs around the world, because the premise has a lot of potential beyond comedy.

-------

There's some fascinating ghost stories that I wish could be translated with LGBT sensibilities Beyond just western movies, there are a plethora of East Asian Horror movies that would be really interesting if translated.

Off the top of my head, I remember a Hong Kong Ghost Horror movie called Rule No. 1, which shows a pair of police officers going around trying to debunk ghost stories and when they do discover "real" ghosts or possessed humans, they must remove any trace of them. The number 1 rule is "There are no ghosts", because the world cannot handle living side-by-side with supernatural elements alongside it, so human police must eliminate any proof of their existence. The scariest scene at the end of the movie is that the police officer in charge of this is in fact possessed by the ghost of a serial killer, now under the guise of carrying out these secret orders can kill innocent people with immunity.

That premise is really scary for what it implies, there are a lot of dark themes in the story about the abuse of power by a psychopath in authority, trying to create order by hiding the ugly truth, and highlights how structured systems become corrupt due to the inflexibility of their ideals. Hong Kong Horror used to take pieces of traditional supernatural beliefs in Chinese culture, British ghost stories, and social commentaries that make you question a lot of things.

However, it is way too dark for me to adapt without adding some lighter elements.

[MrM]

I’ve written a couple of doozies, if you are still looking for ghost stories. I often include the paranormal in my stories, even my ‘regular’ romances.

My main ghost story was a short one I tried to do for an anthology, but couldn’t get it in. It’s called Adagio and it concerns the world through the perspective of the ghost of a murdered rent boy. I also wrote a follow-up called Umbereth that is uniquely horrifying in that it tells the experiences of a murdered boy who has been corrupted into a demonic entity called an Umbereth. 

I intend to write more ghost stories in the future. That’s a subject I love writing about. I don’t generally add that much sex into them, but I do include romance and a lot of positive spiritual imagery. They always have hopeful endings.

A theme I stick to with these is ‘love never dies’. It may be a bit cliche, but it is such a penetrating hope we all have that it resonates no matter how many times you might write about it.

Edited February 22, 2022 by MrM

[W_L]

13 hours ago, MrM said:

I’ve written a couple of doozies, if you are still looking for ghost stories. I often include the paranormal in my stories, even my ‘regular’ romances.

My main ghost story was a short one I tried to do for an anthology, but couldn’t get it in. It’s called Adagio and it concerns the world through the perspective of the ghost of a murdered rent boy. I also wrote a follow-up called Umbereth that is uniquely horrifying in that it tells the experiences of a murdered boy who has been corrupted into a demonic entity called an Umbereth. 

I intend to write more ghost stories in the future. That’s a subject I love writing about. I don’t generally add that much sex into them, but I do include romance and a lot of positive spiritual imagery. They always have hopeful endings.

A theme I stick to with these is ‘love never dies’. It may be a bit cliche, but it is such a penetrating hope we all have that it resonates no matter how many times you might write about it.

Agreed, I don't often write ghost stories either, but like you, I also attempted it with my last anthology entry.

I enjoyed exploring the different interpretations of how various cultures and traditions view the afterlife (I used to be really into the ritual aspects of death, it's quite fascinating). Many cultures have a ghost story or undead/returned story.

"Love never dies" is a sentiment that I hope can be kept by the living as well

[JamesSavik]

I was thinking. I've written two ghost stories. They are some of my most psychologically disturbing works despite them being shorts created for prompt responses.

Check them out... if you dare. Careful. They've both got sharp edges.

The House

Home

[Ron]

I added a paranormal/ghost story of sorts with a prompt as well called By and By. This is my only attempt so far.

There was a particularly good ghost story here on GA (I believe) that I read years ago but I can't remember who wrote it, and I can't seem to discover it through the search system here. It was about a young male high school student found dead on the side of road and his ghost tries to figure out who killed him with the help of a newcomer to the town.

[BigBen]

I read a similar story, called Devon's Choice, in which the ghost is a kid who knows who his murderer was and helps a detective catch him.  The author is Eric Aune.  Not sure which site I found it on, sorry.