Krista

If I wanted your advice, I would ask for it. If I wanted good advice, I'd talk to myself. --- A little living in cliffhangers never did anyone any harm, y'all survived the Goat, you can survive my one or two a year. No harm in that, is there? Really? And! What do you mean reposting for future references?! I didn't say I am promising a story entitled Ellis, I just said it would probably be my next writing project after TBY. Don't hold me to it, I am if anything, about as predictable as the weather even I surprise myself.

Ellis I think is an adorable name. If I was still in the process of making babies, a boy might have found his name to be that. I did save one of my children the grief of being named Jackson Daniel (it did not really occur to me until some time later, that his name would be Jack Daniel and people would totally add the S and call his mother a drunk...). So you know, happens to the best of us.

Happens here as well. I am finding it more and more, I guess you can say concerning, in my own way of naming characters and how much I've been attempting to come up with odd names. Kaelie in of itself is modern, I see it, but it is still odd. Asher is old and odd. Ridley, admittedly had some significance, but it was still an odd sort of name. I have a story that I think I worked one day on where the brother and sister both have out of the norm names. Ellis and Mavis I want to say. That is my next project after, The Best Year. Odds on favorite it will be entitled Ellis, as of right now the working title is, "I Don't Know..." Bunker Hill is rather unfortunate, I must admit. Bunker without the Hill attached is bad enough. (sorry if you're a reader Mr. Bunker).

I need to read the book. I've been meaning to, I like classics. I am familiar with the quote, it was everywhere when I was growing up for some reason. I think even Bugs Bunny cartoons??? Lol. Maybe I'll find the film on a streaming service somewhere and watch it.

Lol, y'all give me too much credit. I had no idea who Rhett Butler was, I had to google him. Rhett is a growing first name down here actually. Rhett and Beckett, which are typically last names. Soooo... no. Rest assured that I am not that clever. Also, I saw a question about the ring. J for James, M for Maggie/Margret. It was still his mother's ring. I 'almost' put two sets on it. J+M and E+A, but decided against it. But yeah, that's the only significance of the letters on the ring, just a way for Elias to honor his Mother and his father, and to finish actually making the ring into an actual wearable ring. (Maybe I shouldn't have explained it yet - I don't think it is a major spoiler)

It was a couple weeks before I picked up the ring on my nightstand again. I was angry and wanted to put it out of my sight. When I looked at it, I looked at the inner circle and I saw a set of initials. J and M. Neither of them were on the ring before so I knew it was something that he was somehow able to do before he left this world for the next. It also miraculously fit comfortably on my index finger so I wore it now. He didn’t just leave though, he ripped himself away from me and I knew that

@wildone You pay those fees and send me those chocolates is what you do. I am worth every looney or twooney - whatever little currencies you Canadians have up there.

Thank you for the wonderful comments! I won't let my head swell too much.. lol. I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far. I have written up to.. chapter 49, which is almost finished. I made it a goal not to post any more until the entire story is finished, so I can get it on a edited schedule and posting on a specific day of the week. I feel after all the knocks and delays this story has received, y'all deserved the last chapters of it to be out at a regular interval... just the wait until that is accomplished might be a bit of a long one unfortunately. To be honest, publishing has never been a goal of mine. I have thought about maybe retaining a story and writing it for the purpose of publishing, but that would take a lot of time and energy and I don't know if I have it in me. lol. It will also require me to break a lot of bad habits.

Yes, that is true. He was saying that Maggie/Margret was never there with him in spirit. Which, to be honest I don't know how she had found peace at the end of her life. If Elias got stuck at the stone for what he was feeling - or seemed to be unfinished with. Margret had an entire son that she wouldn't have wanted to leave. But... that's going to remain unanswered completely... because I didn't write that anywhere in the next part. LOL Thank you for reading and enjoying this story so far. Poor Marilou, that had to be a rollercoaster of emotions for her. Excitement, worry, fear, agitation, maybe a little paranoia... the biggest story of their whole town was finally discovered, but some blockhead kid walks through her door with information she thought well hidden. I would be as flustered as Blanche Deveraux at a Santa Convention (If you know you know), if I was sitting on that potential gold and some brat kid threatened to ruin it for me. I can't say much about the rest of your comment, because I honestly don't know what I have included in part 5, so I don't want to potentially spoil anything. ----- I also want to say, since Status updates are pretty much useless on here now ---- there will be a delay with Part 5. I am dealing with some real life issues among other things and I just haven't been able to devote any time to getting this part finalized and read through, etc. I do apologize for that, maybe it will be out later this week, or next Tuesday, or maybe later than that. I'm not sure. Just wanted to make y'all aware of that, since it is Tuesday and still no part 5.

Hmmm.... chance encounters happen every day. *whistles* You've been sniffing around the entire plot all story, so I'm glad I still have some twists to throw you off the scent a little. (And yes, those puns are completely because your name is weinerdog and your picture is that of an adorable wee little one) Maybe after that shocker, he might not want to... lol. I personally didn't feel much when I wrote that section, unlike with Ridley when I bawled periodically through parts. Not comparing the two. I did find it sad, but I also found it... I don't want to say peaceful, because it was anything but that, the almost violent way he left. Just a release, like a held breath I guess... is how I would explain it. A held breath that you fought to hold onto, knowing you couldn't? If that makes sense. Thank you! I'm glad you are reading and liking the story so far. Thank you for reading and enjoying the chapter so far. I would love to see Elias as a mortal myself. To know if those lingering questions some of you have can be answered or not. The intrigue with the entire thing and how it would have to play out around him, as he is just living his life. To me, it sounds interesting anyway. But knowing how it ends for him... sucks. LOL Thank you for your above comments on my characters, I do write characters first... and I like hearing that people enjoy them and that their emotions/plots, etc are realistic and a bit more true to life. That is a goal with everything that I have written so far, good, bad, or otherwise. So thank you for that. I think Elias repeating that he was falling in love with Asher, was more for himself. As he was scared that he would forget, because he wasn't sure what was happening to him. Then the last one, was spoken to Asher directly telling him. I'll explain a little on this after the story, but I changed this scene a couple of times. I just don't want to give anything away for now. I'm sorry, but not sorry in the same breath. I'm glad you are enjoying the story! I do have one more part left to post. The last two parts (this one and the next) are the most worrisome for me, for a lot of reasons. Sorry, but not sorry to you too. I honestly thought you read the entire thing already, before posting. Until you told me that you didn't until you edited... I think I was in the process of being sarcastic when you told me you wanted to be a reader too, and only read what would be going public. 😮 I will never have the restraint to not read ahead that you seem to do.

Snow on Steven's wee head, you love to see it. We've already gotten snow down here, which was way too early for my liking and likely the work of voodoo, don't trust a certain Canadian. His delinquency knows no bounds. Dreadful really, the sacrifices I have made to shield you all from the cheeky little heathen. In all honesty, the weather here has been awful. Windy, bitterly cold. Then windy and hot. It needs to make up its mind and I wouldn't mind some rain, we need it. Just not snow. It needs to be where it belongs and that's melting on the rosy cold wind burned cheeks of you Canadians.

The next morning, I rolled out of bed, sending the pillow that was pulled over my head flying off the other side. Looking around, blinking the heaviness from my eyes. Not seeing Elias, I looked down at the ring on my nightstand. I wasn’t a morning person, I didn’t rise out of bed easily but I couldn’t help thinking I felt something just before my eyes shot open. Like someone had touched the cover draped on my shoulder. I expected to see Mom hovering over me, but the room was empty. Shaking my he

LOL! I've not watched that film I honestly think Casper is the only ghost movie I have ever watched... ever. Not even Ghost Busters... To be honest, privacy laws and census are probably somewhat concerning me the more I think about it. I'm wondering, aside from personal artifacts and period pieces of art, photography, etc, a museum shouldn't have personal records of common people. Maybe I'm wrong on that, but the small town designating the section of the historical part of the founding town, a historical destination, maybe they were all fine with what old relics and information could be found there, and maybe even personally donated items as they found them, or as older generations died. As far as names and addresses that could lead to living descendants, a museum won't have those. Old graveyard records, they may as well. And, I think the website being thin, is more or less an advertising scheme for people to actually come and visit the place. I've seen it done before when I was researching something specific. It was behind a paywall, but they really wanted you to come and visit the place physically. It was a bit off putting, so I did neither.. it wasn't all that important. lol I mean, I didn't have a ghost freezing the back of my neck off as he hovered beside me at the time. Not a whole lot, but to be honest, if I lost my name, getting it back - or at least finding a name that I feel drawn to, would ease my mind a lot. I would want more, but there isn't really anything more important than a Name. So I wanted that to be a bit of a special scene and I wanted the ghost to find it. Maybe it was never meant to be on a finger... *whistles innocently* For the most part, I wanted his loneliness to be fringe, I know it was front and center when the ghost begged not to placed back at the stone. The reason was pretty obvious, he couldn't stand being in the same place and alone there any longer. The talking to birds comment was also a hint, but a lot lighter in tone, spoken by Elias with a smile. But I wanted the reader to know or at least think about, him talking to animals that couldn't talk back. More or less talking 'at' them and how lonely that could be as well, without viscerally showing it in writing. Thank you, the story is complete, I'm just attempting to get it edited and posted around every Tuesday. I am glad you're liking story, and I had fun writing Elias, even if I'm worried about the story as a whole and the reception it will get when finished. It will definitely depend on the definition of help, I think... on what they find there. The first one, I am glad you caught on, I wanted there to be a gradual switch in Asher about his comfort level. I didn't want him to feel resigned or bothered by the prospect of having a ghost following him around, based solely on his own conscience after having met him. (Not leaving him trapped in one area forever, again), even if that meant forcing him to stay in his house, however far Elias can go without the ring, and how long he could stay there. I haven't really explained that part yet, but still, being stuck and knowing your stuck would be hell really. So I'm glad to see that you saw the change and that maybe there is a bond forming. I think I explained this earlier in this comment, for the second part. Some of it is just to drum up curiosity and get physical visitors to the museum itself. You learn more about the museum in upcoming parts, and you get a feel about the significance of the place within the dynamics of the town as well. I honestly don't think his death will be shocking. We already know Elias died and he died whilst at the Stone. We just don't know why/how, so the museum may have those answers.

--- I'll let most of the rest of these comments age with the chapter a little bit, before I go into details. But I just want to say, I am liking the discussion on privacy laws. It is definitely something I didn't consider when I wrote the story... and I ended up learning something. I'll come back to these comments later on and reply to them in full.

A lot of them were bleached white by the sun and splotched with moss. No one still left flowers here. They weren’t allowed to as it messed up the aesthetic of the graveyard for tourists and everyone buried up here was generations too far in the past for people to remember them. The grass was as mowed and kept clean as the rest of the property, but you couldn’t stop natural decay and what the weather does to stone. Looking at the first one I came to, I could make out the name and the date, but th

Aww, yeah, I couldn't imagine being alone for as long as he has. Doing the same thing, tied to the same area and not knowing where the ring was. Then getting a chance at freedom only to have it hanging unknown over your head, because of who you are.. or what you are in this case. Powerless to stop Asher from just placing the ring back where it was and all that... Thank you for picking up the story and liking the characters so far.

It sounds interesting regardless, hope you come across it. If it is here, just feel free to link it in your comment, or the title/author. I don't do a lot of searching on here, I've not checked out the mechanics much.

Yeah, I would have put that ring into orbit, I think. Thank you! Nothing more tense than being awakened in just your underwear by a ghost... I wouldn't think. lol Is this a story on here or another place? If so, maybe PM me? If it isn't a ghost story-ghost story, I might enjoy the read. lol I guess the reason I backtracked on the ghost story, is that I'm not for sure if the lore surrounding ghosts are as important when writing paranormal fiction. Because I most definitely didn't look into the lore/establishment/stereotypes... whatever the best word for that is, before I sat down and wrote. I didn't have time, I'm bit of a last-minute kind of person when it comes to some things. I am far removed from being on time for anything these days... *whistles*

I can't remember exactly, but I do go into detail of the night that led to the beginning of the story, about his lack of planning. I don't know if it will end up being logically justified though. Thank you for leaving a comment. It is interesting that you bring up that he would only want Colleen speaking with his mother and to hang up otherwise. It is a bit of a distinction between the two, but it would be a debate really, between the Mother and Father in later chapters about why that might have been such a request in the first place. I just wish I remembered more of this story... lol. It is difficult to know what is fact or misremembered feelings/thoughts. I'm not going to pretend I know the answers to my own stories, just because I wrote them, I am very forgetful after time has passed and I've moved on to other projects. I would completely and very embarrassingly lose a trivia contest if someone were to make it spanning my entire 1M+ words I've written. It may have helped me a little if I didn't procrastinate so much and it taking 5+ years to write some of those stories. Lol. Sorry for rambling as well.

Thank you for your comments, I'm glad you're enjoying the characters. Like @wildonesaid below, I was really worried that the ghost wouldn't sound like he was from a different time. It is a very deep seeded pet peeve of mine when historical fictions/characters break from the times and have more modern thought/actions/dialog etc. If I was more strict with this story, it may bother me more. So the term Buggerist came from a bit of an attempt at being cheeky/comedic in that scene. The ghost didn't seem all that put off by it, true. There is also a feeling that long-lived/long-dead characters lose a bit of... social/moral ideas from their time as they've seen the world change around them as well. They're more grey area where the 'mortals' are more black/white in the now. If that makes sense. I like Kaelie, I feel she's similar to some of my more sassy female characters in other stories though. If I had more time, I would have fleshed her out a bit better so that she is more differentiated from those other characters like Olivia (The Best Year), Jenny (Standing in Shadows), and Cara (Ridley), who I would list as all similar, but had a little more time with me that they also stood out a bit. I personally feel like the ghost is actually the most fleshed out. I feel that Asher isn't as fleshed out of a character as I would like. Might just be me, but I do hope he finds some sort of connection while reading for y'all. It did a little. I'm sure I made tons more mistakes and such with his mannerisms in my attempt to differentiate him from a modern thinking/speaking character. Baby steps, I guess.. and you know I will keep my self-doubt, a little serving of it in every project isn't a bad thing... even though you do have to force feed me some confidence at times and put up with it when it gets a bit overwhelming... in other words, when I throw a big assed tantrum. (And yes, like all the times before, me saying something like this, doesn't give you permission to agree with me, in the best interest of self-preservation, you know what to do by now, hopefully).

Here I've seen an uptick in vandalizing graveyards. Knocking over stones, stealing flowers/decorative items etc. Completely disrespectful.

Thanks for reading the second part. Yeah, for better or worst Asher has decided to be stuck with the ghost. I mean the ghost hasn't been too scary yet, so at least Asher lucked out on that. It isn't 'that' type of ghost story though. Although I think it might have been fun to add a bit more ghost/spirit/demon lore into the mix... but like I said, I'm not into the horror genre. I don't think I ever will me, it's just too scary. A good friend will believe you when you tell them that you've seen a ghost, I think. A friendship test in a half really. I also don't read a lot of ghost stories. Most that I have read, do involve ghosts being tied to a purpose they didn't get to fulfill.. or a sacred object, anger/emotion something that causes them some unrest and gives them their... foothold to stay between the living and the spirit world. I wanted to go into this story more focused on the three characters entirely. And I don't really mean Kaelie when I say that. Although, I did enjoy writing her too. A lot less freaked than I would be too. Kaelie can only be second-hand freaked out though, she can't sense him. Knowing his presence is there is one thing, actually seeing him would be another. But yeah, I wouldn't have ever found myself in that situation either. I don't go trespassing in graveyards at night. I'm actually hoping what little history lessons I gave myself whilst writing the next few parts, actually was correct and I kept the timeline of the ghost's life intact. The bulk of the writing is coming up and the bulk of the writing I did in the next few parts went rather quickly, because at the time I was attempting to squeak into a deadline. So needless to say, I'm nervous about the next few parts. I'm almost sure there are some plotholes that I've not wrapped my head around, because after a lot of reading and rereading your head begins to go on auto correct and fills them in.. I hope there aren't though and I do have more time to do more reading before I post the third part. But yeah, I do focus on what the world the ghost lived in.. would have been like.. on a very small scale in the next part. When things were invented, what wasn't... what I stretched a little to carry the story onward, etc. Well, you know.. I don't know if I used the right term. I didn't want to go biblical for it.. so I went with a different word. Lol. And no, don't stop. I want to see just how many jokes/puns you can come up with. ------ Woops, I can't believe I forgot to respond to everyone's comments. I thought I already had. My brain is on vacation sometimes. --------

Aww, yes. Myself, I would have hail mary'd that ring across a lake. But Asher didn't, so I guess we can applaud him for that one. Or maybe not, I don't know if it is a good idea to keep a ring chained to a ghost in your pocket. 😮 I almost wish I had a little bit more time with this story, writing it and fleshing it out a little bit more. These last-minute anthology entries that fly away with me need to come to an end. Although, those that have read Ridley may disagree... and then maybe change their mind. 😇 I do see where people have noted that Asher and the ghost have similar temperaments. I think they both just feel a little stuck. I don't know, the ghost is front and center for this part of the story. But, I do see it, which is nice, I wanted them to complement one another. Thank you for reading.

Thank you for reading so far. I actually 'don't' like ghost stories. Mostly because I don't like horror, I'm not the type of woman that can sit up and watch serial killer shows and the like either. So a ghost story, for me is very different. Although this one may not really even be considered that... aside from the ghost itself of course.

The next thing I heard, which caused me to sit straight up in bed and look around, was Mom calling down the stairs for me. Sliding out of the bed, I rubbed the lingering heaviness from my eyes as I made my way to the bathroom. After I finished peeing I washed my hands and sighed as I looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were red and heavy, I looked hung over. I didn’t know what time it was or how long I slept, it surprised me that I fell asleep at all. Reaching up I tried to smooth down