One Cool Thing: Ruth Estevez

​As part of this year's September Shorts I've asked writer friends to contribute posts inspired by the title One Cool Thing. They'll be telling you about one cool thing they're looking forward to as Autumn approaches. It might be a book or movie, a tabletop or computer game, an event or visit to a special place, a chance to achieve something... or perhaps even an exciting new project.
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Today is the turn of Ruth Estevez, writer of Jiddy Vardy and the forthcoming Erosion. You can check out her website here.

​Ruth Estevez: Ghost Stories

The cool thing I’m looking forward to in autumn is exploring ghost stories, haunted places, ruined buildings – anything that’s going to set my imagination on overdrive!

It’s a season of mists according to John Keats, mornings and evenings tinged with a whisper of winter. The smell of apples and bonfires. Footprints sunken in the grass, cobwebs sparkling with dew in the mornings and copper moons.

I’m desperate to write a ghost story and this is the time of preparation, a gathering in, like the harvest and I’m itching to wander amongst ruins, castles and Yorkshire abbeys from Whitby to Fountains.  Get me on the Haworth moors or in the ruins of Wycoller Hall and I’ll be scribbling down ideas! In the next month or so, I’ll be glimpsing shadows in the woods and be generally spooked!

It’s the time to celebrate the dead, and I want to write a story that does this but also one that sends chills down the spine. What better time of year to prepare for those winter chills and thrilling shivers?

​I can already hear the rustle of leaves… or is it the long skirts of a ghostly bridal dress? What can you hear?