Ghost Writer
Unveiling my story
Unveiling my Story; Ghost Writer ©Kim Marie Ostrowski
Leaking a Sneak Peak
Thank you for unwrapping my story! I hope you will like the sampling of what I have written so far, as I have fought with myself deciding if I’d like to unveil a page or 2 of a story I started writing in 2011.
Lately I’ve been stuck on it as I need to revise a page to my liking and I can’t seem to get it the way I planned.
For now it may just be one or 2 pages. I was thinking maybe the first page, and maybe what I have for the last page which I am currently trying to polish & get the way I planned it. This way you can then let me know what you think especially the page I am stuck on.
Ghost Writer is a work of fiction by Kim Marie Ostrowski, charactersâ Names & their likeness, incidents and so forth are the product of the authorâs imagination and are fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons (I’d LOVE to hear from or even possibly meet with you) Living or Dead (as long as you are not a zombie) and most businesses establishments are entirely a coinkydink (coincidental) unless I meant to give a shout out to a favorite place.
This page has received the Purple Star award
Ghost Writer Copyright © by Kim Marie Ostrowski . All Rights reserved.
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Ghost Writer by Kim Marie Ostrowski aka Zodiacimmortal is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work (Originally) at http://www.squidoo.com/unveiling-my-story-ghostwriter . Now On Hubpages.com
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The Cast – & my NON-outline
I don’t bother with outlines as when I get the idea to write, there’s no time. I let my muse take me along for the ride. I have seen a quote somewhere that mentioned about making an outline and that it limits you. I agree; besides something could happen that you may want to include in the book that might not fit your outline.
The only sort of ‘outline’ I did was writing down the names I thought of for characters and character sketches, names of places, some notes for furniture & types as well as possible chapter titles and a few other odds & ends and whatever else I think of after if I am not at home to write it in the book.
If there is anyone out there that YOU know with the names of my characters, please send me an email.
- Topaz Lycena Canterburry
- Thaddeus Nathaniel McDougal
- Sage Delrugan
- Jason Oostar “BlackThorn” Bloodworth
- Lexi
- Doran Randor Goodwin
- Thorin Dragomir Torquill
- NMarea
- Klyxandra Cassiopia Prescott
- Zarisa Azaris Seraphin
prologue + First page
A drawing I did of the cemetery ©Kim Marie Ostrowski
Ghost Writer
By Kim Marie Ostrowski
Prolong
Topaz Lycena Canterburry, a writer from New York City who’s had one best seller struggling for her next best story. Dozens of manuscripts; a whole file drawer full, of every 
genre not one publisher would take on. She moved to a less distractive area busy yet fairly quiet in upper New York called Ravensdale, in hopes of finding a new muse and more inspiring scenery. So with a little money left from her last book, Deadly Din she self published it on one of those self publishing websites like LuLu or Exlibris. Topaz was fairly making back the money on that while working in a cemetery with multiple responsibilities; caretaker, office work etc which the pay was decent enough. Trying to get the story officially published Topaz sends the manuscript and the information on how many books have been sold over the last two months of it being published on that site.
Even though the book has a popular following on the site, the publisher still won’t accept it.
Page 1
Topaz takes care of the old section of the Ravenswood cemetery where it was first started in the 1800’s; it’s the south east quadrant of the cemetery and also on a small section of the north east and south west part. Someone else takes care of the new sections, and the main office is in the center. The job is pretty cool, and kind of cushy, do rounds checking out for any vandalism, and getting everyone out around lock-up time, some office work when needed, own private quarters, a house near (but set a little back from) the entrance gate.
While doing their rounds, Topaz usually is not bothered by anyone visiting graves, other than the occasional students after school doing photography or some form of drawing, charcoal smudging, or paintings projects, for an hour or two. Often they would ask some question, or other so she went so far as to type up a brochure on the history of the cemetery, any famous people that are buried there and some facts (how many graves there are, who was the first ever interred and things like that,) and would tell them if that didn’t answer their questions to give a call and left her cell phone number on the pamphlet. Sometimes there’d be a late night party but would just go and check things out just to be sure things weren’t getting out of hand, that no one was doing harm to the gravestones, or robbing the graves for that matter; otherwise she’d just leave the kids alone. The last week of October leading up to Halloween the cemetery hired some extra hands and even more so for Halloween night.
One day with a few hours to kill, Topaz or ‘Taz’ as she was called as a kid, starts to clean up the living space & start unpacking things. The downstairs having a living room, with a beautiful quite large Cherry wood fireplace, bookcase, and shelving & The kitchen, bathroom and one upstairs as well, along with 2 bedrooms. There was a small attic and the basement that was partially used for a tool shed (only the part leading from the outside cellar doors, otherwise there was a heavy solid door to get into the basement and unless one of the workers needed something, the cellar doors remained locked. There was an outside shed as well that held some of the power tools for Topaz to use around the house if needed, as well as grease, oil and so forth. Deciding to dust off the moldings, fireplace book cases and that type of stuff first as the tables, chairs etc were already taken care of before she arrived. Dusting off that beautiful cherry fireplace last with its detailed carvings, it was a work of great craftsmanship that you just can and probably will not find anymore. Topaz leaning near the fireplace, having a sip of water hears something click in the corner, near the inglenook; like a latch being let go, but can’t seem to find where it came from. She goes on dusting and coming back to the area a corner on the left side near the fireplace finds the corner edge looking like there’s a cracked open door. Topaz thinks, well at least it’s not the cliched bookcase doorway leading to something or the fireplace, doing a Scooby & going 180. The doorway does look somewhat like a lazy Suzann , and going to open to inspect it, find it does indeed open like one tall lazy Suzan pantry.
Going into the secret room, Topaz finds a huge web spread across the inside of the doorway, thanking that she was cleaning and had the broom with her. Removing the web, out of nowhere sees a black mass; a spider and a big nasty one headed at her face. Freaking out at the size of it, (looking more like a Halloween decoration than the size of the real life thing.) “What the,! Is this thing from the Jurassic age?!” and bats it away, preferring the bats. Seeing where it landed, near an old ornate desk in the middle of the room with what may very well be the first typewriter ever made.(or at least one of the first which on checking, was not but, was one from the mid -late 1800s ) Next to the typewriter is an oil lamp, and on the other side a set of reference books, dictionary, thesaurus, and a small encyclopedia set. Either the room is very dark, or it’s very large as the only thing that can be seen in the room is the desk, intimidating and alluring. Getting excited at the find, Topaz runs out and checks the time; 2pm, runs outside and looks to see if anyone is around….clear; the security screens in the home security office (there’s a little area in the living room near the door with a couple of security monitors) if there’s anyone around the rest of her section…clear. Perfect! ‘Taz’ grabs the rest of the cleaning supplies and the walkie-talkie. First dusting off the desk and realizing that it’s colder in here than the rest of the house; lights a fire then gets to polishing the desk. Lighting the oil lamp, which brings the room to life, sees the floor to ceiling book cases behind and matching the Oak wood desk. A large chest on one side of the room, and a Provincial Louis XIV arm chair she guessed for reading to one corner of the door with an ottoman. Once she was done dusting, polishing, & sweeping Topaz decided to look and see what was in the desk. Top drawer was Quills, fountain pens, a bottle of ink and pencils, & other assorted supplies and some typing and carbon paper. (Why are there Quills and fountain pens though. Will have to make note to research when one gave way to the other) The draw on the right… an (hopefully) endless supply of typing ribbon, the bottom drawer on the left, more paper and the draw above it finds a manuscript, no title, date or author noted, not even inside.
Has this sneak peak piqued your interest in the story?
I know I have editing & so on to do probably but we are no where near that yet. I only want to know what you think of the story & writing itself.
Other Titles with the name Ghost Writer
Well I guess I might have to make it the working title, as I don’t like having the same title as other writers but the title fits so well with what I have in mind. The other ideas I had just didn’t have a ring to them.
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Original pg 25
draft 1
This is where I start to introduce the friends of the main character; it is after I have already somewhat introduced some of her work collegues, but not formally with descriptions and so forth. Most likely each time I edit I will probably include a seperate section for the pages new draft. THis is the original version of page 25. I am not able to draw well so I can forget about having a picture of someone writing that looks like a g
host. I thought of taking a picture of myself in a white sheet, but we have none So Squid ghost is helping me for the time being until I figure something out. Could anyone help with a quick mock up of a Ghost at a desk writing?
Over the weekend Topaz & the “Grave yard’ crew literally called so by their friends that do not work in the cemetery as well as the locals.
Sage, Jason, Doren and Thoren along with the girls Nmarea (n-mare-a)
Klyxandra Cassiopia Prescott, & Zarisa Azaris Seraphine as well as Topaz were known among the students that hung out at night, as some of the locals. Some would stay away from them and go so far as crossing the street if they were together as a group, in this town mostly everyone knew each other’s name and was full of conservative common names like Chris, Michael, Paul Jones and Smiths (can you say STEPFORD!?)
Rumors spread around that they were in a band together, or some cult, coven or something else of the sort. The only reason for this was because of their unique exotic names. The group may have had a bit to do with it as well, as they love creeping those people out that were already judgmental thinking such things. Topaz is not one for religion but does lean toward the Pagan & Wiccan beliefs which she’s dubbed Wigan (Wi like Wi -Fi) as well as Thorin. Doran Goodwin’s family hails from Salem and traces back at least to the witch trials. While they were looking into things they realized there was way too many Sarah’s in that village! The family is descendants of a Mercy or Martha Goodwin. Jason who is of Native American heritage on his father’s side is the descendant of a great chief Silverfox and is currently learning from his shaman grandfather Oostar. For just for those reasons alone along with the different names is the assumption they are into questionable activities. As for Nmarea, a Goth girl chose the name only few know of her real name. Total Princess of darkness, she’s naturally pale, and no one can tell if the black around her the rim of her eyes (other than the obvious) is her lashes or eyeliner. No one has ever seen her without or in any other color lipstick other than the blood red color that is custom made for her, wearing black, dark wine berries of purples, burgundy, or maroon & vermillion. Dresses are usually in Victorian or medieval renaissance fashion. Her teeth are bright white (they all think she uses crest 3-d whitening) and naturally long in the fang but had porcelain caps made for Halloween and the underground club scene.
Meet the Graveyard crew – suggestions on editing this page
Sometimes one needs a little suggestion or some sort of help to get the page written the way they want. Sometimes jsut a few words will help other times, it might be a few lines that will spur the muse to kick me in the butt & get me going!
I know exactly the way I want it but for some reason, it will not write that way for me. So maybe if you give me a suggested line to describe one of the characters walking in the bar etc. That might help.
any suggestions please just click the button & leave a comment!
PAGE 25 REVISED
I wanted to describe the characters as they showed up to the bar for their nightout. Obviously I wasn’t keen on it when it was done. To me it wasn’t enough of detail or the characters were introduced too fast or any number of other things so here is the revisal and after youa re done reading it please vote in the poll which you like best
So the Friday after ‘black’ the ‘Graveyard Crew’ and other friends meet you at the Hi-bernian, a hotel and bar/tavern/pub grill joint with a club as well. The name of t he hotel says it all, you could hibernate there! They even hire well known bands (not just locals) to play. If you are staying there the shows are free! If you are a walk-in then you need a ticket which can be more than the price of a room, so the group always chips in to share a suite. They sort of know the owner or a friend of the owner so they always know ahead of time what bands will be there, at least 3 months ahead of time. They also sometimes get to meet and hang out with their faves!
In case you are wondering who the ‘Graveyard Crew ‘ is aside from Topaz & Sage; there’s Thorin & Doren, Jason, & Nmarea for the imidiate group that actually works at the cemetery, then there’s also Klyxandra, Zarisa & Topaz’s best friend Lexi. The students that hang out at the graveyard at night (& some in the day) stated to call them that when they saw them offgrounds. The ‘Stepford’ locals think they are in a cult or band because of their exotic names but this is from people with too common names like Michael, Chris, Paul, Smith, Jones, Caddy, Jennifer, Mary and so on. The group calls them ‘Commoners’ and when the locals see them cross the street. They may have helped the rumor a bit as they love to creep people out and those that seem especially judgmental Nmarea and Topaz handle them.
So after work Topaz, Sage & Thorin cleaned up at her place while Jason & Doran went to Jason’s. Klyxandra was meeting them at the house, she knows Topaz from when she lived in NYC. She even hired Topaz for one of her fashion shows. Sometimes they’d even do a show together as the ‘Zaptoit’ twins. Once everyone was cleaned up and ‘Xandra parked they lot of them started to walk over to the Hi-bernian, with the others meeting them at the bar later.
So the group orders their beers, and their first snack; which consists of a big tray of potato ‘boats’ with bacon, chives & some fresh garlic. No sooner than the refreshments come about a half hour later their friend Zarisa walks in. Zarisa works at a lawyers office usually helping with a case even though she’s not a lawyer only a secretary but one of her jobs is reading the case files as well as what questions and statements the lawyers will make in court. She comes up with the questions and clues that the others do not notice, and now assists them in court with the office hiring a new secretary in her place. She also assists them in court in a way. Sometimes she sits right with the lawyer and client and just writes whatever else needs to be asked or mentioned, or she watches from the sidelines miked up.
After around an hour the group is having fun, playing pool, & darts and Lexi shoes up no one notices. Lexi finds their table (the only one with no one there) sets down her things & goes and orders her drink and a burger for dinner. She walks over to the pool table where Topaz and Thorin are wiping the table with Sage & Klyxandra. Thorin says he’d take care of the rest which would be no more than 3 moves but likely for him 1. Topaz and Lexi go back to the table and hang out and talk a bit without anyone there. They hardly get time to hang out alone together, and it’s a little hard to talk with so many people around. It’s now an 9pm, an hour before the band is supposed to come on and Nmarea is just walking in. As you may tell she’s the goth of the group, the only time you might see her during the day is in the cemetery’s archives for which she is the director and fittingly in the office’s basement.
Tonight the girls are all raving over her Victorian merlot colored gown with black lace trim done by Klyxandra and sporting her new custom porcelain caps made for Halloween, the underground club scene and especially because she’s founder and one of 3 owners of the Spectr House Mansion. The mansion is a haunted house and club. It’s an old spooky house, said to actually be haunted but its painted outside to look across between new & clean and old & dilapidated. Inside depending on where you go one room can be as new looking as the first day the house was originally finished after it was built, while the next room’s wallpaper could be peeling, the floor boards popping up and buckling etc. The best thing is everything that isn’t original to the house was made special to keep with the time, as these historical houses lose value when something new is added in. Nmarea also lives there in one of the rooms though only 1 or 2 people know this, one is Topaz, and yes Nmarea has a real coffin (actually a few) but she sleeps in one of them! It’s a real bed, just shaped as an old world coffin, boxed around with a cover, and can be used for actual interment.
Topaz is what she calls a ‘Wigan’ Wiccan and pagan. Thorin is Pagan or as some call it ‘heathen’. His family is of Scandinavian decent on his father’s side and actually has family heirlooms from Viking times, one being an arm ring (or the bracelet the men wore to swear their oaths upon) , they also have a recipe that has been passed down through the generations for mead, bread & porridge. Spectr House, & the
Hi-bernian exclusively sells & serves for special occasions, the mead they usually have for a limited time each month. The bread & porridge they usually have for guests usually used for room service, parties and the Spectr house’s Murder Mystery weekends. Thorin & someone in the family get it all together to bake. There is only one person outside the family trust with these recipes; Topaz who with her lock box of secrets helps when large orders are called for and one of Thorin’s family is not available to prepare and make. Lexi & the girls know she has the recipe and so they think Thorin & she have some sort of relationship other than just friends.
Sage is a good looking hunk of an intimidating muscle mountain. He’s not an ex con but he’s been in jail overnight but know they are safe when he’s around. He was put in jail only for defending some poor lady that he saw was being attacked! He didn’t know if she was getting mugged or worse so he went to help, called the cops and as he went over and wrestled the guy down keeping him there until the cops arrived well, as they say no good deed goes u punished.
Ghost Writer Videos
You’ll sell more, faster. If you type a sentence here about why you love this item.
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About the Author
Back Flap
Kim Marie lives in Yonkers, NY with her lovable Silly, Sully cat.
She love reading (& Sully loves helping by biting the books) writing, and doing other creative things.
She has too many hobbies and never enough time or space for anything.
and I have been a vampire fan since she was a toddler!!
I do have another story I am well not quite writing but have notes for, the only problem is getting it started, but I think one is enough to write at a time, I juggle enough of projects at once.
Thank you for joining us in Ravensdale. We hope you will stop by again!
Miss Musings 
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