Copyright ©
K J Bennett & L K Jay
2012
In
honour of Christmas, the New Year, good writing and total fantasy, this blog
entry is given over to the characters from L K Jay’s popular contemporary
fiction book, The Ghost Hunters Club.
The Ghost
Hunters Club is
the story of the loves and lives of Linda, Karen and Anna, three perfectly
normal modern women who have as much difficulty finding a reliable man as they
do finding a real ghost on their many trips to popular haunting sights. The
sequel will be out soon, and the ladies want to talk about it.
Yep,
three larger than life but wholly fictitious women are sitting here right now
waiting to be interviewed. And that’s a problem: how can I interview three
fictional characters? Oooo! I know: I’ll get Rathbone Kydd to do it. He’s not
without experience - he interviewed an author once. And he’s fictional, so he
won’t get flustered.
OK.
Rathbone, meet Linda, Karen and Anna - the Ghost Hunters Club
RK: So, er, hi chick ... and chick, and,
erm, chick. Great to be in the company of three such great-looking women. Make
yourselves comfy, fluff the cushions, make coffee if you like ... mine’s black,
no sugar, thanks. Right: anyone up for a massage? I ache like hell round the
shoulders, I was wondering if one of you would be willing to volunteer ...
LINDA: Chick?
Chick? Where do you think I came from, a chicken’s bottom?
RK: No. Huh, wouldn’t that make you an
egg?
KAREN: I’ll
give you black with no sugar, mister, and I’ll have milk and sugar in my coffee
thanks.
ANNA: Well
you can fluff my cushions, I like the moustache...
RK: OK, OK, don’t get tetchy! Only joking.
So, three single ladies in good jobs and in need of lurve, eh? How about you each tell me a little about yourselves,
y’know, jobs, interests, scandalous tales of your love lives, cup size, full
contact details, et cetera. Let’s start with, hmm, Linda.
LINDA: Well
young man, I’ve just been promoted and I’m now a deputy head in a posh private
school in Edinburgh . I’ll get to teach nice children instead of
the plebs I had in my last job. And did
you behave yourself at school, Mr Kydd, hmm?
Anyway, I’m off men at the moment, so you can jolly well get your hand
off of my knee, or I’ll have to put you in detention.
RK: Sorry, old habits and all. ‘Off men
...’ hmm, a challenge. Anyway, moving on (and checking the name badges) ...
Karen. You look fit. A dancer? Stripper, maybe?
KAREN: Don’t
push it pal, or I’ll set Linda on you.
I’m a martial arts instructor and I could snap you like a twig. Except I won’t as you’ve just made me a
coffee.
RK: The least I could do. KJ said the
budget wouldn’t stretch to whiskey, or drugs. Might have a bit of cheap sherry
stashed away, for later, though.
KAREN:
Anyway, we like ghost hunting, we’ve been on a few and I’m the first one to see
a dead real ghost. Excuse the pun.
RK: Not sure about excusing it ...
ignoring it’s an option though, right? Heee, heee - don’t look at me like that,
I’m just jesting. Right, that leaves Karen, no, Anna. Sorry, KJ’s writing on
those badges is crap - much like his novels, so I hear. So, Kar–Anna (wow,
sorry, sounds like some Russian chick) – what is it you do? As if I couldn’t
guess.
ANNA: I’m
a single parent but don’t let that put you off.
I have very well behaved children.
I work as a personal assistant to the director of a Northern Railway
Company. His name is Graham and he
really likes trains – oh, and he likes to come ghost hunting with us as
well. Would you like to come ghost
hunting with us, Randall? Linda has a very impressive torch.
RK: Wha – who the fuck is Randall? It’s
Rathbone. Rath-emphasis-on-the-BONE. RATHBONE. It’s OK, I’m calming
down, Kar-fuckit-Anna! AN-NA. Anna.
Right, got it.
Linda
rolls her eyes skyward.
RK: So. Ghost hunting ... OH! Is that why
you call yourselves the Ghost Hunters’ Club? I wasn’t taking it literally, I
just thought it was ’cos you dated a bunch of stiffs. In your case AN-NA (phew)
I guess I’m right. Train spotter for a boss? Is he the Daddy, too?
ANNA:
I’m not pregnant, I’m just curvy. You
have so blown it Randall, Rathbone, whatever, and I don’t mean in a fun
way. Anyway, you’re old enough to be my
dad. Bloody men.
RK: No, I didn’t mean you looked
pregnant. It’s just that you mentioned being a mother, and I assumed, y’know,
train spotters have urges, probably, and there’s you with the curves and the
petty face, and there’s him with the anorak and the note book, and it can’t be
easy for you, with the kids an’ all, and there’s those long lonely nights with
the screaming and all that. And did you call me old? I’m only old in linear
time scales. On my own scale I’m twenty-five, so probably a few years younger
than you.
LINDA:
You can’t be cruel to a widow, especially a rich one. Anyway, we’re not convinced that her
waste-of-oxygen husband has entirely gone away....
KAREN:
But you’re right Rathbone, we went ghost hunting because we were fed up of
going out with rubbish men. I mean, how
hard is it to turn up on time, remember to go to the cash point and remember
whether you’re married or not? We
thought we’d throw our lot in with the ghosts; more chance of getting a spook
on camera than finding a decent man.
RK:
“A decent man”
... hmm ... I’m sorta decent, so much so that people say I’m IN-decent.
LINDA:
(prods Rathbone) So are you actually real? What was time travel like? Is that
moustache real?
RK: Am I real? Are you real? What is
real? There was that Frenchie guy, Des Kart, I think he was called, who said,
“I think, therefore I am”. Don’t know what all that shit was about, but the
Moody Blues stole it and used it at the start of their LP On the Threshold
of a Dream. Still doesn’t explain if my moustache is real, though. Hmm,
maybe the moustache is the only real thing here ... Right, time travel … what it feels like …
it’s a bit like jelly, but faster.
But
enough about me (did I really say that?), tell me about your ghost hunting
adventures: what do you actually do: go places, pretend to look for ghostly
spirits, but hit the spirit of the gin bottle instead? And you, Anna, who looks
after the kids, or do you take ’em with you?
LINDA:
Oh, now we get to the sensible questions!
Well, we do like going on ghost hunts.
We’ve been all over the country – Leeds, Whitby ,
Leicester and Edinburgh ,
which is the home of the scary ghost hunt.
But like they saying goes, looking for ghosts is like looking for a
decent man, you can keep searching and you’ll never find one and then one will
pop up when you are least expecting it.
KAREN:
That happened to me. I was let down by a
man and then when I went to attend a friend’s do, a ghost popped up when I
least expected it. I wish I’d had a
camera with me but of course, you never do when you need one.
![]() |
Paris, June 1992 Copyright © K J Bennett |
ANNA:
I don’t normally have the children with me when we go ghost hunting, they go to
stay with their grandparents when I do, but I might in the future. Besides, that is the time I have to myself
and I wouldn’t want them to see me get drunk and behave badly. We’ve had a bit of a break from the ghost
hunting but we’re going on a few more adventures soon, I hear Cambridge ,
London and even Paris might be on the cards. Oh la la!
RK: Ooooo-la-Anna! You sound sexxx-sssee when you’re speaking French?
Are you fluent? It is the language of lurve, y’know?
ANNA:
Oh I am very fluent...
LINDA:
Pack it in Anna, you don’t know where he’s been. Sorry Mr Kydd, but really...
KAREN: Ladies,
please! I’m sure the men in France are as useless as the ones we’ve
experienced in the UK . We are in the EU you know, I’m sure there’s
been a ruling from Brussels
about the percentage of bad dates a woman has to go on.
RK: And Karen: why would a guy let you
down? Apart from being a hottie, who’d risk the injury? Anyway, I bet that
ghost thing was scary. I mean’ I’ve been in a similar situation when I worked
in that gay pub in Exeter .
Before I knew the lay of the land, so to speak, I went on a ghost walk round
the back of the Cathedral with some of the guys, late one Saturday night, and
let me tell you, a few scary things popped up that night, and I ran a mile.
Talk about giving me the willies!
LINDA: Well,
ghosts weren’t all that Anna saw in the underground tunnels in Edinburgh, but
it was the best place for ghost hunting.
It’s a spooky city and full of atmosphere.
ANNA:
Ahhh, the Edinburgh vaults, such nice memories.....
KAREN:
Anna, I don’t know how you got away with it!
Although you’d be surprised how looking for ghosts and men can get mixed
up. They’re both elusive and at least
the ghosts have an excuse for being unreliable, what with being dead and all.
RK: I don’t see they can use dead as an
excuse. It’s not like they’ve got anywhere else to go, is it? So, tell me, did
you find Dracula in Whitby? Yeah, I’m well read, I know the original story.
LINDA:
No, but we did find a lot of tacky gifts, including some edible coffins.
KAREN: And
I met a horrible ghost tour guide who didn’t believe in ghosts and tried to
nick my wallet. Good job the girls came
to rescue me, I could have done him some damage.
RK: Now, ladies, tell me about these
disasters you’ve had at speed dating. I mean, speed? Eh? I’m not surprised it
went badly: anyone who tries to form a relationship based around drug abuse is
destined to misery.
LINDA:
Well I wished I’d taken some bloody drugs before I went, it was ghastly. Turned out one of the men was a parent at my
school, was terrified he would mention me to his irritating son, so I had to
lie about my name.
KAREN:
And one of the men said I should impress him so when I told him I could punch
through wood, he wanted to know if I was a lezza. I pointed out that he was both rude and
offensive, both to me and the lesbian community, and offered to use his head as
a piece of wood. He declined.
ANNA: I
got stuck with a very odd looking train spotter called Graham. Total odd ball and kept staring at my
boobs. I get that a lot. I suspect he still lives with this mother but
I’ve got this feeling that that wasn’t the last time I would see him and of
course, I ended up working for him.
Turns out he likes ghost hunting as well.
RK: What was that, Anna? I sorta lost
track, staring at your boobs. Well, Christmas is almost here, and KJ tells me
I’d better offer you some of this Port, Sherry and other stuff – mince pie,
anyone? Good. Enjoy. KJ says he won’t charge you too much for them. Also, he’ss
looking at his watch and making circular gestures. Don’t know what all that
shit’s about. Anna, anything else I can, erm, do for you, mon amie?
ANNA:
Oh well Mr Kydd, I do have some gardening that needs doing. The lawn needs a mow, and the rose bushes
need a trim. I like a rugged outdoor man
who’s good with his hands....
RK:
Right …
possibly I’m too smooth for you, but I’m REALLY good with my hands. Other parts
of me perform even better, but that gardening stuff is a turn off.
But
enough of this sleaze. I understand that your biographer, Miss L K Jay, she of
the mysterious persona, is documenting your new adventures in a sequel. Are we
in for any surprises in this one? A real ghost, perhaps, or a lover who scores
ten out of ten on the scale of, say, me?
Linda: Well
I still think men are crap, and I’ve sworn off of them. Let’s face it; my internet dating record
isn’t that good. But I’m enjoying
working at my new school with my best friend Chaz but we hear rumours that
there may be a new project. I don’t like
the sound of that.
Karen: I
was so pleased when I got together with the man I’d liked for so long, but as
per usual, things don’t always go according to plan. My martial arts business is going well, I
hope there isn’t anything that will threaten that.
Anna: My stupid husband, the only decent thing he
managed to do was die, and now he just won’t stay dead! Or dead enough… And then there’s Graham’s new woman, now that
came as a surprise.
RK: Ladies, it sounds like there's a lot of drama and trauma in store for you. It’s been really great
talking with you all. You’re all great looking girls and you’re even more
attractive when you talk. If you ever need a friend to talk with after one of
the ghost hunts, or just a real man to … erm, you know? … then you know where
to find me. Course, I may have teleported to a different space/time continuum
by then, but you’ll know where I was.
+++
The Ghost Hunters Return
by
L K Jay
will be available as an e-book in spring 2013:
SYNOPSIS
Last
time, the Ghost Hunters Club couldn’t find a ghost, or a decent date, for love
nor money. Now there’re too many!
Linda’s
at her new school, Karen’s got her new man and Anna’s got her new money – what
more do the women want?
They
had a break but now they’re ready to pick up where they left off. There are more ghosts, more personal
disasters and a lot more adventures looking for both but one thing is for sure,
they’ll be having lots of fun!
L K Jay’s
links
Rathbone Kydd - sex’n’drugs’n’quantum stuff
by
K J Bennett
is available now on these links -