Karen Laven Writes about Dayton's Ghosts
(Writer's Note: While writing this, I came up with the idea that the article could be interwoven with an actual ghost story from Karen's Cincinnati Ghosts! book. In the middle of everything, the publisher said that I couldn't use any quotes from the book until a specific date before it was published. As my deadline loomed within hours, I replaced the quotes from the book with my own "story". We decided that there was too much confusion and that people might read the "story" as direct quotes from Karen's book. The plan was scrapped. I liked the idea of weaving the traditional article with a ghost story concept, so here it is with the abovementioned disclaimer. Karen is still working on her Dayton Ghosts book, so stop by her site and share your own ghostly encounters!)

Karen Laven worked as a writer and photographer for a newspaper in Buffalo, Minnesota called The Drummer Newspaper. During her stint as a reporter, she was able to meet new and interesting people who all had one thing in common: they all had stories. She moved to Northern Kentucky several years ago due to a promotion her husband received and began to write books. Her first book, Quit Bugging Me (published by Aspirations Media Inc.) is a novel aimed at young adults and hints at Karen's penchant for the bizarre. Quit Bugging Me is the story of a thirteen year old girl who has to write a report about bugs, which disgusts her, and unwittingly releases the evil held between the covers of her brother's cursed book about bugs.
Her latest book, Cincinnati Ghosts!, will be released in early 2008 and chronicles over thirty-six haunted locations, replete with over sixty photographs. Before the ink could dry, Karen turned her attention towards Dayton. Through her contacts from the first book, conversations with a local paranormal group and requests on various Internet forums to send accounts of paranormal activities in the Dayton area, she is collating the recollections of those that contact her.
She says the process usually starts out the same. She is told a story. Usually the person is somewhat hesitant at first, then becoming more at ease and somewhat relieved that they have found someone who believes and is not judgmental. Their stories pour out. They tell stories about an unusual event, a traumatic encounter or maybe about…

…a house. There was nothing to make anyone think that this was anything other than an ordinary house. There was a slight sense of sadness that you felt as you looked at it sitting upon the gently rising hill, but it was probably nothing that a little bit of gardening and a fresh coat of paint couldn't fix. It was an odd house, with respect to the rest of the neighborhood. The other houses were all cookie cutter ranch style houses while this one sat above them all, separated by a quarter of an acre on both sides and a full acre in the back. Maybe that is why the house seemed sad. It felt alone.

Karen tries to glean as much historical information about the site as possible visiting historical societies and contacting several of the historical groups via email. While writing her Cincinnati Ghosts! book, she received a lot of local background information from Dennis Dalton, who has been giving walking tours around the area for over twenty years. The meat of the stories usually come from the recounting of events by the family that endured the…

…peculiar noises in the night. At first, we just assumed that the old clapboard structure was settling and that the hollow knockings and random metallic clanging were just the old furnace grumbling. Then other sounds began to emanate, seemingly without origin. There were times that my husband and I would hear distinct conversations coming from various rooms in the house. Other times it was music. It was never anything that we recognized, anything modern. It sounded like old big-band tunes played on a scratchy phonograph. When we would steel ourselves to investigate, the sounds would either move about to another room or suddenly cease as we entered.

During the writing of Cincinnati Ghosts!, Karen was involved in an investigation by two paranormal groups in Middletown. During the investigation, two EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) were recorded. One was a full sentence, clear as crystal. The other was just a single, whispered word. Both of them were not heard by anyone present until a review of the tapes afterwards. Sometimes, a presence may not actually reveal itself audibly, but rather through a physical feeling. Perhaps a person, sensitive to these influences, may feel…

…an overwhelming sense of melancholia. Day after day, it seemed like I was losing myself. I felt completely drained and would sit for hours as if in a stupor. It was such a slowly progressive malaise that it didn't even register until the day my daughter was playing in her room, chattering away to her "invisible friend." This in itself is not unusual…but one day, I heard my daughter's imaginary friend talk back. I walked in and, just for a moment, I saw a hazy shadow standing across from my child. It whisked itself away to a darkened corner, like dissipating smoke, and the toy that was seemingly hanging in mid-air crashed to the floor. This is when I realized that my mental state was deteriorating. Instead of being alarmed that a mysterious apparition was toying with my child, a feeling of unearthly fatigue overwhelmed me, and in a disconnected, dreamlike state, I went and lay back down. This, I would soon regret…

Karen would like to hear from you. If you have any paranormal stories pertaining to the Dayton area, visit her web site at www.karenlaven.com. She is interested in hearing about your personal stories and is specifically interested in hearing personal recollections about such places as the Town Hall Theater in Centerville, the Old Courthouse, Frankenstein’s Castle, The Bessie Little Bridge, Library Park and other "famous" haunts. Don't be afraid. She will listen.