I Was Unfriended Because I Wrote a Book About Ghosts

I was unfriended because I wrote a book about ghosts.

Well, technically, that was why she said she did it. She hasn’t read the book. It’s not even out yet. But she’d seen my posts about it on the socials, decided ghosts were apparently a bridge too far, and informed me of her departure, which I always find interesting. Why do people announce the unfriending?

This wasn’t a random internet acquaintance, either. I’ve known her since my homeschool days, so we’re talking at least fifteen years. She isn’t exactly new to who I am or the fact that our vacations centered on haunted hotels and ghost tours, which made the whole thing a little more absurd. I wasn’t mad or offended, and honestly, I mostly found it funny. I have enough going on in my life with my health that this is a non-issue.

But it also made me think about how easy it is to look at Happily Ever Afterlife and say, Oh, it’s just a book about ghosts.

And yes, there are ghosts. Quite a few, actually. There are also reapers, a shadow portal, and a woman who can see the deceased. There’s a cute dog named Edgar who drinks out of antique teacups, plants and recipes and Scandinavian Midwestern weirdness, and plenty of dark, wildly inappropriate humor.

But that isn’t really what this book is about.

When my dad died, my entire universe flipped upside down. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see colors. My heart crumpled under the weight of losing him, and even though I had promised him I would write our story, I discovered that I couldn’t. I couldn’t take those final months together, put them on a page, and call it a book. The grief was too close, too enormous, too much a part of every cell in my body.

Then, slowly, whispers of something else began. Characters began to form, along with a quirky little Scandinavian Midwestern town, a plant shop, a woman named Nora who could see dead people, and a man who owned a comic-book store. Somewhere along the way, without even realizing what I was doing at first, I started writing about my dad.

Memories of him slipped onto the pages. His humor. Pieces of our family. The confusion and anger of losing a parent. The absurdity of death and the strange things grief does to us. Those moments when you laugh when you absolutely should not be laughing, because sometimes dark, inappropriate humor is the only thing standing between you and completely losing your shit.

I poured my grief into this book, word by word, and somehow a story born from death became a story about living.

Happily Ever Afterlife is emotional and hilarious and weird, with plenty of what the heck did I just read? mixed in. It’s about the messiness of grief and death, but it’s also about the ridiculous, beautiful joy of love and connection. It’s about family and friendship, starting over, the people we lose, and the pieces of them we carry with us after they’re gone.

And yes, there are ghosts.

But it is so much more than a paranormal romantic midlife comedy. It is one of the most deeply personal things I have ever written, disguised as fiction.

So there you have it: the book that officially got me unfriended before it was even published. I know this book isn’t for everyone, but I hope people will give it a chance.

Happily Ever Afterlife is available for preorder now and releases September 22. If you’d like to see what all the controversy is about, you can also read the first chapter for free.

Come for the ghosts. Stay for Edgar.

And maybe, somewhere between the two, find a little piece of yourself.