Authors Interviewing Characters: Laurel Osterkamp

In Love With Your Ghost: A Cozy, Spooky, Slow-Burn Fall Romance (Sugar Pine Springs)

Hartley and Levi fell in love, and it was magic. Until Levi ghosted her. No goodbye, no explanation.

He didn’t die. He just left her haunted.

Which is ironic, since Hartley can legit see ghosts. Thirteen years later, Levi’s grandmother and Hartley’s good friend, Soledad Herrera, unexpectedly passes away. Hartley and Levi each inherit half of Soledad’s estate. The twist? Before claiming it, they must spend one month living together in her crumbling house located on the haunted grounds of the abandoned Castle Sanitarium, surrounded by the iron creatures Soledad and Levi once built together. Levi wants to tear it all down. Hartley wants to save every last stone. And the sanitarium’s ghosts? They want something too.

Autumn grows cold and dark. Old feelings rise from the dead. And Hartley and Levi realize that while a haunted house is scary, even scarier is a love that refuses to die.

In Love With Your Ghost is a warm, spooky romance that gives a nod to “weird girl lit” authors like Shirley Jackson, Sylvia Plath, and Edith Wharton, and is set in the world of Sugar Pine Springs.

Laurel interviews Hartley Ryan

Hartley is backstage, pacing. Laurel approaches.

Laurel: Hey, Hartley. Is now a good time to ask you some questions?

Hartley’s face goes blank.

Hartley: Well, you wrote me as a fundamentally kind and accomodating person, so I’m not going to say no. But the debate for Town Council begins in a few minutes. I’m a little nervous.

Laurel: With good reason. You have a lot at stake!

Hartley: The town has a lot at stake. If I don’t win, Castle Sanitarium will be destroyed. 

Laurel: True. But the old sanitarium is crumbling and haunted. Why is saving it so important to you?

Hartley: Because. The past matters. A town’s legacy matters. So do its ghosts.

Laurel: I’m surprised you’d bring up ghosts. Sensitive subject, right?

Hartley: Truth? At times this “gift” feels more like a curse.

Laurel: Do you blame your ghost-detection abilities for why Levi broke up with you?

Hartley (frowns): I blame grief for why Levi broke up with me. Ghosts and grief are basically the same. They both cling to the living.

Laurel: If you could go back in time, would you pretend not to see ghosts?

Hartley: No. Me seeing ghosts has brought comfort to people who are grieving. It’s even saved a few from dying before their time.

Laurel: You’re referring to when someone has a dark-edged cloud’s hovering around them—meaning their life is in immediate danger?

Hartley (widens her eyes): Obviously. You gave me this unique ability. It’s the reason I’ll forever be labeled as a spooky, weird girl.

Laurel (shrugs): There are worse labels to have.

Hartley looks over my shoulder and gasps. I turn. Levi stands off to the side, reviewing notes before the debate. Nothing seems unusual. I turn back to Hartley.

Laurel: Why did you just gasp?

Hartley: You don’t see it? The black cloud hovering around him? (Hartley wrings her hands.) What should I do? If I warn him, he’ll think I’m just messing with him—trying to get him to forfeit the debate. But if I don’t warn him…we both know how that could end.

Laurel: You should warn him.

Hartley: What if it’s a false alarm? Levi and I are finally connecting again.

Laurel: By connecting, you mean kissing?

Hartley: That too. Holy hell, this is complicated.

Laurel: Yeah. Guess I’ll leave you to it—

Hartley: Wait! Before you go, I have a question for you.

Laurel (surprised): Oh. Sure. Lay it on me.

Hartley: How did you come up with my name?

Laurel: From the narrator in Edith Wharton’s short story “The Lady Maid’s Bell.” Hartley is a maid who works in a house with an evil-feeling presence. Hartley sees ghosts and feels sad and lonely whenever she’s there.

Hartley: Sort of like me, in Soledad’s old house.

Laurel: Exactly.

Hartley: Do things work out for this other Hartley?

Laurel (pauses): Shouldn’t you go warn Levi before the debate begins?

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Interviews