Ghosts, Haunts, and Haints: A Paranormal Writing Weekend

Do you believe in ghosts? 

Do you love ghost stories? 

Do you want to write ghost stories? 

If you answered yes to these questions, then I dare you to visit the historic and haunted city of Charleston, South Carolina and ponder the ghostly stories inhabiting the shadowy corners of your mind.

Join New York Times Bestselling Author Nova Ren Suma and Medium, Intuitive Healer, and Author Holly Raychelle Hughes as they guide you during this ghostly generative writing retreat: Ghosts, Haunts, and Haunts: A Paranormal Writing Weekend.

Nova will lead a group of no more than fifteen writers in ghostly prompts, paranormal craft tips, and creative exercises with an optional 30-minute one-on-one conference with her. Holly will support the group and share all she sees moving around you. You will also have the opportunity to learn local history at the Charleston County Public Library and a taste of the lore of the city.

Still want more? 

How about guided ghost tours and staying at the Embassy Suites hotel, formerly the Old Citadel, which is rumored to be haunted?

Are you brave enough to apply?

Writers of all experience levels and publication histories are welcome to apply. So how do you apply? 

  1. Email a 5-page sample of your fiction writing (this can be any genre or age level and does not need to be a ghost story).

2. In your email, please include your writer’s bio and please also address this question: Have you ever seen a ghost? There is no wrong answer.

3. Applications including writing samples should be emailed to Nova and Holly at ghostshauntshaints@gmail.com.

You can find information about ghost tours and workshop costs here http://writerhughes.wordpress.com

And now about your guides.

Holly Raychelle Hughes is an author, intuitive healer, and medium. Her essay It Happened To Me: An Oscar Winner Bullied Me So Badly I Quit The Film Industry went viral on xxoJane.com, was picked up Picked up by Yahoo!, Time.com, The Daily Beast, and passed between Hollywood insiders in the Producers Guild of America, the Director’s Guild of America, and the Screen Actors Guild two years prior to the MeToo! Movement and is still being shared and written about today.

More of Holly’s essays appear on Kveller.com and CafeMom.com. Holly was selected to perform her own personal essay in the nationwide play Expressing Motherhood in Los Angeles. Holly contributed to My School Rocks magazine and is also a #Binder. 

When Holly isn’t writing she has an intuitive healing practice where she utilizes her intuitive gifts to help clients process past traumas, grief, and helps them transform their lives from chaos to empowerment. She holds quarterly workshops and teaches others how to tune into their own gifts. Find her online as @hgirlla on Twitter holly_hughes_intuitive on Instagram, @hollyhughesintutive on Facebook, hollyhughesintutive.com, and writerhughes.wordpress.com.

Nova Ren Suma is author of the YA ghost stories A Room Away from the Wolves, which NPR said “makes the Gothic bitingly modern,” and the #1 New York Times bestselling The Walls Around Us, a finalist for an Edgar Award and named a Best Book of the Year by The Boston Globe, NPR, School Library Journal, the Chicago Public Library, and The Horn Book.

Nova also wrote the YA novels Imaginary Girls and 17 & Gone, the middle-grade novel Dani Noir, and is co-creator of FORESHADOW: A Serial YA Anthology. She has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and has been awarded fiction fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the Millay Colony, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, as well as an NEA fellowship for a residency at the Hambidge Center for Arts & Sciences.She has taught creative writing at Columbia University and Arizona State University and has led workshops at the Djerassi Program, the Writing Barn, the Highlights Foundation, and elsewhere. She is currently core faculty in the Writing for Children & Young Adults MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Find her online as @novaren on Twitter and Instagram and at novaren.com.  

What do you think? Leave questions or comments below!