3One month old and, from the looks of hair sticking straight up, I must have seen a ghost already. We lived in an old Victorian house in Wheeling, West Virginia (similar to the one where Danny and Christina live in The Very Real Ghost Book of Christina Rose). 

As I grew older, I realized what a strange a wonderful house my parents had chosen to raise me.

4Here I am as a "rarin'-to-go" toddler. 

When I found my legs, I liked climbing the stairs to show off what a good West Virginia mountaineer I was. 

This picture appeared in the local newspaper, for reasons that escape me. It was one of my grandmother's favorite photos of me.

3I also liked exploring our house.

It had a secret passage between my bedroom and my parents' bedroom. Plus, it had a very dark attic and basement. And for a time, when I was little, we had a woman named Miss Lizzie living in the attic. It was a fun place to grow up.

4The scariest house I ever encountered was my grandmother's house in Parkersburg, West Virginia. She lived in a neighborhood full of big houses with turrets and leaded-glass windows and dark and spooky attics. She had an unused room (closed and shuttered) at the bottom of her stairs...right next to the only bathroom in the house.