You wake with a start in the middle of the night. You check your phone – 3:37am. Something woke you up, but listening to the silence of the house, you don’t know what disturbed your sleep. You hear the dog snoring softly at the foot of the bed, the familiar rhythm of your partner’s deep sleep breaths. You listen more intently and hear the ice maker in the fridge downstairs hum to life – maybe that was it? No… Wait, what’s that? That’s the door to the kitchen creaking open. Footsteps. Someone – or something – is walking across the hard wood floor in the living room.

You take hold of the bat you keep alongside your bed and quietly climb out of the bed, padding silently across the room, not even disturbing the dog. As you start down the stairs, the footsteps move back into the kitchen. You reach the bottom of the stairs and reach for the light switch and flip it on. As the room fills with light, you stifle a scream – there are clothes everywhere.

Your partner swore they were going to finish folding the laundry and take it upstairs and here they all are, half-folded and strewn all over the room. With a sigh you drop down onto the couch and start folding the remaining clothes – it’s got to get done, right? And you’ve got that meeting in the morning – don’t forget the business trip at the end of the week. And Tuesday is your doctor’s appointment, right? No, dentist appointment – crap, did you book both this week? Did your partner pay the water bill? And what’s with gas prices? Do you have time to fill the car before going to work in the morning or after?

In the kitchen, the ghost stands there tapping his feet and says to himself, “Jesus, what do I have to do to get someone’s attention?!”

I told a lot of people about 31 Ghosts last year outside of October. The first volume of 31 Ghosts came up in conversations more frequently than I would have imagined – sometimes I’d mention it in relation to something we were talking about, or Akilah would mention the book, or a friend would ask about it. What I found fascinating was a pretty common refrain after hearing about the subject matter: “I don’t believe in ghosts.”

But almost every time, they follow “I don’t believe in ghosts” with “but…” which could lead to “…this one time…” or “…my friend said this happened to them…” or “…my grandmother used to tell us about…” They may not believe in ghosts… but they’re not against believing in ghosts. One person said “I don’t believe in ghosts,” and then added, “I don’t like scary things!” …And then told me about the time she saw a ghost staring at her.

Ghosts can be a tough sell – despite what the innumerable ghost-hunting shows would lead you to believe, we don’t have any incontrovertible proof ghosts exist. “Believe” is a verb – it’s something you have to actually do. And, let’s face it, we’ve all got enough to do!

Last year I wrote that 2022 to that point had been a crazy, busy year – and it had been! But 2023 looked at 2022 and said, “Hold my beer…” It started off partially evacuating my home because of a potential flood – seriously, that was the beginning of the year. And just to hit the highlights: I got married, I moved out of Guerneville after living there for more than 19 years, did another Tough Mudder 5K obstacle race, went on my first cruise, and through all of it I managed to keep my 10,000 step streak going. It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a conference of a dozen ghosts in the kitchen right now complaining about how “Jordy is just not paying any attention to us! I’ve rattled so many chains I’m getting carpal tunnel!”

Outside of writing this month, this October is already shaping up to be one of busiest, craziest months of an already busy and crazy year. But it’s October 1 and there’s no time for the ghosts to be sequestered and ignored! Join me on inviting the ghouls in from the garage! Bring the specters in from the study! Let the poltergeists out of the pool! Okay, yeah, that last one was kind of a stretch, but you get the point! It’s ghost time, baby!

I don’t know what kind of stories are ahead this month, but I can tell you there’s going to be something for the next 31 days! So stay tuned because 31 Ghosts is back for the seventh year!