About the Book

What images does the word ghost create in your mind? An invisible monster with the sole purpose to cause fear and destruction with visions of death and hatred; an ethereal vision with woeful moans and sad expressions that float mid-air or vanish into solid things; a playful and watchful spirit that interacts with speech and touch to the living they protect; or death incarnate where the deceased is held eternally between the realm of last existence in our mortal world and the afterlife that awaits its tormented soul, wherever that may be.

 

My own personal experiences included all the above. My family’s home in Rankin County, Mississippi was unknowingly built over one or more graves of soldiers that had fought and died during the Civil War. The ghost of my childhood was invisible to all but myself who he protected with violence during the day and watched over peacefully every night. I was five years old when I first saw the iridescent, uniformed soldier, I named The General, peacefully watching over me, my furniture visible through him. His cap with crossing swords, intent stare, mustached lips, jacket with tassels and epaulets, sword sheathed at his side, and a rifle held in his left hand. My paranormal interactions with The General were primarily peaceful. Each night I heard him entering the front door and dragging his injured feet across the floor, all the way to my bedroom door where the sounds ended, and he appeared beside me. His fingers were skeletal when he touched me. His voice was filled with laughter when he called my name. My family was not as fortunate.

 

The Ghost of Brighton Hall is a historical fiction novel describing the struggles and survival of the Brighton family, a wealthy cotton producer and slave owners during the Civil War from 1861 to 1865. It describes the lives of Timothy Brighton, his wife, Emily, and daughter, Amanda, their former slaves, and the war’s impact on them and others who suffered equally from the loss, destruction, and starvation caused by war, and worse atrocities at the hands of those less honorable men who ravaged the south in rebellion, preying upon innocent people unable to stand against their injustice and ruthlessness.

 

It is a tale of endless love and a father’s will, even in death, to protect his wife and child. And it describes the antebellum South of rich families and southern belles, of tea parties and elegant balls where ladies sashayed in imported silks, and gentlemen tugged on smuggled cigars while sipping mint juleps or imported spirits with no care for life outside their idyllic lives.

 

Amanda Brighton had little patience for trifling men and found the upheaval the war had brought about a great inconvenience. As a young woman she had spared little concern for anyone’s opinion other than her own, and in a split moment of compassion had condemned all their fates. With the help of unexpected allies, she confronts the threats to her home and family with the courage and strength of a steel magnolia. Unbending to her enemies, yet compassionate and kind to those she loves. Her actions will help to create a new way of life at Brighton Hall. A life where, with unwavering courage, the flames of hatred are doused with unconditional hope and love.