The Ghost Lady is Very Much Alive and Writing on the Vineyard

un Porch is the name of Holly Nadler's book store on Circuit Ave. in Oak Bluffs, but don't be deceived, Holly has a dark side as well. Author of Haunted Island and Ghosts of Boston Town. Holly is now officially the "ghost lady of Martha's Vineyard" a title she's entirely comfortable with . "I feel that I'm now the repository for Vineyard ghost stories. The best part about writing this book is that people come up to me all the time with stories of hauntings"

There are some scary stories in Holly's latest book, Vineyard Confidential, as well. Tales of Vineyard murders, scandals and mental illness share the pages with celebrity shenanigans. Although it may be the page six style gossip section at the end of the book that's attracting the most attention, by and large the stories focus on the colorful history of the island. It may just be that the real ghosts of Martha's Vineyard are not the ones doing the hauntings, but the cast of kooky characters whose spirit seems to infect even the most conservative transplants to the island.

Holly came to the Vineyard after a full and varied writing career. She and her ex-husband, Marty both wrote for 70s sitcoms such as LaVerne and Shirley. She has also penned numerous articles for magazines as diverse as Cosmopolitan and The Utne Reader. Marty and Holly summered on the Vineyard for 13 years before moving here year-round in 1991 when their son, Charlie was in the second grade. (Charlie is now an aspiring screenwriter, working on film sets in LA) A ghost tour that Holly walked in London had left a lasting impression, and she decided to research and conduct one of her own here. Currently she does two ghost tours in the summer, one in Edgartown and one in Oak Bluffs, and is thinking of adding a Vineyard Haven tour. She keeps busy these days writing for regional magazines, running the book store and collecting stories for a second book about Vineyard hauntings. Know of any Vineyard ghosts? Stop by Sun Porch and share your stories with the Ghost Lady.

Any first hand experiences with ghosts? I saw my first ghost this summer at the Campgrounds in OB. It was an early evening in August. I was walking from the store to my house at twilight. There was a house that had been dark all summer, which is unusual in itself. I saw someone sitting on the porch in a Civil War outfit. My first thought was "That's cute" then I thought it was a mannequin because of the way he was sitting unnaturally still and his face was sort of grey. I looked away thinking "This is rude if it's not a mannequin." When I looked back both he and the chair were gone.

What's the strangest story you've heard? A couple of times I've been asked to exorcise a house. It's actually pretty easy, you just ask the ghost to leave, but I've never conducted an exorcism.

Why are some houses haunted? Sometimes I think it's just that ghosts get attached to a house and very often some specific part of a house - a room or a stairway. It might just be an overabundance of materialism.

How did you go about researching your books? For Haunted Island I started calling people who were really social. I also put an author's query in papers. In Boston I also put author query boxes in neighborhood papers and did a lot of research at the public library.

What's your idea of the perfect day off? Reading all day with a cup of hot chocolate and a log on the fire.

What's your guilty reading pleasure? Hardboiled mysteries

Favorite ghost story? That's easy, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. . Nothing really happens, it's just the horrible foreboding. It's the tightening of the psychological screws. I prefer to read it as a true ghost story, although the case has been made by scholars that the governess was just mentally ill.

Holly will be appearing live on New England Cable News (NECN) on Halloween Eve.

by Gwyn McAllister photography by David Welch

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