An author walks into a library and asks...

 That sounds like the opening line of a joke. In reality, it's a regular discussion for most authors. I didn't "walk" into the library, but emailed one of my favorite librarians, and asked, "Is your library haunted?"

Madeline replied, "There are some strange unexplained things that happen (in our one-hundred-year-old library), but I've never ascribed them to a ghostly entity. She went on to explain that most of them involved books falling off of shelves, lights being on or off when they shouldn't be, strange noises coming from the older parts of the library. They occur most often to the assistant librarian and volunteers when the head librarian is away. Some volunteers apparently refuse to investigate any of the book falling off the shelf incidents unless accompanied by one of the staff.

"Do you know who the ghost is?" I asked.

"We jokingly refer to her as Anna, who was the first librarian. We don't know that anything bad happened to her, which would make her haunt the library."

"Have you ever had a seance in the library?" I asked.

Since this conversation is going on via email, I wasn't surprised when I didn't receive a response for several days. "I have not personally been involved in a library seance." 

I explained that my co-author, Anne Flagge, and I were outlining a book featuring the haunted Two Harbors Library, where Madeline is the head librarian. "Would you be disturbed by us creating a fictional ghost in a fictionalized version of your library? And maybe having a seance to initiate a conversation with the ghost?"

Madeline was totally onboard with the ghost and seance. She suggested a location for setting up the seance and its special effects and even consented to the use of her real name as the book's fictional librarian. We went on to discuss the core of the plot, something stolen from a locked library table drawer, who's key had been missing for decades.

A few weeks later, Madeline contacted Anne and me to say the library is having a summer reading competition. She asked if she could offer the opportunity for the winner to have her name included in the upcoming book, "Whistling Librarian". We agreed, and Paula Pettit (the winner) is the book's assistant librarian.

My message to all of you is, talk to your librarian. They're a great resource for many questions, some they'd never considered. The most important from me was, "Will you host a book event for us?"

Anne Flagge and I were at the Two Harbors library yesterday. Madeline and Paula were delighted to see us, as were Shannon Walz and her friends of the library group in Silver Bay.