When I was a kid my grandmother always told me not to go too deeply into the woods or the boogeyman would get me. The boogeyman, she insisted, lived in the deepest, darkest area of the woods and he loved snacking on kids who got lost in those woods. Though I had certainly never seen a boogeyman in the woods or any place else, my grandmother had lived a lot longer than me and I wasn’t taking any chances. So, each time I ventured into the woods (which was most everyday in the summer—usually with my younger brother in tow), I would stop at a certain point and turn back. I wasn’t risking running into the boogeyman. As a kid, those types of warnings scared me to death but actually kept me from getting into trouble.
Then there were the other tales, the ones about certain people or particular houses. Every community has them. Some folks believe there’s some truth to the old stories, others insist they’re just stories that maybe evolved from gossip or flat out lies. The villages along Maine’s southern coast are no different. There are tales related to unsolved murders and folks who went missing never to be seen again. Like the tales from my childhood, some are supernatural in their foundation.
Whatever the tales and wherever you grew up, chances are you heard your share. In my new release, FIND ME, Sarah Newton is a total nonbeliever in anything but the facts. Because of her own painful history, the truth is very important to her. Sarah operates on fact and she trusts no one but herself—a lesson she learned the hard way. As an investigative journalist for Truth Magazine, Sarah is in her element when on assignment. She travels to places where high profile homicides and abductions have occurred and those heinous crimes are swaddled in the area’s folklore and quirky traditions. As she tells Kale Conner, the guy charged with keeping her inline and out of trouble, she isn’t there to make friends or even to make nice. She’s after the truth and she’ll step on toes and piss people off to find it. She has no preconceived notions about the folks in the community. As far as Sarah is concerned they’re all suspects.
For research purposes, my family and I moved to the southern coast of Maine and immersed ourselves in that world while I wrote the book. I found the place and the people immensely interesting and extraordinarily charming and caring. The centuries of history and folklore were mesmerizing. And the architecture of the glorious old houses—I was in heaven.
Hopefully, your childhood wasn’t as terrifying as Sarah Newton’s, but I’d love to hear the tales you heard as a kid. Did the boogeyman live in your woods?
Debra is giving away THREE signed copies of FIND ME to readers who tell their most unusual child hood stories either below in the comments or Click Here
Debra Webb
Visit www.debrawebb.com
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