Longtime Du Quoin newspaper woman asks Savannah's real ghosts to show themselves

The day-to-day writings of newspaper woman Linda Sickler as a Southern Illinoisan correspondent between 1988 and 2000 took us into the lives of the people around us.

In 2000 she and husband Charlie moved to Savannah, Ga. to be closer to their children in the Atlanta area.

For the past five years she has worked as the arts & entertainment editor for Savannah Morning News, a daily in what is arguably the most haunted city in America.

"We love it here and my therapy is working as a tour guide in Savannah," she said. Because of her acquired taste for the town and its favorite haunts, she has partnered with co-author Michael Harris to author a new book "Historic Haunts of Savannah."

Until now, there were just a lot of "stories."

"We wanted the REAL story," she said. "We found out that a lot of the legends have a lot of truth to them."

She and Harris wanted the real ghosts--not the wannabes--to show themselves in an authoritative body of writing. "The first thing the readers should know is this is a book about ghosts, plain and simple--their uncanny and stubborn presence in their various Savannah haunts. Vampires, zombies, witches and the like, though interesting and scary in their own right, do not show up here," she says.

Specifically, the book is about "certain ghosts" and the lives they led before their afterlife as ghosts. This wonderful book actually "puts the person back in the ghost," she says.

Linda was raised by down-to-earth parents on East Park Street in Du Quoin, attended Southern Illinois University and honed her skills as a world class writer at the Southern. Through it all, she has remained grounded and wonderfully real.

You can find the book "Historic Haunts of Savannah" on Amazon and Barnes & Noble online sites for $9.33. You don't have to live in Savannah to enjoy a great read.