Chapter 1: Writer's Block It was a dark and stormy night. "Oh dammit, I can't believe I just wrote that!!!" Clarise cursed as she pounded her computer keyboard. cheap phone cards "iMac or no, I still can't write worth a damn." Clarise took a quick swig from the coffee cup sitting next to her indigo iMac, and choked. "What the...??" She peered into the cup to find a thin layer of mold floating at the top of what appeared to be very old, stale coffee. The fresh cup of coffee was sitting on the other side of the computer. "OK, that's it. I'm going to call my agent and tell him I quit. What do you think about that, Mrs. Snugglebunny?" Clarise grabbed the white persian cat on her lap and snuggled the feline close to her chest. In spite of the name, however, Mrs. Snugglebunny was not amused and dug a claw into Clarise's left breast. As the cat ran off, Clarise stood up and walked to a mahogany bookshelf and pulled a thick hardcover from the middle shelf. The book had a picture of a headless ghoul on the cover, wearing a blue dress. In blood-spattered letters the following was written on the cover: buy calling cards "The Ghost Wears Blue" by Clarise Penter "Clarise Penter is the hottest young horror novelist since Stephen King!!! --The Horror Times" Clarise banged her head onto the hard cover of the book. "I'll never be able to top my first novel!" she said to Mrs. Snugglebunny. "I'm a fraud. I'm just a boring secretary with a dull life and not even a personal drama involving a dysfunctional family to give me a story idea. I'm never going to write horror again!"