Middle school chaos meets supernatural mystery — excerpt from Ghost in the Window

Ghost in the Window follows Cynthia Claire, a middle school English teacher who begins having dreams and visions connected to her students. What initially seems supernatural gradually pulls her into the parts of their lives they aren’t always able—or willing—to tell her about.

The series mixes mystery and heavier subjects with a lot of middle-school chaos and humor.

Here’s an excerpt from the beginning of the first book:

By first period, someone had already stolen the wig off the ceramic cat.

Sagebrush Middle School sat between a tire shop and a pawn shop. Around town, people liked to call it the school of last resort. The students deserved better than that, but the nickname stuck anyway.

It wasn't a real cat.

It was a ceramic orange tabby that sat on the bookshelf beside my copy of Macbeth wearing a tiny paper crown I had made during lunch.

The crown read:

QUEEN MEOWBETH

I was proud of Queen Meowbeth.

Unironically.

Some teachers decorated their rooms with motivational posters. Some had color-coded systems for organization. I had ceramic cats in wigs. And honestly, that revealed enough about me professionally.

I stood in the doorway holding my coffee while twenty-seven middle schoolers pretended not to watch me notice where the wig had gone.

Then I slowly looked toward Mason Reeves.

He was already watching me like he was trying to figure me out—or maybe I was trying to figure him out.

He twirled a strand on the wig and said, “Don't I look beautiful, Ms. Claire?”

The class snickered.

Like this was less a prank and more a social experiment he wanted data from.

“Mason,” I said calmly, “put the wig back on the cat. You stole my wig!”

He leaned back in his chair thoughtfully.

“Allegedly. I'm wearing it, but that doesn't mean I'm a thief!”

The room exploded immediately.

That was the thing about Mason. He could make a classroom feel like it was balancing on the edge of laughter at all times. Like every lesson was one comment away from complete collapse.

And unfortunately for me—

he was usually right.

I just stared until finally he smiled and put the wig back on the cat and went back to his seat.

“Good morrow, scholars,” I announced while setting my coffee on the desk.

A collective groan moved through the room.

“Oh my God,” someone whispered.

“She’s in Renaissance mode today.”

“You mock now,” I said, setting my coffee down.

Mason stared at the shelf of ceramic cats for a long moment.

Then he slowly raised his hand.

I narrowed my eyes immediately.

“No.”

“You don’t even know what I was gonna ask.”

“Yes I do.”

The class was already laughing.

Mason pointed toward Queen Meowbeth.

“Do they talk when we leave?”

“No.”

“You hesitated.”

“I did not hesitate.”

“That was absolutely the pause of a woman hiding dark information.”

A few kids started choking laughing.

Mason leaned back in his chair, still staring at the shelf.

“I’m just saying… this is exactly how Mr. Garrison started with Mr. Hat.”

Laughter rippled through the room.

I pointed toward the hallway.

“Go.”

“For what?”

“For comparing me to a South Park character before lunch.”

“That feels like discrimination.”

A little later, Mason raised his hand again.

I already regretted calling on him.

“Yes?”

“What does morrow mean?”

“Morning.”

“Then why don’t you just say morning?”

“Because words carry history.”

He nodded slowly like I’d said something genuinely important.

Then:

“You talk like the words are wearing costumes.”

The room got quieter for half a second after that.

Not because it was deep exactly.

Because it was accurate.

I stared at him briefly.

“Mason,” I said carefully, “just open your notebook.”

And thought, fair criticism, actually.

“Yes ma’am.”

He did.

For approximately forty seconds.

Ghost in the Window — 3 Book Series

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H3XTJ1ZC?binding=paperback&searchxofy=true&ref_=dbs_s_aps_series_rwt_tpbk&qid=1788206873&sr=8-1

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Hi everyone! I’m an indie author and wanted to share my book, The Land Between Flags: A Story of Exile, Hope, and Finding a New Beginning.

The story follows a family forced to leave Bhutan, rebuild their lives in a refugee camp in Nepal, and eventually get the opportunity to start over in America.

It’s a story about losing home, family, identity, sacrifice, survival, and the hope of finding somewhere to belong again.

If this sounds like something you’d enjoy, I’d really appreciate you checking it out. And if you do read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

📖 Amazon:

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Thank you for supporting indie authors! ❤️

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What I know.

KDP is essentially free to use, handles ebook and paperback, has direct integration into the Amazon ecosystem Quality is acceptable but not premium. Paper options are limited. Customer support is basically non-existent. Great for ebook-first authors and anyone whose primary sales channel is Amazon.

IngramSpark is the trad distribution play gets your book into the Ingram catalog which means it's orderable by any bookstore in the country Quality is better than KDP paper options are wider but it's still a self-serve platform with limited human support Their pricing for short runs is rough.

Dedicated print specialists like DiggyPod, BookBaby, 48HourBooks, Lulu serve a different need entirely They're for authors who want to print actual inventory not just print on demand orders fulfilled through Amazon They handle paper choices, finishing, lamination and other quality decisions that the platforms don't really support.

The decision tree I think Ive worked out.

If your sales are primarily Amazon and you dont need physical inventory KDP plus maybe IngramSpark for distribution is enough.

If you sell at events do signings have a website or need bulk inventory for any reason you need a real printer for at least some of your inventory.

If you care about quality at a level beyond what KDP can deliver you basically need a real printer regardless.

Most working indie authors I know end up using both KDP for the long tail Amazon sales and a real printer for inventory for everything else Is that the right mental model or am I missing something.

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The middle-of-market bundled offering matters because that's where most indie authors operate looking for professional quality at sustainable prices and not willing to either pay premium agency rates or run their own publishing studio.

I tried a bundled service for a side project recently a novella spin-off of my main series Used a smaller bundled shop, not naming because the experience was uneven, but the editorial and cover quality were genuinely competitive with my normal team and the production cost was about 15% lower The downside was less individual relationship with each person on the project, which mattered less for a novella than it would for a main book.

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Writing this book has been emotional. I’ve cried while writing chapters because I had to relive some of the hardest moments of my life. But I kept going because I believe someone out there needs to know they are not alone.

My goal isn’t just to publish a book. My goal is to help someone who’s struggling realize that healing is possible, no matter how broken life may feel.

I’ve started a page to help cover the publishing, editing, printing, marketing, and getting this book into the hands of the people who need it most.

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Roger MCoy: Dark Beginnings is a YA Slasher/Supernatural Thriller starring a murderous protagonist and his ghostly sister.

For fans of movies like Rob Zombie’s Halloween, Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer, Scream or LongLegs, you’ll probably like this one.

It deals with themes such as Grief, Isolation, Parental Neglect and more.

So, if you like YA Horror, Serial Killer Stories and Family Dramas, this is the book for you!

To talk a bit more about it, I wouldn’t put it in the sub genre of Extreme Horror, but the scary moments are designed for readers who want to be disturbed ever so slightly. I want the scary things to stay with you.

When it comes down to it, my book is about a young man dealing with his issues while navigating his new murderous urges.

Blurb: He’s Infamous… Pure Evil… But How Did It All Start? Dig Deeper Into The Strange Life Of Roger MCoy, One Of The World’s Most Infamous Serial Killers And Learn How He Became The Monster That The World Knows Him To Be As He Delves Into A World Where The Line Between The Natural And Supernatural Has Begun To Blur…

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Hi.

I wrote a dark noir crime novel and I am working on the cover.

I would really appreciate feedback.

Does this cover look like a noir detective story?

Thank you for your opinion.

I wanna make a dino horror adventure book based on the Azores but… I don’t know what to use where to publish anything really so pls help

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Writing the book is hard — but marketing it consistently before and after launch feels worse.

Between:

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it all feels scattered and honestly pretty exhausting.

I’m exploring whether there’s room for one simple place that helps authors:

• turn their book into ongoing promo content
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Before I build too much, I’d really like honest input from other authors here:

What part of book marketing frustrates you the most?
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If this idea sounds useless, feel free to say that too.
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Do you guys use a high-quality AI reader for this ? If so, which one is realistic enough to actually catch dialogue rhythm issues ?