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GHOST WALKERS  Marian Allen was born in Louisville, Kentucky and now lives in rural Indiana. For as long as she can remember, she has loved telling and being told stories. When, at the age of about six, she was informed that somebody got paid for writing all those books and movies and television shows, she abandoned her previous ambition (beachcomber), and became a writer. Allen has worked as a high school teacher, an executive secretary, an accountant, and in Red Cross Youth Services. She is married, with three step/adopted daughters, one birth daughter, one cat, one grandcat, and one granddog.   In 2007, the Southern Indiana Writers did a book signing at the Harrison County Library in Corydon, Indiana. While we were there, we talked with Leah Porter, who was involved in the event planning for Corydon's 200th birthday year, 2008. She suggested we write ghost stories set in historic buildings around the town square. She thought it would be fun for the annual Halloween on the Square celebration to include people stationed at those sites to read our stories.    There were seven sites she wanted to include, and the stories had to be no longer than 1000-1500 words. That made for a very short book, so we called dibs on the featured sites and then also wrote ghost stories and poems of other lengths and set in other places around the town.    The result was GHOSTS: ON THE SQUARE... AND ELSEWHERE.... We took pictures of the seven sites, and were chilled and delighted when the snap of one of the buildings (empty and deserted) had what looked like a little face grimacing out of the window (that one made it onto the cover). We published it through lulu.com and ended up with a book that really grabs the eye.    Leah Porter made good on her promise to arrange the Ghost Walk and readers. Members of SIW--in costume--set up a table across the street from the square and sold a happy number of books.    Staff at the Harrison County Library started asking where the books could be bought, since they were getting requests for that information. One of our members stopped by the Visitors' Bureau (Corydon is a tourist town) and was greeted with relief--they had been getting requests for the book, too. The Bureau bought as many books as the member had with her and keeps them stocked in the Visitors' Information Center.              Marian Allen  http://southernindianawriters.com

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