Which is pretty much a ‘duh’ statement I know. I am the queen of the obvious sometimes. Liam seems to be the only one who reads this thing and he’s been on my case to post more often. So… Hi Liam!!

Things have been pretty quiet lately which is nice. I’ve been helping Dad quite a lot and he’s been really busy lately which is good and it’s bad. Good because the extra money will keep mom in spellbooks and henbane and bad because an abundance of raisings tends to mean there is turbulence in the supernatural world. Or the Shadow world as I call it.

Typically, Dad raises maybe one or two temp zombies a month depending on demand. The rest of the time he fixes stuff (he’s pretty damn handy, let me tell you) and works on refining his rituals. He’s been writing what he calls the definitive book on necromancy for about 20 years now Someday it will be complete. But lately, Dad’s been called to 3-4 raisings a week. Some have been requests from the police wanting to question a murder victim or something but others have come from families who say their departed loved ones are wreaking a bit of havoc on them and they want Dad to raise them and ask them to cut it out.

In other words, the dead are getting restless and we’re not sure why. But we’re monitoring the sitch and I’ll talk about whatever findings we umm, find. Words. Sometimes they are hard.

Til then, I’m hitting the sack. G’night Liam

I can’t believe I haven’t posted much lately. I was doing so well. Things have been so hectic lately what with the ghost and everything. I know, I know, I was supposed to continue the story of the ghost and tell you what she wanted from me. And I will, just… not tonight I’m afraid.

I’m only home for a few minutes right now and then I’m off to help Dad interview a dead guy. Mom was supposed to go but she got called out of town on some kind of Wiccan emergency. She was tight-lipped about it, but when the coven calls, she has to go. We’re used to it. So Liam is downstairs in the truck waiting for me while I gather up a few things. Some stones, a raven’s feather (Dad was out of them) and duct tape. No the duct tape isn’t involved in a raising ritual but the gearshift knob fell off in my truck and I thought I could MacGuyver it back on until I have time to glue it or something

Crap, there the horn. Liam’s so impatient. I’ll write about the ghost soon, I promise.

I spent the better part of last night with dad (Desmond McGee, Necromancer. Maybe you’ve heard of him) as part of my training. I’m never going to be a true necromancer. I just don’t have that sort of power. But I want to be able to assist him whenever I can and I think with our combined power when we raise a zombie we could make him or her even better.

Liam’s looking at me funny. I think I’ve offended him. I just told him he was a perfectly good zombie, especially one raised while my father was under so much stress. I just think that any zombie raised by my father while I’m with him giving him a power boost could be… interesting. We’ll have to see. I don’t know when we’ll get the chance to try it out, hence the lessons.

Dad doesn’t raise true zombies very often, as you can imagine. The reason must be very compelling. But he can and does raise the freshly dead (suddenly I have Marty Feldman in my head singing, “I ain’t got no body…”) temporarily for various reasons. A loved one may need closure or perhaps a murder victim who might be able to name their killer (these are tricky though. A murder victim is often so traumatized that it’s difficult to get anything out of them. It’s almost a mercy to lay them back to rest.)

A temp zombie is raised for a few hours and then gently and reverently laid back to rest. The ritual isn’t as elaborate as a true raising and only lasts for a few hours. My father earn his living from these I’ve gone with him on these outings for as long as I can remember.

Last night we sat in a cemetery and went over the entire ritual for raising a true zombie from start to finish. Not sure why we couldn’t have done that in the house though. It was damn cold last night. Dad said the ambiance would be good but I was practically raised around cemeteries. I get it Dad. Sheesh

Yeah yeah, next time I’ll bring a blanket.