Why I Wrote the Ghost Story I Was Afraid to Write

by Bryan Hutchinson

The events in Wee-Jees happened in Germany
where my father was stationed in the late 70s.

The forest we lived near was heavily bombed during World War II and from what I understand a lot of people died in the area. The forest floor is littered with bomb craters and just in the last few years alone several unexploded bombs have been found and excavated.

My friends and I went on an adventure into that forest and we had some inexplicable things happen that I have never been able to forget, and I’ve wanted to write about them for over 30 years.

I think the story will shock some people and others will have a hard time believing it, but I assure you the events happened.

I Had to Write This Story to Honor My Friend, Jake

I was never convinced the event would make a good book, although it sure does seem that it is now that I’ve written it and initial reviews are surprisingly good. Thank God!

One is never sure their writing is any good until readers confirm it.

The reason I had to write this story is because one of the best friends I have ever had in my life eventually died, in part, I believe, due to what happened in those woods.

I think either the shock, or what happened during the last event we experienced, affected him for the rest of his life. I’m dreading the questions that will come my way after people read the book and realize what happened to Jake (my friend).

I had to tell the story not just because I always felt I had to tell it, but more so to honor Jake and what we experienced. Ghosts are real. Jake was a very dear friend, a type of friend very few people are lucky enough to have, and I wanted to honor him this way.

Something Otherworldy Didn’t Want Me to Share What Happened

I feel something was holding me back for years from telling this story and if you haven’t guessed, it wasn’t doubt or any technical issues, it was more supernatural in nature.

I honestly believe something didn’t want me to tell this story, much less share it with the world.

In fact, it was only after I removed certain identifying (people/locations) aspects of the story that I was finally able to finish it.

I know how this sounds, but I believe something otherworldly didn’t want me to share what happened. Like I said, it’s a true story, and, yes, there’s something in those woods. That’s not just a tagline. It’s real.

I Suffered a Lot of Nightmares While Writing This Story

I’d have to say revisiting the past was the greatest emotional challenge of writing this book.

While writing the book I started to remember things I had forgotten and some of those things, if not all of them, are very emotional and sometimes I wasn’t sure if I should share them or not. Some of the memories that came back were too overwhelming to even write about.

So, there’s still more of the story that needs to be told, but I’m content with what I was able to put on the page.

I know, I wrote the book on Writer’s Doubt, but I didn’t suffer the usual doubts one has when writing. I think, for the first time, I really don’t care how well this book does on the market. I simply needed to tell it and it would not let me rest until I finally put it on the page. It was certainly a unique experience.

I did suffer a lot of nightmares while writing it, though. I could have done without those.

Writing This Book Didn’t Give Me the Closure I Hoped For

I don’t know that writing this book changed me. I’m relieved, and I feel I have accomplished something I needed to accomplish—something that has been pulling and tugging at me for decades.

I can tell you what it didn’t do, it didn’t make me feel better about what happened, it didn’t give me any kind of closure as I had hoped it would. I still miss my friends.

However, I have to also admit that if those events had not happened, I might not even remember most of those friends. The reason I say that is because we were a bunch of military brats and we didn’t get to spend a lot of time together. Our friendships were very short lived thanks to the military life and the constant moving.

I went through so many friends, but the group in this book share a special place in my memory and I think of them more so than any other friends I’ve ever had.

My Next Book Will Be a Follow-Up to The Wee-Jees

I am already working on the follow up to this first novel. Right now, the title is simply The Wee-Jees Return, and I might change that later.

It’s about an experience with Wee-Jees that happened many years later with another group of friends. The first experience happened when I was eight years old (current book) and the second experience happened when I was about twenty years old.

Advice for Other Writers Writing Stories Based on Real-Life Experiences

Don’t be too hard on yourself if you can’t remember everything as well as you thought you would be able to.

Write what you can and give yourself time to remember things. You’ll be surprised how the memories return once you get into writing your story, but they might not come as fast as you might like, and then again, they could also come in a flood.

Have something with you to take notes whenever a memory comes to you as you might forget it just a few minutes later. I prefer taking voice notes on my phone.

NOTE: Check out Bryan’s post showing pictures of the forest where the events in this story actually took place—you may be a little spooked! “Photographic Evidence of the Paranormal in the Haunted Forest.”

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I became a writer because I saw a ghost. True story. I had my first paranormal experience when I was 8 years old. At first, I thought it was just me and that I had “night terrors.” It turns out that I wasn’t imagining things because soon my friends saw what I saw, and then we were attacked by it.

I’ve wanted to write about that experience for over 30 years. And so, yes, it’s literally the reason I became a writer. for the longest while, I had this inner fear that teaching and inspiring others to write was somehow wrong because I had never written the story I was called to write. Well, now I’ve finally done it! I’ve written the scariest story of my life. It’s my ghost story. The book is titled, The Wee-Jees: A Ghost Story Based on True Events.

For more information, please see Bryan’s website and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

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The Wee-Jees: Thanks to his father’s military career, Craig is familiar with moving, and he’s absolutely sick of it. Traveling from place to place, base to base, friendships are sometimes short-lived. At his newest home, he struggles to relax into the new rhythm of not only a new school but an entirely different country. There are many things that he loves about Germany: his new friends, the playground in his housing area, cookouts at the VFW, and the attention of Stephanie, the most beautiful girl in class. But there’s something else.

Strange things begin happening to Craig. His night terrors grow worse and more vivid than ever before, and sometimes, he’s overtaken by the powerful feeling that something unseen is watching him from the darkest corners of his apartment, something that his parents never seem to notice. Worse than that is the forest across from his building, where he has seen bright yellow eyes and heard hair-raising, inhuman screams. Frightened as Craig is, he’s always loved a good mystery, and part of him wants to know more. His new friends, it turns out, want to know more as well.

So begins an adventure the likes of which none of them have experienced before…and never will again. Joined by his friends and his crush, Craig discovers that dark secrets lie within the forest once ravaged by the bombs of war. The things they see should be impossible, but there’s no way to deny what you see with your own eyes. As sinister forces draw Craig and his friends deeper into the forest, it becomes clear that the danger they are in is very real. Peril and terror await them within the trees, and the bonds of their friendship will be tested.

All military brats are used to moving, but if Craig and his friends aren’t careful, this could be their last stop.

Available on Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and Apple.