100 Numerous Ghost Stories 2025.

 2026 will mark 10 years of this blog, which we named GhostsNextDoor.

It began with a dare, a challenge, or a suggestion from my wife to write 100 stories leading up to Halloween Eve. I remember making an attempt to do so before that challenge, or even discussing it with random people on a walking tour in Waikiki. Those were a smattering of attempts, and I'd written 9 stories. Once I got started, I knew that most stories had to be fictionalized for privacy reasons, but most flowed through me in one sitting and became some of my best works. What struck me as humorous is that the stories I liked didn't get much reaction. Yet other stories I'd forgotten I'd written received the most attention and comments. For instance, in a few stories where a dog died, people commented with expletives, calling me someone who fornicated with my mother. Other stories were adapted into independent films, such as Charity and Ka Ho'i. As well, my wife and I are big fans of Stephen King, and believe me, I've pored through his videos and books where he shares tips for aspiring horror writers and wanna-be authors. His one surviving ethos is that you should kill your darlings. I'll admit that in my stories on this blog, more than a few darlings have died. On more than a few occasions when I realize that a story is headed in a direction that most readers would expect, I'll commandeer the steering wheel and do a massive U-turn on the H-3 and drive the tale to a least expected destination. I'm not proud of 2024, as we were pretty busy, and so with a limited amount of time on my schedule, I reposted stories from previous years until I could find a moment to write fresh stories without distractions. For this, dear readers, I apologize. I owe you more stories fresh from the well. 

Most important has been you, dear reader. You read from the other side of this screen and you follow, you like, you comment, or you don't comment. The evidence of your presence is appreciated. Do I write solely for your reactions? I write with the thought that some unseen mana, energy, or divine force is weaving a tale through the ethers and that somehow, I am humbly fortunate enough to receive the signal. I find myself, more often than not, trying to remember what inspired a story I'd written two days ago, or the day before. Truthfully, I have no recollection, and yet on the next go around, a tale manifests itself on these pages. 

The truth is, I wanted to end the blog after the fifth year, or maybe the sixth. As this thought entered my mind, a comment surfaced on our Facebook fan page, one that began appearing every year from Clarissa Yamamoto.

"I need my stories! Will there be stories this year? Pleeeaaaze?"

Thus, for the sake of not disappointing at least one believer, we continued on. Here we are now, gazing toward the horizon of the tenth year of 100 stories. Didn't we have a year of ghost stories at one point, including the 100 from July to October? I think we did. In any case, our gracious and humble thanks to all of you. Until the next 100.