Two undergraduate students have self-published books.
Some people say they have seen the ghost of a woman sitting on the porch of The Brown House at the top of Jeff Hill. So, apparently, has Paul Newman.
That house was once home to Millie Brown, a wealthy and loved Athens resident.
She was known to sit on her porch, watch students walk by and invite some over to swim in her pool — one of which was Newman.
Years later, when Newman came back to Ohio University to help a politician’s campaign, he saw Brown in her usual spot on her porch and gave her a wave.
Later in the day, Newman learned that Brown died years ago.
Newman, an award-winning actor, once recounted that experience to a local historian, testimony that intrigued Nicholas Lantz, a junior studying strategic communication and a long-time paranormal investigator.
Stories such as these are what inspired Lantz to self-publish Ghosts & Legends of Athens, Ohio, a book detailing some of the most haunted spots in town.
Lantz gained interest in ghostly occurrences after experiencing instances of paranormal at home. His mother is a psychic medium.
Most recently, Lantz and his mother were featured on an episode of Ghost Inside My Child on Lifetime Movie Network. The show, which focuses on children who remember past lives, invited the pair on the show after hearing about Lantz’s personal story of experiencing something similar.
“When I was little, I had these weird series of dreams that were extremely vivid. They took place during the civil war,” he said. “Over the years I did a lot of research about them. What made my story different was that I was able to find record to support everything that I came up with in my dreams.”
Lantz said that he was able to find names and dates of everything he had experienced. Now, he lectures around the country on reincarnation.
He does most of his research in Athens, where he investigates both known and unknown haunts. Most students know the tale of Wilson Hall, but Lantz said that it isn’t quite true.
The rumored story about Wilson Hall is that a student drew on the walls in her blood and then committed suicide.
“The whole thing about the blood on the walls (isn’t true),” he said. “They had to repaint because the girl drew a red dragon on the wall in crayon … Wilson is definitely extremely haunted but not for the reason people think it’s haunted.”
Another legend Lantz refutes is the story of the five cemeteries in Athens forming a pentagram. In fact, he said that it’s more a matter of connect the dots due to the massive number of cemeteries, and any number of designs could be found.
In order to write the book, Lantz spent numerous hours in the library archives and in the Athens County Historical Society, as well as interviewing those who had paranormal experiences while in Athens.
“My goal with the book was to tell the ghost stories of Athens but also tell the facts behind it,” he said. “I want to shed light on what’s fact and what’s fiction but still do the story justice.”
Lantz isn’t the only undergraduate in town that is a published author.
Summer Schmier, a freshman studying journalism, released Lilah Keeper and the Deceiver’s Heir at the beginning of the semester. The book is also self-published.
She was inspired to write the fantasy novel by her grandmother.
“My grandma actually had a dream one night that my grandfather, who passed away, came out from her dream,” she said. “She dreamed that he came out of her dream into her room … In the book, the (main character’s) dreams become reality, it’s uncontrollable.”
According to Schmier, Lilah Keeper and the Deceiver’s Heir is about a teenage girl with the power to make her dreams become reality. Lilah lives in a secluded town where a dark ruler is trying to find her because of her powers. Her novel is the first in a trilogy. Schmier is currently working on writing the second book in the series.
Undergraduate students rarely publish books, said Curt Holsapple, co-owner of Little Professor Book Center.
Little Professor typically sells student-authored books on consignment, which means the author is paid if the books are sold instead of the store purchasing the books ahead of time.
“Most OU writers sold at the store are graduate students, and it’s very unusual for an undergraduate to have published a novel,” Holsapple said.
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