Photo from Haunted Hartford Castle - Hartford, Illinois
Interview with Mike Kleen - Author of Legends and Lore of Illinois
Interview with Mike Kleen, the Founder/Director of Black Oak Media and writer of Legends and Lore of Illinois, an honest look at Illinois’ most wierd and misunderstood locations.
How did you get started in the Paranormal?
I’ve been interested in the paranormal since a very young age. Some of the first books I ever read on my own were books about ghosts. I loved Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and all the young adult collections of weird facts and haunted places. I didn’t start going to local haunted places until high school, but I did attend a presentation given by Richard Crowe at Oakton Community College when I was about 9 years old. He was the first to give haunted tours in Chicago, and he’s still one of the most knowledgeable in the Chicagoland area, along with Ursula Bielski, of course. That really set my mind toward seeking out ghost stories around my home town.
How many haunted places have you been to?
I can’t really put number on it, but I’ve written 47 issues of the Legends and Lore of Illinois, so I have been to at least that many. I would add at least another two dozen places from my book Haunting the Prairie to that number. I’ve been to a couple outside of Illinois, but mainly I’ve stayed around this state. New Orleans and Key West, however, are great destinations for any lovers of ghost stories. I made sure to go on haunted tours in this cities and I did not leave disappointed. I think it’s important to visit any haunted location that you want to write about. I know a lot of authors who just repeat information they read in other books, and there are so many details you can add if you actually go to the place and look around. So I try to visit as many as I can.
Out of all your investigations, which case stands out most in your mind?
I am a writer and researcher rather than an investigator, but I really enjoyed accompanying the Forest City Paranormal Society on their investigation of Willow Creek Farm in November of last year. We spent the night there, and they ended up recording some knocks in the house when everyone was outside. One of them sounded like it was right on the table next to the recorder. They also got some whistling in the basement at 1 or 2 am, so that was interesting. They are a great group to work with, and I’m glad they invited me to come along and observe their investigation.
What has been your most frightening experience?
It’s funny because I used to get scared of everything as a kid, but I don’t really get scared anymore. Sometimes I’ll be in a place alone and I’ll realize I’m alone and get a shiver up my spine, but really I would love something to jump out and scare me. I’ve been to dozens of haunted places, and I’m still waiting for that profound experience that tells me that something is lurking out there.
Do you believe in animal ghosts?
I have heard many times that people have seen, felt, or heard what they believed to be the ghosts of animals, so I suppose I do. What is a “ghost”? Isn’t a ghost something that people have seen, felt, or heard that wasn’t supposed to be there or had no perceivable physical cause? I can’t say all those people are lying when they say they have experienced that, even if it’s an animal that they describe.
Do you feel that a place is just as active in the day time as it is at night or are we just too busy to notice?
I don’t think ghosts care what time it is.
What do you think is attributed to the recent surge in popularity of paranormal on television?
I don’t know if the paranormal is really more popular, or it’s the type of shows that have changed. When I was a kid, they used to have specials about ghosts, and of course there was Unsolved Mysteries and Sightings. But aliens were much more popular back then, and the shows about ghosts were different. They told stories, they didn’t feature paranormal investigators. Now, with the success of Ghost Hunters, every cable TV channel wants to get a piece of that market, but that will change soon. I know for a fact that a lot of those shows are on the chopping block now, and in a few years they will be on to something else.
What made you decide to venture in and start writing about the Paranormal and folklore of Illinois?
When I first moved to Charleston to go to Eastern Illinois University, there was only one place had been written about in that area: Pemberton Hall. I found a few other places mentioned online, but mostly I kept hearing stories from people I met at the university. I thought that the stories were so compelling that I had to write about them and spread the word. So I started writing the Legends and Lore of Coles County, first as a website and then as a monthly newsletter. After a few years, I decided to take that newsletter format and apply it to the entire state. The Legends and Lore of Illinois was born.
What was the first piece you ever wrote?
It’s really difficult to say, but the first issue of the Legends and Lore of Coles County was about Airtight Bridge, where a woman’s torso was found in 1980. Before that, I wrote a few “guides” to Bachelor’s Grove and Archer Avenue for a group of close friends. Before that I mainly wrote short stories and fiction.
How much do you feel you’ve improved in the last few years?
My writing has improved a lot over the past 10 or 15 years. When I go back and read the first novellas I ever wrote, I think they are terrible. Some of that might be my own heightened sense of self-criticism, but really, when I started writing I didn’t know anything about grammar and I was a terrible speller. I never paid attention to any of that stuff in school - I was never interested in it. But you pick up all that stuff after writing for a long time. I took a lot of writing classes in college - short stories, creative nonfiction, poetry, play writing - the whole works. I revise, revise, revise, and every time it gets a little better, but it’s not something that is ever complete. I’m always learning how to be better at what I do.
What is your favorite genre?
I actually read a lot more nonfiction than fiction. I love reading about history and philosophy. I haven’t read a novel in over a year, but when I do, it’s usually science fiction.
Where do you get most of your ideas?
Books. I hate television, especially when it comes to forming ideas or thoughts of any kind. I refuse to watch any of those “ghost hunting” shows and I don’t even have cable TV in my apartment. I probably sound like a grumpy old man, but I like the fact that you can check the facts in any good book. TV shows are so deceptive… they can make anything look the way they want. At least in a history book, for example, there are citations and you can go and check the sources for yourself.
Who was your favorite childhood author?
Lynn Beach (I think this is a pen name). She wrote the “Phantom Valley” series, which I thought was amazing when I was a kid. I remember once that I was halfway through the first book, The Evil One, right before I went to bed, and I actually woke up sweating and had to finish reading it. It scared me that much! I also really liked Janet Taylor Lisle’s Afternoon of the Elves.
How old where you when you first started writing?
I was at least in fourth or fifth grade. I have to give my teachers credit, they encouraged me to write and I kept at it. When I tried to write my first novel, they told me to develop my talent, they didn’t just dismiss it and say, “oh, you’re too young to write a book,” or something like that. My fifth grade teacher actually had us write and publish our own little books with a spiral-binding machine that was in the library. I think that’s where I developed my passion for self publishing.
What is your favorite thing you’ve written?
That is a tough question. I think Paranormal Illinois, my most recent book, is some of my best work. It’s the most well-researched book I’ve written to date and I’m very proud of it. However, I have a soft spot for Tales of Coles County, Illinois. Even though it’s been several years since I lived in Charleston, I have a lot of good memories from there, and Tales of Coles County speaks to all of those experiences.
What is your favorite novel by a different author?
I’m almost embarrassed to admit it because it’s a science fiction novel based on a game, but I’ve read Way of the Clans by Robert Thurston at least a dozen times. In terms of the paranormal, I still think Chicago Haunts by Ursula Bielski is one of the best out there, if not the best. A lot of the recent books about Chicago ghosts have been pale imitations of her’s.
What do you think makes good writing?
Accuracy and consistency. This is true for both fiction and nonfiction. In fiction, I immediately lose interest if the characters suddenly and for no reason drop some personality quirk they had at the beginning, or if something happens that doesn’t follow from what came before. That’s just lazy writing. In nonfiction, or in writing about ghost stories and haunted places, you can tell if someone has never been somewhere before. I’ve lost a lot of respect for authors because I’ve visited the places they write about and they miss some obvious detail, or they just reprint a fact they heard somewhere else and don’t bother to confirm it. Part of accuracy is just being thorough, checking your sources, and making your sources known so that other people can spot mistakes in your writing. There’s no shame in going back and correcting a mistake you’ve made. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to do that - it makes you a much better writer.
How do you beat out your writers block?
Strangely enough, I just start writing something. When I just get myself to sit down and start typing, sometimes ideas will start coming out. Or I go to some restaurant and sit in a dark corner with a pen and pad. I actually find it more difficult to write in silence - I need some noise and activity around me. I wrote a lot of Paranormal Illinois and the Legends and Lore of Illinois at McDonald’s and Taco Bell. Alcohol helps as well - it often provides what the ancient Greeks called entheos, but only in moderation…
Who do you look to in admiration (writer who you admire)?
In the paranormal genre, I think there are a couple of big names. Ursula Bielski and Richard Crowe, who I’ve already mentioned, and Troy Taylor. I have a grudging admiration for Troy. He wrote some good stuff in his early years, but he quickly resorted to, let’s say, less than admirable means to get material for all his books, so I’ve lost a great amount of respect for him. Still, you have to give him credit for writing about central Illinois in the first place. I believe only one other author had at the time he started publishing, and if it wasn’t for him, I doubt we would see any of those stories in print. Bielski and Crowe were two of the first to write about haunted places in Chicago, and still the best. Almost all of Richard Crowe’s work comes from personal experience and things that people have told him directly, and he isn’t afraid to name names. You don’t get much closer to the source than that.
Do you listen to music when you write?
All the time, at least anytime I’m writing at home. I used to bring my mp3 player out too, and my diskman when we still had to carry those around. I love heavy metal, especially European metal, but it depends on what mood I’m in and what I’m writing. Sometimes I like the more somber stuff like gothic rock and doom metal, and then sometimes I like to drown out the outside world with something heavier like Opeth or Primordial. I like to listen to Wagner when I’m thinking or I need inspiration.
What is your most successful article/book?
Probably my most successful article is “The Legend of Pemberton Hall,” which I put on my website as a free .pdf for people to download and enjoy. So far it’s been downloaded 1,470 times. For two years in a row, I walked around Charleston, Eastern Illinois University, and Lake Land College putting up flyers for that article. It’s the most comprehensive piece ever written about that story, and people can’t get enough of it. It’s available on my website here: www.michaelkleen.com/2010/10/09/the-son-of-the-legend-of-pemberton-hall/
What would you do if you didn’t write?
I don’t know what I would do - I would probably kill myself. Writing is such a part of who I am, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction. See, I have a lot of different interests. Many people don’t know that when I started writing, I started with fiction. Then I started writing about haunted places and that really took off, but I’ve also written a lot of history papers as well. I’ve presented twice at the Conference on Illinois History, and I’ve been working toward getting those papers published in some historical journals. I write opinion columns as well for websites like Strike-the-Root and I also publish other people’s short stories and articles in my magazine Black Oak Presents. There’s a lot of different ways I express that interest, so if I couldn’t do one anymore I would just concentrate on the others, but man, if I couldn’t write at all? I wouldn’t have anything to live for anymore.
I would like to thank Mike for taking time out of his busy schedule to do this interview with me. If you would like to read more of Mike’s books and articles on the Legends and Lore of Illinois, you can go to his websites.
