PEORIA MAGAZINE October 2022

W O R D C O U N T

ONE SPOOKY STORYTELLER Local librarian explores the dark side in her literary journeys

BY LAURIE PILLMAN PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON A ccording to Sylvia Shults, her passion for ghost stories started when she was 9 years old and summer vacations were spent in Wisconsin swapping spooky tales with her sister and cousins. The excitement of those stories has lasted decades for the Chicago-born author who now resides in Pekin, just 10 minutes from the old Peoria State Hospital. It’s a convenient drive for the librarian of 25 years who has made a co career of collecting and sharing stories from such reputedly haunted locations. “I like to say I sit in dark, spooky places so you don't have to,” the author admitted recently with a wide grin. While it may seem an odd pastime for someone who grew up with a near crippling fear of the dark, Shults didn’t set out to write true ghost stories.

She started her writing journey in the romance and horror genres. It was only after a publisher asked her to write a book about Peoria State Hospital that she made the leap into paranormal nonfiction, where she has earned a devoted fanbase. Earl ier this year, readers and publishers alike voted to award Shults first place in the occult and paranormal nonfiction category of the BookFest Spring 2022 Book Awards. Her award winning book was Days of the Dead: A Year of True Ghost Stories , which contains 366 unique tales, one for every day of the year. “It is actually a full year of ghost stories,” said Shults. “I found one for Leap Day, which just thrilled me. Some of them are recurring hauntings and some of them are a particular murder that happened on such and such a date.

So, I was able to find a ghost story for every single day of the year. It took me two years of research and 14 months of writing, but it's done.” Shults is constantly writing and researching, sometimes churning out multiple books in a year. Her award winning Days of the Dead was published in September 2021 and her newest offering, Grave Deeds and Dead Plots , was released in August of this year. The new book showcases stories that hug what Shults calls the “vanishingly thin” line between true crime and paranormal stories. While researching for her latest work, Shults found enoughmaterial for four or five more books. She already has plans to turn Grave Deeds and Dead Plots into a full series, but first she’s wrapping up an homage to those summer vacations years ago. Her next book will focus on

94 OCTOBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE