Ormond Hotel Cupola, Fortunata Park, Ormond Beach, FL Photo by Roxyanne Young (taken on my research trip in June 2001) Images of the Ormond Hotel used with permission of the Ormond Beach Historical Trust.

SYNOPSIS:
This novel is not yet published. 

Marabeth's got a little ghost problem. She's having nightmares about a girl in a white nightgown running down a long, dark hallway in the century-old Ormond Hotel, a local landmark her mom is trying to save from demolition. Her dad's the contractor hired to tear it down, though, so things are tense at home and time's running out, both for her family and for the ghost - demolition starts in five days and if Marabeth can't figure out what exactly is anchoring this ghost to the hotel, the little girl's spirit could be lost forever.

Interweaving real historical figures and events, Ghosts Under 12 Stay Free is both funny and scary, with a serious mystery to be solved and quirky characters like Marabeth's academic whiz kid brother, Wahoo; Aimee, her best friend and future astronaut who doesn't believe a syllable of Marabeth's ghost hypothesis; Aimee's Aunt Chloe, who owns a combination medium-manicure shop where customers can get their nails done and their palms read in the same sitting; and David, Marabeth's crush, a photographer for their high school yearbook and an amateur ghost hunter.

Is Marabeth really being haunted, though, or are these nightmares just a manifestation of the stress in her house, as ever-pragmatic Aimee believes? In Ghosts Under 12 Stay Free, Marabeth has to face her fears and find out what these dreams mean, what the ghost - if that's what it is - wants, and then figure out what she has to do to save her, and if Marabeth can free this girl's spirit before the hotel is destroyed, can she also save her family from destruction?