The Unexplainable

I love it—the unexplainable, that is.
Here’s the thing: so much about this life that’s enjoyable is unexplainable. The pull you feel to study engineering, your longing to live in a certain part of the world, or the time you’re walking down the street of a huge city and your eyes suddenly find another person’s and you just suddenly know, in the midst of the crowd, that this person will have some meaning in your life. Maybe you can explain some things, but this? Nah.
It’s the same with the “paranormal.” I find it fascinating for so many reasons. I would be a skeptic and often am—except that I’ve had some unexplainable things happens to me in my life. None of which I will go into here. (Sorry.)
Intellectually, one of the many things I find curious about the paranormal is how it really cannot be proven. I know about the paranormal investigators and so on and even watch some of those shows. But I never see or hear what they are talking about. And when I do there’s an explanation—mice, a weird air current in the room, and so on. But. When things like this happen to you, you don’t exactly need proof, do you?
But, as I said, I love the unexplainable.
This is why I use the paranormal in my books. I’ve been asked about the paranormal element in my first book, SCRAPBOOK OF SECRETS. Is Bea’s husband really haunting her? Or does she just miss him so much that she imagines him? And if that’s the case—how powerful is this thing we call imagination? Can it make something seem so real that we actually wield it into existence? I wonder.
I’m not a “paranormal” writer, meaning I don’t have paranormal characters (like werewolves, vampires, fairies, and such) in my books. But what I try to do is entertain possibilities. In my next book, SCRAPBOOK OF SHADOWS, there will also be a bit of a paranormal element, treated much in the same way. It’s a different situation and element, completely, but it does entertain possibilities.
As a reader, how do you feel about that when you’re reading? Do you want hard cold answers? Or is okay to leave some unanswered questions?