I was the literary agent for Ghostbusters Ed and Lorraine Warren
in the 80’s, after they had already become famous from their work on The Amityville Horror. I love a good ghost
story and had been watching CNN when a Pennsylvania family got on the news
requesting the Catholic Church exorcise their home. As a journalist who had
become a literary agent, I told my husband that I couldn’t wait to read the
book, and he said, “You used to be a journalist. Go get the story,” so I found myself in their
haunted living room with the velvet paintings of Elvis within a week. Ed and Lorraine Warren were advising the family,
and I convinced them to leave their William Morris agent and go with me. We put together a proposal for a book that
became The Haunted which went to a
two-day auction and eventually became and Emmy-Award-winning TV movie.
I was their agent for seven books, but after a while the
stories all started to sound the same, and there was only so much excitement I
could muster for demons in the attic, exploding ectoplasm in the toilets and succubae
everywhere. But I have to say they
believed every word they said.
I had been to their haunted museum, where they had told me
the story of Annabelle, and I said that no one would be afraid of a haunted
doll. I should have remembered that Twilight Zone episode.
But it was time for me to go on to represent other things
like erotica and paranormal romance
I am so glad that Ed and Lorraine’s tales of things that do
more than go bump in the night found another generation. They were a fascinating
couple, who worked side by side until Ed passed in 2006. If my memory serves correctly, they met
because Ed loved painting haunted places and Lorraine could read auras. Someone should write a real paranormal
romance about them!
I do hope they are continuing their investigations from beyond.
