I am laughing about this now, but half an hour ago it was scary. I was just settling in to my research on nasty ghosts (as you do) and I got distracted by clips from "Ghostbusters" on YouTube. Particularly I found myself hooked on the scene where the Terror Dog, Zuul, pins Dana into the chair in her apartment, drags her into the kitchen and possesses her.
Unfortunately, right at the moment when I have a wide-mouthed, red-eyed, snarling Terror Dog filling my widescreen monitor, the fuse box decided to blow, plunging the whole house into darkness and leaving that image seared on my head. The fuse box is in the cellar.
I have never been more scared to go and change it. Even with a torch and a quick step in my feet, the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up all the way. That blooming Zuul didn't leave my head until I logged back on with all lights restored.
Have any of you managed to scare yourself like this when researching? Just curious really.
So the answer is, I've never scared myself, but the bill scared my husband :D
You really haven't got the hang of this research lark at all. The last time I had to do 'genuine research' I had to leave the husband and kids behind, get on a plane, go to my mums and get cooked for and cleaned up after all week during which I took a day trip to London, spent a glorious day in Bloomsbury, took in the British Museum and then popped to the British Transport Museum on the way home to get the book I needed on the history of the Piccadilly Line.
Best damn research I ever did! Unsurprisingly, my husband stopped funding my 'research trips' after that, but as we now live a couple of thousand miles closer to London, I'm going to start them back up again quite soon. (Partly because I managed to leave the necessary book on the Piccadilly Line in our house two thousand miles away. Doh!)
Oh, and if you're wondering why I can't just get the information online, it's because The British Transport Museum sells books on the rail networks that are independently published by enthusiasts and hard to find anywhere else. I couldn't even get half the information I needed without that book. At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Did you check that Zuulhadn't been gnawing at your cables?
I do frequently frighten myself with how little I know about subjects that need research... But then I have to keep the research to the minimum that I really do need for my subject/text and not go wandering off with a load of detail that would clog up the story...
Were there any strange heavy-breathing noises in the cellar? (Apart from your own?)
David