Eleanor Wagner Interview Published on: 07, Apr 2026

I began writing when I was in the seventh grade after being inspired by an assignment given to my class by our seventh grade teacher, Mrs. O’Connor. Believe it or not, I was fortunate to reconnect with her and dedicated my Warren County book to her! I started off writing poetry and short stories, but always had the desire to write a book. I had an idea in my head, and when I finally had some time to actually sit down and put it to paper, I did so. "Dream a Little Dream" became a reality. When the manuscript was complete, I breathed a sigh of relief and packed it away in my closet where it stayed for about thirty years. Fear of rejection kept me from doing anything with it. An old high school friend prompted me to send the book to his publisher for review. I caved and sent it in. They liked it enough to publish it. The rest is history.

I went to the Institute of Children's Literature to learn how to write for children. It only made sense to write a children's book series. To date, I have only published the first in what will be a series of at least already ten written books. I grew up being inspired by John Saul, Dean Koontz and Stephen King. This, herein, is where my passion really lies. Hence, how you can understand their influence when writing, "Dream a Little Dream" and my most recent release, "Abnormal Desires". The Hauntings books were pretty much an afterthought. I personally have experienced spirits since I was a child and had my own stories to tell. I knew there were people out there with their own stories to tell but the inability to write them down themselves. So, Sussex County Hauntings was born and turned out to have a real following. Sussex County Hauntings led to three books being written. There is one about Warren County Hauntings, and soon to be released is a Morris County and Sussex County edition.

It is when I am night dreaming and daydreaming when ideas come to me. I actually keep a notepad on my nightstand table so if I wake up with an idea, I can immediately jot it down before I forget it.

I have no writing routine. If the mood strikes me, I go with it immediately before it is lost. Usually, the mood will last for days before it subsides and I wait for it to come back again. It is infinitely different writing my paranormal thrillers compared to the true-account paranormal books, though. The true-account ones, I can literally pick up any day, anytime, anywhere and go with it.

In comparison to my true-account paranormal books, "Abnormal Desires" is fictional. It is different from "Dream a Little Dream" in that Dream is present-day while Abnormal takes place in the 1900s. What I like to incorporate in all my books is true-life counties and places. Obviously, they are real and exist in the true-account books, but I like to bring them alive in my fiction books.

Funny story here: I was writing the first true-account paranormal, "Sussex County Hauntings and Other Strange Phenomena" and was interviewing a local scientist and head of a mining museum about his ghostly account of the premises. He invited me there with my 'team' to do a paranormal investigation and see for ourselves. I readily agreed, though I had no paranormal team to speak of. I immediately assembled a group of people together that I worked with over the years or interviewed for the book. The Lady Ghostbusters team was created! Eventually, I changed the name to The New Jersey Spirit Hunters when more men joined the clan. When I became a snowbird in North Carolina, I decided to form a group there so I could have the best of both ghostly worlds in both places. Eventually, as my books became popular in the surrounding counties, people would reach out to me about the paranormal activity in their residences or businesses asking for my team to come in and figure out who it was doing the haunting and for what reason.

Absolutely, it is the one thing that led me to understand my gift and my purpose in using it. When I was four, I would see a masculine spirit in my home. He regularly visited me in my room and at times tried to reach out to me, though I considered it grabbing me. I was terrified, and having parents that were unfamiliar with such things was told, "It was just a nightmare." I even had a name connected with the spirit. Uncle Paul. Whether he was truly my uncle who passed before my birth or not, I do not know, but this spirit haunted me up until the time my bedroom was moved to a different floor of the house where I slept in pitch blackness. I also had premonitions as a kid, too. They always came to me in dreams and always came true. The one time a premonition came to me as a nightmare was horrifying, and when the nightmare became reality, the 12-year-old child in me blamed myself for not doing anything about it. Of course this was an unrealistic assumption - that I could change fate, but try explaining that to a 12-year-old! The premonitions stopped at that point. I think I may have frightened myself so much, I stifled that gifted part of me. Nonetheless, my draw to the paranormal increased, and as I grew into adulthood, I sought answers. I finally understood that the spirit of Uncle Paul knew I could see him and merely wanted acknowledgement from me. I wish I had known this when I lived there. If I could go back now and apologize to the Uncle Paul spirit, I would. Now, I knew I had this gift. The only other family member who ever spoke of seeing spirits was my sister. So, what do I do with this gift now? Why do I have this gift? I finally understood when my dad came to me the day he died. This is called a spiritual visit from a deceased loved one. I now understood I could use my writing and my gift to tell the spirit's story. As a paranormal team, we could all use our gifts to give the spirit the acknowledgement they deserve and hear their stories. With my writing, I could tell the world what they said.

This was the very first investigation for The Lady Ghostbusters - the one I spoke of earlier. I planned it for my birthday weekend as a present to myself. Ha! It was awesome. We were the very first team to ever go into the mines for an investigation. Sadly, today it is a veritable habitat for paranormal groups and paranormal enthusiasts. When a group of Sensitives gather together in a haunted location, especially one such as the mines with all of the minerals being mined, the energy is palpable. We connected with so many spirits of the hundreds of lost souls. They were a brotherhood and all wanted us to hear their stories and see how they lived and worked. The spirits never had so many people who could see, hear and interact with them. They were overwhelmed by the acknowledgement and did whatever they could to get noticed and get through. We got video footage of a strange, smokey manifestation that responded to our questions and requests. Paranormal Caught on Camera thought it was good enough to feature on one of their episodes. We even experienced residual hauntings which are types of paranormal phenomena where a past event, often traumatic or highly emotional, replays like watching a video over and over. I wrote all about it in,"Sussex County Hauntings and Other Strange Phenomena." It was quite the memorable experience for all involved.

I like to give the history of the town or location, especially since so much of history gets lost or told inaccurately. I find a lot of my readers are history buffs and appreciate this. I also find readers enjoy the history and put the towns and locations on their Bucket Lists for future visits. Therefore, the research aspect goes into finding out as much of the history of the town, location and/or event that I can. Obviously, the stories come from individuals sharing their experience with me, so that part of the information comes directly from them. When I am writing about a particular location, I try to gather as many accounts for that location as I can, because it makes the story more verifiable and realistic when so many people are sharing stories that happened over different periods of time. As I am relaying the factual information part of the investigation, I tell it like it is, but when I am speaking about individual experiences, I like to storytell it so the reader feels they are living it and are there while it happens.

You’ve practically answered that question yourself: Responsibly and Respectfully.

I like to think my team’s Mission Statement says it all. First and foremost, we are there for Spirit. We must remember we are in their space and they do not understand their circumstances and are trying to figure things out. Therefore, it is our responsibility to give them the acknowledgement and attention they deserve. We make it our priority to get to the bottom of what it is they are trying to tell us. Secondly, we are there for the people who are terrified by these ghostly encounters taking place in what they consider to be their own personal space. So, it is important for us to connect them with the spiritual world so they can live amicably. Oftentimes, we try to get the spirit to cross over, but sometimes the effort is fruitless and so creating a peaceful space for all involved is of utmost importance. Lastly, respect one another and each other’s gifts. Put the gifts to good use and work together as team players. Help to teach the newer members how to use their gifts so we can all grow and learn together. Lastly, protective oils and stones help. Make sure to tell Spirit they cannot follow you home, and close with prayer for full protection.

Oh my goodness, this is utterly impossible to answer. I absolutely cannot single out just one surprising story or perspective I’ve heard when interviewing people on my podcasts. I’ve had people share ghostly encounters, Bermuda Triangle encounters, UFO encounters, Bigfoot encounters…. And the interesting thing to know is that all of these people are intelligent, smart, well-rounded, well-educated, some well-known with respected jobs who you would never imagine would talk about such things! But this seems to be today’s reality. People in the last ten or twenty years have been coming out of the woodwork with their stories, unafraid, and ready to tell the world.

I don’t feel they’ve influenced my writing career in any way, really, but I can say that meeting people from all walks of life who open up to me about their encounters has been exciting and rewarding in itself. The fact that they are comfortable with me and trust me with their story is a blessing. If I were to say it influenced me in any way it would be to get back to it and write MORE. I do wish people would read more of my fiction work, but it is what it is. I am happy to know that my hauntings readers have slid into my fiction shelf and read them.

Moving to the countryside and old historic towns with old historic buildings has made investigations more readily available to me, I feel. Plus, I like the old-world charm. It makes for a good paranormal investigation and makes for good hauntings tales. It doesn’t affect my fiction writing, because no matter where I am, I use the surrounding environment in my story. If I were still living in the Bronx, this would be the case. If I am writing a story in need of a city backdrop, I will dive into my memories from there and pull it into my story.

My readers keep pushing for that next hauntings book, so I will be working to get that out later this year. My soul really needed to finish, “Abnormal Desires” and it has been very well-received, and I am so glad. I will continue to juggle it all when the mood strikes me. Now that Abnormal is done and out there, Morris and Sussex Hauntings is next. I am also putting out a new edition of my children’s books with a different illustrator who has agreed to work on all of them with me, so they will be coming out quickly one after the other. Finding a responsible, dedicated illustrator has been trying, but I finally found one in Lawrence Mascera and am truly grateful. I am working on a time-travel novel that has been progressing over a number of years now. So, as you can see, I have a lot going on.

I would, and already have, referred others to AllAuthor. Any reasonably priced, good marketing option is a go-to for me. I have found members to be friendly, workers to be helpful and I am hoping the exposure to my writing continues to grow. I am fairly new to AllAuthor and have entered the cover contests to date. I have tried out the photos where I can add my book covers for easy advertising, so that is fun. And, now this interview. As I have time, I will explore other things from AllAuthor available to me.