This Halloween, students looking for spine-tingling tales of ghosts and hauntings to read around the fire may come across the nonfiction series of ghost stories written by none other than 1973 NIU alumnus Michael Norman.

Norman’s series of books: “Haunted Heritage,” “Historic Haunted America,” “Haunted America,” “Haunted Heartland” and “Haunted Wisconsin” are all based on real people, places and experiences.

Writing books was not always something Norman knew he was going to do.
At NIU, Norman received his master’s in journalism.

“I got into book writing by accident,” Norman said.

His successes as an author prove that a student’s goals and aspirations are not always limited to one occupation in regard to their major. There is often a wider range of options.

Before penning books, Norman wrote for DeKalb’s Daily Chronicle and did radio for Rochelle Sports.

“I thought I would be in radio or broadcast,” Norman said.

It wasn’t until he attended a speech by the co-author of his recent books that he decided to make the switch to writing.

Norman said the decision to get into writing books also came about because he wanted to take his time with writing.

“I wasn’t well suited for deadlines,” Norman said. “A book is a long haul; it takes years.”

Journalism, however, still plays a role in Norman’s series of ghost stories. Readers can see an aspect of feature-writing in his books from his interviews with people who had experiences with ghosts.

“I like the permanence aspect of writing a book. They last beyond a day, week, a few minutes,” Norman said.

At the time when Norman was attending NIU, things were much different.
Norman said that the campus wasn’t as large and that the College of Journalism was in Kishwaukee Hall.

“The College of Journalism enabled me to stay in journalism, teaching and writing,” Norman said.

Norman most remembered his professor, retired journalism department chairman Donald Grubb.

“We had a nice group in journalism,” Norman said.

Norman advised aspiring students not to think there’s only one option.
“There’s a lot of different things to aspire to,” Norman said. “Keep writing and improve the craft.”

Besides writing ghost stories, Norman has also written plays based on diaries and books of language. One thing all his books have in common is that they are all based on fact.

Norman is currently working on more ghost stories for the Minnesota Historical Society Press.

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