And That's Research, Folks! A Weekend in the Only Town in America Founded by Mediums

When you write historical fiction, you don't just research from a desk — sometimes you have to go stand where it happened.

For The Knocking — out July 14th — that meant a trip to Lilydale, New York. Founded in the early 1900s, Lilydale is a real, still-active hamlet where the residents are Spiritualists — mediums, healers, and their families. It's not a theme or an aesthetic there. You actually have to be a Spiritualist to live in the town.

I happened to visit during a medium's conference. Naturally, someone asked me: "Are you a medium?"

I said no. I'm a writer.

Though the more I sat with that answer, the less sure I was it was really a no. Writing historical fiction means spending months trying to channel people who lived and died over a century ago — trying to get their voices right, their logic, what they'd have felt standing in that farmhouse in 1848. That's not nothing like what a medium claims to do. Different tools, maybe. Similar aim.

Also, I got a really great mug.

That's research, folks.

The Knocking is out July 14th from Little A. Book two, Love Letters from the Dead, follows in summer 2027.

Learn more https://www.lauraleebahr.com/post/the-knocking-by-laura-lee-bahr-cover-reveal-and-now-available-for-pre-order