And That's Research, Folks! The Gravestone, the Bird, and the Birthplace of American Spiritualism

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

The Knocking — out July 14, 2026 — is built around the real story of Katie (Kate) Fox and her sister, two girls in an 1848 haunted farmhouse in Hydesville, New York, who did something no one had quite done before: they talked back. One knock for yes. Two for no. A whole alphabet's worth of raps to spell out messages from whatever — or whoever — was making the noise. That exchange, that strange little code between the living and the dead, is credited with kicking off American Spiritualism.

So naturally, research meant a trip to the original house site — now a foundation and memorial in Hydesville.

And there it was: a large marker at the site, reading "There is no death." Fitting, given the whole premise of the place.

And right in front of it, on the ground: a dead bird. It had flown into a window.

I wasn't going to film that. Some things you just have to sit with. But I'll admit — you couldn't script that kind of collision between the sentiment carved in stone and the very literal reminder lying at its feet. The spirit continues, maybe. The bird still hit the window.

That's the job, though. You go looking for the ghosts of 1848, and sometimes the present has its own things to say.

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