Shar Hashimoto didn’t need to look far for inspiration for her spooky entry in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Second Annual Halloween Fiction Contest. She found it at home in her husband, whose real-life supernatural experiences were the basis for "My Ghost Story."

"It’s a true story. Kind of strange things happen to him. He’s a special person," said Hashimoto, 62, a Kalihi resident who is a grants assistant at Bishop Museum.

Her husband, George Mundy, is a self-employed electrical engineer who has designed and built instruments for the Grateful Dead and other bands. Even as an infant in the Midwest, he seemed to attract paranormal activity.

Once during a thunderstorm, ball lightning — an unexplained natural phenomenon — hovered near his crib, an incident corroborated by his parents. Mundy claims the fizzling orb was communicating with him somehow.

He also witnessed unidentified flying objects as a child, and more recently told his wife of a ghost sighting similar to the one described in Hashimoto’s winning entry. (Spoiler alert!)

"It happened five or six years ago. He told me the next morning that he had gotten up in the middle of the night and looked out the window. He didn’t know who had passed away, but he saw the (dead) neighbor outside the front door across the street," she said.

"The rational mind will say, ‘No, it was dark. He didn’t really see the person.’ But sometimes you get a visitation from people who have passed. … Some people have that connection to the spiritual world."

Hashimoto, who grew up in Hawaii, took her husband’s experiences and crafted a ghost story featuring composite characters and a local setting.

Ghost stories woven with a thread of truth are often the most effective, and our Halloween Fiction Contest judges, members of the Hawaii Book Publishers Association, remarked that Hashimoto’s tale had a ring of authenticity.

"A reader will be able to easily picture sitting across the table from the narrator of ‘My Ghost Story,’ just talking story. The narrator’s voice is believable, which is necessary for this story. And the surprise ending is satisfying. The relationship between the boys also seems very genuine," said one judge.

Hashimoto will collect the $200 first prize. The second-place prize of $100 will go to Susan Baecker Grant, who penned "The Flashlight," which is posted online in the Features section at staradvertiser.com.

"(It) had a nice unexpected ending that I think readers of all ages would like," said one judge of the runner-up. "The characters feel true. Although the grandma doesn’t do a lot, she feels like a very peaceful, loving character. … It also successfully conveys a positive message while still being a little scary."

We received almost 100 entries in our Halloween Fiction Contest. Many were tales of revenge or tragedies rooted in the nightmare of domestic violence. Others were more gruesome accounts of rampaging krakens, killer pigs, possessed teddy bears, flesh-hungry ghouls and neighbors from hell, literally. There were also new interpretations of the islands’ more familiar ghost stories of a "white lady," ancient night marchers and Pali hauntings.

"All the stories feel very local and capture Hawaii’s cultural tradition in believing and respecting the ghost world and the presence (and importance) of family ancestors," said the judges.

Other finalists were Keith Haugen, Milton Miyasato, Bob Newell, Miyoko Sugano, Donald Carreira Ching, Levi Collins, Allan Izen, Mike Martin, Olivia Peterkin and Irene Tanaka.