here is what i have come up with so far for mosquito creek.

Dr. Mary Anglea, "Mary An" (yes the one "n" is intentional,) Robinson is a prominent parapsychologist. or she was.
until her ex(still working on the name. last name is robinson,) stole a theory on ghost magnets, a project she had been working one her entire life. the paper was never published. he has made exhaustive efforts that her theory is mocked, disbelived and laughed at while putting his own new age-y theories on pedistals as the only true ones.
her ex is also a paranormalist of note. no degree however, he is more along the lines of charletans and tricksters than anyone of scientific knowledge.

soon, she recieves divorce papers.
from there, the world of paranormal reseach is split, unevenly, between the ex and the ghost magnet theory and a bitter mary an, trying to piece a life and a career back together.

in the middle of this is their daughter, Natalie, who up 'til this point has been daddy's little girl. she is about 9.
one night, she had a nightmare. in it a young woman is killed (just how will be determined.) she gets out of bed in search of a glass of water and comfort from a parent.
she finds her dad rummaging about in her mom's study. papers are everywhere. he gathers her papers along with computer files (think old 5" floppies this is the eighties.) she never sees what he does with them (note: he destroys them all.) little nat knows how important these papers are to her mom. she spends more time on them than with her. but what is daddy doing in there? why is he taking them? those aren't his to take.
she doens't know the words the right words but she knows something is wrong. dad is doing something wrong.

skip ahead some months, maybe a year. natalie had been living with an aunt on her dad's side. the aunt is kind, but natalie does not care. she is thinking on what she saw.

the divorce's day in court arrives. the ex states reasons why he should have custody of nat. mary an is silent in court, the sting of betrayal is still effecting her. she does make a half-hearted bid for nat's custody, not relly believing she'll be rewarded with it.
the judge decides to ask nat. the ex has no problems with this. he is sure of his total win.

"natalie, your dad would like you to live with him. your mother has also stated some interest in keeping you. who do you want to be with?"

it's a terrible thing for a child to be asked. however, nat has had time to brood and think over what she saw her father do. he stole her work. he cheated by putting his name on it. it only takes her a few seconds to decide.

"my mother, please."

shock on the ex's face, he recovers quickly. offers her toys, a pony, whatever if she chooses him. to no avail.

she whispers, "i know what you did." (i know this part is a little cliche and needs work.)

she looks up at the judge and says loud enough for the court to hear, "may i live with my mother?"

up until this point, mary an had thought she had lost everything. how naive could i have been?
nat's choice brought her some hope. they hadn't been awfully close, nat usually doted on her father. why did she choose me?

from this point nat and mary an become closer than they had been. it isn't easy for them, but they manage.
mary an takes back her maiden name, mitchell, and has nat's changed to it also. she trys to fade out of the paranormal world some, hoping that people would forget and her career may not be a total loss. she doesn't abadon it altoghter, just keeping a low profile.
speed ahead some years.
nat is now 16.
mary an tries to find work as a professor in the universities that offer paranormal studies courses. it is time to return to her work.

her old alma mater in arkansas surprisingly has started a paramormal program and needs faculty. the head of the department is an old friend and he has always leaned to her theories. to cinch the matter, mary an's mother has died. the parents moved to florida years before. as soon as her dad was able to retire. they seemed to speed away from their hometown of Mosquito Creek as fast as they could. this leave mary an with some money and a house. in a very haunted rural community.

in this place, mary an grew up. the ghosts outnumbered the living. if you didn't have any live kids to play with, you could always find some that weren't alive that wanted to.
here, mary an's theory of ghost magnets, places where ghosts, by some unknown force are unable to leave the earth. they do not go to heaven or hell.
her theory of their existance rocked the paranormal world of research or would've had it been published. her ex destroyed years of notes and research. all she had was in her head. now, she is in a place where she can do her reseach any from prying eyes of her ex and his cronies. it's perfect. in summer she moves and begins to get the house in order. nat thinks she only there for the summer.
she is a little upset to hear that they are moving into a hick town in arkansas. she starts at the local high school in the fall.

during the first act of the comic, we see mary an and nat move in, affairs of the house put in order, the move is made official and mary an takes the professorship, nat is motified that they will be living in one of the hick capitals of the world. we see foreshadowing of the ghosts. nat's first experience is a revelation that begins the second act (chapter) of the story.
natalie is discovering her psychic abilities. she decides to keep mum about them until she figures them out.

not all of the ghost in mosquito creek can be seen. not all can be heard. some are completly insivisble. as the tiime wears on the ghost, it fades. it still exists but humans can not longer see or hear. even the more recent of ghost cannot interact with them. old ghost are usually isolated by themsleves, rarely in small groupings of 2 or 3.
the isolation sometimes drives them insane, into wrathful creatures...their anger and rage drives their will and they learn to manipulate objects. some are harmful poltergeists, others, are mre gruesome and horrible. they bend their will towards harm.
natalie can see, hear and interact with these "faded ones." only she and others with her abilities can. she can warn of the harmful ones while talking with the ones who are just lonely. like old ms. dickey, a faded one who used to be the town school marm and librarian back in the 1800s.
"it's good you've decided to visit me again, i was worried that i upset you last time."

"last time? i've never met you before.."

"Beth Mitchell, how can you say that?"

"woah! woah! my name is natalie. who's this 'beth'?"

and thus natalie learns of her aunt and that she also could speak with the faded ones.
that dream she had all those night ago...
it was of Beth, her mother's older sister.
beth has been watching and waiting. trying to decide if she should interact with her little sister and niece.
at first,she doesn't know who they are and why they are moving into her house! her parents' house!
until mary an recieves a visitor, beth's old high school sweatheart turned high school art teacher. he heard that mary an had returned.
beth eavesdrops on the dinner and learns who has moved in and why.

nat is on the other side of town having met elise hunn, called "rabbit."
rabbit has lived here for 5 years know. she has never experienced a ghost even though her house is haunted (where in mosquito creek is not haunted?)
she shares nat's feeling about it being the hick capital of the world. she escapes when she can to visit realitves out of state. rabbit had just returned from one of those trips with the ends of her long hair dyed a vivid, dark blue.
her mother had a fit in the middle of the airport and she was grounded on the spot. this is the first that rabbit could get about. upon relating this to nat, she laughs and said, "it's a good thing i didn't tell her i got my belly button pierced! or show her my tattoo!"
(it's a small blue bunny on her lower back, small of the back? sorta...)

rabbit introduces her to the only native she deems fit to know, zak, fellow student and an aspiring magician. he wants to be better than david copperfield. thing is, zak's magic tricks always go awry in strange ways. instead of a rabbit out of the hat, try snow.
nat figures out why in chapter 5. his magic is real.

nat learns that beth is a dead ringer (no pun intended) for her. they look so alike it's uncanny.
beth begins to follow her...
after awhile of this, nat gets fed up and tricks beth unto showing her self to mary an and nat.
a reunion ensues, maybe not exactly happy, but without malice.

through all of this, mary an concentrates on the ghost magnet. she gather up evidence to prove it and tries to figure out the who, what when here and why's. not to mention the how, as in, how did they place become a ghost magnet? under what conditions do ghost magnets exist? etc.

we see foreshadowing that the ex is trying to find natalie. soon he discovers where she is and then what mary an is trying to do...this must be stopped...
perhaps he'll send some of his cronies to visit the para-psy dept. at the university. or something. i'll figure it out.

ooo! dramatic tension! 8^)P

i think the story is coming along nicely. 8^)