Ghost Writer: Author takes Knottsville bar on spirit journey

Janice Millay Payne wasn’t planning on being an author.

But she kept thinking about the experiences she had working at, then owning, her family business — Millay’s Tavern and Grill in Knottsville — which she sold in September 2018.

“I had all of these thoughts in my head,” she said. “I missed my customers. I missed the bar. So one day I bought a tablet and I just started writing some thoughts down. I filled up two tablets. And then my friend said, ‘Well, get you a laptop.’ So I went and got a laptop, and all of those notes just became a book.”

Payne released “Millay’s Beer Joint Ghosts” in April, and she has been thrilled with the reception.

“People seem to like it,” she said. “I had a book singing, and it was overwhelming.”

Millay’s book is historical fiction. It’s based around the the tavern, originally named “The Beer Joint,” which her grandfather began in 1942. It also draws inspiration from events Payne or others witnessed at the bar, but couldn’t explain.

“There are people who are skeptical, who say I’m crazy to do it because there are no such thing as ghosts,” she said. “But after the book came out, I’ve had people come on Facebook and say ‘This happened to me,’ or ‘This happened to me.’ But I don’t want it out there that Millay’s is haunted. They’re good ghosts.”

Millay said her experiences in the building include hearing a gate swinging back and forth without any prompting and the sound of a barstool scraping the floor when no one was in the room.

“I heard a barstool scrape, and when you’ve been in a family business as long as I have, you know what a barstool sounds like when it scrapes,” said Payne, who also recalled others having the experience. “I had a bartender, and one time I was with her up front, and plates got knocked off the shelf somehow. Then one time a bartender said while she was in the kitchen a loaf of bread went flying off the shelf.”

The ghost theme ties back to her family in the book, which is set at the bar in 2018. With Payne needing help, her grandparents, parents and sister, who are all buried in the cemetery across the road from the tavern, return as ghosts to help her run the establishment and, at times, deal with unruly customers.

“I went across the road many times before I sold the bar; I knew I was going to have to sell the bar, and it broke my heart,” she said. “And I prayed for help. This is in the book. The fictional part (is when my family) says we’re going to help this girl, and they go across the road and they kick some butts.

“After (mother) is there for a while, she singles out two men, and all five of them get up and punish these men. Papaw and Daddy grab their arms and walk around the room, and every time they say the F word, Momma and Grandma just pour a beer over their heads.”

The book takes place over the course of a week, starting Monday and ending Sunday, which is also when the ghosts have to depart.

Payne said 90% of the characters in the book are based on her customers, but with their names changed.

“I just had to write about the characters that came into the beer joint,” she said. “It was just crazy.”

Payne’s book is available for purchase on Amazon, and she anticipates having a follow-up out this fall — “Millay’s Beer Joint Ghosts 1944” — which she said will feature the same ghosts but different people.

“It’s already written; the editor has it,” said Payne, who doesn’t anticipate making it a trilogy. “I think I’m done.”