In a month when all things haunted and spooky are in high demand, writer and actor Thomas Wilson thinks locals should look no further than the cityscape right outside their doors.

Dressed in ghoulish garb as a guide for the Ghost Tours in Downtown Tallahassee, Wilson has spent the past three years sharing Tallahassee’s rich history with tour-goers in what he calls the “ground zero of Southern gothic history.” He got involved with the organization given his passions for storytelling and history. This year he will portray the late Dr. William Gunn, one of the first black medical doctors in Florida.

“Tallahassee is basically one big museum,” remarks Wilson. “We at Ghost Tours only scratch the surface, as every single older building in this town has a story to it. The goal of the Ghost Tours is to get people to pay attention to the history that is all around us.”

Though he has dabbled in both the music andtheater worlds, Wilson considers himself foremost a writer and event specialist. In town, Wilson is an actor with the Canopy Roads Production company, performing in their productions of “A Raisin in the Sun,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and the upcoming, “Fences.”

Wilson grew up and around the arts scene in NYC, attending an arts high school and performing weekly at fundraisers and banquets. He went on to attend Fisk University for his bachelor’s, and Binghamton University for his master’s, as well as the Florida State University film school for his MFA. He is currently a member of the Tallahassee Author’s Network, a writer’s group that cheekily states its specialty as “harassing its members into finishing their work.”

“The only thing I ever wanted to do was write my own stories,” says Wilson, who has had a few works published, and likes to focus on character development. “I like to pay attention to what the character wants. I don’t view any character as being better or worse than me. They’re just simply people.”

Wilson gravitates toward characters that are “the flies on the wall,” that maintain objectivity and view everything from a slight distance. He believes his ability to spot and flesh out these Jiminy Cricketlike characters has led him to often be cast as the voice of reason in various productions.

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