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The trope for that is An Astral Projection, Not a Ghost; the Literature section isn't very long, but is one of those the novel?
I just found it. You know how? I went to Amazon.com and looked at every sci-fi novel published before 1990 with the keyword "ghost" or "consciousness." When that didn't work, I used "woman" as the only keyword. Needle in a haystack, right? The book I was looking for came up on the first page!
Turns out it's Crazy Time by Kate Wilhelm. Here's the cover of the edition I was thinking of: http://en.risingshadow.net/library?action=book&book_id=24357
I was wrong about the bubblegum.
Edited by FloydPinkerton
I'm looking for a somewhat humorous science fantasy novel first published in the '80s. It has a painted cover with a woman blowing a bubble with pink bubblegum. I'd know it in a second if I saw it, but I can't remember the title or author.
It's about someone who becomes noncorporeal and contacts and/or possesses a woman, but he/she isn't literally a ghost. They're not dead, and the whole thing has some sort of sci-fi foundation.