The Girl at Wahuhi Creek

Now available in Georgia Gothic, an anthology featuring authors from the Atlanta Chapter of the Horror Writers Association.

Folks don’t think much when it comes to horror in Georgia. When we’re lucky, they think about a woman who would have been good if there had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life. When we’re less fortunate, they think of banjos and bad canoe trips. This book aims to fix that.

These stories fully inhabit Georgia, from the cities to the swamps, the mountains to the shore, from Buford Highway to the roadside barbecue stand. Within are stories set among the kudzu that is working to reclaim the buildings of times gone by. Follow the hand-scrawled roadside sign for BOILT P-NUTS, and hear the summon of the cicadas towards the fecund rot of the swamp swirled by an ocean breeze.

The Gothic begins with the locus of horror—crumbling castles and soaring cathedrals. In Georgia, the crumbling castle is replaced by the antebellum plantation house with secrets in the attic. The soaring cathedral is replaced by the revival tent and the Sunday potluck. Georgia Gothic explores through a lens of struggles and transgressions that are particularly southern such as slavery, reconstruction, prohibition, and Jim Crow. The Southern façade of perfection holds up politeness as a chief virtue while sheltering ugly truths. Some things just won’t stay buried.

Including my story, “The Girl at Wahuhi Creek”.

“There was a girl down there, no older than ten, singing to herself and skipping barefoot on the opposite bank of the creek. She wore a long cotton nightgown that came just above her ankles, the bottom soaking wet from trailing in the water. Her breath came out in puffs as she sang into the cold air.”

Published November 26, 2021

Now available in ebook and paperback