Fairy-tales are rare in Texas, especially the kind where fairies try to eat your heart, unfaithful wives return from the dead, and a pastor’s son grows feathers. But, for the inhabitants of small-town Creedborough, that’s exactly what’s happening. With the optimistic ambiance of Welcome to Night Vale and the domestic tensions of Neil Gaiman’s Ocean at the End of the Lane, my novel-in-stories A Week in Creedborough is about a community beginning to question those who gate-keep the supernatural.

 

On Monday morning, Ben opens his front door to the smiling face of his dead wife. He buried her three months ago, and now his obsession with her memory is killing him. Unfortunately, even the charismatic Reverend Webb dismisses Ben’s story out of hand. Despite being surrounded by ghosts and witches, feuding sisters and grumpy goddesses, Reverend Webb is determined to squelch all errant mystical happenings. He’s spent his entire career managing the spiritual lives of those around him, and will not tolerate these unorthodox experiences in his beloved town. Meanwhile, his son is slowly turning into a bird — wings and all — and the Reverend is ready to do anything to stop it, even fly in the face of God.

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My work is aimed at new adults who were raised in the church, are deeply familiar with its language and culture, and are now deconstructing. Other works that have succeeded with this church-adjacent audience are Good Omens, Vanessa Zoltan's Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, and Mike Cosper's The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.

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The manuscript is complete and available to read on request.