Behind The Pen: Why did you decide to write a book about the darker parts of Appalachia?

This story has been a long time coming. I was brought up to be a well mannered child in a quiet remote mountain town with one stop light in the entire county. My parents instilled in me their faith, and for a while, it was also mine. My mama is a devout woman of God, but she is also incredibly superstitious. She taught me to trust in the Lord, but would howl if any of us kids accidentally swept over her feet with a broom and take her good luck away. We were never to go out alone at night. Tall tales of strange things that lurked in the hills were whispered amongst the farmers and logging folk. It was those parts that stuck with me. The mystery of why some people believe in fortune, fate, and devils when the savior had already risen.

I had been saved. I was active in my community. I lived by the good word. 

None of that mattered though, because I was always a sinner in the eyes of the church. 

The book began to take shape just shy of ten years ago. I was a young woman in college discovering life outside of the hills and the wild ways of city people. I met wonderful friends who helped me become who I wanted to be, not what I was raised. I read banned literature, learned what I valued in politics, and experienced unbridled womanhood for the first time. I kissed another girl and wasn't ashamed. Wore the clothes I'd always fawned over. The Earth began speaking to me in a way that put the holy spirit to shame. Then, one night I was up late questioning my identity and asked myself a very difficult question: What if I let go? 

You have to understand, I was at a point in my life when I was going out on Saturday nights to do very sinful things and then I would pray it away in the pews the next morning. Ask anyone who has stepped away from Christianity, it is a frightening and confusing time. The doubt you experience is suffocating. 

So, naturally, I wrote about it. Stories began to take shape. Those tales turned into characters, each one representing something different to me on my journey. Emiliea quickly became the fearful outsider, ever curious and growing into her practice as a witch as someone who'd never believed. Sweet Adam realized he didn't need a church to save him, and now represents my love for the rolling hills and the culture of Appalachia. Simon is the remorse for the things I've done in search of salvation and the struggle I've faced as a queer woman in a repressive demographic.

I wanted to write a book about what lurks in the woods of God's country and explore the how far one will go in the name of faith. I'll end this with a bible verse that I thought of often while writing. Because in this story, man and monster are much of the same.

"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."