When Grady Hendrix announced the subject of his latest horror novel, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, he received a lot of feedback.
“I started getting emails from random people who said, ‘Hi, I’m adopted. My mom gave birth to me in a home for unwed mothers. Please don’t screw this up.’ ”
No pressure.
Set in 1970, Witchcraft follows the character of Fern, who is dropped off at a home for unwed mothers in St. Augustine, Fla. She and a dozen other girls — each named after a particular plant — find themselves under the vigilant eye and tight control of Miss Wellwood. Things change when Fern meets a librarian who lends her a book about witchcraft. Before long, all hell breaks loose.
Despite the escapist nature of the genre Hendrix commonly works in, he doesn’t take the subject matter lightly.
Hendrix started working on Witchcraft in November 2022, turning in his first major draft in May 2023. He submitted a final edited draft in September 2024. The journey from idea to fully-formed novel was filled with revelations.
Wrapping his head around the idea
Hendrix said the inspiration for the idea struck when he discovered two of his relatives were sent away as teenagers in the 1950s.
“One of them reunited with her child, and the other never did,” he said. “I had a hard time wrapping my head around what that experience would be like … to be pregnant and a teenager and basically told you’ve just ruined your entire life.
“And then to be sent away, where no one knows where you are, and have a baby and never talk about it again, and never see it again and not know if it was alive or dead or sick or well or anything. So I knew I wanted to write something there.”
Hendrix found additional inspiration in Anna Fessler’s book The Girls Who Went Away.
“There were two things in that book that really made me want to write this book. One was, just the general looking at this and saying, oh, these homes were hidden, but they were in the middle of [everywhere]. They were in towns and cities, and they were full of these girls who’d been sent away, who were all in the same condition who were being given very little information about what was going to happen to them.
“Their due dates were looming over them like execution days. At one point in the book, one of the women who was sent away says, ‘People keep saying, you were so brave to give up your child, or that it must be so hard to give her your child.’ She says, ‘I want everyone to understand. I did not give up my baby. My baby was taken from me.’ That really stuck with me.”
While Hendrix said he had the inspiration and a modicum of an idea of what his characters would experience, he knew, as a writer and a man, it would be best to do ample research before diving into such an unfamiliar area. Getting personal stories directly gave him more to work with than anything else.
“I had a bunch of moms who were consultants with me on this, who were willing to share their birth stories and also answer my really intrusive follow-up questions. I [also] had some obstetricians and laborists and delivery nurses who worked with me.”
Once the writing began, Hendrix said he was able to see what worked and what didn’t.
“When I started writing it, I didn’t realise that for a few drafts. My take was totally wrong, because I had written two drafts where it was a folk horror book, where Pan was involved in all this stuff. There were eight to nine full, very different drafts of this book — the first two had zero witches!”
For Hendrix, the writing process is always eye-opening.
“I go through a lot of beta readers. I’ve had some people who are adopted who’ve read this book and say ‘you shouldn’t say this, you should say that,’ which was really helpful.
“There’s just some terms and things that I never would have thought about that are very triggering for folks who’ve been through adoption.”
Several drafts and a missed deadline later, Witchcraft For Wayward Girls is now in bookstores and the pressure has subsided. Kind of. Hendrix is now on tour promoting the book with his trademark live one-man show.
On Jan. 27, Hendrix and Buxton Books will bring the wild world of witchcraft to the Circular Congregational Church.
“Building the shows is kind of like my reward to myself when the book is done because it’s like, okay, I’m going to watch all the witch movies I can and read all the witch books I can and especially look at the academic papers about witches and nonfiction books about witches.”
After listing the exhaustive details he’ll regale his audience with, he added, “And I’m gonna talk a lot about penis-stealing.”
Yes, you read correctly. Many book tours are simply the author reading passages from their book. But Hendrix’s shows are almost like a Chucktown ghost walk on the long and winding animated tour of witches in pop culture and media, particularly in books and movies.
This naturally includes the many gruesome and shocking ways witchcraft has been wielded. (Hence the penis-stealing.)
Hendrix will appear 6 p.m. Jan. 27 at Circular Congregational Church in an event hosted by Buxton Books. Tickets with a book are $37 and available online at citypapertickets.com.
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