Children of Solitude

This Appalachian cosmic horror novel tells the story of a gay man who must return to his ancestral home in the mountains of Western North Carolina after his mother’s death to clean it out and sell it off. Navigating feelings of grief and anger, he finds her house is haunted and her nosy neighbors always watching him—and one of those neighbors happens to be his favorite adult performer. While he develops a new romance and oversees his mother’s funeral, tension builds as the characters’ circumstances go from ominously creepy to terrifying.

Michael G. Williams is a queer native of Appalachia, winner of the 2020 Manly Wade Wellman Award, and cohosts Arcane Carolinas, a podcast about folklore, myths, and modern weird in North Carolina, South Carolina, and the wider region. This LGBTQ Southern horror story is set in a place exactly like the author’s mountain hometown in the Southeastern United States with shades of Lovecraft. Packed with regional folklore, original bluegrass compositions, and occult horror, it weaves an unforgettable ghost story featuring seduction, cults, murder, sacrifice, and paranormal phenomena.