Wendy N. Wagner is a Hugo award-winning editor of short fiction, serving as the managing/senior editor at Lightspeed and the editor-in-chief of Nightmare Magazine. She is author of The Secret Skin (one of The Washington Post’s best SF/F/H books of 2021), The Deer Kings, and Locus bestseller An Oath of Dogs, and two novels for the Pathfinder role-playing game. She has published more than fifty short stories, which have appeared in markets like Beneath Ceaseless Skies and PseudoPod, and Year’s Best Hardcore Horror 7.
Tell us about your new book.
Girl in the Creek is the story of a woman researching a true crime project about missing people in the Mt. Hood National Forest: a place where, not coincidentally, her brother vanished five years earlier. Her research trip is upended when she and her friends discover the body of a dead young woman in a creek—a woman whose body is sprouting mushrooms not even the local mycology expert can identify, and whose body then goes missing from the morgue. And it just gets more exciting from there!
What drew you to the thriller genre originally?
My mom and my sisters have always been huge thriller fans, so there were always thriller novels lying around the house. In college I spent one summer living with my sister and just devouring her bookshelf—lots of Patricia Cornwell, Nevada Barr, and Robin Cook. I’m an extremely curious person, so anything with a mystery at its heart is immediately attractive to me. And while in real life I’m a giant scaredy-cat, I’m an absolute adrenaline junkie when it comes to reading books.
What’s a recent thriller you loved?
I love a genre mash-up, so I was totally smitten with Stuart Turton’s The Last Murder at the End of the World. He smashes together science fiction, mystery, and thriller elements to create a story that is absolutely gripping, and the setting is fascinating, too.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Who is a fellow author you’d want with you if there was a murderer on the loose?
Probably my friend Caitlin Starling. Her knowledge of all things creepy would let us out-think the killer, for sure!
What’s the thing that scares you the most?
I spend a lot of time hiking and trail running out in the woods, so I think my biggest fear has probably become “making bad decisions in the wilderness.”
And clowns. Of course.
What’s your favorite slasher movie of all time?
It has to be Scream. Its metatextual discussion of the genre totally transformed my relationship with horror movies, but on top of being smart, it’s also sly, stylish, and fun. And more importantly, the opening scene where Drew Barrymore’s character gets that phone call is pure terror.
Which of your characters would you be most afraid to meet in real life?
There’s a pair of brothers in Girl in the Creek—the Steadman brothers—who are violent poachers and sexual predators. Just thinking about them gives me the creeps!
Have you ever scared yourself writing a scene?
I have! Last year I finished writing a novel set in the 1970s about a fire lookout, and in one scene, the main character is inside an outhouse while something is scratching on the walls outside. I got goosebumps writing it, for sure.
What’s creepier to you: an anonymous note, a neighbor who knows too much, or a familiar voice on the other end of the phone?
A neighbor who knows too much! Breaking the boundaries of basic privacy is like opening the door to total taboo country. Who know what else that person will do?
What’s your favorite “thriller trope” to write or read?
I love reading (and writing!) stories set in isolated locations—weird little towns, remote resorts, national parks whose roads are closed. Yeah, that’s totally my jam!
Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner
Erin’s brother Bryan disappeared in the foothills of Mt. Hood five years ago. She returns to where he was last seen alive seeking answers and instead finds the corpse of a girl in a creek, creating even more questions. Who is this girl, and why are there mushrooms growing from her body? Nothing is as it seems, and as the forest closes in on Erin, she must dig to the heart of the mystery before she becomes another name on the missing persons list.
Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Leave A Comment