Many of Grady Hendrix's books remix classic horror ideas to develop fresh new lore, from vampires ("The Southern Book Club's Guide to Killing Vampires") to haunted houses ("How to Sell a Haunted House") and Property ("The Exorcism of My Best Friend"). Yet his latest novel, the ambitious "The Witchcraft of Wayward Girls," out now through Berkeley, is about witches, yes, but inspired by dark stories from his family's past.

In the novel, four teenage girls are sent to Wellwood House, a home for unwed mothers, in 1970, where they are tasked with giving birth to a child, then putting the child up for adoption and pretending nothing happened. However, they are able to take back some agency once they learn wizardry through a librarian who provides a magic book.

Hendrix was also a former type The writer said he got the idea for "Girls" from a family history in which two beloved relatives found themselves in the same unimaginable situation.

"I would say that it's not normal for a middle-aged man with no children to write a book where everyone is pregnant," he said. "My family discovered several years ago that two relatives who had been sent to live with unwed mothers as teenagers have now passed away. We didn't know this until their last moments. One of them was related to her The child was reunited and the other was never reunited with the child and I remember thinking, it’s so weird that you have a child and you never see them again. Surprisingly enough, one of them was actually given away for adoption at a time when conventional wisdom held that babies had to be fed for several weeks after birth, so she not only gave birth to them but also raised them after five weeks until she was well into her seventies. The craziness of not knowing whether they were alive, dead, sick, or happy before seeing their children again shocked me.”

Hendrix went on to learn more about the practice, which was so mainstream that some 190 families were designated for unwed mothers during the so-called "baby spoon" era. However, in addition to historical research, he also focused on reaching out to dozens of experts so that he could accurately tell a story from the young woman's perspective.

“I think the only thing that saved the book was being able to talk to people who were willing to speak openly about their experiences,” he said. "So I talked to a dozen moms who told me their birth stories. I talked to OBs. I talked to L&D nurses. I took online courses. I had the Williams Manual of Obstetrics. I Worked with a great OB but eventually, you could see her answers to me were getting more and more terse because I had so many questions but I wanted to make sure I got that part right and there were a lot of them. The content was very different from my assumptions."

Yet Hendrix said his former life as a reporter gave him the freedom to ask questions in an effort to find out the truth.

“You can talk to people and challenge your own assumptions,” he said. "You can act like an idiot and say, 'Explain it to me like I'm an idiot,' and then actually learn it. The weird thing is, I grew up terrified of having children. Once it starts it doesn't stop and then you get stuck in it , there's no way to make it go away. You can't change your mind midway. After writing this book, I was obsessed with it and if anyone wanted to tell me their birth story, I would go all out and grab a bowl of popcorn because I would ask questions. Process. My favorite part of writing a book is doing the research and talking to people.”

This novel is sure to get people talking. Given that the story has been an idea in Hendrix's mind for years, it comes amid political turmoil over a woman's right to choose due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Possibly putting more rights at risk, it has recently spawned a series of horror stories in which women's bodily autonomy is more frightening than any monster.

"Because the book is set in 1970, my mind was set in 1970," he said. "A lot of the current political rhetoric doesn't move me. To understand the way we've always talked about unwed mothers, and how it's been so consistent from the 1920s, and even from the 1890s to the 2000s until now... We use code words: welfare mom, Single parent families. It's always about women having children and having all the problems dropped at their doorstep, and it's amazing to me how much we take it for granted."

Unfortunately, Hendrix still sees many direct parallels in this book in modern life.

"I just drove by a sign in South Carolina that said: 'Finding foster homes for pregnant teens,'" he said. "The New York Times ran a big story about Florida maternity homes. These things are still with us and to pretend it's a relic of our settled past is fooling ourselves. Now that Roy has been returned, I Think it's more direct and right in people's faces."

In addition to writing novels, Hendrix was actively involved in film production. He has written screenplays for two films - 2017's Mohawk with Ted Geoghegan and 2019's Satanic Panic - and is currently working on a new film based on his Adapted into a feature film from the short story "Ankle Snatcher".

Several of his novels are ready for adaptation, including 2014's Horrorstör, which will be adapted into a film, and 2020's The Southern Book Club's Guide to Killing Vampires, which will be adapted into TV series, and 2021's The Final Girl. Support Group" and 2023's "How to Sell a Haunted House. "

Hendrix couldn't reveal too many details about the development of the project, but he confirmed, "We all just pushed the button and got all this done. Everything moved forward a little bit, which was a huge relief because We haven’t heard from anyone for a while.”

As for his next novel? This is completely different from "witchcraft".

"It's a monster book," he said. "Monsters in the Woods. There's not a single female character in it, which is weird to me, but I don't want to say too much because who knows what might change down the road. But right now, there are monsters in the woods, and girls aren't allowed."

But for now, Hendrix is ​​happy to present the women of Wellwood House to his readers and himself.

"It's a weird, immersive thing, but in every room in the delivery room, I have a drawing or a written description of it," he said. "I have a written floor plan of that house. I have a seating chart of how the girls sit at the dinner table because I have seeing is believing. In order for the reader to believe it, I have to believe it too. I have to see it, I have to hear it and know what it smells like and so on. For me, it’s a visual, auditory, sensory experience. I'm really glad this is on the page. That's the goal. "