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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN VORAKA
Article Published on 02 February 2025 by Anne Montgomery | www.vorakamag.com
Alex Walker has come to the small mountain town of Othell, North Carolina to escape a childhood memory that tore his family apart. He meets Autumn Perkins—a math teacher who is also coming to terms with the traumas of her past—and they form an instant bond…
Soon, they find themselves on a collision course with Ted Burke, the head football coach at Central Austin High School, whose ruthless drive and improbable success holds the school, and the entire town of Othell, spellbound…
Meanwhile, Alex Walker learns that there’s something in an abandoned classroom overlooking the Central Austin High School gym…Something that once knew Autumn Perkins and Coach Ted Burke…Something that wants to settle an old score…
Can Alex and Autumn find redemption? Or will Burke and the SPIRIT that lurks in the CAHS gym deny them both any chance of peace?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born and raised in rural North Carolina, Graham Phelps remembers being told by his mom as a child that he dreamed of being two things: a fireman and an author. Becoming a fireman didn't happen as it was it was little more than a childhood fascination with an old American TV show called "Emergency!" Becoming an author almost didn't happen either.
Phelps' teen years were beset by a desire to make films. However, the changing tide of movie goers' tastes, not to mention the cutthroat nature of the business, gave him second thoughts. At the time, a close friend suggested he turn his cinematic ideas into novels. Several years later, Phelps finally took his friend's advice to heart.
The first fruit of his literary labors was "Beings," a sci-fi tale examining the meaning of it all, but his most recent novel, "Spirit," focuses on issues literally closer to home.
Set in the fictional town of Othell in the North Carolina high country, "Spirit" takes place twenty years after a high school tragedy that traumatized the town. Equally traumatized by his past, newcomer Alex Walker arrives to start his life anew. Life in Othell begins promisingly enough for Alex when he meets Autumn Perkins, a Biracial math teacher with her own heavy baggage, but things become even more complicated when the pair discover just how far under the spell the school and town have fallen under football coach Ted Burke, a man whose ruthless drive goes well beyond the bounds of moral normality. For good measure, a ghost keeps a baleful eye over the proceedings, waiting for the right moment to satisfy its retribution in which Autumn and Coach Burke are a part.
"Spirit" concerns itself with earthly matters rooted in everyday small-town life every bit as much as it does with otherworldly ones, creating a unique story, unlike any ghost story you have ever read before.
Phelps hopes his endless fascination with juxtaposition and the "ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances" ethic will reel in readers. There is much to scare you in "Spirit," but Phelps wonders if a simple, small-town ghost is really the worst thing to be scared of.
Graham Phelps also hopes there is more to come in the wake of "Beings" and "Spirit." There are always ideas of floating around the Great Beyond...
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR GRAHAM PHELPS
How did your upbringing in rural North Carolina influence the themes and settings of your novels?
When I was a child, my family, especially my grandfather, would take me for rides and trips around the countryside. You always saw things differently every time you went and there seemed to be a peculiar spiritual energy at play in different places at different times. Also, being an only child gave me the opportunity to converse with my imagination on a large level. I can't imagine how different I would have been had my mom and dad moved to Los Angeles, where my dad used to live.
How did your background in filmmaking shape your storytelling as an author?
To continue reading the full interview, click here to download our Literature special issue.
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