About Mulchverse

Mulchverse is a series of weird fiction/speculative fiction novels by writer Stephen Scott Whitaker. Mulch is forthcoming from Montag Press in 2020.

Mulch is set in an alternative timeline in a magical America.

What if redneck America hid some of the world’s most powerful witches, medicine men, and mermaids? Kinky, terrifying, and suspenseful, Mulch will delight readers of speculative fiction.

Hidden in the corpse-fertilized fields of father, farmer, and crime-lord Mulch Hayes, is a magic box to imprison Hayes’ half-mermaid daughter, Marina, whose power is matched only by her innocence. The box will transport her across the sea to Amsterdam, where her aunt Cilia waits to harness Marina’s power for her own purposes. Mulch has entrusted Marina’s capture and transport to Mr. Bill, an ageless man with magical abilities who has been allied with the Hayes family for more years than seems humanly possible.

But Mr. Bill secretly doubts Mulch, mistrusts Cilia, and feels pity for Marina. He follows the box’s route from Virginia to Boston, leaving a doppelganger behind on the farm to confuse Mulch. Marina, locked away from the waters that keep her alive begins to grow mad, and reaches out the only way she knows how: through dreams and nightmares.

Meanwhile Nick begins to paint in his sleep. Convinced his dreams are leading him to someone, he follows them up the East Coast. Along the way he encounters terrifying visions of hags, giant native Americans, and eventually the woman of his dreams, a half-mermaid. His best friend George is having adventures on his own, a genie pops out of a paint can and the girl he is in love with glows like a lighthouse.

Mulch takes its name from the antagonist, who, nearing the end of his life, destroys everything around him. The novel is a magical-realism romp through rural America, the suburbs of Boston, and Amsterdam, Readers will connect to the small-town heroes who fall in love, and redeem themselves through self-sacrifice. Think Tom Robbins plus Stephen King with a dash of Lovecraft.