Note: First published in my newsletter on 1 February 2025.

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When I first created the Sunshine Walkingstick story world back in 2015, I drew heavily from a wide variety of mythologies, including local lore, Cherokee and Greek mythologies, and Legends of Charlemagne by Thomas Bullfinch.

For example, several local legends relate to the building of the Lake Burton dam in the 1910s. Whole communities were uprooted during construction, including the thriving town of Burton. The residents were forced to abandon their homes, churches, schools, and stores. Even their cemeteries were left behind, though the bodies were reinterred elsewhere before floodwaters swept the town away.

One local legend says those buildings are still down there, intact, and that not all the cemeteries were emptied. A spooky thought, eh?

Another has to do with the dam itself. According to legend, a giant, man-sized catfish lives in the deepest part of the lake, near the dam. Divers have reported seeing large shadows lurking at the edges of their vision, and there isn't a local fisherman who hasn't tried to catch the legendary fish.

I don't know if any of the legends surrounding Lake Burton are true, but the catfish legend provided a fun foundation for one of the subplots in Greenwood Cove, Sunny's first novel-length story.

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