Inwood, Indiana is a real place before it’s anything else — platted as Pearsonville in 1854, briefly called Ironwood, renamed by a railroad that needed a station name more than it needed a story. The archive built on top of that real town is fiction: farmhouses, silos, and small-town dread that never happened to anyone, set in a place that did. These three pages sort out which is which, and go further into the history and the craft for readers who want more than the stories alone. One covers the actual town: its founding, its population, and an honest line between what’s documented and what’s invented for the page. One defines Midwestern Gothic as a mode, with six archive pieces that show it working. One is for writers, on using a real small town as material without turning it into caricature. Start with the town page if you only read one.
- About Inwood, Indiana — The documented history of the real town: platted as Pearsonville in 1854, renamed Inwood by the railroad, and what’s fact versus fiction here.
- What Is Midwestern Gothic? — Rural decay, isolation, and land as menace, defined and shown working in six stories from the archive.
- Writing About Small Towns — Practical advice on using a real small town as material: specific detail, local speech, and the difference between decay and nostalgia.
