Welcome to Waadizi, Michigan!

The Storyteller Strikes Back:

The Return of the Great Storyteller to Polk County

Local Author, Dwight L. Macpherson

It all started with a Show and Tell session gone spectacularly off script. Five-year-old Dwight L. MacPherson marched to the front of his elementary school classroom ready to share his latest outdoor adventure—and share he did. But when his tale took a sudden left turn involving “a gorilla coming over to talk to his sisters and tell them how to get back home,” his teacher froze, blinked twice, and promptly scheduled a parentteacher conference. Several conferences later, the verdict was unanimous: Dwight wasn’t troubled—he was imaginative to a fault. “I was born to entertain!” he told me the first time we met. And honestly, he hasn’t stopped entertaining me since.

Dwight is pure Michigan. Born in Traverse City (TC to locals), he spent his early years in Rapid City, Applegate, St. Louis, and Kalkaska. But it was the summers at his grandparents’ modest home on Clam Lake that truly shaped him. There’s something unique about growing up around lakes. The sound of water lapping against the shore, the rich earthy scent of the woods, the stillness, and the endless horizon all work their way into your bones. Those places never really leave you. They become part of your creative DNA. For Dwight, those northern waters, quiet roads, and small-town rhythms became the emotional and atmospheric blueprint for so much of the storytelling he would one day create.

He is the son of a preacher, whose father was also a preacher, and like J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote, we are all sub-creators, designed by God to create reflections of truth through story. That sacred drive has always been alive in Dwight. Though he has spent most of his life in the South, he remains a Michigander through and through—right down to the University of Michigan “Block M” tattoo on his right arm, honoring the Fab Five, those legendary freshmen who forever changed college basketball culture and left a permanent mark on an entire generation.

His storytelling extends far beyond books. I hate seeing dead animals by the side of the road, and Dwight never misses an opportunity to soften the sadness with humor. “Now how did Mr. Racoonski not make it home last night? I told him to go straight home and not stop for milk. Nothing good happens after 11 PM.” That’s Dwight. Equal parts humorist, storyteller, and eternal observer of the strange little narratives hidden inside everyday life.

His imagination works on frequencies most people don’t even realize exist. Someone once described his writing as “what would happen if Rod Serling and Shirley Jackson collaborated,” and honestly, that may be one of the most accurate descriptions I’ve ever heard. His mind moves in different dimensions, but he never loses sight of what matters most: unforgettable characters, compelling mysteries, and meaningful truths. He has never been interested in hollow spectacle. For him, the heart of every story lies in what it reveals about humanity, morality, fear, and redemption.

Fast forward to Clearwater-Largo Christian School in Clearwater, Florida. There, Dwight and his friend Jeff Earls created a comic called “MECHAEGIS.“ They printed copies locally and approached Geppi’s Comic World—a comic shop owned by Steve Geppi, who would later found Diamond Comic Distributors. Steve bought every copy and placed them on the shelves. They sold out. And just like that, Dwight knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life: become a comic book writer. The 1980s fueled that dream perfectly—”Star Wars”, MTV, “The Goonies”, Michael Jackson, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” It was an era overflowing with imagination, practical effects, larger-than-life adventures, and stories that weren’t afraid to be bold. Every corner of pop culture seemed to whisper the same thing: create something unforgettable. Dwight listened.

But life, as it often does, took him on a different journey first.

Dwight served 14 years in the U.S. Army as a Combat Medic, with assignments across the United States, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. Military life gave him discipline, resilience, and a deeper understanding of humanity under pressure. It exposed him to hardship, sacrifice, and the realities of life and death in ways that profoundly shaped his perspective. Those experiences didn’t diminish his imagination, they sharpened it.

It was near the DMZ in Korea where the seeds for “Dead Men Tell No Tales” began to grow—a historical pirate epic bringing together Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, and Black Bart Roberts. The scope was ambitious, requiring intense historical research and narrative precision. Years of artistic and publishing challenges delayed the project, but thankfully it was published… because that graphic novel is what ultimately brought us together.

In 2007, while I was working on various studio lots in Los Angeles by day and at Meltdown Comics by night, I stumbled upon “Dead Men Tell No Tales” in the pirate section. I bought it. Read it. Loved it. Then I contacted the publisher to ask whether the rights were available. Instead, they connected me directly to the writer.

Two years—and roughly a million Google chats—later, we were married. In one extraordinary day, I became a wife and mother to three incredible boys. Our partnership has always been rooted in creativity, faith, resilience, and a shared belief that stories matter.

Dwight would go on to create the award-winning series “SIDEWISE” for DC Comics, write for publishers across the U.S. and UK, and earn both Harvey and Eisner nominations. But perhaps his most cherished recognition is the Saturday Visiter Award from the Poe Society of Baltimore for “The Imaginary Voyages of Edgar Allan Poe”—a deeply personal love letter to one of his greatest literary inspirations. To receive the same award once won by Edgar Allan Poe himself was something truly extraordinary. For a writer whose work so often explores shadow, mystery, and the fragile line between reality and nightmare, it felt less like an award and more like a fullcircle moment.

In 2014, we relocated to Lakeland, Florida, a place that, fittingly enough, was filled with lakes. In 2017, we co-founded Hocus Pocus Comics, creating a home for stories told on our terms, free from the suffocating constraints of traditional publishing. Over eight years, we produced nine graphic novels, each one bending genres and expectations while proving that independent creators could still build something meaningful and lasting.

But I always knew there was something even larger waiting. Comics are wonderful, but they are also, as I often describe them, like herding cats. Coordinating artists, deadlines, layouts, and production pipelines can sometimes overshadow pure storytelling. And deep down, I knew Dwight had novels inside him. Bigger worlds. Deeper mysteries. Stories that needed room to breathe without limitation.

I told him to write what he knew. And from that simple truth, “Welcome to Waadizi, Michigan!” was born. A small Northern Michigan town. A lake with secrets. A place where charm and menace exist side by side. The idea of hidden darkness beneath idyllic places isn’t new—but Dwight has always had a gift for taking familiar concepts and making them feel wholly original, unsettling, and unforgettable. Waadizi is more than a setting. It feels alive. It breathes. It watches.

For me, Waadizi also evokes memories of my own time in Plymouth, New Hampshire, a quintessential small town with lakes, rivers, and postcard-perfect beauty. Small towns are comforting. Until they aren’t. Because sometimes what you don’t see can be the most dangerous thing of all. That duality is where Dwight thrives creatively: the beautiful and the terrifying, the nostalgic and the sinister, the sacred and the corrupted. He understands that true horror often works best not when it shouts, but when it quietly unsettles something deep inside us.

Dwight is already hard at work on the next chapter of “The Waadizi Cycle.” And if there is one thing I know for certain, it’s this: You may think you know where Dwight’s stories are going … but he will always surprise you. He doesn’t simply tell stories. He builds worlds, invites readers inside, and then quietly locks the door behind them.

As Jack Black said while portraying R.L. Stine: “Every story ever told can be broken down into three parts: The beginning, the middle, and the twist.”

Dwight has mastered the twist.

Whether through comics, novels, or the ever-expanding creative ventures we continue building together, his work has always been driven by one simple goal: tell unforgettable stories that matter. And trust me—he’s only getting started.

“Welcome to Waadizi, Michigan!” is available now in paperback, hardcover, and eBook on Amazon, with the eBook also available through Kindle Unlimited.

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