Gothictown Tour - Upcoming Events

March 25th - April 5th

April 6th - April 17th

April 18th - May 15th

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History of Juliana, Georgia

In 1832, in the height of the Georgia gold rush, the small town of Juliana was established around a gold mine along the banks of the Etowah River. The mine was quite profitable for its owner, Mr. Alfred Minette, one of the three founding elders of the town. Mr. Minette won the original parcel of land that became the town in the state’s gold lottery and named the hamlet after his firstborn daughter, the lovely but frail Juliana who had died many years earlier in South Carolina.

Welcome to gentle Juliana, where you can have it all…
if you pay the price.

“I can’t imagine living anywhere else. It’s the people who make the difference. We all look out for each other here. We take care of each other.” —Major Minette
“Search the country over, you will never find another place like Juliana. So many have sacrificed to make the town what it is. I can only hope to serve in a manner worthy of its past leaders.” —Mayor Dixie Minette
“You won’t find drugs or crimes here in Juliana, only happy families and dedicated citizens. We respect our town and its institutions.” —James Cleburne
“Don’t move here if you want your kids to leave the nest. All three of my girls love this town and would never think of leaving.” —Oxford "Ox" Dalzell
“Call me sentimental, but every time I come back home after a trip and see the statue of little Juliana Minette in our square, I get a little misty.”—Jamie Cleburne

Gothictown Playlist

About the Author

Emily Carpenter

author Emily Carpenter

Emily Carpenter is the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of suspense novels, Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, The Weight of Lies, and Every Single Secret. After graduating from Auburn with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication, she moved to New York City. She’s worked as an actor, producer, screenwriter, and behind-the-scenes soap opera assistant for the CBS shows, As the World Turns and Guiding Light. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, she now lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her family. You can visit Emily at emilycarpenterauthor.com and on Facebook and Instagram.

Praise for

Gothictown

“Just the right amount of creepiness to add a scary but not terrifying element to the promised gothic tale, and the post-pandemic what-do-I-do-now feeling is spot on.” —firstCLUE
“Carpenter has a spectacular voice, and I was drawn into this story immediately. With all the gothic spookiness layered into a suspenseful family drama, this pulse-racing story of a New York family relocating to an idyllic southern town with a dark secret is timely, intense, and terrifyingly good.” —J.T. Ellison, New York Times bestselling author of A Very Bad Thing
"Troubled waters rise slow, and dark, and sneaky in Gothictown... Prepare to breaststroke your way through Carpenter’s latest feat to where the floodwaters recede, revealing an utterly satisfying conclusion." —Robert Gwaltney, award-winning author of The Cicada Tree
"Inviting and atmospheric, this engrossing tale of a charming town hiding a chilling past is southern gothic at its best. Carpenter expertly turns up the heat as a seductive offer turns out too good to be true and dark secrets come to light, raising the temperature until the plot boils over. I was hooked from the very beginning!" —Katherine Wood, author of Ladykiller
"The Queen of Southern Gothic dominates in this unputdownable feast in which deeply-drawn characters who inhabit a tantalizingly secretive southern town play a role in deadly secrets that link back to the past. Haunting, atmospheric, sexy, wildly vivid, original, and entrancing, Gothictown proves Carpenter is the master of balancing all the ingredients for a reader's sleepless night of turning the pages." —Shannon Kirk, international bestselling author of Method 15/33 and Gretchen
"A gothic banger of a story. Carpenter's talents really shine here: quirky characters that come alive on the page through her voicey Southern prose, and a sneaky, steady building of tension to claustrophobic proportions. Creepy in the best possible way, Gothictown is an absolute knockout." —Kimberly Belle, internationally bestselling author of The Paris Widow