A New Book Full of Ornery Appalachian Ghosts!

A brand-new book in one of my favorite ongoing series is out in the world exclusively on our store until it goes wide on October 31, and I'm super excited to spread the word!

One of the first books of mine to see publication was Songs in the Mountain back in 2016. That was my first time meeting Beth Azen, on the day she first met her resident ghost Clina. Not long after, Beth met Mark Hersch, and sparks flew in my first romantic tale! Secrets in the Land followed, with Mark taking over storytelling duties on a new adventure in a new setting that surprised even me. All I'll say is my dentist was intrigued by a couple of the details.

In between, I wrote Walking the Ghosts, a related novella, and several short stories that let me dive into the histories of both characters and a couple of those ghosts. As is often the case, that only left me more eager to tell the next longer tale.

And now Sorrows in the Earth brings the first chance for both Beth and Mark to tell the story, and they venture even further from their Appalachian hometown. I always have fun with these stories, so I'm delighted to share this one with you.

You can only find this one right here until Halloween, when it will be available on all the usual retailers.

With Mark and Beth's tales reaching trilogy status, this seems like a perfect time to share what inspired me into the world of Voices Through Time.

Way back in 2014 when I was working on page layout and design for Frank Kilgore's fascinating book Far Southwest Virginia: A Postcard and Photographic Journey, I scanned hundreds of images from our region's past.

I got a good look at people working in coal mines, lumberyards, and railroads, as well as the way they lived their lives in our Appalachian Mountains years ago. And I had a chance to scan quite a few unusual items, like coal company scrip, decades-old high school football programs, and glass-plate negatives used to capture pictures of construction of the railroads throughout our region.

One photo in particular caught my eye more than the others.

But one figure in the photo drew my attention. In the upper left corner, a woman in a white dress holding an umbrella strikes what looks like an especially sassy pose to my eye.

So when I started writing a tale about lost signals, she stood right up and demanded to be part of the story.

And Clina Jane was born.

I'd love to know the real reason the woman in the photo was standing that way, and I may very well write her story someday. No matter what, I'm grateful to her for creating the spark for Voices Through Time.

I've already got the starting point for the next tale with Beth, Mark, and Clina, and I can't wait to get started!

Grab your ebook copy of Sorrows in the Earth now before it's available anywhere else, and happy reading!