by Sarah Loudin Thomas | May 30, 2019 | Appalachian, Reading, Writing
I’ve written before about how hard it can be to let go of a manuscript. It can be agonizing when I send that first draft to my editor. And the rewrites? Oh, how I want to keep shaping and polishing! But releasing the final read through of designed pages? That...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | May 23, 2019 | Appalachian, Church, Family, holidays, Memories
Monday is Memorial Day–the unofficial start to summer. And in Appalachia it means time to start planning for Decoration Day. Usually held on a Sunday in June, this is a day when cemeteries would be tidied and flowers placed on the graves. I’m not talking...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | May 16, 2019 | Appalachian, Family, Food, Memories, Nature
I still have to work hard to resist them. The catalogs filled with beautiful, full-color images of corn and strawberries and squash and green beans . . . The displays of candy-colored seed packets at the store . . . I don’t even have a garden. Oh, sometimes I grow a...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | May 9, 2019 | Appalachian, Family, History, holidays, Love
Yup. That’s right. The woman who invented Mother’s Day was born in Grafton, WV. Anna Jarvis campaigned for the holiday in honor of her own mother Anna Reeves Jarvis. Mother Anna was a social activist who organized Mother’s Day Work Clubs during the...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | May 6, 2019 | Appalachian, Waiting, Writing
I don’t often flat out promote my books on this blog. I always have some links and refer to my stories with some regularity, but I’m rarely so blunt as to remind you that, well, you can buy my books. Yesterday was the start of the six-month countdown to...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | May 2, 2019 | Appalachian, Family, History, Nature
When Dad told stories about hunting in Kumbrabow State Forest I assumed the name was Native American. Not so. The story I’m currently writing (due out in late 2020) is set in Randolph County not far from where I grew up in WV. As I’ve researched the area I...
