by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Feb 21, 2019 | Appalachian, Food, Nature
Vermont gets most of the maple syrup press, but Appalachia produces it’s fair share of the sticky, sweet stuff. West Virginia has 75 or so farms producing more than 2,500 gallons of syrup in a given year. And February into March is harvest season. The trick is...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Feb 14, 2019 | Appalachian, Reading, Waiting, Writing
Earlier this week I sent out an e-mail with the cover of my next novel. It’s a sweet sort of torture to see the cover and then not be able to share it until the book is available for pre-order. But as of Tuesday this week, readers can add When Silence Sings to...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Feb 7, 2019 | Appalachian, Family, Friends, Writing
A friend and I were talking recently about our families–mostly the senior ladies in our Appalachian families–and how they can take a single word and communicate a wide range of meanings. The perfect example is the word, “well.” Depending on the...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Jan 31, 2019 | Appalachian, History, Writing
In researching my current novel I stumbled across a story about a 1932 murder in West Virginia (ah, rabbit trails, writers love ’em!). A 31-year-old woman named Mamie Thurman was found dead on Trace Mountain in Logan County that June. A deaf-mute boy found her...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Jan 24, 2019 | Appalachian, Food, Writing
A reviewer recently commented that she really enjoyed one of my books but took issue with my use of you’uns instead of y’all. Now, in both of our defenses, I’d like to point out that she thought the story was set in Wise, Virginia. Now, that’s...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Jan 21, 2019 | Appalachian, Memories, Writing
Like children, I’m not supposed to have a favorite character. But Frank Post (along with the Talbot sisters) stole my heart. Frank is a blend of so many men I knew growing up. Men who were tough, flawed, opinionated, and most of all tender-hearted beneath those...
