by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Mar 21, 2019 | Appalachian, Family, History, superstition
North America has Bigfoot. Nepal has the Abominable Snowman. Ireland their Banshees. Everywhere you go, there are monster stories. Well, West Virginia is not one to be left out. My home state has several mythical monsters of its own. Our uniquely Appalachian monsters...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Feb 4, 2019 | History, holidays, Nature, superstition
You probably know that last Saturday was Groundhog Day. Not exactly one of the big ten holidays, but still, there was a bit of hoorah around Punxsutawney Phil who did NOT see his shadow which means an early spring! Of course, French Creek Freddie, a resident of 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 10, 2019 | Appalachian, History, Writing
I love researching my stories. Especially when I turn up something fun that I just flat out didn’t know. Like that John Henry, the mythical “steel driving man” of folk ballads, took on a steam drill in southern West Virginia. My next novel, When...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Dec 24, 2018 | History, holidays, Miracles
Five decades ago on Christmas Eve astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders were the first men to orbit the moon. This flight–Apollo 8–is the one during which Anders snapped the famous “Earth rise” photo. But they did something else...
by Sarah Loudin Thomas | Dec 20, 2018 | Appalachian, Family, History, holidays, Memories, superstition, Thistle
While I suppose we were relatively modern when it came to my childhood Christmases, the old-timey traditions are still hanging on in the mountains. And there are some I very much think we should revive for broader use. Here are a few of my favorite Appalachian...
