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We Have a Winner!

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I appreciate everyone who chimed in with the name of a favorite southern author for a chance to win an Advance Reading Copy of When Silence Sings. Here’s the list in case you’re looking for an author to add to your TBR stack! Tamera Alexander Sarah Addison Allen Patricia Bradley Jule Cantrell Lauren Denton William Faulkner Heather L.L. Fitzgerald Dorothea Benton Frank Laura Frantz Ann Gabhart John Grisham Silas House Greg Iles Joshilyn Jackson Harper Lee Valerie Luesse Margaret Maron Charles Martin Carson McCullers Sharyn McCrumb Ann Mulligan Mary Alice Munroe Eugenia Price Reynolds Price Nicholas Sparks Lisa Wingate I love the variety of current authors, classics, inspirational, general fiction, and oh a little bit of everything! The South is nothing if not varied. And here’s the bit you’ve been waiting for. The randomly selected winner is . . . JUDY MAHARREY! Judy, send your mailing address to sarah@sarahloudinthomas.com and I’ll get that ARC in the mail to you. Happy reading!

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Reading

ARC Giveaway of When Silence Sings

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I’m super excited to be appearing at the 2019 SIBA Discovery Show in Spartanburg, SC, this September. (That’s the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.) The event is primarily for independent booksellers from throughout the south who come to learn best practices and to hear what’s new in Southern fiction. And since I have a story releasing in November–that would be something […]

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Appalachian

Appalachian Thursday – Dog Days

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You’ve almost certainly heard this time of year referred to as the “dog days” of summer. But do you know WHY it’s called that? I always thought it’s because this hot, muggy time of year isn’t hardly fit for a dog. And I had a professor in college who talked about the humidity of late summer making stepping outside feel like stepping into a dog’s mouth. An apt metaphor. But turns out there’s more to it than that. Turns out it’s because this is the time of year when the sun is in the same part of the sky as Sirius – the Dog Star – part of the constellation Canis Major. In late July Sirius actually rises and sets with the sun. And way back in the day, folks thought the star actually added to the heat of the sun. So the dog days are the 20 days before and after Sirius and the sun line up–July 3 through August 11. Which, ironically, is often the hottest time of year in the Northern Hemisphere. Of course, a scientific explanation should never prevent us from embracing some good old-fashioned superstitions. So here are a few related to the dog days of summer: During this time snakes are blind and will strike at anything. If it rains on the first dog day, it will rain every day afterward. Dogs are more likely to go mad during these days. Sores and wounds […]

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Appalachian

The Night the Dunglen Burned Down

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It was 89 years ago today. The notorious Dunglen Hotel in Thurmond, WV, burned in what was then reported to be faulty wiring, but is generally believed to be an act of arson. Although–to this day–the arsonist has never been named. The popularity of the Dunglen may have had something to do with the fact that it served alcohol–which was […]

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Appalachian

Appalachian Thursday – Brown Mountain Lights

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I love mysteries and unexplained phenomenon. Miracles even. Lately I’ve been reading about the Brown Mountain Lights–a mysterious occurrence people sometimes see on a mountain about an hour east of where I live in NC. Brown Mountain is in the Linville Gorge near Morganton, NC, and there are two popular overlooks for folks wanting to see the ghostly lights–the Brown Mountain Overlook and Wiseman’s View. Of course, there’s no guarantee you’ll see them if you go, but October and November are said to be the best months during clear, moonless nights. The lights seem to appear both in the sky above the mountain and among the trees. Sometimes they’re brief and other times they dance and linger. Theories/stories include: Swamp gas (of course, there aren’t any swamps around there) Headlights from the valley (except people saw them before cars were around) Foxfire (phosphorescent light from decaying wood–my favorite theory!) Moon dogs (moonlight shining on haze–oh wait, they show up on moonless nights) Lanterns being carried by ghostly Indian maidens looking for braves killed in battle A slave looking for his master who disappeared while hunting (there’s a song for that one) The souls of a woman and her child murdered by her philandering husband A revolutionary war hero searching fruitlessly for his family Scientists from Appalachian State University have even studied the lights and, yes, have recorded them. And yet we’re no closer to knowing what they are. Which I […]

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Appalachian

How About a Poem?

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The hero of my next story is Colman Harpe. I chose the name Colman for two reasons–first, he’s inspired by Jonah (the one swallowed by the whale) and both of the names–Jonah and Colman–mean “Dove.” The second reason is that I grew up knowing a fellow named Coleman Ware who was a local fur seller. Dad took him many a hide for a little extra cash and had quite a few Coleman stories in his repertoire. I even wrote a poem about him. COLEMAN WARE His house, as knock-kneed as he, holds to the hillside with claws buried in the flesh of a mountain. He kills for a living, steel-jawed traps have tongues quicker than the black snake coiled beneath the shed thriving on spilled guts. He opens the bellies of his liveliehodd with a flicking blade and a line of talk that flows sinuous, like blood. He piles hides in a corner. Case-skinned, hollow animals lack only heads and feet; lack only claws and teeth. Wiping death from his knife on a dirty pant leg, he cuts into an apple. Slicing chunks of fruit against a steady thumb he eats from the blade as one who knows how all our stories end.

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