Appalachian Stories

Ruth Calloway took 412 photographs the day she found the house. When she uploaded them that night there were 413. The extra photograph showed the interior of a room she had never entered. She was standing in it. Ruth is a land surveyor. Twenty-two years of experience. The most methodical, precise, empirically-minded person I have ever spoken to. She is not someone who imagines things. She is not someone who frightens easily. She is not someone who calls strangers at eleven PM on a Tuesday to tell them what happened to her that day. She called me anyway. Because the house she found on a disputed parcel in Harlan County, Kentucky does not appear on any map. Any satellite image. Any county record going back to 1819. Because it casts no shadow despite being fully lit by afternoon sun. Because in the 1887 field notes of the last surveyor to document that parcel - a man who died four months after his survey at age fifty-one - a margin notation reads: "Do not go inside. I do not know why I know this. I simply know it." Ruth is fifty-one years old. She surveyed that parcel in February. She did not go inside. She is in the photograph anyway. And when she looked at the reflection in the wavy old glass of the window she was standing at - She saw what was in the doorway behind her. In a room she never entered. In a house that should not exist. ⚠️ Part of the ColdPresence universe. Set in Harlan County, Kentucky - the same county as The Whitmore Mansion. Can be read as a standalone story. Full narration on YouTube - ColdPresence. Link in profile. Don't look directly at things. Look from the side.

A human should not bleed liquid gold, and Melody Carter is one hundred percent human. She should not be able to hear her dog speak in her mind, she shouldn't be able to emit a blinding and burning light from her palms when frightened, and cleaning her papercuts should certainly not leave behind a shimmery, gold-tinted residue on her skin that she just can't seem to wash off. So, when strange happenings spiral out of control, twenty-eight-year-old Melody leaves her isolated human settlement to look for witches that might have more information. Searching for answers, Melody travels to Boone, NC. However, it is only a matter of time before she discovers that students from the Other Studies program at the local college are disappearing, and if she isn't careful, she'll be next on the list of those missing. Complicating things further, she finds herself absolutely and inexplicably enamored with Hartley Allade, a handsome professor at the Appalachian Teacher's College... and a full-blooded Other who refuses to disclose his personal history. Follow Melody, Hartley, and golden retriever Chief in an alternate history where Others-- demons, vampires, angels, shifters, and many more beings-- roam the earth, magic is alive and burning bright, and blood runs deeper than just our ancestry. BLOOD BARGAIN is Book #3 in the Appalachian Magic book series.

Somebody Else Was in Control

An alternate tale of the Appalachian legend about a lone person's encounter with a strange, tenacious creature. Artwork by DA Artist SkekLa. Do not use/share art without written consent from me and the artist.

After six years of taking care of everyone else, Emily no longer knows who she is. At eighteen, Emily gave up her future to care for her sister Julie, who was battling cancer, and Julie's two young daughters. Emily became a surrogate mother, a caretaker, the steady presence the family needed. Then Julie went into remission, recovered, and needed something Emily hadn't expected - Julie needed her sister to let go. Julie needed to reclaim her life, to be a mother to her daughter's again, to pick up the pieces of her life before her illness. Suddenly Emily found herself without a purpose, lost without the survival mode she had been in the last six years, unsure of who she was if she wasn't taking care of other people. She moved apartments, moved towns, and struggled to figure out who she was now, who she wanted to be. Then one day she happened upon a book about the Appalachian Trail, and it sparked a wild, crazy idea. With nothing to lose, Emily sets out to hike the Appalachian Trail, hoping the vast endlessness of the wilderness will help her rediscover who she once was - and the woman she's meant to become. As she journey's through the rugged mountain trails, however, she soon realizes she might not just find herself on this trail... she might also find love.

For the readers in the group. FREE to Kindle Unlimited. "Lora's Stories" Appalachian overcoming! I highly recommend this book to anyone struggling with hard edges of life. It is simply written and quite short, but then again, it really doesn't take a lot of time to share a secret smile with a stranger, especially if you understand our journeys begin and end in the same place.

Appalachian humor

"Set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride straight to the devil." Those were the last words Cuzzin Jimbo said to me before I climbed into Frankenstein, my first vehicle, and embarked on the ride of my life.

Dorian has taken a wrong turn on his backpacking trip. The man he meets, Holden, is odd but kind. But is there something he is not telling Dorian?

hiya! this is fully intended for humor purposes only! The following my be disturbing to some viewers 💛

Even though that pistol is aimed on the space right between his eyes, his awe is outweighing his fright. His admiration for her strongly set jaw and her confident grip on the firearm is overpowering his common sense. Even with his life in her hands at this moment, she is the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. 》》》 Ellis Combs is a simple man. He gets by fine keeping to himself and tending to his quaint farm. His life in the mountains is sheltered, uncomplicated, and by some standards, utterly lackluster. While sometimes lonely, he doesn't mind it. It only takes one hell-splitting lightning storm and a single look at the girl with auburn hair to rearrange his unembellished grayscale life into a kaleidoscope of vibrancy he never knew he was missing. He also has no idea that her past will change his future. In 19th century North Carolina, the mountains can be all consuming and frightening. For Ellis and Madison, the possibility of real, unconditional love is just as scary. 》》》 Highest rankings: #1 Appalachian (12/21/23) #1 Woods (8/8/23) #1 Lost (1/15/23) #1 Cabin (7/20/22) #1 Wilderness (6/14/22) #1 Historic (2/1/22) #1 Mountains (10/23/21)

When Judith Moore finds a dead man on the floor of the dining room, she realizes that the family that hired her as a nanny may be hiding a few secrets. Asked to spy on her employer's movements by a charming FBI agent, she is soon caught up in a whirlwind of events that leads her to the historic mafia summit of 1957. This is a completed historical fiction novella - new chapters every week! ©Amanda Flynn 2014-2024

One woman. One broken farm. One man determined to erase it all. Evie is exhausted by city life and desperate for a fresh start for her five-year-old daughter. When she risks everything on a neglected 110-acre farm in West Virginia, she believes the land can become something rare: a place that heals. Jacob Lane disagrees. A corporate auditor trained to see numbers, not miracles, Jacob arrives with one mission, to sell the land and turn it into a luxury golf course. But as Evie breathes life back into the soil and her daughter's quiet wisdom softens even the hardest edges, Jacob begins to see the land, and Evie, differently. When powerful interests move to bulldoze the farm, Evie must step out of the shadows and fight for more than land. She must prove that healing has value... and that some roots are worth protecting. The Farmacy: The Farmacist is the first book in a heartwarming series about second chances, love that grows slowly, and the kind of medicine no pharmacy can sell. Book 1 in a standalone romance series The Farmacy. Limited-time preview.

When Lucy discovers her superpower is to bring bad luck, she sets out to find some justice.

The title may change. I'm not really sure what I'm doing, where I'm going, or why I'm posting this. We'll see. Loosely based on real events.