The Appalachian Mountains are full of stories. The people there are full of personality and the settings can be beautiful and sometimes challenging. If you’ve read any of my stories, you know most of them have Kentucky history. So, my Appalachian stories have Kentucky settings, but the Appalachian Mountains run through several states. There are many stories that writers can mine out of those hills.

The Appalachian region runs through thirteen states. The only state that is completely in the range is West Virginia. The eastern part of my state, Kentucky, is part of the Appalachian range.  The region starts in New York, takes up a big part of Pennsylvania, slides over into Ohio, swallows West Virginia, gets the eastern part of Kentucky, has some of its most beautiful areas in the tip of Virginia, has half of Tennessee along with the much loved Smoky Mountains that spread into North Carolina. South Carolina gets an Appalachian nod in the northwestern part of the state before the range goes south across the northern part Georgia, Alabama and ends in Mississippi.

Writers from all over have written many, many stories about the people who have made their homes in these areas or who just went to visit for awhile.  The rich mountain heritage and the beautiful settings seem to awaken the storytelling gene.

Mountain people have always been storytellers. Sometimes by passing stories down through the generations. Many times in folksongs. Often in crafts. Carvings and quilts can tell stories too. In fact, I include some of those types of stories in my mountain book, Along a Storied Trail. Aunt Perdy was a storyteller and a carver of unusual wooden pieces. My whole book celebrates stories as it focuses on the history of the Packhorse Libraries during the Great Depression. My character, Tansy, rode out along the trail as a bookwoman, carrying books to readers in the remote areas of  the Kentucky Appalachian Mountains.

I loved researching about the bookwomen in the Appalachian counties of Kentucky. You know those women had plenty of adventures as they rode through all sorts of terrain and weather to make their book rounds. Tansy had some of those adventures, but for sure I made her a lover of books and stories.

A fellow Appalachian story writer, Amy Willoughby-Burke got several of us writers, who have found stories in the Appalachian regions, together to have a book giveaway. You can see more about the other stories in the giveaway in these graphics.

You can sign up to win on the rafflecopter. When you do, you agree to give the authors’ newsletters a try. You do need to have a USA mailing address and be at least 18 years old to enter. The giveaway ends on March 31, 2024. But wouldn’t it be fun to win these five books? Just click on the rafflecopter link and then the down arrow in the block below the picture of all five books to see more information and enter.

Giveaway Rafflecopter

Christian Fiction Spring Scavenger Hunt Winners

I just got through giving away my three already published Appalachian stories to two winners on the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt. It won’t be long until my next Appalachian story, The Song of Sourwood Mountain, will join them out there for readers.

If you joined in the hunt, I hope you had fun and discovered some new authors to give a try. My winners were Donna from Arkansas and Michele from New York. I put their books in the mail today. The winners of the Scavenger Hunt have been announced and contacted. Three winners got all 30 books along with gift certificates and 2 other winners got gift certificates. Then there were other winners all along the trail. So check your email boxes to see if you might be a winner. Some of the winners haven’t responded to the winners’ notification.

Do you like to read stories set in the Appalachian regions of our country?