At the age of ten, Annie Todd finds not only is her mother quite mad but that Annie has inherited an unusual legacy. The ghost of a young girl visits Annie in her new home deep in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where Annie's mother, Grace Jean, has hidden them away from the life they used to know. Annie finds an unlikely ally in Pearl, a young woman who keeps house in Annie's new home. The secrets that surround Pearl take Annie's mind off her loneliness and soon her family history is revealed to her. "Instead of wind, I heard my name being called. The whispery voice came from the woods. 'Annie Todd'. My sixth sense had not yet kicked in and didn't warn me I was standing on the backbone of my history." WHERE THE SOULS GO is Ann Hite's third novel set in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Readers who loved GHOST ON BLACK MOUNTAIN, Hite's first novel, will find many of the characters familiar. This book follows three generations of the Pritchard family, not only telling the story of how Hobbs Pritchard became the villain of Black Mountain, but highlighting women's struggles in Appalachia, beginning in the Depression Era and ending in the mid-sixties.

Where the Souls Go (Black Mountain)

Literature & Fiction

Hite, Ann

Genre Fiction

Mercer University Press

Imagine the relationship triangle from EAST OF EDEN and set it deep in the Appalachian Mountains. Add a couple of ghosts, a good measure of dysfunction, and a whole lot of twists and turns, and you have Ann Hite's new Black Mountain novel, SLEEPING ABOVE CHAOS. Hite's fourth novel returns to Swannanoa Gap, a small town at the foot of Black Mountain, and introduces new characters while revisiting some favorites from her previous novels.
Buster and Lee Wright are the sons of Swannanoa Gap's sheriff. Their personalities couldn't be more opposite and these differences bring conflicts that may not be resolved.
Ella Ruth Allen was born on Black Mountain. Her mama, a city girl, runs off with another man, leaving the two-year-old Ella Ruth behind with Paul Allen, her father. He in turn promptly dumps poor Ella Ruth on her grandparents' farm to be raised by Grandmother Allen, a woman who has an extreme dislike for her wild, runaway daughter-in-law.
Hite weaves a ghost story throughout each of her novels and this one is no different. Ella Ruth follows a haint into the woods near the farm and stumbles onto her family history. When her life crosses paths with Buster and Lee Wright, fireworks explode.
The reader will travel to a ranch in Montana, to Pearl Harbor, and to the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, while watching the cast of characters struggle through World War II, emerging into adulthoods which would weigh heavy on anyone's shoulders. The story ends as the Civil Rights Movement ignites.

Sleeping Above Chaos (Black Mountain)

Literary

ROLL AWAY THE STONE is the true story that influenced the award-winning Black Mountain novel series. Ann Hite, in her storytelling mode, envisions a sack of stones poised to hang around her neck the moment she is born and added to throughout her childhood by her grandmother and mother. Each stone represents a family story that forms who Hite becomes as an adult. Generations of abuse, racism, adultery, and lies populate this sordid history. In the midst of the telling are strong, flawed women who are far from good role-models for a young Hite but show that survival and success in the worst scenarios are not always lost. Along with stories of murder and madness are the ghost tales Hite is so well-known for writing. Readers may find themselves pondering if real people aren't scarier than any ghost could ever be. The author hopes when readers emerge on the other side of this memoir, they have a better understanding of what it takes to survive one's history and own it without shame.

Roll the Stone Away

History

Americas

Mercer Univ Pr

Ann Hite takes her readers back to Black Mountain with this haunted short story collection. An array of new characters on the mountain experience ghostly encounters. The collection took inspiration from her beloved readers, who provided writing prompts. Wrinkle in the Air features Black Mountain's Polly Murphy, a young Cherokee woman, who sees her future in the well's water. Readers encounter relatives of Polly Murphy as the stories move through time. The Root Cellar introduces Polly's great grandson, who tends to be a little too frugal with his money until a tornado and Polly's spirit pays the mountain a visit. In The Beginning, the Middle, and the End, readers meet Gifted Lark on an excessively frigid January day. This story moves back and forth between 1942 and 1986 telling Gifted and her grandmother Anna's story. This telling introduces spirits that intervene in the spookiest of ways.

Haints on Black Mountain: A Haunted Short Story Collection

Short Stories & Anthologies

ONCE A PERSON LEAVES THE MOUNTAIN, THEY NEVER COME BACK, NOT REALLY. THEY’RE LOST FOREVER. Nellie Clay married Hobbs Pritchard without even noticing he was a spell conjured into a man, a walking, talking ghost story. But her mama knew. She saw it in her tea leaves: death. Folks told Nellie to get off the mountain while she could, to go back home before it was too late. Hobbs wasn’t nothing but trouble. He’d even killed a man. No telling what else. That mountain was haunted, and soon enough, Nellie would feel it too. One way or another, Hobbs would get what was coming to him. The ghosts would see to that. . . . Told in the stunning voices of five women whose lives are inextricably bound when a murder takes place in rural Depression-era North Carolina, Ann Hite’s unforgettable debut spans generations and conjures the best of Southern folk-lore—mystery, spirits, hoodoo, and the incomparable beauty of the Appalachian landscape.

Ghost on Black Mountain

United States

GALLERY BOOKS

From the author of the “wonderfully crafted” (San Francisco Book Review) Ghost on Black Mountain comes a haunting gothic novel set in the Depression-era South about two young women who form an unlikely alliance when the spirit of a dead woman takes up residence in their home. Shelly Parker never much liked Faith Dobbins, the uppity way that girl bossed her around. But they had more in common than she knew. Shelly tried to ignore the haints that warned her Faith’s tyrannical father, Pastor Dobbins, was a devil in disguise. But when Faith started acting strange, Shelly couldn’t avoid the past—not anymore. Critically acclaimed, award-winning author Ann Hite beckons readers back to the Depression-era South, from the saltwater marshes of Georgia’s coast to the whispering winds of North Carolina’s mystical Black Mountain, in a mesmerizing gothic tale about the dark family secrets that come back to haunt us.

The Storycatcher

A Place and a Story That Will Take Your Breath Away Mama always said our lives were ghost stories--metaphors--to hide the truth behind. And so begins the struggle Isla Weehunt--wife of wealthy chicken farmer, Scott Weehunt--encounters to keep her family buried in the past and her secrets well hidden. But plans, no matter how well thought out, have a way of taking their own paths. Isla receives a call late one Friday night that rocks her perfectly crafted life. Velvet, her estranged sister of seventeen years, has died in what appears to be an arson, leaving behind a teenage son, Randal, and a tangled mess of murder and chaos. Isla never thought she would return to Nantahala, to the sweet, rugged gorge of her childhood. And taking her nephew into her life was certainly never on her agenda. The thought of conversing with her mother, devastated by Alzheimer's, seems out of reach. But there are questions that need answering about Velvet's death and hidden stories that go back generations. Isla's life will change whether she embraces it or not.

Going to the Water

Firefly Southern Fiction

You hold in your hands stories of horror, mayhem, and the macabre. Springer Mountain Press presents the Summer Slasher Horror Anthology, which offers sixteen frightening stories from some of the freshest voices in horror writing. You'll find unspeakable evil lurking deep within a mineshaft, a television broadcasting your worst nightmares, a knife-wielding killer stalking a summer camp, and many more terrifying tales. Read at your own risk, for what you'll find on these pages is sure to haunt you long after summertime is over.

Summer Slasher Horror Anthology: Vol. 1

Anderson, Clay

Meeks, Ben

Reed, Lincoln

Reid, Kristen

Rose, Juliet

Klouda, Maria

Nichols, Austin C

James, Annie

Hamilton, Alyssa

Springer Mountain Press

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