Civil War Banquet Sharyn McCrumb was the guest speaker at the Giles County Historical Society's Civil War banquet, complete with re-enactors and guests in period costumes, held at historic Rockwood Manor in Dublin, VA on Saturday, April 27, 2013. Sharyn with her son "the General." She is dismayed that many of the real Civil War generals were about his age.

King's Mountain Sharyn McCrumb's next Ballad novel, King's Mountain, will be published on September 17 by St. Martins Press. The novel tells the story of the Overmountain Men, a group of unpaid volunteers from the southern Appalachians, who fought the Revolutionary War battle at King's Mountain, just west of Charlotte NC. George Washington's Continental Army was losing the war in the north, and the victory of the Overmountain Men renewed the colonist's optimism for the cause. Thomas Jefferson called it the turning point of the war. The battle of King's Mountain is a Who's Who of the colonial frontier. The Overmountain Men included: John Sevier, first governor of Tennessee; Isaac Shelby, first governor of Kentucky; William Campbell, brother-in-law of Virginia governor Patrick Henry; John Crockett, father of frontiersman Davy Crockett; David Vance, grandfather of NC's Civil War governor Zebulon B. Vance; and Jonathan Tipton, the 7-times great-grandfather of author Sharyn McCrumb.

The Ballad of Frankie Silver The Ballad of Frankie Silver is now available in a new edition by St. Martins Press. The novel, a New York Times best-seller, tells the moving story of the 18-year old mountain girl who became the first woman hanged for murder in the state of North Carolina (1833.)

Two Short Stories Two new short stories featuring Rattler, the curmudgeonly shaman in Ghost Riders, are now available. "Fairy Tale Princesses and the Civil War : Rattler and Celtic Magic" is available on e-books and in a print version in the Mayland Community College Literary Magazine.

• "The Ballad of Tom Dooley" made the New York Times best-seller list in October.
• Visit the publisher's web-site for "The Ballad of Tom Dooley." You can read the first chapter and see photos from the actual incident
  at us.macmillan.com/theballadoftomdooley.

 
Hear the Original Ballad of Tom Dooley
Before the Kingston Trio recorded their 1959 version of "Tom Dooley", local musicians in western North Carolina crafted a longer, more authentic version of the song.
 
On this new CD, award-winning Virginia bluegrass musicians Jack Hinshelwood and Eddie Bond sing the original version of the folk song, and author Sharyn McCrumb reads a scene from her New York Times best-selling novel.
 
The Mountain Times, Boone, North Carolina
"Think You Know The Story...?"
An excellent article by journalist Frank Ruggiero examines The Ballad of Tom Dooley, highlighting the research and the discrepancies between the legend and the newly-uncovered facts. "Combining months of research and assistance from local historians, lawyers and librarians, McCrumb fuses fact – including a newly discovered piece of the puzzle – with fiction to tell the true story." Read the article here.
 
Sharyn McCrumb's Appalachia
Sharyn McCrumb's Appalachia, a collection of essays also available in e-book form, has now been published in print format by Oconee Spirit Press of Tennessee. Contents include Keepers of the Legends, A Novelist Looks at the Land, The Celts and the Appalachians, Magic Realism in Appalachia, and Nora Bonesteel and the Sight. Recommended for Appalachian Studies classes, or anyone interested in the history and folklore of the region.
 
Signed copies of Sharyn McCrumb's Appalachia are available here.
  

McCrumb Releases Kindle-only Publication

Sharyn McCrumb has uploaded her first Kindle-only publication: a collection of articles she has written about Appalachian history and folklore, and essays on the Ballad novels—including "The Celts and the Appalachians."
 
Buy your Kindle-edition of Sharyn McCrumb's Appalachia now.