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Brown Mountain Lights series--progress report

We spent last weekend in beautiful Morganton, North Carolina researching the new series--and enjoying some really awesome scenery, including Brown Mountain, Table Rock, and lots of historical buildings in downtown Morganton. It's an amazing place and we met some very helpful and informative people who helped us get a feel for life in the town and around Brown Mountain in the 1850s which is where and when the first book of our next series takes place.

This one is going to be a little different from the Appalachian Journey series ... it's still historical fiction with a touch of romance--well, maybe more than a touch, we haven't exactly figured that out yet!--with a bit of paranormal thrown in. We've been trying to decide what genre it will fall under but haven't had any luck yet. Historical Paranormal Fiction? Paranormal Historical Romance? Whatever, think Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series only in 19th century Appalachia.

Anyway, back to our research trip. We'll start with the town of Morganton, First up, we visited the Chamber of Commerce/Visitor Center and met Ed Phillips, the town's Director of Tourism. Ed was very welcoming and helpful (the same can be said for all the people we met). He's directed several symposiums on the Brown Mountain Lights and knows quite a bit about them, the legends behind what causes them, and the general area (most of which we're keeping under our hats for now since we don't want any spoilers to get out about the series).

Ed also directed us to the historical Morganton Courthouse, a gorgeous building, and told us to see Joan Malloch, the President of the Board of the Morganton Historic Foundation. Joan walked us through the building and shared numerous stories about its history and some of the notable trials that took place there. She also told us about the Charles McDowell, Jr. House which still stands on the grounds of the Quaker Meadows Plantation--no pictures of that. That's the courthouse to the left. Isn't it gorgeous? Wish we had gotten a picture of the winding staircases on both sides.

After we left the courthouse, we went to the Morganton Historic Museum and talked with the people there and then the Burke County Public Library's North Carolina Room where we met Dottie Ervin who was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the town. She spent a long time pulling files for us to look at and told us about Demon's Hill where they used to hang people. The library and the grounds surrounding it are ... I'm running out of words ...beautiful, gorgeous, stunning ... how about breathtaking?

And finally, after all that, we drove up to the overlook to see Brown Mountain. That's
it on the left, on the right of the "V" in the mountains. It was right at sunset, so we didn't get to see any lights, and truthfully, we weren't sure we wanted to see them after hearing the legends. (Some people believe whenever the lights are seen, people disappear. Yikes! Don't want that --we have a book to write!) The picture on the right is of Table Rock. Sorry it's not very clear! We were in a moving car when we took it!

And that about sums up our weekend in Morganton, except to say we spent a lot of time talking about the book, we know our protagonist's name and the names of the sisters who find her on Brown Mountain and take her in, and we have the time, setting and a tentative outline for the first book. And we also have an opening we both love, so now, all we have to do is start writing. Fingers crossed it goes as well as our trip to see the setting.

For those fans of our Appalachian Journey series, we'll continue with our readers' favorite themes, herbal medicine (as well as other forms of medicine practiced at that time), Native American legends and culture, and stories about the Appalachian mountaineers along with historical events of the time. Stay tuned for updates!