Appalachian Journey Series | Brown Mountain Lights Series - by CC Tillery
Blog
Feathered Quill
One of the perks that go along with Wise Woman winning the Feathered Quill Gold Award for best historical fiction is they gave us a free ad on their home page. This is the ad we sent them:
They notified us this morning that it was live on their home page and that it's linked to the book's Amazon page. We're so excited about the award and we're so grateful to Feathered Quill. If you click on the picture of the ad above, it will take you to the Feathered Quill homepage where you can see the ad and (if I did this right) if you click on the ad on their page it will take you to Wise Woman's Amazon page. Pretty cool, huh?
They notified us this morning that it was live on their home page and that it's linked to the book's Amazon page. We're so excited about the award and we're so grateful to Feathered Quill. If you click on the picture of the ad above, it will take you to the Feathered Quill homepage where you can see the ad and (if I did this right) if you click on the ad on their page it will take you to Wise Woman's Amazon page. Pretty cool, huh?
We're so excited ...
.... to announce that both Whistling Woman and Wise Woman are now award-winning books! Yay!
Whistling Woman was named runner-up in the 2016 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition.
Whistling Woman was named runner-up in the 2016 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition.
.... to announce that both Whistling Woman and Wise Woman are now award-winning books! Yay!
Whistling Woman was named runner-up in the 2016 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition.
Whistling Woman was named runner-up in the 2016 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition.
Through the Brown Mountain Lights Print Version ...
... is finally available on Amazon! For some reason, Amazon hasn't linked it to the ebook page yet but if you'd like a copy, just click on the picture below and it'll take you to the print book's page.
We've been so busy dealing with this (plus a couple of other exciting things that we'll share with you later) that I forgot to thank everyone for voting on the cover. As you can see, blue won. Thanks so much to our awesome readers who take the time to let us know what they think and are a constant source of support and inspiration to us. We love all of y'all!
We've been so busy dealing with this (plus a couple of other exciting things that we'll share with you later) that I forgot to thank everyone for voting on the cover. As you can see, blue won. Thanks so much to our awesome readers who take the time to let us know what they think and are a constant source of support and inspiration to us. We love all of y'all!
Happy Christmas to All and to All a ...
,,,new book! Yep, that's right, Through the Brown Mountain Lights, the first book in our Brown Mountain Lights Series is now available on Kindle!
Wishing all of our awesome readers a wonderful holiday season!
Wishing all of our awesome readers a wonderful holiday season!
So close ...
We are getting very close to the release of the first book in our Brown Mountain Lights series, but we've run into a bit of a roadblock on the cover. Kim, as always, did an awesome job and gave us a lot of covers to choose from. We narrowed it down to two but can't decide on which one we want. So, here we are again, asking for the help of our wonderful readers.
Which do you like best, the blue or the orange? Let us know in the comments and thanks again for your help and for being the best readers ever!
Which do you like best, the blue or the orange? Let us know in the comments and thanks again for your help and for being the best readers ever!
A Success Before It Even Began!
We had a terrific time at the Madison County Arts Council's Holiday Sale this past weekend but one of the best things happened before the sale even began. A little backstory: When Whistling Woman was released in print, way back in 2012, we went by Penland & Sons Department store in Marshall and the owner bought six books. As each book came out, we kept saying we needed to go back and see if she wanted the other books in the series. But for some reason, we never made it back until last Friday afternoon before the holiday sale in Marshall.
We were very sorry to hear the owner had passed away but her daughter, Georgette Penland Shelton, had taken over for her mother. To our surprise, we found that Georgette had been buying our books off the Internet and keeping them in stock because they were so popular. She even had three of them displayed in her front window and told us she would have had all four out there but she was out of Wise Woman. She was almost as happy as we were that we happened to stop by and bought enough books so that she had six of each in the series. And we hadn't even set up our table at the holiday sale yet!
After that, we went over to the festival and set up our booth. Then we walked over to Sweet Monkeys for an early dinner before we headed back to the sale. That's us chatting with a reader and trying to stay warm. It was cold in there! The vendor across from us came over and told us she had bought all four books at the Mars Hill Heritage Festival in October to give to her stepfather for Christmas but had started reading Whistling Woman and liked it so much she decided to read all of them first before she gave them to him.
The next morning after a peaceful night's sleep in our cabins (that's the view from the back deck of Spring Creek--yep, the very same creek that is featured in Whistling Woman) we went to our favorite restaurant in Hot Springs for breakfast, the Smoky Mountain Diner. It was, as always, delicious but the think we liked most was finding a picture of our great-grandfather on the wall. It's the second one on our "Meet the Characters" page with Great-grandpapa John in all his glory.
A couple of other great moments came at the sale later that day. A reader stopped by to tell us she had read the whole series and wanted to thank us for writing about a strong woman. Another was when a documentary film maker stopped by and said he'd heard about our books and wanted to read them. He bought Whistling Woman since it takes place in Hot Springs and Madison County is where he was currently filming.
A couple of other great moments came at the sale later that day. A reader stopped by to tell us she had read the whole series and wanted to thank us for writing about a strong woman. Another was when a documentary film maker stopped by and said he'd heard about our books and wanted to read them. He bought Whistling Woman since it takes place in Hot Springs and Madison County is where he was currently filming.
But the absolute best moment of all was when Andrea (who was also our waiter the night before at Sweet Monkeys in Marshall) stopped by to buy Beloved Woman and told us her Appalachian History professor at University of North Carolina Asheville had our book on a list he gives out to all his students of recommended reads. First a Social Studies teacher and now a university professor. You can just imagine how thrilled we were to hear that!
Like I said it was a terrific weekend with lots of high points for us. Hope yours was the same. I'm going to leave you with a picture of the inside of Penland & Sons Department Store in Marshall, NC. If you're ever in the area, stop in. It's a beautiful store with tons of unique and interesting items.
Like I said it was a terrific weekend with lots of high points for us. Hope yours was the same. I'm going to leave you with a picture of the inside of Penland & Sons Department Store in Marshall, NC. If you're ever in the area, stop in. It's a beautiful store with tons of unique and interesting items.
Madison County Arts Council's Holiday Sale
Just a quick post to let everyone know CC Tillery will be at the Madison County Arts Council's Holiday Sale at the Arts Center in Marshall this weekend. This is a new one for us but we always love going to Madison County, whether it be Marshall or Hot Springs, the setting of Whistling Woman. We hope to meet some new readers and, of course, see some of the ones we've met before. So, if you're going to be in the area, we'd love to see you!
Fall in the Mountains
We had a great time at Woodson Branch Nature School on Saturday, October 29th. The weather couldn't have been more perfect while we got the chance to meet readers, sign copies of our books, and enjoy the enticing smell of a chili
cookoff. In between meeting the attendees, we also talked about and resolved issues with our new series, the Brown Mountain Lights series, which is close to being finished. We hope to give our readers a glimpse of the beautiful cover very soon so watch for it!
cookoff. In between meeting the attendees, we also talked about and resolved issues with our new series, the Brown Mountain Lights series, which is close to being finished. We hope to give our readers a glimpse of the beautiful cover very soon so watch for it!
Fall in the mountains is our favorite time of the year, and surprisingly the drought hasn't affected the color of the trees which are beautiful, even more so when silhouetted against a fall cerulean sky.
Afterward, we drove down the mountain to Hot Springs to have dinner at our favorite diner, then walked to Bluff Mountain Outfitters, where we found out our books had sold out and were more than happy to sell more of the books to them. If you ever visit Hot Springs, be sure to stop in at Bluff Mountain. They cater to hikers hiking the Appalachian Trail and it's a great place to hang out or shop. On our way out the door, we met the largest dog we've ever seen, a 2-year-old Great Dane named Briggs who was friendly and so adorable Christy wanted to take him home but couldn't convince the owner to give him up.
Afterward, we drove down the mountain to Hot Springs to have dinner at our favorite diner, then walked to Bluff Mountain Outfitters, where we found out our books had sold out and were more than happy to sell more of the books to them. If you ever visit Hot Springs, be sure to stop in at Bluff Mountain. They cater to hikers hiking the Appalachian Trail and it's a great place to hang out or shop. On our way out the door, we met the largest dog we've ever seen, a 2-year-old Great Dane named Briggs who was friendly and so adorable Christy wanted to take him home but couldn't convince the owner to give him up.
Before leaving, we visited Springbrook Cabins in Hot Springs to talk about booking an overnight stay when we plan to attend the Christmas festival in Marshall on December 9th and 10th. If you're in the area at that time, we hope you'll stop by and say hello. Christy took a picture of the trees outside the
office there, which were too pretty to ignore.
office there, which were too pretty to ignore.
This week, we're in Florida visiting our dad (the storyteller behind the Appalachian Journey series), while working on the first edit of the first book in our new series, tentatively titled Through the Brown Mountain Lights. The book will take place during the Antebellum period in the Appalachian Mountains and, like our Appalachian Journey series, is filled with herbal medicine, Catawba folklore and a bit of romance wrapped around historical facts. We're adding a different twist to this one (think Outlander meets Cold Mountain) and hope our readers will enjoy it as much as they have the Appalachian Journey series. We'll announce the release on our CC Tillery Facebook page so stay tuned!
Mars Hill Heritage Festival--What a day!
We had a blast at the Mars Hill Heritage Festival last Saturday. It was a picture-perfect fall day in the mountains with a huge crowd, wonderful music and lots of local artists and craftspeople. Added to that, Christy brought along her granddaughter and my grand-niece, Gabi who is always loads of fun. In between designing a quilt square and playing a few games, she helped us sell books and passed out candy to the buyers. That's her in the picture to the left, working on her quilt square.
We met new readers and greeted those who had read the series and came by to share their thoughts. We were grateful we were able to get some extra books the day before the festival or we would have sold out. The best thing that happened was Darryl Norton of the Mars Hill University Book Store came by and bought several full sets to sell in the campus book store. So, now, along with a teacher at A. L. Lotts Middle School in Knoxville using our books in her class, the Appalachian Journey books are in a university book store. Needless to say, we're thrilled.
The first time we attended this festival a couple of years ago, it was rainy, windy, and cold enough that we had to wear winter coats. But this year, the weather was perfect with a gorgeous setting at the Mars Hill University campus. We enjoyed the festival so much that we hope to go back next year --with our fingers crossed that the weather will cooperate once again.
That's one of the many beautiful trees on the Mars Hill University campus howing a touch of fall foliage on the left. On the right is the music pavilion.
Next up for us, a chili cook-off at the Woodson Branch Nature School in Marshall on the 29th of October. More on that later.
Next up for us, a chili cook-off at the Woodson Branch Nature School in Marshall on the 29th of October. More on that later.
Mars Hill Heritage Festival
We're be selling and signing our books at the Mars Hill Heritage Festival tomorrow, Saturday, October 1. We've been to this festival one other time, in 2014, and while we enjoyed it, it was a cold, rainy, windy day. Tomorrow promises to be a lot nicer, with temps in the low 70s and sunshine. Ah, fall in the mountains. You have to love it! We will be at Booth 87 on South Main Street (right in front of the book store) from 10 until 4. If you're in the area, come on by. We'd love to see you!
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).
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).