West Virginia is my home.
They tell you that, when you go out into the woods of Appalachia, if you see something out of the corner of your eye . . . no you didn’t. If you hear footsteps behind you . . . no you didn’t. And if you hear someone call your name . . . no you didn’t.
Now, I don’t often write horror, truth be told, but I do love this notion. It sends delightful shivers crawling along my skin. So, when a project that incorporated something creepy about West Virginia came to me, well, I couldn’t resist.
The idea was to write about the asylum. You know the one—the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, WV. However, I didn’t want to just do the ordinary, so I incorporated a bit of speculative fiction as well, and ended up with a story about futuristic ghost hunters investigating a serial killer who had been a tour guide at the asylum. And, after a while, and after much rewriting, I found a home for this story in Storms of the Brain, the anthology I have for sale here on the website.
Of course, spooky locations and superstition aren’t all that my home state has to offer. And, rest assured, we have more to offer than Blue and Old Gold Football, too. There’s beauty here, even after the mountains were stripped of the old-growth American Chestnut forests to be replaced by new-growth Hemlock.
There are down-to-earth people here who, when brass tacks are laid bare, come together in communities to support one another. Do I get mad about the average level of education? Sure. I’m an educator by trade and flat earthers piss me off. And, yeah, West Virginia has its issues. But, in the end, it’s the character of most of the people I run across that keeps me here. I see kindness and generosity, openness and sharing, every day.
I haven’t lived in West Virginia all my life. My family, however, has been here for many generations. My mom’s father was a few years behind Yeager in High School. I moved here in 2010, when I sensed that my mom wouldn’t be around much longer. I’m glad I did; she lived less than a year after I moved. I stayed for my job and have been here ever since. I’ll probably be here for some time, too. West Virginia is my home.
