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378 books | 42 friends

Sharyn McCrumb

Goodreads Author

Born

in Wilmington, North Carolina, The United States

Website

http://www.sharynmccrumb.com/

Genre

Fiction, Historical Fiction, Paranormal

Member Since

June 2010

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Sharyn McCrumb, an award-winning Southern writer, is best known for her Appalachian “Ballad” novels, including the New York Times best sellers The Ballad of Tom Dooley, The Ballad of Frankie Silver, and The Songcatcher. Ghost Riders, which won the Wilma Dykeman Award for Literature from the East Tennessee Historical Society and the national Audie Award for Best Recorded Books. The Unquiet Grave, a well-researched novel about West Virginia's Greenbrier Ghost, will be published in September by Atria, a division of Simon &Schuster.
Sharyn McCrumb, named a Virginia Woman of History by the Library of Virginia and a Woman of the Arts by the national Daughters of the American Revolution, was awarded the Mary Hobson Prize for A ...more

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Is there a real Nora Bonesteel?

Sharyn McCrumb Nora Bonesteel was inspired years ago by my friend Charlotte Ross of western North Carolina. She is a repository of legends, mountain history, and sto…moreNora Bonesteel was inspired years ago by my friend Charlotte Ross of western North Carolina. She is a repository of legends, mountain history, and stories of her family who settled in these mountains back in pioneer days.
Nora is not in the first Ballad novel, If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O, but Charlotte was with me at the Appalachian Studies Conference in north Georgia when we had a reception for the newly published book. That night we hosted a party in our cabin, and the guests, professors from universities throughout the mountain region, started telling their family ghost stories. I realized that this mystical element of the culture, a legacy from Celtic Britain, is what was missing from the novel, so in The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, I introduced Nora Bonesteel, and some of the experiences described in it are adapted from Charlotte's stories of growing up on a north Georgia farm with the Sight. I persuaded Charlotte to record some of her family stories for posterity, and I still have copies. I see that it's not on my website anymore, but message me if you want to purchase one.(less)

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Hi Sharyn, First of all I have to tell you how much I enjoy your books. I also have to tell you that your ancestors and my ancestors (a Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather and his five sons) all fought together at the Battle of Kings Mountain. They were part of the Over Mountain Men. Is there a plan to do more books based on these families? Oleeta Fain Igar

Sharyn McCrumb Oleeta,
Thanks for your message. I wonder if our ancestors knew one another? Mine fought with Sevier's Watauga militia.
I'm not going to do the fictio…moreOleeta,
Thanks for your message. I wonder if our ancestors knew one another? Mine fought with Sevier's Watauga militia.
I'm not going to do the fictional equivalent of regimental histories, but one can hardly write about NC/TN events without stumbling over a King's Mountain veteran or a descendant. Here are a few who have turned up in other books:

1)The Ballad of Frankie Silver
*Sheriff Morris, John Boone's distant predecessor, who let John Sevier out of the Morganton jail in the 1780's. Morris had been under Sevier's command at King's Mountain.
* Eliza Grace McDowell - granddaughter of Colonel Charles McDowell (commander of Burke Co. Militia)

2) Ghost Riders
* NC Governor Zebulon Baird Vance - grandson of David Vance of the Burke County Militia.(less)

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Sharyn McCrumb’s books

Average rating: 3.95 · 89,019 ratings · 6,209 reviews · 126 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (Ballad, #2) 3.97 avg rating — 5,617 ratings — published 1992 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ballad of Frankie Silver (Ballad, #5) 3.93 avg rating — 5,469 ratings — published 1998 — 40 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	She Walks These Hills (Ballad, #3) 4.10 avg rating — 4,265 ratings — published 1994 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Rosewood Casket (Ballad, #4) 4.04 avg rating — 3,749 ratings — published 1996 — 35 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O (Ballad, #1) 3.94 avg rating — 3,573 ratings — published 1990 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Songcatcher (Ballad, #6) 4.04 avg rating — 2,778 ratings — published 2001 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ballad of Tom Dooley (Ballad, #9) 3.68 avg rating — 2,975 ratings — published 2011 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Unquiet Grave (Ballad, #12) 3.75 avg rating — 2,714 ratings — published 2017 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bimbos of the Death Sun (Jay Omega, #1) 3.71 avg rating — 2,729 ratings — published 1987 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him... (Elizabeth MacPherson #8) 3.84 avg rating — 2,378 ratings — published 1995 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Sharyn McCrumb…

Series by Sharyn McCrumb

Ballad (12 books)
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Sharyn McCrumb (Goodreads Author)

3.91 avg rating — 38,616 ratings

Elizabeth MacPherson (9 books)
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Sharyn McCrumb (Goodreads Author)

3.74 avg rating — 12,713 ratings

Jay Omega (2 books)
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Sharyn McCrumb (Goodreads Author)

3.63 avg rating — 4,062 ratings

Quotes by Sharyn McCrumb (?)

“Romulan or Vulcan?' the ushers asked each guest.

Marion, who had been poised to say 'friends of the bride' had responded to the question with an open-mouthed stare, and Jay Omega answered, 'Klingon!" which got them seats in the back row of the Romulan side.”
― Sharyn McCrumb, Bimbos of the Death Sun

tags: fandom, humor, star-trek

18 likes

“It couldn't be the beer. Donnie McRory was certain of that. If you sent American beer out to be analyzed, the lab would probably phone up and say, 'Your horse has diabetes.”
― Sharyn McCrumb, Bimbos of the Death Sun

tags: beer

10 likes

“Boondocks' is simply the Tagalog word for mountains.”
― Sharyn McCrumb, The Devil Amongst the Lawyers

tags: language

8 likes

See all Sharyn McCrumb's quotes »

Polls

February/March 2014 Group Read

And Then There Were None/Agatha Christie

40 votes, 10.8%

The Shining / Stephen King

36 votes, 9.7%

Defending Jacob/ William Landay

33 votes, 8.9%

A Ghostly Undertaking/Tonya Kappes

30 votes, 8.1%

Ripper: A Novel / Isabel Allende

30 votes, 8.1%

Where the Bodies Are Buried / Christopher Brookmyre

21 votes, 5.7%

A Test Of Wills / Charles Todd

20 votes, 5.4%

Rules Of Prey / John Sandford

19 votes, 5.1%

The Green Mile / Stephen King

18 votes, 4.9%

1st to Die / James Patterson

18 votes, 4.9%

Aftershock: A Thriller/Andrew Vachss

16 votes, 4.3%

Pig Island/ Mo Hayder

14 votes, 3.8%

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter/Sharyn McCrumb

13 votes, 3.5%

First Night of Summer/ Landon Parham

13 votes, 3.5%

The Blind Man of Seville/ Robert Wilson

12 votes, 3.2%

The Chalk Circle Man / Fred Vargas

8 votes, 2.2%

Havana Queen/James Bruno

6 votes, 1.6%

Broken Dolls /James Carol

6 votes, 1.6%

The Eleventh Victim/ Nancy Grace

5 votes, 1.4%

The Case of the Love Commandos / Tarquin Hall

5 votes, 1.4%

A Terrible Beauty/Graham Masterton

3 votes, 0.8%

On Behalf of the Family/ Mar Preston

2 votes, 0.5%

next of sin/Lisa Gordon

1 vote, 0.3%

Dr. 2/ Peter Tieryas

1 vote, 0.3%

370 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The Seasonal Read...: 10.1 - Stormy Weather	18	194	Jul 24, 2010 07:37AM
The Seasonal Read...: * Summer Challenge 2010 Tasks	7	1716	Aug 06, 2010 05:55PM
The Seasonal Read...: Summer 2010 Plans	152	779	Aug 31, 2010 05:30PM
The Seasonal Read...: Summer Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread)	3053	3260	Aug 31, 2010 10:39PM
The Seasonal Read...: Fall 2010 Plans	73	457	Oct 25, 2010 08:39AM
The Seasonal Read...: Fall Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread)	2785	1181	Nov 30, 2010 09:03PM
Challenge: 50 Books: Cathy of PA 50 Book Challenge	72	227	Dec 31, 2010 06:50AM
Historical Fictio...: Challenge #4 - September 1 - December 31	917	446	Jan 03, 2011 01:10PM

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Sharyn’s Quotes

“Seasons didn't come behind the nicotine-stained walls of Mountain City's prison, so Harm always imagined it spring--the locust trees clustered with shaggy white blooms, the wet woods flecked with bloodroot, and wild roses and honeysuckle flashing white among the chestnuts on the mountainsides...”
― Sharyn McCrumb, She Walks These Hills

tags: appalachian-literature, ballad-novel, southern-fiction

2 likes

“There is a time in late September when the leaves are still green, and the days are still warm, but somehow you know that it is all about to end, as if summer was holding its breath, and when it let it out again, it would be autumn.”
― Sharyn McCrumb, King's Mountain

8 likes

“Wild steep mountains floating in a haze of cloud...a sea of green trees swallowing the hills and valleys, and curling around the trails and rivers, with the wind in the leaves as its tide.”
― Sharyn McCrumb, The Songcatcher

tags: appalachian-literature, ballad-novels, southern-fiction

4 likes