Shadows Mountain Deep

Introduction Kari Kilgore and Jason A. Adams Kari: Mystery or crime fiction has always seemed like a natural fit in our native Appalachian Mountains. The most obvious reason, especially to folks not from around here, is probably the impression that we’re almost like another country. Our language and dialects are similar to what many think of as generally Southern. But there’s a rhythm and music to the words that’s uniquely part of these mountains. For example, the name of our mountains and our region is pronounced app-a-LATCH-ian here in Virginia, like a door latch. We definitely appreciate folks who make the effort to get it right. I grew up mostly in Southern Illinois—another region with a richly diverse culture and frequently mispronounced place names. Not quite St. Louis, not quite Chicago. Call it farm country with an urban awareness. So I don’t speak with the same soft mountain accent I grew up hearing from my parents, grandparents, cousins, and various kinfolk. The specific turns of phrase are easy to call to mind, though, and they seem to naturally flow through my fingers when I write with characters from here. My husband Jason A. Adams had a similarly removed upbringing as the child of an Air Force pilot. Both of his parents were also natives of our coalfield region in far Southwestern Virginia, so he grew up spending time here much like I did. No matter where we find ourselves, these mountains are home. We share many of the same memories and attitudes despite growing up in such different areas and cultures, and he can also conjure our musical native dialect in his stories. I’ll freely admit he does a much better job reading that accent out loud than I do. Another aspect of our mountains that lends itself to mystery is the landscape itself. We don’t have the towering peaks of the Rockies out west, partly because our mountains are so much older. The erosion and weathering over all those eons created our close, narrow valleys, with thick forests all around. Add a sparse population and the tendency for fog and mist, and people understandably wonder what kinds of secrets are hidden away along our shadowy creeks and hollers (the proper local pronunciation for hollow. I happen to be sitting in one as I type this). We also have a well-deserved reputation for being a bit distrustful of outsiders. This one isn’t only cultural, even for a group of people who do value our privacy and independence. Unfortunately, there’s also a long history of folks from other places deciding to show up and claim our natural resources of timber and coal, then send the profits elsewhere and leave the damaged land behind. The same thing happens all too often in the modern era as well, with numerous factories or high-tech call centers getting built, providing good job opportunities for a time, then left abandoned, along with the workers, families, and communities who depended on those jobs. Yet another twist of the unusual that I love about our region is the incredible diversity of people who settled here over time. The Scots-Irish influence is undeniable, certainly coming from someone with a family name like Kilgore. But a quick look into our history reveals people arriving from not only all over Britain, but from all over Europe, with a significant population from Hungary and Italy, and from the Middle East to go along with a healthy African-American influx. My own genetic testing confirmed that while I do indeed have Scottish and German ancestry, my forebearers also came from all over Europe, Western Africa, and Egypt. I and many other Appalachians are the very definition of a melting pot. Our culture and politics and music and art are every bit as diverse as our landscapes and our DNA. We’re also generally well-educated, intelligent, curious, welcoming of visitors who aren’t trying to exploit us, and excited about moving forward into the future, while maintaining a deep sense of pride about where we come from. Now bring all of that together with our tendency to enjoy storytelling, and it’s no wonder I often write stories set close to home. Inspiration is all around me every day, and my memories overflow with fascinating characters, settings, and odd goings on. And many of those yarns end up leaning toward mystery and crime fiction of all subgenres. My first story in Shadows Mountain Deep leans into the distrust of outsiders for certain, and the common scenario of someone moving away for work, or growing up elsewhere like I did. The Definition of Crime brings the dislocation of a character returning from the big city—with an insider/outsider perspective—square into the middle of an especially protective group in an already tight-knit mountain town. The beautiful and challenging geography of our mountains takes center stage in A Race Against Tea Time. So many aspects of modern technology that people take for granted in cities or more forgiving terrain are less reliable along our curvy roads and deep valleys. This story brings our community spirit and fierce determination to look out for each other into play as well. The charming town of Bountyfield is a great example of one of my favorite parts of writing. I’ve created my own network of fictional towns all across the region over the years, and I had a great time playing with that shared geography in A Race Against Tea Time. You’ll encounter towns from several of my series in one suspenseful tale. To learn more and visit the other thriving towns inside my head, including Bountyfield’s Voices Through Time series, check out www.KariKilgore.com/TalesFromAppalachia. My final entry in this collection fits into another series, and it switches gears to cozy mystery and the winter holidays. Adventures in Winter Driving visits Maple Ridge (which you’ll recognize from A Race Against Tea Time), an important setting in my apocalyptic series Storms of Future Past. This prequel story introduces two characters in their youth and shows Maple Ridge in happier times. That’s not to say all is calm and normal by any means. Not when visiting the secluded home of the town’s most eccentric and secretive resident. One of the best parts about putting collections like this together with Jason is seeing how our writing worlds overlap, much like our family backgrounds do. You’ll catch a glimpse of one of his series settings, which I’m more than happy to borrow from time to time for my own fiction. But I’ll let him tell you more about that. I hope we write a few proper crossover stories sometime in the future, and bring our imaginary worlds together, much like we’ve done in real life. I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I enjoyed writing them. Check out all kinds of mysterious tales at www.KariKilgore.com/Mystery. You can also visit www.KariKilgore.com to learn more about me and find other short stories, along with novellas, novels, and more collections. If you want to keep up with what I’m doing next, get free stories, read exclusive content not available anywhere else, and see adorable pet photos, check out www.ConfidentialAdventureClub.com. Hope to see you there! And last but certainly not least, thank you for your support of me and my writing. It means the world to me and keeps me coming back to tell the next tale.