AUTHORS FOR APPALACHIA

AUTHORS FOR APPALACHIA: Stephanie Edwards brings the bookish community together to provide some relief to everyone impacted by Hurricane Helene

Lifting Up Appalachia by Stephanie Edwards

I was supposed to go to Charleston for a quick vacation and to promote my (then) upcoming novel, Lowcountry Charm, in mid-September. The threat of bad weather ruined my plans…or so I thought. My husband and I decided to visit our old standby – Asheville, North Carolina – instead.

Our three-day trip was perfect—we enjoyed all of our favorite haunts and discovered new ones, an unexpected feat after almost 25 years of traveling there together. The two-hour drive from Knoxville, makes the eclectic mountain town an attractive destination for us. We took our first trip as a couple there and have spent many long weekends soaking up history and beauty at Biltmore Estate, as well as dining, shopping and exploring all of Asheville and its neighboring communities. We love them all. Asheville also serves as our gateway to my beloved Lowcountry, making it even more special. It will forever be anchored as an integral part of our relationship and who I am as a person.

A week after our most recent trip to Asheville, Helene made landfall as a category 4 hurricane, cruelly destroying parts of Florida. Weather forecasters called for flooding and high winds in the rest of the Southeast, but nothing could have prepared us for the utter destruction and devastation Helene brought hundreds of miles inland to Northeastern Tennessee, Western North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia.

You can imagine my reaction to seeing the footage and photos posted by people from these areas. It seemed unreal that Helene’s floodwaters destroyed sections of towns like Newport and Erwin in Tennessee (just an hour to an hour and a half away from my home) and many beautiful places in Western North Carolina. We had just driven through Newport and spent our peaceful vacation in Asheville. The places and people I love were suffering, and I couldn’t bear the thought of it.

I knew I had to help, so I built the Authors for Appalachia Facebook community and started reaching out to authors to see if they’d contribute items for an online auction to be held from 9 a.m. on Nov. 1 EST to 9 a.m. on Nov. 8 to benefit relief efforts by Samaritan’s Purse. To say the very least, I’ve been overwhelmed by the great generosity of our bookish community and those who love Appalachia as much as I do. We’ve already had some tremendous monetary donations, that have gone straight to Samaritan’s Purse. But I can’t wait to see how much more we raise as readers bid on some incredible auction items.

What’s on the auction block?

Bestselling and award-winning authors like Susan M. Boyer, Kimberly Brock, Barbara Conrey, Hope Gibbs, Tina Hogan Grant and Laura Kemp have contributed signed copies and/or book gift sets. Also, authors won’t want to miss opportunities to refine their manuscripts by bidding on coveted consultation packages from NYC-based agent Liza Fleissig from the Liza Royce Agency and professional editor Linda Albert.

Why did you choose Samaritan’s Purse as the beneficiary for the auction?

Some religious organizations get a bad rap at times. This group, in particular, found ways to reach most of the hardest hit places throughout the Southeast to deliver safety, supplies, and hope to many.

Questions can be directed to: authorsforappalachia@gmail.com or to Stephanie Edwards on Facebook Messenger.

Stephanie Edwards has been writing professionally since she landed her first newspaper column at the age of 13. Her love for the Lowcountry, the Atlantic Ocean, and a good ghost story inspired her to write her first book, The Haunting on Palm Court: An Isle of Palms Suspense. A stay at a beach cottage with a spooky backyard, filled with old oak trees, brought the novel and two subsequent books in the series to life. All these books reached No. 1 on the Southern Fiction New Releases list on Amazon. Stephanie released Lowcountry Charm, the prequel to the series, on Oct. 25, 2024. She lives in Tennessee with her husband, Ron, and their adorable rescue pup, Shadow. Be sure to keep up with publication dates, events, and other news at www.stephedwardswrites.com.