by Laura Miklowitz

Ready to steam up your reading glasses? These summertime diversions, works of fiction and fantasy by Western North Carolina authors, will no doubt entice and engage. It all boils down to love: passionate love, lost love, unrequited love, love of the land, the love sisters share, love from the beyond, interspecies love (yikes) and the ever-elusive Perfect Love. If you’ve got love on your mind—or would like to—read on. 

Susan Woodring
Books: Springtime on Mars. These compelling short stories take place in settings from the 1950s (think sizzling pork chops, The Cold War and UFOs) to the here and now. Woodring spins intricate yarns of remarkable events and extraterrestrial encounters in seemingly mundane settings. Her characters are often quirky misfits from mildly to stunningly dysfunctional families we can all relate to. You won’t find pat or fairy tale endings, but you will find yourself swept up in her imaginative storylines.  

Style: Gut-wrenching narratives filled with achingly plaintive images and sly wit.

You'll appreciate: The pull of her words, the universe she creates within each story, the Book Club discussion questions at the end and the kitschy, Stepford-ish cover art.

Appeals to: Anyone who has family issues or has felt longing and loss.

Her day job: Susan Woodring lives, writes and home-schools her two children in Drexel, NC, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Jacquelyn Frank
Books: Damien. This is definitely a story with bite. Damien, the Prince of Vampires, first appears in 1562, surreptitiously reviving a peckish Queen Elizabeth, who would otherwise have perished. (Fangs for the memories!) Cut to present day San Jose, where the former hedonist, at the tender age of 974, falls head-over-heels in love with Syreena, a lovely and (for a time) virginal lycanthrope. The two hunger for and sate one another, besting a litany of jealous allies and insidious adversaries clearly out for blood. The two forces of nature risk their lives and lineage to ecstatically become one.

Style: A demonic romance fantasy, filled with adventure, betrayal, revenge and redemption.

You'll appreciate: The suspense, treachery and romance… and the transcendent triumph of good over evil—which beats the alternative.

Appeals to: Lovers of epic fantasies, vampires and romance.

Day job: Jacquelyn Frank moved to Asheville and realized she was home. The fifth volume of her Nightwalker series, Noah, will be published in September.

Rose Senehi
Books: In the Shadows of Chimney Rock. Life was full of challenges for Hayden Taylor. In 1916, a raging flood in Hickory Nut Gorge swept away his mother and baby sister. After serving in Vietnam, he was subjected to even more loss; his wife let his baby girls believe he had died in the conflict. In 2003, his daughter, Hayden Taylor Parks, sets out for the mountains of Western North Carolina for a surprise reunion. Surprise indeed—her father is killed only hours before her arrival. This is a tale not only of tragedy beyond imagination but also of family dynamics, fierce pride, persistence and preservation.

Style: A riveting mix of history, mystery, loss and love.

You'll appreciate: References to Hickory Nut Gorge, Asheville and The Grove Arcade, Warren Wilson College and Chimney Rock. The book also champions land conservancy and stewardship.

Appeals to: Historians, mystery enthusiasts, art lovers and environmentalists.

Day job: Rose Senehi bought a vacation home in Hickory Nut Gorge and was hooked. She’s currently creating a series of novels set in WNC, exploring local natural resources and their perpetuation.

Sarah Addison Allen
Books: The Sugar Queen. Talk about a skeleton in your closet. Josey, the sullen daughter of a ravishingly beautiful widow, finds pleasure only in the recesses of her treat-stocked secret closet hideaway…until she finds Della Lee, the colorful waitress from the Eat & Run, hiding out in her calorie-laden cache. The recently-single Chloe is curiously bombarded with instructional books, which pop up in the most inexplicable ways. Their lives in the quaint ski resort town of Ball Slope intertwine in ways they, and you, would never imagine.

Style: “Southern-fried magical realism” with unexpected plot twists and a touch of Cinderella thrown in.

You'll appreciate: The plucky characters you’ll come to know and root for, the references to Asheville and the clever chapter titles.

Appeals to: Fans of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Fried Green Tomatoes and other Southern sass.

Day Job: Sarah Addison Allen lives in Asheville, where she’s at work on her next novel, Festival of the Naked Lady, due in 2009.