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About... Marking the Signs and Other Tales of Mischief "These edgy and sometimes disturbing tales evoke the southern Appalachian folkways and mythology with a deftness that only a native can manage. Whether it’s black magic against white, in "Marking the Signs", or a country boy’s passion for his truck, in "Nice Truck", Laura J. Underwood has the right combination of believable characters, authentic mountain settings, a twist of humor, and cold-down-the-backbone touch of horror." – Elizabeth Moon, author of The Speed of Dark"Can you feel the delicious shiver down your spine? The beginnings of a rich, deep-down-in-the-belly chuckle? The prickle of hoary Tennessee backwoods magic? That’ll be Laura J. Underwood’s wonderful Marking the Signs, beckoning you. Like a cauldron of thick, home-cooked, magic stew, it’ll fill you up, spook away your willies, nurture your imagination, and tweak your funny bone. Don’t wait another moment – dig in!" – Vera Nazarian, author of Dreams of the Compass Rose "Curling up with Laura Underwood’s newest collection is like sitting on a darkened porch up an Appalachian hollow, listening to a master storyteller turn the sounds of the night into nightmare. She mixes humor and horror in deft proportion, and the resulting stories, especially ‘Blood Kin’, send delicious shivers up the spine. A first-rate read." – Lee Martindale, author of To Stand As Witness, Hell Hath No Fury..., & The Folly of Assumption "If Lord Dunsany or Edgar Allen Poe had lived in East Tennessee they’d have written stories like Laura Underwood’s, where the fantastic and the ordinary mingle to create strange and wonderful tales in places you could swear you can almost see out of the corners of your eyes." – John G. Hemry, author of Rule of Evidence. |
