A Local Writer’s New Story Depicting Mysteries in the
Mountains
Eva McCall, a local writer from
Franklin, has enriched and gifted thousands of her readers with stories from
the North Carolina Mountains, allowing a glimpse of her family’s history as
well as combining fact with fiction. Now
16 years after the release of her first novel, Edge of Heaven, McCall has returned with a new fictional book,
filled with murder, mystery, and even moonshining.
McCall’s new
novel, Murder on Haint Branch, is set
in Western North Carolina during the early 1940s, a story based on a true life
event from her past. She said, “The Idea
for the writing of the book was born out of conservation with author Shelia Kay
Adams. I was telling her about the death of my uncle in 1942. I said, ‘They
said he shot himself but you don't shoot yourself with a shot gun and lay it
back down on the bed by your side. Adams said, ‘That’s your opening line.’” McCall said after that conversation, the
story took a life of its own and her characters told her the story.
She is no stranger to writing, releasing
Edge of Heaven in 1997, which
featured her grandmother, Lucy Davenport Carpenter. In 2002, McCall finished Children of the Mountain, a sequel to her first, depicting Lucy in
her later years, McCall’s father, as well as McCall’s first years. Lucy’s Recipe
for Mountain Living, her latest published book, was a team effort with her
sister and included daily devotional type of stories picturing Lucy’s style of
cooking for the large family she inherited.
McCall says that writing these books gave her the opportunity to relive
the stories that were told by her grandmother, as well as educating her younger
family members about their history.
“This is an important part of their heritage that they would have never
really looked at if it had just been in family research,” she says, “But with
the books, they will read and feel a part of it.”
McCall is a native of Franklin,
spending her early years on “Carpenter Mountain,” as she refers to it in her
books. After graduating from Franklin
High School, she attended Pfeiffer College near Charlotte. After her marriage to George McCall, they
moved to Flint, Mich., where he worked in General Motors and she became a
beautician. During her time in Michigan,
she began to attend writing workshops which propelled her to start writing her
earlier novels. Now retired, Eva and
George returned to Franklin where they enjoy participating in their community
and where Eva has written her recent works.
Barbara McRae, columnist at The Franklin Press and editor of Murder on Haint Branch, believes that
McCall’s experience in the mountains allows her to portray accurate details,
and combine it with her imagination.
“Eva McCall grew up in the Southern
mountains in tough times, during the years after World War II. She brought her insights
as a writer to bear on that period. Her
characters ring true, and they embody aspects of many of the mountain people.”
After years
of appealing her new book to publishers, and waiting on their long reviewing
processes, McCall said, “I decided I'd be too old to reap any of the benefits.
After all, birthdays don't stop just because you're waiting for something
special to happen.” So she made the
decision to self publish. She gave the
manuscript to her promotional manager to review, who felt that the issues
presented in the book were not only relevant in the forties, but also in the
present. She hired members of the
community to review, edit, and design a cover.
She also created the publishing name “Moonshine Press.” After half a year of hard work, McCall feels
that the book is ready for release.
Throughout McCall’s years of writing,
and during the production of her latest novel, she has received praise from individuals
across the region, including country icon Dolly Parton. After receiving permission from the Parton
team to include her comments on the new cover, McCall couldn’t believe it. “The truth is, it feels like it is happening
to someone else, and I'm watching it from the outside, something like watching
a movie,” she said. “I think this is
good because it helps keep me focused on what my goal for the book is.”
Both McCall
and McRae believe that fictional novels such as Murder on Haint Branch are paving the direction to how the
historical Appalachian region is being presented in modern times. “I feel like this book gives a true picture
of the way life was for the Appalachian people,” McCall says, “And it will help
the reader to understand more of why life is the way it is now, especially
college students and for people not from this region.” McRae agrees, saying that this point in
history has not been fully explored. She
also says that books like McCall’s are pointing the way.
McCall is
very optimistic about the direction of her new novel. She has hopes for it to sell well, and dreams
of it becoming a best seller or a film adaptation. But her simple goal is to have the story
touch someone’s life and making their day better. Regardless of how things turn out, McCall
says that her journey isn’t over. She
says that she has another novel also ready for release, a Civil War novel that
many of her fans know as Button Box. And as for new ideas, she says that she is
“getting itchy fingers to write something else.”
Murder on Haint Branch is now available for purchase here.
Tyler Cook is the nephew of Eva McCall, and has been involved in the
production of Eva McCall’s Murder on
Haint Branch.
