Got a new short story up on Substack. Check it out.
daleneal.substack.com/p/the-scroll

Breaking News: Inauguration ceremonies to be held indoors due to weather forecast: Hell freezing over.

Meeting the deer on my morning walk. Always a good omen for the day. #asheville

Deeply disillusioning when literary idols like Munro and McCarthy turn out to be badly flawed Art Monsters. Fiction is no license to lie in ways that prey on your loved ones.

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/08/m...

I hear Wang Wei speaking to me today:

Birds fly away to the ends of the earth;
The mountains have an autumn look again.
Going up Huazi Ridge, and coming down,
I am moved by feelings of the utmost sorrow.

#booksky

My new novel KINGS OF COWEETSEE concerns the reckoning of a mountain community after a ballot box from a stolen election shows up on Birdie Barker Price's front porch. Pick up your copy today.
regal-house-publishing.mybigcommerce.com/kings-of-cow...

We’re still rising in Appalachia more than a month after Helene tried to drown Asheville and beyond.

Saw this guy out the other day, fattening up before starting his winter’s nap. #dailywalk #asheville

Yes, we have white squirrels, not albinos, populating our hills over #Asheville. Seen on my morning walk up Sunset Mountain.