Additional information
by Gail Palmer (Author)
A creative non-fiction work built on stories about actual feuds, murder of individuals and disasters that occurred throughout Great Smoky Mountains prior to the area becoming a national park. The stories read like excerpts from a novel, but are based on true stories, some information taken from court documents and intervews. Reading these stories helps give the reader an image and a voice to those who used to live in the mountain areas of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina."As usual, Dr. Palmer spins a good yarn in the style, and often in the vernacular, of her beloved Appalachian kin folks. Some of the accounts were familiar but others were new to me. All were captivating and entertaining. As the old adage goes, history is a compilation of rumor. However, via scholarly interpretations of the clues she had to go on, she skillfully breathed life into these tales." Allen R. Coggins, author and Smoky Mountain tour guide
Author Biography
Dr. Gail Palmer, a native of East Tennessee and a descendant of the Sparks family of Cades Cove, has drawn a vivid image of the people who lived in the mountains of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina before it became a national Park. The stories are told as fiction, but are based on information found in historical archival records and interviews as well as court documents, newspaper articles, books and other sources. "I wanted to be able to put the reader into that time and place, using the most vivid word pictures possible as well as dialogue written in the vernacular of the time. Writing these stories as historical fiction or creative non-fiction seemed a good way to do that," Dr. Palmer said. She's also written "GSMNP: In the Beginning...Fact, Legend and Eminent Domain;" produced two DVDs, "Sacred Places of the Smokies" and "When Mama Was the Doctor: Mountain Medicine Women." All are available on Amazon.com. Volume Two of Smoky Mountain Tales is expected to be out by spring 2013 and Volume Three by fall 2013. Another work, "Cemeteries of the Smokies," is expected to be published by Great Smoky Mountains Association sometime soon.
