October 2, 2003
Former Kings M
The Harvest: A September
2003 release from
Kensington Books and
Doubleday Book Club).
Special to The Herald
For Boone author and for-
mer Kings Mountain resi-
dent Scott Nicholson, the
Southern Appalachian
mountains are a playground
rich in folk tales and colorful
legends. But it’s also a place
where the old and new bat-
tle each other, sometimes to
the death.
Nicholson's new novel,
“The Harvest,” uses sus-
pense, horror, and a sprin-
kling of science fiction to
explore the conflicts of
growth versus preservation.
When an alien entity lands
in the rural Appalachians,
the residents of the nearby
town of Windshake find
their way of life threatened
by something beyond their
comprehension and control.
Neighbors turn against one
andther as a strange infec-
tion spreads.
Tamara Leon, a college
psychology professor,
receives telepathic messages
that make no sense. Chester
Mull, a moonshine-swilling
farmer, is suspicious of the
green glow in the woods
behind his shack. Herbert
DeWalt is a disillusioned
millionaire who's desperate
for spiritual truth. The three
RE.
The Kings Mountain Herald
ountain resident writes book
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Scott Nicholson's love for the Appalachian mountains inspired book “The Harvest.”
team up to take on the alien
in a remote forest where
even nature itself seems to
be an enemy.
“The Harvest’ is on one
level an allegory for the
impact that progress has had
on the rural mountains,”
Nicholson said. “As an
Appalachian native, I've
witnessed the changes that
have swept many of the old
traditions away, and not all
the changes have been good.
In fact, to my mind, very
Music festival
few of them have been bene-
ficial. It’s easy for people
who have lived here for 20
years to feel like they've
been invaded by something
they can’t understand and
are powerless to stop.
“On another level, though,
“The Harvest’ is an enter-
taining thriller that twists
the hillbilly stereotypes
around. I call it ‘Deliverance’
meets ‘Invasion of the Body
Snatchers,” but in my novel,
the banjo boy would be the
good guy. I can relate to the
banjo boy. It’s the outsiders
and intruders that you have
to keep an eye on.”
Nicholson's first novel,
“The Red Church,” inspired
by an old haunted church
near his home, was a finalist
for the Beam Stoker Award
and was a Mystery Guild
Editor's Choice. Nicholson
often uses the mountains as
a setting, coining the term
“Appalachian Gothic” to
describe his work.
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“In some ways, I'm telling
modern mountain folk
tales,” he said. “It’s the kind
of stuff you'll hear around
the campfire: a little bit of
the supernatural, a dab of
romance, and a healthy does
of suspense. There's usually
a lesson involved, but a sto-
ryteller’s most important job
is not to bore the audience.”
Nicholson studied
Creative Writing at the
University of North Carolina
and Appalachian State
University. He wrote numer-
ous short stories, though he
had several hundred rejec-
tions before his work began
to sell regularly. In 1999, he
won the grand prize in an
international writing contest
and later published the story
collection “Thank You For
The Flowers.” He also teach-
es workshops and has post-
ed numerous articles about
writing at www.haunted-
computer.com.
Nicholson is grateful for
the opportunity to serve as
an advocate for the
Appalachian region. “Sure,
there’s a perception that
we're a bunch of barefoot
hicks who don’t appreciate
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civilized society,” he said.
“But the region’s settlers
were highly adaptive, self-
reliant, and creative, though
there's also an ingrained
suspicion of city folk. Just
because we tend to talk a lit-
tle more slowly doesn’t
mean we don’t do a whole
lot of thinking.
“I hope my novel reflects
some of those characteristics,
because I think the message
is important. Maybe it’s silly
to use mass market fiction as
an agent of social change,
but at least I'm basing my
work on a way of life that I
see every day. I feel like the
‘Deliverance’ banjo boy with
a typewriter. Plus I'm hav-
ing a lot of fun sharing these
stories.”
Nicholson is an amateur
folklorist and ghost story
collector and works as a
newspaper reporter. He's
currently working on a
haunted house novel called
“The Manor” that will be
released next year.
(For more information on
“The Harvest” contact Scott
Nicholson at
publicist@hauntedcomput-
er.com)
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