Mountain Makins Festival 2023

The award-winning Mountain Makins Festival

is an Appalachian Folklife Festival celebrating the unique culture of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Known for high-quality crafts and artisans, the festival features a juried arts & crafts fair, top regional musical talent, storytellers, authors, children's activities, and more. It also includes demonstrations of traditional crafts, such as blacksmithing, basket making, and woodturning. All activities take place at the historic Rose Center.

Mountain Makins 2014

I was invited to be a part of Mountain Makins again, this year, so mark your calendar so you can stop by & say hi!
I'll be in the author's section!

From the acknowledgments of my most recent book, Paranormal Pariah of Prater Hall:

Bill Landry and Janae Mitchell

There’s one more thing before I go…

I’d like to acknowledge Rose Center, which is the historic building that inspired this story. As a kid, I took dance lessons there. Walking down the hallways, it had an air about it that made me want to hold my mom’s hand until we got outside. Even now, that same, somewhat eerie, feeling always comes over me when I step inside. It’s like you can feel the energy of years past floating all around you. At one point in time, from 1892 to 1975, it was actually a school. It’s now a museum and cultural center and, for several years, has been the location for our local Mountain Makins Festival, which features local crafters, artists, musicians, and food. Several years ago, I was invited to be one of just a handful of authors who would be participating in the Authors’ Corner at the festival. I still remember how honored and excited I was, especially when I found out I’d be there with fellow author, Bill Landry, who is an actor, director, and producer of The Heartland Series, which is something I had watched on TV since I was a young kid. I’ll never forget getting to meet him and the fact that I sat right across from him in a very popular area of Rose Center called… Prater Hall.