Celia Miles
Celia H. Miles , a recent retiree from the NC Community College system, is a teacher by trade, a traveler by design, a photographer for fun, and a writer by avocation. In addition to writing Effective English Skills and co-authoring Writing Technical Reports (Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 1991) for the two-year college market, she has published in various genres in various publications, including Cricket magazine, Appalachian Heritage , Northwoods Journal, and Writers’ Journal (Sept/Oct issue, 2003). She is also a regular contributor to Western North Carolina Woman magazine.
Since retiring in 2000 she has published with InfinityPublishing.com four works of fiction: A Thyme for Love (romance and recipes on an herb farm near Asheville), Mattie’s Girl: An Appalachian Childhood (a novel of kinship, friendship, and community set in Jackson County in the 1940s), and On a Slant: A Collection of Stories, all of which feature women:"women at their breaking point, turning point, mending point, suffering, surviving, triumphing, coming to terms with their situations, each unique, yet universal." Her most recent book is Thyme Table Mill, a "sequel of sorts" to A Thyme for Love, featuring her enthusiasm for grist mills.
Celia and husband Louis travel as often as possible, enjoying particularly the British Isles and islands anywhere from Greek’s Dodacanese to Scotland’s northern and western islands, Malta, and Ireland. They delight in finding and photographing old mills (as members of The Society for the Preservation of Old Mills) and neolithic sites such as stone circles and burial chambers.
ORDERING INFORMATION:
Celia's first three books are available (with reviews) at amazon.com and they may also be ordered directly from InfinityPublishing.com 1094 New DeHaven Street, Suite 100 West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2713; Toll-free: 877-289-2665; online: buybooksontheweb.com at the following prices, plus shipping and handling:
Thyme for Love $14.95
Mattie's Girl: An Appalachian Childhood $13.95
On a Slant: A Collection of Stories $13.95
ThymeTable Mill $14.95
For persons who read this page and contact Celia at celiamiles@fastmail.fm or by phone 828-253-1184, the price includes postage. She takes cash or checks and ships immediately, with pleasure.
Celia Miles (left) Joan Medlicott (right)
With unflinching honesty and a survivor’s grace and humor, Sarranda chronicles her life during the pre-and post-Civil War years in isolated western North Carolina’s Greene Valley. From childhood when her father leaves for the California gold fields through a youthful marriage and the turbulent losses the war brings, she finds solace in her grandfather’s love and at his grist mill and an unexpected awakening in the arms of an unnamed stranger. In a time disrupted, a family fragmented, and a land almost destroyed, Sarranda reveals the strength, endurance, and spirit of the mountain woman.
In locales as varied as hometown back yards and mall, the canals of Venice, stone circles in the British Isles, abandoned tomato fields in north Georgia, the Greek islands, and Portugal, these stories feature women: women at their breaking point, turning point, mending point, women from age six to sixty-six engaged in searching, suffering, surviving, and coming to terms with their situations, each unique, yet universal.
Left with Aunt Mattie and Uncle Cade (the sheriff) in the North Carolina Mountains, nine-year old June becomes "Mattie’s Girl" when Cade is killed at the home of her best friend PeeDee.
In stories deeply rooted in the late 1940s Appalachia, June chronicles the years between meeting the irrepressible PeeDee and losing her. She struggles to understand her mother’s indifference, her father’s divided love, her grandmother’s sudden death, her grandfather’s being institutionalized. Three years later, PeeDee, riding the rails west, brings a final gift and the truth about Cade’s murder. In this world forever gone, June survives and triumphs through the grace of family and friendship.
Memory and reality; fiction and reflection; journeys to faraway islands, journeys home...these stories and memoir-like pieces deal with contemporary issues but don't come up with solutions; they delve into the recent and remote past, into the function of memory and the nature of reality. From the Greek island of Patmos to southern small town Blaylock, from the Scottish peat bogs to funereal memory revived on Hard Hill Holler, whether reflecting on food, family, or fate, they embrace the idea that we are ultimately connected to the past and to each other but that ultimately we are islands one and all.
Cary Randall hopes to escape physically and recover emotionally from an unhappy relationship by finding serenity at ThymeTable Farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. What she doesn’t need is a handsome herb farmer with troubles of his own or a young doctor in search of a wife. Spence isn’t looking for a poetry-quoting tenant as he struggles to keep his farm and his neighbors’ property intact and his heart secure. Attracted to her landlord, Cary immerses herself in photography and herbal lore while Spence resists risking his heart and wonders about Cary’s involvement in her brother’s land development scheme. Both wonder if this is A Thyme for Love.
Along the way, Cary gleans a collection of recipes–from cucumber soup to eggplant casserole–sure to please anyone who visits Rosemary Cottage, ThymeTable Farm.
GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFT
A CHRISTMAS PRESENCE: from 45 Western North Carolina women writers. The collection of memoirs, poems, fiction, reflections was put together by my fellow writers, Asheville writers/editors, Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham. The 221-page, softcover book can be ordered directly from Celia H. Miles at 104 Clubwood Court, Asheville, NC 28803 or Nancy Dillingham at 48A Dunstan's Road, Asheville, NC 28801 for $18.00 (the list price). For my readers, they will ship postage-free--and the next day. Email addresses for the editors: celiamiles@fastmail.fm and nandilly@earthlink.
Christmas Presence is written in the unique voices of women writers who have roots in and connections to Western North Carolina. These Christmas stories, essays, poems, and memoirs, many set in the 20s, 30s, 40s, and before, add seasoning to the cultural landscape of a region already rich in custom and lore.
“Christmas is a special time, an intense season when emotions are heightened, memories are made, hearts are warmed or broken, illusions blanketed or shattered. Relationships reveal their soft and sharp edges; joys are magnified and so are losses. These stories, memories, reflections, and poems by western North Carolina women shine with the sincerity of a Christmas star and glow with the warmth of a winter’s fire. They invite you to come into the presence of Christmas.” Joan Medlicott, author of the Ladies of Covington Series.
Send a check for $18.00 ( includes shipping and handling) to Celia Miles 104 Clubwood Court, Asheville NC 28803. Her e mail is celiamiles@fastmail.fm.