Harshbarger Mills by Joan Spilman | Substack

Back to Egypt, conclusion

There’s guilt and there’s false guilt, and the burden of false guilt is equally hard to bear because somewhere, there’s a knot of truth in it, an emotion fast growing and distorted by fear.

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Feb 12, 2024 • Joan Spilman

Silver Bottle, Episode 11

Apr 1, 2024 • Joan Spilman

Silver Bottle, A Novel

Feb 9, 2024 • Joan Spilman

Big Pete, 1887-1929

Apr 16, 2024 • Joan Spilman

Recent posts

If You Hear a Strumming

That’s soft and low

Jun 14 • Joan Spilman

Chapter 54, Wind in her Arms

Where the boy went, the wolf went. They seemed as one.

Jun 10 • Joan Spilman

Advice to Advisors, a poem by Llewelyn McKernan

. . . and that rolling stone? Make it stop and chat.

Jun 6 • Joan Spilman

Wind in her Arms, Chapter 53

The Great Escape

May 29 • Joan Spilman

Silver Bottle

Lizzie Speaks, Chapter 75 (final chapter)

Her desertion built up in me until the pressure exploded in my head. Hemorrhagic stroke were the words over my hospital bed. “Lizzie’s lucky to be…

May 15, 2025 • Joan Spilman

Lizzie Speaks, from Silver Bottle, Chap. 74

You think the dead can't talk? Ha! It's the living who can't hear.

May 10, 2025 • Joan Spilman

Lizzie Speaks, from "Silver Bottle", Chap. 73

Hugh was a good man, but he never did anything right. He didn't even die right.

May 7, 2025 • Joan Spilman

Buy The Book

Buy Silver Bottle

A illuminating book of the lives of four Appalachian women beginning in the late 19th century to the present day.

Establishing Witness

Establishing Witness, Conclusion

Kaylene sat up as though plugged into an electric outlet and wailed, “He weren’t mine but I loved him like he was my own!”

May 31, 2024 • Joan Spilman

Establishing Witness, Part 3

Vernie was attuned to her inner antenna, the one dealing with mystic portents and divine interpretations, listening as it throbbed violently in her…

May 27, 2024 • Joan Spilman

Establishing Witness, part 2

Once she’d spotted a cloud as perfect and round as the half-wit’s head. She’d stood on the porch step and shouted at the sky, “Why do you delay?”

May 23, 2024 • Joan Spilman

Establishing Witness, part 1.

A slow flush began at the base of Vernie's neck and traveled up her throat, splotching her skin until she appeared in the throes of an allergic…

May 21, 2024

Harshbarger Mills

Wind in her Arms, Chapter 52

At that moment, Zev realized he could stand almost anything but hope.

May 25 • Joan Spilman

Wind in her Arms, Chapter 49

She was still warm, but there was no indication that Rizla was alive.

May 10 • Joan Spilman

CLOUDS by Llewellyn McKinnnie McKernan

You have silver eyes and cumulus tummies

May 6 • Joan Spilman

Chapter 40 from Wind in her Arms, a serialized fantasy

“Stealing him should be simple enough,” said Zev, “although he’s bigger than I was led to believe.”

Feb 11 • Joan Spilman

The Nonna + Gaylene Stories

The Nonna Galene and Lyddie Stories

Jan 23, 2024 • Joan Spilman