Them that Live Below

by R. Allen Jervis

There are three interlocked tales in this book: One about growing up in the Lost World of seventies's West Virginia, one where a young man returns home to find that not only have things changed in his home town but that it was always so much more than he suspected, and one an unavoidable family secret that shields everyone from an ancient strife between humans and Them that Live Below.

This isn’t a book about how things really happened, it’s definitely not an autobiography, its closer to family legend, but one told from just outside the glare of the street lights.

Did break my arm and spend 3 days in a hospital? Yes. Did my brother stab me with my own pocketknife? Yes. Do I have re-occurring dreams of the same house near a UFO base? Yes.

But if my granmaw can whack a bear on the nose with an iron skillet and kill it instantly then who's to say her dog didn't live for 35 years or that one night she didn't have a visit from a dead relative? Or that folks swear we’re all descended from French-Canadian river pirates? Oh you’ve heard that part have you? Then you must realize the rest is true...except the parts that aren't.

300 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 3, 2012

About the author

I was born a small grey alien on the south side of the Kanawha Valley to a Coal Miner’s daughter and the son of a son of a sailor.