Brighton Publishing signs author Catherine Astl for her new book "Mountain Mulekick"

MESA, Ariz. - July 31, 2022 - PRLog -- Brighton Publishing proudly announces the signing of Catherine Astl for her latest work.

Cades Cove is known to millions as a beautiful mountain valley tucked within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But before its eventual inclusion in the park's opening in 1937, this stunning place saw a successful and industrious society for 119 years. And in its southwest corner, a suburb cropped up called Chestnut Flats, whose legacy of moonshine and illicit activities would steer the two communities through decades of conflicting ideals, each having vastly different interpretations of the American spirit of freedom.

Cades Cove is known to millions as a beautiful mountain valley tucked within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But before its eventual inclusion in the park's opening in 1937, this stunning place saw a successful and industrious society for 119 years. And in its southwest corner, a suburb cropped up called Chestnut Flats, whose legacy of moonshine and illicit activities would steer the two communities through decades of conflicting ideals, each having vastly different interpretations of the American spirit of freedom.

Moonshine has a way of tugging at people's emotions. Some say it's evil, some sympathize with the idea of doing what one wants on one's own land. Some say it's good to rail against the government's taxation; some say it's wicked and wrong. Which is it then? According to history, it's good and evil at the same time, but there's a whole lot of answers between those two extremes and those in-betweens are what I am interested in. Motivations, mindsets; humans trying to make it in the world; sometimes doing good and sometimes bad, but always adapting to life's challenges. It's how we adapt that's the difference.

"This is my newest work of smoky mountain historical fiction, with exact quotes and real events from some of the best sources; the people are real, as are all events. My highest hope is that this book honors those memories and the futures of the people of these smoky mountain communities and their very special way of life."

The tremendous success of Catherine's previous books "Three Gates: Lessons in Humility, Virtue, and Honor; "The Colonists: Three Women, Three Stigmas, Three Masks", "Oliver's Crossing: A Novel of Cades Cove", and "Gatlin's Gateway: A  Novel of Gatlinburg, has created unrelenting reader demand for more of her work, inspiring the creation of "Mountain Mulekick-A Novel of Moonshine in Cades Cove and Chestnut Flats."

Catherine lives in Wesley Chapel, Florida, where she spends time with family, reads, writes, travels, and scours bookshops to add to her personal library which is always expanding. She is hard at work on her next novel.
https://www.brightonpublishing.com