Description:
"Nearly every story in this interwoven collection will leave readers questioning what they would have done instead."-Benjamin Inks, author of Soft Targets
"Through skillful and surprising storytelling, Price plumbs the depths of human loneliness, examining our primal need for meaningful emotional connection."-Doug Van Gundy, author of A Life Above Water
Cravings possess the citizens of Salem, Virginia. Salacious secrets and unholy connections link ten stories that intersect with an abandoned chapel edging a dark forest, a city-center kugel fountain, and the deceptively serene Crucible Church. Supernatural visions shapeshift within the autumn air. Men on the hunt for intimacy find themselves pursued by predators lurking in bookstore aisles and church sanctuaries. Women encounter brutes that emerge in corporate offices. Some face off with an old painting of a fisherman and syren that mirrors their reality. These Salem citizens engage with the derelict chapel, palm the kugel fountain, and attend Crucible, where their wicked affairs culminate around Peter Merritt, a youth pastor with the goal to become an Air Force chaplain. In the end, Peter must confront heart-wrenching decisions that will decide his fate. The choices and actions of Peter and the others from Salem point toward the inevitable signs of the fall.
Signs of The Fall is an unflinching examination of moral corruption in a town on the edge of Appalachia.
Brief description: Sean M. Price is an Air Force veteran with thirty years of cybersecurity experience that enabled him to produce more than twenty professional publications. He began studying the craft of fiction upon entering the Air Force at nineteen. His personal and professional experiences are infused into his stories. As an avid lifelong learner, he earned a bachelor 's degrees in business and accounting, master's degrees in information systems and information assurance, and a fine arts degree in creative writing. Sean is working on a master's of theological studies.
Review Quotes:
2026 Independent Author Award Winner for Southeast Fiction
"The prose is sharp, and the author is adept at switching tones seamlessly, sometimes within a paragraph. . . . Connecting these stories is the overarching theme of a community's neglected needs. Appalachia embodies this characteristic, as do the characters, whose suffering, though differing by the individual, is connected to the sadness of a community that has experienced being marginalized by society. . . . Profound empathy is expressed for the characters, thanks to Price's skillful storytelling, which is equally at home in melodrama, gothic chills, and bleak realism. A fantastic addition to Appalachian literature that centers aching desire." -Kirkus starred review
"Facing life-changing predicaments, Price's imperfect characters are forced to make difficult decisions, denying or enabling themselves to painfully emerge into full adulthood. Nearly every story in this interwoven collection will leave readers questioning what they would have done instead." -Benjamin Inks, author of Soft Targets
"Wild, inventive, and richly entertaining, the uncanny stories in Signs of The Fall are going to make you do a double-take the next time you see your friends and neighbors. You will uncomfortably wonder what scandalous thing lurks within the heart of those who are close. Our secrets don't stand a chance under Price's unwavering pen. These sharp and expertly written stories probe the deep, dark places of the soul to reveal the little bits of light that make us human. Price is a master craftsman when it comes to showcasing needs, wants, and desires." -Jonathan Corcoran, author of The Rope Swing and No Son of Mine: A Memoir
"Sean Price's debut collection Signs of The Fall evokes a multi-genre Our Town or Dubliners set in southwest Virginia. In these ten linked stories, Price's characters-among them a small-town computer hacker, a troubled youth pastor, a modern Rip van Winkle, and a former Air Force drone operator haunted by the violence of her past-wrestle with their own isolation in a world that seems more superficial than ever. Through skillful and surprising storytelling, Price plumbs the depths of human loneliness, examining our primal need for meaningful emotional connection." -Doug Van Gundy, author of A Life Above Water and editor of Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods: Fiction and Poetry from West Virginia