Welcome To Shale Mountain

Shale Mountain doesn't forget. It doesn't forgive. And it doesn't let go of the people it chooses.

Tucked into the Georgia highlands, Shale Mountain is older than the town that grew up in its shadow, older than the roads that cut through its hollows, older than the names carved into its rocks. It has watched men come with their ambitions. Their mines, their railroads, their dams. And it has bled for every one of them. It keeps its wounds close and its secrets closer.

Leo has been the mountain's sentry his whole life. It's in his blood, his instincts, his bones. He's made peace with what he is. Or he thought he had, until Austin changed everything.

What begins as a life quietly built in the Georgia woods, an old truck, a loyal dog, two men who have learned the shape of each other, becomes something neither of them anticipated. The mountain has a way of doing that. It pulls at old histories, surfaces things that were meant to stay buried, and asks more of the people it loves than they ever planned to give.

Each time the world sends something new to take from the mountain, and it always does, Leo and Austin have to face it together. Not just as protector and partner, but as two people figuring out what their bond means when it keeps being tested, when it keeps changing, when the person standing next to you isn't quite who they were a season ago.

The Shale Mountain Series is southern gothic fantasy rooted in place, history, and the grounded emotional weight of a long-term M/M romance. It's about corporate greed and the land that resists it. It's about the things communities bury, in the earth, in their records, in their silence, and what happens when those things refuse to stay down. And underneath all of it, it's about two men learning, book by book, how to build something that lasts.

The mountain has chosen them. And they have chosen each other. But will they survive the weight of the mountain?

We are officially returning to Shale Mountain for Book 2!

Things are getting dark and dangerous in the next book. The official cover art is currently in the works. In the meantime, enjoy this highly technical, museum-quality sketch of the cabin. Notice the raw emotion of Austin on the steps, the brooding intensity of Leo leaning against the wall, and the majestic realism of Orion sitting between them.
And no, I am not taking art commissions at this time.

There are secrets buried deep in the North Georgia woods, and I've spent years digging them up.

I'm Timothy E Leonard, and I write grounded, emotional paranormal fiction about the things that hunt in the dark, and the men who love them.

Whether I'm wrenching on an old Ford, exploring the ridges with my pit bull, Orion, or writing from the front deck of my converted school bus, the mountain is always calling. Step into the shadows and see what’s waiting.