Henderson County · Novels
East Texas stories, from the inside.
Stories of small-town Texas where the past never stays buried.
Pre-order · October 20
Pre-order · October 20
Where Did the Fireflies Go
by Michael Thorn
A Henderson County Novel
The last summer. A drowning. What a father finally tells.
A father sits in a dentist’s waiting room holding his ten-year-old daughter’s phone, and the afternoon takes him back to 1985 — his grandmother’s house, fourteen cousins, a mile-and-a-quarter walk to Pruitt’s for Dr Pepper, and a creek hole nobody ever measured.
Same county. A different kind of keeping.
Watch
The trailer
Fourteen cousins. A rope, and a hole nobody measured. Where Did the Fireflies Go is on Kindle pre-order now. Full release October 20.
Available now
What Smoke Creek Kept
by Michael Thorn
A Henderson County Novel
A confession. A drowning. A town built on the wrong story.
Smoke Creek has lived with its version of Ruth Ann Pruitt’s death for twenty years — a tragic accident, a life cut short, a community that moved on. But when a respected deacon confesses to causing her death, Pastor Elias Ward is forced to confront a truth that doesn’t fit the past he remembers.
Cassie Pruitt returns home determined to uncover what really happened to her mother. Elias wants to help her — but every answer exposes another lie, another betrayal, another piece of Smoke Creek’s carefully protected history.
The shelf
Same county.
Where Did the Fireflies Go is on Kindle pre-order for October 20, 2026. What Smoke Creek Kept is available now. The Last Swing is still on the way.
The author
From East Texas
He was a soldier and a minister. Both jobs taught him how people talk when they are trying not to say the thing. He writes from that.
He is not interested in the dramatic version of those places. He is interested in the porch light, the feed store, the drive home with a phone face-down on the seat.
About MichaelLetters to the Creek
Have a question about the books, a story of your own, want to book an event, or just want to say hello? Send a letter — I’d love to hear from you.
Write a letter