On a Friday night in Portsmouth, Ohio, a young Cyn Mackley could be found walking the streets, roaming the library, or tracing the edges of the Scioto River. She knew the town like the back of her hand. “You can walk everywhere,” she recalls. “I was familiar with every inch of Portsmouth. The historic sites, the fancy places, the library, the river, the woods. Nothing was really off limits, and that can really feed your imagination with the wide variety of people you encounter.”
That small-town intimacy left its mark. In Portsmouth, everyone collided—kids from the projects and the children of politicians, judges, and doctors all sat in the same classrooms. “You get the chance to interact with all different kinds of people,” she says. “That’s not the case in larger communities.” Those collisions of class, character, and circumstance became the raw material for Mackley’s storytelling.
From the Blotter to the Page
Before she ever dreamed up knights in turnout gear and Arthurian legends in Appalachia, Cyn Mackley cut her teeth as a crime journalist. She had a knack for seeing story in the starkest reports. “As one former coworker said, ‘She can turn a two-sentence report about a garage fire into a novella.’”
Her love for mysteries started early—Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew led the way, and crime dramas of the 70s and 80s kept her hooked. Journalism honed her ability to weave fact into narrative. “My crime journalism and my fiction have a beautiful symbiotic relationship,” she explains. “The more I see and learn about real crimes and the court system, the more I have to talk about.”
Real life even slips into her villains. “The villain in Down Came a Blackbird was definitely inspired by two or three truly terrible people and their crimes that I covered in the past few years.”
Camelot, West Virginia
When Mackley talks about her Camelot, West Virginia series, she lights up. The concept came to her in a flash one ordinary evening at Walmart. A conversation about a comic book had planted the seed—Camelot 3000, which reimagined King Arthur in futuristic London. “It just came to me that it should be set in modern day Appalachia and I started typing up the outline on my phone,” she says.
The idea felt both audacious and inevitable: The King Arthur legend set in modern Appalachia with first responders as the heroes.
The result is Down Came a Blackbird, a novel she describes simply: “It’s the King Arthur story set in modern day Appalachia with first responders as the knights.” At its heart is John Wayne Orkney, a firefighter/EMT/rookie cop modeled after Sir Gawain. “Like Gawain, his story blends valor with vulnerability, showing how a ‘knight’ can still be human.”
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Her inspiration came not just from folklore, but from watching officers and first responders in her community. “I’ve noted so many officers playing social worker,” she says. “Helping with things like fixing fences… I remember one officer getting an elderly woman a drink of water in the middle of the night. They find lost dogs, calm down despondent people, return wandering dementia patients, give naughty kids a talking-to.”
It’s heroism, Appalachian style.
Humor, Hauntings, and Heritage
One of Mackley’s strengths is her ability to balance crime, drama, humor, and even the supernatural without breaking the story’s spine. For her, that balance is natural. “Everyday real life blends most of those things,” she says. Her family, who came up through the Depression, floods, and trauma, passed down both their wise-cracking sense of humor and their belief in the supernatural.
Her books also weave in folklore—Appalachian tales, Old World fairies, Cherokee Nunnehi—all spun together into a mountain faerie court. “They don’t take over the mystery, but their presence links John Wayne Orkney’s Gawain-inspired journey to an older, wilder magic that feels both timeless and deeply rooted in the hills.”
Characters Who Speak for Themselves
Cyn Mackley doesn’t plot like a chess master. She listens. “I channel characters and they do what they dang well please,” she admits. “Sometimes, as in this case, I had an idea who I wanted the villain of the piece to be, but my characters have a story to tell and I’m just here to transcribe it.”
Misty Avalon, another central character, embodies the resilience of the Appalachian women Mackley knows. “Inspired by everyone I know. Lots of tough Appalachian ladies who have taken the tough hands they’ve been dealt and turned them around into winning hands.”
What’s Next
The Camelot series will continue with It Happened One Knight, this time focusing on John Wayne Orkney’s brother, Grady Dale—the fanciest of the Orkney clan. The book tackles a dark and all-too-real issue: human trafficking.
And if the series ever finds its way to the screen? Mackley has casting dreams. “I 100% want Walton Goggins to play his dad, fire chief and mountain man, Arvin Lee Orkney, Sr. For John Wayne, I want someone with the good-natured masculine energy of Travis Kelce.”
Advice for Small-Town Dreamers
For those who dream of writing from small towns like hers, Mackley is clear-eyed and encouraging. “Read a bunch. Find the category you want to be a bestseller in and read the bestsellers. Join writers groups, talk with other working writers and learn how the business works.”
And most importantly: location doesn’t limit ambition. “Fortunately, these days you can sell as many books living on the banks of the Scioto River as you can living in Manhattan.”
Where to Find Her
Cyn Mackley’s Camelot, West Virginia series, including Down Came a Blackbird, is available on Amazon in eBook, paperback, and audiobook. Readers can keep up with her at cynmackley.com.
