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  • Public Safety
    Busted Arrests Portsmouth Scioto County Mugshots

    Busted! 06/10/25 New Arrests in Portsmouth, Ohio – Scioto County Mugshots

    “Next Time, I Won’t Call Police” 

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    Illustrative Photo

    🔥“I’ll Burn It Down!” — Landlord Reports Scary Comment After Eviction Hearing 

    Death investigation

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    CREEPY KISSES & SHIRTLESS STRANGER: Nervous Grandma Calls Cops on Suspicious Men 

    🚨 BUSTED WIRES & BREAK-IN BLUNDERS: THIEVES ON THE LOOSE IN PORTSMOUTH! 

    Holiday Inn

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    🔥Pizza Parlor Feud Explodes: Alleged Threats, Health Complaints, and a Slice of Retaliation 

    Busted Arrests Portsmouth Scioto County Mugshots

    Busted! 06/07/25 New Arrests in Portsmouth, Ohio – Scioto County Mugshots

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    Kicked Out, Nowhere to Go: Rehab Discharges Fuel Homeless Crisis in Portsmouth 

    Mental Health

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    🚬 Cigs and Sanity: Portsmouth Cops Defuse Late-Night Mayhem with a Pack of Smokes 

    Busted Arrests Portsmouth Scioto County Mugshots

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    “STRANGER IN BLACK” RETURNS TO HISLE PARK — RESIDENTS STILL ON EDGE AFTER BREAK-IN, GUNSHOTS, AND SECOND ENCOUNTER 

  • Lawrence County
  • Politics
    Cathy Coleman

    ‘Small Steps, Big Faith’: Commissioner Cathy Coleman Edges Closer to Recovery 

    ‘Praise God!’: Commissioner Cathy Coleman Shows Remarkable Progress After Harrowing Weeks

    Cathy Coleman

    Cautious Hope and Harsh Realities: New Details Emerge on Commissioner Cathy Coleman’s Condition 

    Scioto County Commissioners Cancel This Week’s Meeting 

    Robert Horton

    Sudden Twist: Horton Court Dates Scrapped Ahead of Trial 

    ‘A Sign of Hope’: Commissioner Cathy Coleman Shows Small Improvements Amid Ongoing Critical Condition 

    Recorder Gary Jenkins

    Scioto County Recorder Gary Jenkins Unveils New Office Website 

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    Cathy Coleman

    Community Urged to Pray For Cathy Coleman as Family Faces Devastating Update 

    Scottie Powell

    Commissioner Scottie Powell on Trans Sanctuary Resolution: “Symbolic, Not Substantive” 

    Cathy Coleman

    Update from the Scioto County Commissioners on Commissioner Cathy Coleman 

    What Did Portsmouth’s LGBTQ+ Sanctuary Resolution Really Say? 

    Portsmouth Rehab

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    Cathy Coleman

    It’s a Miracle! – Scioto County Rallies Around Commissioner Cathy Coleman After Medical Crisis Turnaround 

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    Risky Business? City Wants to Sell $4.5 Million in Bonds

    Portsmouth LGBT Sanctuary City Proposal Scrapped – New Resolution Coming

    Portsmouth Council Takes First Step Toward Homelessness Task Force 

    Scioto County Commissioners Cancel Without Explanation 

    Davis Ready for Flying Cars: Scioto Commissioner Eyes Future of Air Mobility at County Airport 

  • Feel Good

    Escape to the Hills: A Summer Reading List Set in Appalachia 

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    “I Held Those Keys Tight” — One Man’s Harrowing Journey from Addiction to Hope 

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  • Obituaries
    Barbara Williams

    Julie Kay Johnson, 50 of Portsmouth

    Lloyd Logan

    Lloyd Logan, 98 of South Shore

    William McGinnis

    William McGinnis, Jr., 84, of Wheelersburg

    Harvey A. Ruel

    Harvey A. Ruel, 75 of Portsmouth

    Patricia A. Lewis

    Patricia A. Lewis, 72 of West Portsmouth

    Martha Byers Yost

    Martha Byers Yost, 84, of Portsmouth

    Patricia Ann Burchett

    Patricia Ann Burchett, 83 of Hillsboro

    Constance V. McQuay

    Constance V. McQuay, 89, of Waverly

    Jerry Paul Igaz

    Jerry Paul Igaz Sr. 55, of West Portsmouth

    Barbara Williams

    Lori Smith, 56 of McDermott

    Tina Marie Gollihue

    Tina Marie Gollihue, 61 of Franklin Furnace,

    Nichole Leigh Blanton

    Nichole Leigh Blanton, 41 of Portsmouth

    Deborah Sue Ratliff Bell

    Deborah Sue Ratliff Bell, 66 of Portsmouth

    Brenda K. Bentley

    Brenda K. Bentley 75 of West Portsmouth

    Rex Fitzgerald

    Rex Fitzgerald, 67 of Portsmouth

    Diana Lynn Redden

    Diana Lynn Redden, 57 of Vanceburg

    Richard Lee Biggers jjr

    Richard Lee Biggers, Jr.75 of Wheelersburg

    Ruth Evelyn Burns

    Ruth Evelyn Burns, 83 of Grove City

    Carolyn Sue Martin

    Carolyn Sue Martin, 77 of Portsmouth

    William McGinnis

    Paul White Wagner, 99 of Wheelersburg

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Portsmouth native writes modern-day Camelot tale with NY Times best seller

Cyn Mackley draws great inspiration from her Appalachian home of Scioto County

MJ Brickey & CB Hightower by MJ Brickey & CB Hightower
3 years ago
in Arts & Entertainment, Feel Good, Regional
Cyn Mackley is pictured by the sign that welcomes people into her childhood home — the Wayne Hills housing project. At this time, she was attending Shawnee State University just before transferring to Bowling Green.

Cyn Mackley is pictured by the sign that welcomes people into her childhood home — the Wayne Hills housing project. At this time, she was attending Shawnee State University just before transferring to Bowling Green.

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Author Cyn Mackly

Cyn Mackley, a Scioto County native, has released “Camelot West Virginia” with New York Times Best Selling Mystery Author Emma Jameson. Mackley has not only written 11 novels but writes for the Scioto County Daily News.

“My inspiration (for the book) was — in part — covering the news in Scioto County and seeing all the devastation wrought by opioids,” author Cyn Mackley said. Mackly was born and raised in Portsmouth. “Even when I was a little girl growing up in the Wayne Hills Housing Project… . I knew I wanted to be a writer.”

The book’s premise is that “the classic Camelot tale is reimagined in modern-day West Virginia with first responders riding to the rescue of a community besieged by all-too-real monsters.”

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Mackly said that all her characters carry “bits and pieces of people” she knows and their experiences.

“One of the things I think about (while writing) is Appalachian fatalism, which is just that ingrained belief that things are never going to go right and you can’t get ahead,” she said. “I want to boost the idea of Appalachian optimism.”

She said she remembers people grumbling at her for her aspirations to be a writer saying, “People like us can’t be writers.”

Cyn Mackley at age 6 — around the time she wrote her first book.

“Not my mother, who always encouraged me,” she said. “And, I had wonderful teachers, starting at Garfield Elementary.” She said she wrote her first book while sick at home from school.

“It was about two brothers who lived in a windmill and went fishing,” she said. “I think I confused a windmill with a lighthouse. But I was six.”

Mackley said she recently reconnected with Mrs. Carol Dunham, who she said was her first-grade teacher.

“I loved her so. I sent her one of my books, and she loved it — I was so excited,” Mackley said. It was a fulfilling moment.

She said it is astonishing that in the beautiful Ohio Valley, in the foothills of Appalachia, many strong, straightforward, and amply talented people have accepted impoverishment and settled for less when they are capable of creating and accomplishing more.

“When we try to succeed, our own kin often says we’re getting above our raising or acting stuck up,” she said.

She said that Jameson also understands the Appalachian way of life s she is from Tennessee.

“I was a huge fan of Emma Jameson’s for several years, and I made a comment on her FB page about a new release,” Mackley said. “Another one of her fans commented, ‘Are you the Cyn Mackley that wrote American Goth?'”

She said Emma saw the comment from the fan, checked out Mackley’s book “American Goth,” and then Jameson contacted Mackley to tell her she liked her book and offered to mentor Mackley. The two connected through their coincidental love of comic books and “Camelot 3000” — a book from the ’80s that retells the King Arthur legend in Modern Day UK.

Mackley told Jameson that she should write a modern-day Camelot, and Jameson told Mackley that she should be the one to do it.

Cyn Mackley is pictured by the sign that welcomes people into her childhood home — the Wayne Hills housing project. At this time, she was attending Shawnee State University just before transferring to Bowling Green.

“I left the conversation to go shopping at Walmart, and we got stuck in a long line. And, this idea popped into my head,” Mackley said. “I started writing it on my phone in the never-ending line.”

Mackley wrote up an outline and sent it to Jameson at about 11 pm to wake up and find an enthusiastic reply with Jameson’s start to contributions to the novel.

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“My favorite characters are my knights in camo — the hillbilly Orkney brothers,” Mackley said. “The Orkney brother are knights in the Arthurian Legend. But in my version, they work for the Camelot Volunteer Fire Department.”

Mackley thinks her favorite “Orkney boy” character is a “makeup-wearing, Bible-thumping pig farmer (named) Grady Dale Orkney. She said, “He’s a badass in glitter eyeliner.”

She detailed many other characters from experience and imagination and named some after friends and others in real life.

“She’s (the character Dreama Avalon) is named after the first friend I ever made, Dreama Moritz. I got her permission,” Mackley said.

Cyn Mackly is pictured right with the real-life Dreama Avalon. I’m on the right. She said, “Dreama is in the middle.”

The character of King Arthur is a retired military man Roy Pendragon who has been in the service since he was 18 and is now retired in his early 40s — a warrior without a quest.

She said the most complex part about developing and writing about the characters was keeping a level of realism regarding the people, the law, the opioid crisis, and the somewhat magical elements.

“Because, while I’m perfectly willing for people to have magic powers,” Mackley said. “I’m not willing to have people hunting out of season or not following the proper hiring procedure for deputies in West Virginia.”

She also has incorporated Appalachian fairies, The Nunnehi, which are a race of immortal spirit people in native Cherokee mythology.

“Unlike European fairies who steal children and are often cruel,” Mackley said. “The Nunnehi were protectors of children and took lost people to live with them — so we may see kinder, gentler fairies than in the typical Arthurian legend.”

Mackly’s book brings much life to her childhood, past, and home memories. She also gave great credit to her “Fair God Author,” Rebecca Regnier who is a successful author and taught her how to stay on task, as well as the ins and outs of publishing.“This book is special to me because there’s so much of me in it,” she said. “My memories, home, and my fellow Appalachians — I know them.”

Although “Camelot West Virginia” is the book most near and dear to her heart, she has written many to enjoy, such as the mentioned “American Goth,” which is part of the Goode-Grace Mystery Series, and another popular piece, “What the Chat Dragged In,” which is a part of a thriller series. Camelot WV also has two prequels — “Lady In The Lake” and “Queen’s Gambit,” all are found on Amazon.

 

Cyn Mackley said, “I’m third from the left-center row in the purple striped shirt. Behind me is the real Dreama. In front of me is America Francis Williams who was murdered in the ’90s and whose body was discovered a year later in an abandoned housing project in Youngstown, but not identified until last year. Two over from me in the red and white striped shirt is former Mayor Kevin E. Johnson. At the end of that row in a bow tie is City Manager Sam Sutherland.”

 

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