AN INDEPENDENT PRESS · SOUTHEASTERN TENNESSEE

STORIES WORTH
STAYING WITH.

A place you want to return to.
People you aren't finished with.

Handbuilt series for readers who know exactly what they're looking for. We start with a particular place, a particular kind of story, and the readers who've been waiting for it.

Find your first chapter Meet the press →

ON OUR FIRST SHELF

The Rating That Kills by C. J. Mercer, Between the Ridges book one
BETWEEN THE RIDGES / BOOK ONERead the preview ↗
SMALL PRESS. CLOSE ATTENTION.Appalachian creek study · Generated illustration
INDEPENDENT FICTIONA STRONG SENSE OF PLACESERIES WITH ROOM TO GROW

01 / OUR FIRST SERIES

BETWEEN
THE RIDGES.

Quiet mysteries along the Hiwassee and Ocoee corridors. Familiar roads, close communities, and something that doesn't add up.

Generated illustration of a woodland creek, reflecting the landscape of southeastern Tennessee
HIWASSEE & OCOEE CORRIDORS

Every place
has its secrets.

Generated landscape study

C. J. MERCER

The Rating
That Kills

Begin with a death near the river.

A pattern of damaging reviews. A connection that leads further than anyone expected. Marly Dodd and Webb Sutton follow the questions through a place where people know each other, and still keep things to themselves.

The first novel in Between the Ridges, a series rooted in the rivers, ridgelines, and people of southeastern Tennessee.

Read the free preview Explore the story at C. J. Mercer's author site.
THE PLACE

Southeastern Tennessee

THE STORIES

Quiet, low-graphic mysteries

THE SERIES

Six novels and two prequels

02 / CLEMMER CREEK BOOKWORKS

YOUR CORNER
OF THE SHELF.

For the reader who knows
“close enough” isn't quite it.

Maybe you love small-town mysteries that actually feel like the place they're set. Maybe it's a certain kind of science fiction, or a particular flavor of romance that nobody seems to stick with.

Our job is to notice those gaps. The places where the shelves are full of “close enough” but light on “this is exactly it.” Then help readers find the authors who've been quietly writing that kind of story all along.

We're an independent press named for a real creek in the hills of southeastern Tennessee and north Georgia. Small on purpose. Paying close attention.

01

Place matters.

The roads, rivers, neighborhoods, and people belong to the story. They shape what happens.

02

Readers know.

We listen for the kinds of stories readers want more of, and the corners of the shelf they keep searching.

03

Stay a while.

Series give a place and its people room to grow. One book can be the beginning of a longer acquaintance.

C. J. MercerFROM OUR WORKSHOP
C. J. MERCER

03 / MEET OUR FIRST AUTHOR

CLOSE TO HOME.
MORE TO FIND.

Rivers, ridgelines, and people who don't give much away.

C. J. Mercer's Between the Ridges begins in the Hiwassee corridor. These are quiet mysteries with a strong sense of place, following the questions beneath familiar conversations and everyday routines.

Visit the author site to explore the series and begin with a free preview of The Rating That Kills.

Meet C. J. Mercer
Generated publishing illustration of an open book and manuscript pages on a walnut table

THE WORK BEHIND THE WORDS

ONE MORE
CHAPTER.

For readers who know what they love.
And writers who know that corner of the world.

Book and manuscript study · Generated illustration

LET'S TALK BOOKS

A PARTICULAR STORY.
THE RIGHT READERS.

Some writers end up in very specific corners of the map. A river corridor. A single neighborhood. A far-off world.

For questions about the press, our books, or working together, get in touch.

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