I’ve always known I was different. I also know my parents are not my blood parents, even though they’ve always treated me like their own and given me a good home. Everything I know about engine repair and woodworking I’ve learned from Finn, my dad. When I was a young kid, he taught me how […]
I know I’m not Norse. Raiders stole me away from my family when was very small. I was not treated harshly, but was ignored until Helga, the Virtur Kona, took me in. I have become her laerlingur, or apprentice, and she treats me well. I can identify most of the healing plants she uses and […]
Emma Larson moves back to West Virginia when a run of bad luck leaves her nowhere else to go. At night, her dreams are filled with drumming and medieval rituals. During the day, she sends out teaching applications to school districts as far away as Winchester and Hagerstown. She’s got to find a job soon. […]
The Hexa, Walking Between Worlds Helga, the Virtur Kona or wise woman of the clan, speaks. I have walked this earth for hundreds of years. I have seen our people triumphant and feared around the world and I have watched as they settled back in their homelands or dispersed throughout the world. They have adapted, […]
Finn Hanson, an Afghanistan vet struggling with PTSD and a drinking problem, returns to his homeplace in West Virginia to find that this tranquil bit of mountain land has now become another war zone. After three tours in the desert, Finn is in a bad way. The only time he leaves the house is to […]
If you’re poor in the hills of Appalachia and don’t have the skills to succeed in the 21st Century, what path is left? You do whatever it takes to survive. Survival, not always easy in hill country, is the common theme of these three stories from West Virginia. WICKED WOMEN: When a man wrongs a […]
