For Immediate Release
Amidst Shrinking Farmland, Novelist Makes Agriculture Magical
Florence, Montana
February 25, 2024
Agricultural communities know how important farming and animal husbandry are, from managing land to putting food on the table, even as America's farmland shrinks every year. Zia Mehrabi, assistant professor of environmental studies at CU Boulder, predicts that the world's total number of farmers will drop from its 616 million in 2020 to 272 million by 2100 (Nicole Mueksch). But as people shift from rural to industrialized lives, Hunter Kay Wallace marches proudly into agriculture in her debut novel, The Shaman's Bones. In a world without seasons and laden with agricultural roadblocks, "migratory farmers" are caravan folk who mix adventurous travel, creative farming techniques, and magic to grow specialty crops.
"From the start," says Hunter Kay Wallace, "I've wanted to make farming magical. I live in a town of 805 and wanted to upend the literary trope that the main character is a farmer until a world of magic calls; then they must give up that part of themselves to become the hero everyone needs. Why lose something already wonderful?" Hunter Kay admits that moving from Vancouver, Washington, a thriving metropolitan area just outside Portland, to Florence, Montana was a culture shock. "But I fell in love with its natural beauty and its farming community way of life," she says. "I wanted that strange, natural wonder in my fantasy novel." In The Shaman's Bones, migratory farmer Yolenda must use every bit of knowledge, adventurous spirit, and magic she has learned working in agriculture in order to save a new community. Her circumstances change, but she doesn't lose her identity, inextricably tied to the land and her horse.
When the spirit animals, the great protectors of a village on the equator, select Yolenda as their champion against shadow monsters, she tries to live up to their expectations. But when the spirits' power is no longer mighty enough, Yolenda ventures far and wide to find the ingredients--in this case bones--to call forth a mythical spirit animal for aid.
Yolenda isn't alone. She has the help of a resentful young man whose life she has ruined, a gorgeous bone collector obsessed with corpses, a nanny-turned-sleuth, and a very attractive blasphemer who hates the spirits even more than Yolenda does. The Shaman's Bones promises a fun, quirky fantasy with a hero ready to champion for our nation's small town and agricultural people.
The Shaman's Bones releases March 8, 2024.
Contact Hunter Kay Wallace to receive an advance reader copy of The Shaman's Bones.
Email: contact@hunterkaywallace.com
Website: hunterkaywallace.com
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554867623552
Subscribe to Hunter Kay's newsletter from hunterkaywallace.com for updates on novels.
Citation:
Nicole Mueksch. "New research shows the number of farms in the world is declining." Phys.org. Science X Daily. May 12, 2023. Accessed January 26, 2024.
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-farms-world-declining.html#:~:....
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Hunter Kay Wallace
Hunter Kay Wallace is a Northwest native who loves exploring the West Coast and Montana. Though she started life in the city, she's fallen in love with small towns and rural life. She doesn't garden as well as her characters, but she did accidently grow pumpkins when she lost a jack-o-lantern in her yard!
She is the author of the forthcoming Migratory Farmers series. In each standalone novel, a caravan of magic-wielding farmers has a wild adventure in a new place.
Her favorite books include The Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan and All Systems Red by Martha Wells.
Sample Q and A
What inspired the Migratory Farmers series?
I love Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, about Earth's four seasons. Each concerto expresses the distinct beauty of a different time of year. I took it, examined it, and broke it! I designed Serendipity, a world with no seasons, and researched what that world would look like. Some plants, such as apples and wheat, cannot reproduce without seasons. Without seasons, soil would grow poor. Animals wouldn't migrate. Bugs and disease would run rampant in wet, warm regions. The best place to call home would be somewhere hot and dry, such as the desert oasis featured in The Shaman's Bones.
So these novels are . . . about farming?
Not at all! Okay, just a little. They're about migratory farmers, the best adventurers in the world. In each book, they explore a new settlement (or a few) on their caravan's route and have adventures with new magic. Every novel promises magic, adventure, and a happily-ever-after romance.
What order should I read the Migratory Farmers series in?
In whatever order you'd like to! You'll enjoy reoccurring characters most from book to book by reading them in order, but every novel is a standalone adventure with a romance, magic, and a happy ending.
Explain Serendipity's weird creatures
Do you mean the shadow monsters that possess people? Or the animal deities that fight them off? Or are we talking about the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and extinct-as-we-know-them mega fauna? Just read The Shaman's Bones. I promise you a Tasmanian tiger.
Where was that Tasmanian tiger?
Well, I couldn't CALL it that, since Tasmania doesn't exist in the world Serendipity. Read The Shaman's Bones, chapter 15. Really. I'll throw in a Tasmanian devil, too. Hint: both are marsupials.
When does Book 2 come out?
Book 2 in the Migratory Farmers series, Stitching Power, releases summer 2024. Look forward to Anyo learning to sew magic into fabric from scary women and Inona getting adopted by a magical tiger entity. And ice cream.
Do you do anything else?
Yes! Read my blog every month to learn about a classic short story in the public domain. Then decorate the free coloring page I made to accompany it.
Where can others follow you?
My monthly newsletter! I'm also on Facebook and Twitter. My Facebook author page is: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554867623552
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