Subgenre: Fairy Tale, Dystopian
Release Date: August 26, 2014
ABOUT The Tree Hugger:
After decades of decline due to a poor national diet and abolishing the Right to Defense Act, Imyrika has become occupied by Kyintan nationals who take Man vs. Nature to a new level. But is there another path? A path of union...
Born and raised in the Free Territories, Magnolia Lee Winthrop, prefers the company of trees and nature to spending time with most people. Although she’s not much of a talker, she’s got plenty of strong opinions about life and how it should be lived, just like her mother and grandmother.
After the settlement’s forest farm is burned to the ground, Magnolia’s life can never be the same. To cope with her grief, she’ll have to leave behind everything she’s ever known and loved for a hard journey through a foreign, paved, and abandoned world.
The Tree Hugger is a dystopian retelling of Han’s Christian Andersen’s “The Dryad."
Excerpt
I loved Magnolia from the moment I saw her, I reckon. Sept I caint rightly remember when that was. It must have been when I was a tot, cause I’ve never not loved her. Somethin about her dark green eyes, pale white skin, and cocoa-brown hair draws me to her. She’s the shade of a tree on a high summer day when your face gets sunburnt just crossing the yard, a necessity. We good friends. I’m the best friend she got, although I confess that’s not saying much since I’m the only friend she got. Mags aint real friendly. I don’ blame her. A lot of folks think she’s lazy, on account of she can stay quiet and still for so long. But she aint lazy, she’s thoughtful and deep. Real thoughtful and real deep.
I’m not the best lookin guy in our settlement. I’m also not the smartest or the strongest, but I reckon, one day, I’m gonna be the tallest.
One day Mags and I was stretched out in the field watching the clouds float on by when she announced, “None of that other stuff matters, Graham, cause you got a right true heart, and a right true heart is the thing in this world that’s got the most value.”
I’d been lying still with her for half the day when she spoke up and said that. It kinda made it worth it. My Pa sez being quiet and comfortable in another person’s presence is proof of companionability.
Mags and I is definitely companionable.
Heidi Garrett is the author of the contemporary fairy tale novella collection, Once Upon a Time Today. In these stand-alone retellings of popular and obscure fairy tales, adult characters navigate the deep woods of the modern landscape to find their Happily Ever Afters. She's also the author of the Daughter of Light series, a fantasy about a young half-faerie, half-mortal searching for her place in the Whole. Heidi's latest project is a collaboration with Billie Limpin. They're cooking up a yummy paranormal romance!
Heidi was born in Texas, and in an attempt to reside in as many cities in that state as she could, made it to Houston, Lubbock, Austin, and El Paso. She now lives in Eastern Washington state with her husband, their two cats, her laptop, and her Kindle. Being from the South, she often contemplates the magic of snow.
