The people of Maple Gap say that Iris Littleton drowned her son thirty-years ago and that the old witch waits for his return.

A shy hermit, Iris lives in a mountain cabin just below Devil’s Backbone. One morning, she recites an incantation over a cup of tea. As smoke fills the room and her vision fades, she pleads to the spirits to return her son.

Within minutes, a school bus careens off the road. The driver sends a terrified boy named Henry Mayfield to her door. Iris does more than let the boy use her phone.

Set in a dark corner of Appalachia, The Winter Calf is the first novel in the Maple Gap Series.

Keywords: childhood, women's fiction, mountain witch, Appalachia, hillbilly, abortion, child abuse, Virginia, Highland County, Charlottesville