Writings

I began my writing life at an early age, passing short stories back and forth with a friend who lived around a corner and up a dirt road.  I wrote poetry throughout my teen years more as therapy than artful expression and have always felt a little uncomfortable writing poetry given my name.

I took a playwriting class in graduate school, and that encouraged me to write plays for the next decade or so. I  have several scripts available.  These plays have been produced and the rough edges smoothed out.  Some are original and some are adaptations of folklore and world literature. They include 

 

  • The Odyssey
  • Beowulf
  • MotherSongs: the Story of Witchcraft from the Paleolithic to the Present
  • The Burning Times: a Study of the Continuing Inquisition
  • Carolina Folk Tales: Haints and Boogers
  • The Blue Bird (an adaptation of the Maeterlinck classic)
  • Three Sisters (an adaptation of Chekhov’s work)
  • Moby-Dick
  • Leviticus: the Fifth Book of Moses

 

Now I write nonfiction – books mostly. I have published seven and am editing number eight. My books are predominantly concerned with Appalachian folkways, which is my practice as well as my study.

The Village Blog: Writings and Musings

The Lusty Month of May

  This is woad. Ysatis tinctoria. It's grown as a dye plant but I use it as a magical oil, to access my inner Pict. Merry May, all!  I've spent the day running errands and now it's too hot outside to work in the garden. That makes it a good day for laundry though...

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Back to Back…and Back Again. But, for Now, I’m Back

This is a repost from my Matreon account, as I try to get caught up. See for yourself. Golly. It has been a zinger of a ride, I tell you. Back in February, I cancelled an appearance in Pennsylvania because I had a gum infection--or so I thought. I've had these off and...

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Too Long Away

I'm still not back in the swing of blogging, mostly because I need to do it from my phone. I've become someone who does so much from that little Android box and don't open my laptop as much as I should. We are in a helluvan election year and I want us to walk through...

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Available for Purchase

Coming Soon: 

The Ragged Wound: Tending the Soul of Appalachia
Feral Church

 

I welcome readers and friends to join my Matreon to read the very latest writing. I share brand-new thoughts and experimental writing there.

http://patreon.com/HByronBallard

Writings and Blog

Anthologies:

  • Which Witch is Which by Patricia Telesco (Essay on Mixed-Gender Dianic Wicca)
  • Women’s Voices in Magic, edited by Brandy Williams  “Cove Witches and Curanderas”
  • Christmas Presence, edited by Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham.  “Getting the Tree Story”
  • Clothes Lines, edited by Celia Miles and Nancy Dillingham. “Boots”
  • Birthed from Scorched Hearts: Women Respond to War, edited by MariJo Moore. “The Daughters of Boudicca”
  • The Crone Initiative, edited by Jay Louise Aldred, Pat Day, and Trista Hendren
  • New World Witchery: a Trove of North American Folk Magic, edited by Cory
    Thomas Hutcheson
  • In Defiance of Oppression: the Legacy of Boudicca, edited by Trista
    Hendren, Joey Morris, and Pat Daly
  • My Wandering Uterus: Tales of Traveling While Female, edited by Kate Laity
  • Warrior Queen: Answering the Call of the Morrigan, edited by Trista
    Hendren, Jessica Johnson, and Pat Daly
  • Brigid’s Light: Tending the Ancestral Flame of the Beloved Celtic Goddess,
    edited by Cairelle Crow and Laura Louella

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