In The Land of Huckleberries and Wokas, a Native American adventure novella, was expanded from a short story that placed 32^nd out of 12,000 plus entries in Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition. (Wokas are pond lily seeds from the Klamath marshes.)

The stories weren’t just stores, after all. Snow Bird had listened all through her childhood to scary tales of braves raiding camps and taking slaves, but she had never truly feared such a thing happening. When others told her these stories, her father patted her head and smiled, reassuring her that the elders used stories to keep the children close to camp.

Yet now she sat with her hands bound in front of her while her captors drank from the river. They had rushed into camp and attacked those around the dinner fire. With knives tied to their wrists and clubs to swing, they had hit and stunned the adults in a confusing blink of the eye.

Snow Bird is taken far from her home and people, but she refuses to give up hope. She is surprised by someone who wants to help her, and surprised by her own bravery and strength.

***

I started thinking about this short story and had to the tell the rest of it. It’s similar to my Native American novel The River People, but set in eastern Oregon in the Klamath Basin.

I’ll keep you updated and post a link when it’s available on Kindle.