Music, Mischief, and Magic

Laurel and Bess Dillard are charismatic bluegrass musicians enjoying the success of their first Southwestern tour. But the Dillard girls know that magical adventures are always at hand. Upon meeting two mysterious strangers at a gig, the red-headed twins are drawn into an age-old, mystical wager along the Medicine Road.

One day, seeing a red dog chasing a jackalope, Coyote Woman gave them both human forms. They became Jim Changing Dog and Alice Corn Hair. In return, both Jim and Alice must find true love within a hundred years, or their “five-fingered” forms will be forfeit. Alice has found her soul mate, but trickster Jim is unwilling to settle down?until he sets eyes upon free-spirited Bess Dillard.

Yet time is running out for the red dog and the jackalope. In just two weeks, they will journey to their reckoning at the Medicine Wheel. Meanwhile, a motorcycle-riding seductress and a vengeful rattlesnake woman are eager to meddle, and Bess and Laurel, caught in a web of love and lies, must find their own paths into the spirit world.

span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">CHARLES de LINT is the author of more than seventy adult, young adult, and children’s books. Renowned as one of the trailblazers of the modern fantasy genre, he is the recipient of the World Fantasy, White Pine, Crawford, and Aurora awards. The first book of the Wildlings trilogy, Under My Skin, won the 2013 Aurora Award for Young Adult Fiction. De Lint is a poet, songwriter, performer, and folklorist, and he writes a monthly book-review column for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

De Lint and his wife, MaryAnn Harris, a fellow artist and musician, recently released companion CDs of their original songs, samples of which can be heard on de Lint’s website. They live in Ottawa, and their respective websites are www.charlesdelint.com and www.relectica.com. 

Charles de Lint's profile page

Charles Vess' profile page

?Canadian author de Lint and illustrator Vess make good medicine in this whimsical collaboration of words and images starring those rambunctious red-haired Dillard twins, Laurel and Bess, mentioned in 2002’s Seven Wild Sisters and now stage center in their own short novel.... The mythic magic inevitable in all of de Lint’s best fantasies marks the spirited conclusion.”
?Publishers Weekly

“De Lint adroitly and believably meshes the world we live in and the spirit world, and his lyrical descriptions of desert and canyon take us directly into the ambiance of the Southwest, adding much to the charm of this first-in-a-series short novel that is already well laced with humor, romance, and Native American mythology and nicely complemented by World Fantasy Award?winner Charles Vess’s black-and-white illustrations.”
?Booklist

?Charles de Lint’s new book, Medicine Road, is a first-rate folk tale, the story of a jackalope (that’s a mythical cross between a rabbit and an antelope, for the uninitiated) and a red dog whose run-in with a meddling Coyote Woman changes their lives forever.”
?Bookslut

?Medicine Road is like a dish made with a few strongly flavored ingredients. It has its impact and lingers in the memory just as long as a complex, subtly seasoned meal might. I heartily recommend it.”
?Green Man Review

?De Lint has created a rich fairy tale where the characters, both human and animal spirit, practically jump off the pages with their own personalities, and it’s a fast-moving enjoyability that doesn’t suffer from not knowing the full measure of the Dillard sisters’ background.”
?Fantastica Daily

?...a strong, thoroughly enjoyable, thoroughly magical story that takes advantage of native myths and lore to create something entirely new, yet quietly familiar.”
?SF Site

?The author cleverly weaves ancient myths with modern-day romance in a way that seems easy and natural.”
?Rocky Mountain News