Anticipating Andrea Hairston's Redwood and Wildfire

This February will see the release of Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston. While there is hardly any information about this book to be found, the blurb alone is sufficient to make this novel highly anticipated:

At the turn of the 20th century, minstrel shows transform into vaudeville which slides into moving pictures. Hunkering together in dark theatres, diverse audiences marvel at flickering images. This “dreaming in public” becomes common culture and part of what transforms immigrants and “native” born into Americans.

Redwood, an African American woman, and Aidan, a Seminole Irish man, journey from Georgia to Chicago, from haunted swampland to a “city of the future.” They are gifted performers and hoodoo conjurors, struggling to call up the wondrous world they imagine, not just on stage and screen, but on city streets, in front parlors, in wounded hearts.

The power of hoodoo is the power of the community that believes in its capacities to heal and determine the course of today and tomorrow. Living in a system stacked against them, Redwood and Aidan’s power and talent are torment and joy. Their search for a place to be who they want to be is an exhilarating, painful, magical adventure. Blues singers, filmmakers, haints, healers, and actors work their mojo for adventure, romance, and magic from Georgia to Chicago!

This sounds like alternate history novel with a hint of magnificent magic. Most of all, it promises to be a spellbinding novel of characters and their touching life journey.

Hairston, in addition to writing fantasy and science fiction, is the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre, where she has created original productions with music, dance, and masks for more than thirty years. I, for one, look forward to seeing all of this artistic experience reflected in her newest book.

Take a look at Hairston’s website for further information about Redwood and Wildfire.

If you like this, you might also like:

	The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham
	Daniel Abraham’s Long Price Quartet has been on my must-read list for a while now, and the first of these four books, A Shadow in Summer, will be reviewed on The Ranting Dragon next month. But in...

	Darkwar by Glen Cooks released again
	In the anticipation articles, we usually talk about future releases. This time, however, I will tell you about old books. The Darkwar trilogy van Glen Cook was released in 1985 and 1986. A long...