Overview

Deep in the heart of a small, oak writing desk is a legacy that mysteriously connects three family women across centuries and generations in their fight for the future. Shima'a, an ancient woman with disturbing visions of the Earth's demise, sends a message of warning and a seed of hope forward in time within the heart of an acorn to three family women: Eliza: Post Gold Rush in the Sacramento Valley, late 19th century - Harmony: Back-to-the-land homestead in the Sierra Nevada, late 20th century - Amisha: Dystopic San Francisco and the Sierra Nevada, late 21st century. Writing on the heartwood of the old desk, each woman is influenced by the ancient message as she views mankind's escalating destruction of the natural world through the eyes of her time. The women learn to listen to the silence, hold the earth in their hands, gather the women, then do what must be done. Heart Wood is a compelling family saga set in the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada. Its characters shift from one generation to the next, as do the struggles they face in saving their homestead from the ravages of climate change, fire, and human greed. But it is mankind that poses the most dire challenges to the land and to those who seek life upon it. Heart Wood speaks of the collective power of feminine energy to protect the Earth. If you feel you're not doing enough or that it's already too late to make a difference, Heart Wood may give you hope. An eco-speculative-historical-mystical-feminist novel.

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9781734536409

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Reviews

To my own surprise, I don't expect new authors to be so sly or quick in engaging, holding, and enlightening their readers. Whenever I pick Heart Wood up, I always regret having to put it down. Shirley DicKard is extremely good. - Gary Snyder, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet, essayist, environmental activist Shirley DicKard has created a bookstore dilemma with this story: on which shelf will it be housed in bookstores? At once historical fiction, mystery/suspense, futuristic sci-fi, and empowering feminist fiction with supernatural nuance, it could sit well on any number of shelves. Heart Wood is a climate-change cautionary tale and a celebration of the feminine spirit of nature and the three timeless women who serve as its protagonists, past, present, and future. Each of the three eras--and indeed the characters in them--portrayed in this story is rendered artfully, with intriguing detail, captivating action, and complex human dilemmas. At first, the story seemed like a jigsaw puzzle when you first empty the pieces onto a table. As the chapters unfold, the puzzle takes shape and the picture becomes undeniably clear. This is a work of great accomplishment and a worthy read for anyone, especially anyone who cares about the one and only planet we inhabit. -Betsy Graziani Fasbinder, author of Fire & Water, speaking and writing coach, licensed therapist If you pick up this book you will be reading about three related and determined women in radically different times whose decisions and fates are connected in some manner by a small oak desk. This is not a book about saving the planet. It is a book about female energy and intelligence in multiple generations of a very American family. There are some rays of hope in their response to numerous brutish points along the way, and their individual accomplishments are impressive, but there is no golden sunset, and no utopia at the end. Nor should there be. The reader does not get off easy and will not heave a sigh of relief that all will turn out OK. We are left with a clear understanding that most aspects of existence will only get worse, but we have been privileged to travel part of the way with three brave women whose choices along the way are inspiring. That is a gift. - Kurt Lorenz, retired educator, community and environmental activist First, do no harm. As a physician, I know these ancient words apply not only to healing people, but also the environment. As an eco-novel, Heart Wood goes a step further and immerses us in a future world where children live in chronic respiratory distress because of polluted air, where they can't tolerate most foods, a world of excessive heat and lack of clean drinking water, and where human fertility plummets. Heart Wood is a cautionary tale, yet one of unexpected insights and hope. You'll find yourself asking what you can do right now that your great-grandchildren will thank you for! -Christine Newsom MD, physician and environmental activist

"""To my own surprise, I don't expect new authors to be so sly or quick in engaging, holding, and enlightening their readers. Whenever I pick Heart Wood up, I always regret having to put it down. Shirley DicKard is extremely good."" - Gary Snyder, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet, essayist, environmental activist ""Shirley DicKard has created a bookstore dilemma with this story: on which shelf will it be housed in bookstores? At once historical fiction, mystery/suspense, futuristic sci-fi, and empowering feminist fiction with supernatural nuance, it could sit well on any number of shelves. Heart Wood is a climate-change cautionary tale and a celebration of the feminine spirit of nature and the three timeless women who serve as its protagonists, past, present, and future. Each of the three eras--and indeed the characters in them--portrayed in this story is rendered artfully, with intriguing detail, captivating action, and complex human dilemmas. At first, the story seemed like a jigsaw puzzle when you first empty the pieces onto a table. As the chapters unfold, the puzzle takes shape and the picture becomes undeniably clear. This is a work of great accomplishment and a worthy read for anyone, especially anyone who cares about the one and only planet we inhabit. -Betsy Graziani Fasbinder, author of Fire & Water, speaking and writing coach, licensed therapist ""If you pick up this book you will be reading about three related and determined women in radically different times whose decisions and fates are connected in some manner by a small oak desk. This is not a book about ""saving the planet."" It is a book about female energy and intelligence in multiple generations of a very American family. There are some rays of hope in their response to numerous brutish points along the way, and their individual accomplishments are impressive, but there is no golden sunset, and no utopia at the end. Nor should there be. The reader does not get off easy and will not heave a sigh of relief that all will turn out OK. We are left with a clear understanding that most aspects of existence will only get worse, but we have been privileged to travel part of the way with three brave women whose choices along the way are inspiring. That is a gift."" - Kurt Lorenz, retired educator, community and environmental activist First, do no harm. As a physician, I know these ancient words apply not only to healing people, but also the environment. As an eco-novel, Heart Wood goes a step further and immerses us in a future world where children live in chronic respiratory distress because of polluted air, where they can't tolerate most foods, a world of excessive heat and lack of clean drinking water, and where human fertility plummets. Heart Wood is a cautionary tale, yet one of unexpected insights and hope. You'll find yourself asking what you can do right now that your great-grandchildren will thank you for! -Christine Newsom MD, physician and environmental activist"

Author Information

A fourth generation Californian, Shirley has always been passionate about living close to the land and protecting the earth. Her first novel, Heart Wood, was written from her homestead that she and her husband built in the 1970s in the Sierra Nevada, Northern California. Shirley earned her RN degree from the University of California, San Francisco. She draws on her background as a pediatric nurse, and as former executive director of a rural non-profit where she promoted community-building as a means of improving children's health. She served as co-producer of The Women's Writing Salon and is a founding member of the Sierra Muses Writing Workshop and Press in Nevada City. Shirley is the senior editor of a community newspaper, serves as the family's historian, and is an avid naturalist. When she is not writing, Shirley is walking in the woods with her husband and dog, spending time with their two daughters' families, volunteering in the community, and tending their large homestead garden and orchard. Website: www.shirleydickard.com

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