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

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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Some Thoughts on Leadership

There are some interesting things happening in the American Pagan communities right now. (For those of you in those communities, you know this is not an unusual occurrence.) A man running for office in New York has been about on social media, warning of "Satanists"...

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Hello…hello? Is this thing on?

I used to be a blogger. A very faithful blogger. In my first blogging gig (for my local daily Gannett paper) I wrote almost every day for many years about the local Pagan community and my thoughts about all kinds of things. After that, I blogged here. But with the...

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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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