Books by Cheryl Owen-Wilson
The writing bug first snagged Cheryl through her penning of a personal essay, for which she received an award and publication. However, today fiction is what drives her writing, with an emphasis on Southern Gothic. Since her roots are buried deep in the bayous of Southern Louisiana, it is a natural fit.
Though she now calls Oregon home, she visits her Southern family often. The theme of family and all it entails are prominent in her fiction. She remarks, “They say write what you know.
I’m the mother of six girls and one boy. That fact combined with the steeped in mystical beliefs culture in which i was raised have given me an abundance of stories to draw from. My grandmama was a believer in voodoo and practiced the every day forms such as creating love gri-gri’s (charm pouches). My great -grandmama cured me of a reoccurring bout of warts on my hand by using a throw away aluminum pie tin, a candle and holy water; the warts never returned. Writing gothic tales, featuring the dead, is quite natural to me because in the South we live with our dead. They walk beside us and talk to us daily.” When not visiting the mysteries of her childhood home she also writes fantasy and science fiction.
When she is not writing, you will find her at an easel covered in oil paint. “When I write I usually have a picture in my mind of a painting to go with the story. The same holds true when the picture of a painting forms in my mind. It’s usually followed closely with an idea for a story or poem. I am one of the contributors to the ShadowSpinners blog post and was greatly honored when asked to provide my vision for the site in the from of an oil painting. You can view it along with my blogs at https://shadowspinners.wordpress.com.”
If you’re looking to get a little lost in the Bayou’s dark tales
Veya Marie St. James has vowed to never again set foot on the Island of her birth—a strip of land buried deep in the swamps of southern Louisiana. Her childhood memories are rampant with ancient superstitions and the bizarre rituals of her estranged mother. Veya long ago rejected that life and those beliefs, but when a mysterious illness threatens her daughter’s life, it all leads to the Island. Veya swore she would never go back, but the Island calls to her, and now it’s calling with her daughter’s voice.
This collection of short stories is brought to you by the writers of ShadowSpinners, a collective blog dedicated to exploring the darker side of fiction. Join us for a journey through the shadows. Wherever you end up, it is sure to be fascinating. Within these pages you’ll discover a wide range of genres, from literary to fantasy to horror and beyond. Humorous, terrifying, thought provoking and strange, but never predictable, these twelve stories explore the hidden corners of human experience.
Writers are wordless in very few instances. But in the case of a friend gone too soon, a writer who will never be replaced, it’s hard to find words. Yet there is much to write. And for Stephen T. Vessels, a man who defied categorization, we all of us, had a story to write for him, printed here with one of Stephen’s last and best stories, now published for the first time, The Ki Trees. So what exactly is The Fifth Fedora? In its simplest terms, it is an anthology of stories inspired by the work and persona of Stephen. He was a man known for many things, the least significant but most iconic of which may be the fedoras he liked to wear, if not his abiding love of Scotch or the fifth dimension he appeared to inhabit, defying all attempts to induct him into the time stream of mundane mortals. His own stories, likewise, defied generalization. Some fantasy, some sci-fi, some noir, a delightful mélange of tentacles and detectives and albino alligators lurking in post-apocalyptic sewers. And so here we’re happy to represent stories that Stephen himself might’ve liked to read, such as “A Million Lost Souls Plus One” by Christina Lay, co-founder of ShadowSpinners Press. “Fallen Angels” by Max Devoe Talley, author of Santa Fe Psychosis.“ From the Journal of Dr. Eduard Charivari” by Monte Schulz, author of Metropolis. “It’s Up to You” by John R. Reed, author of The Mole Train. “Unrequited Loss” by Elizabeth Engstrom, author of When Darkness Loves Us. and contributions by Stacy Allen, Zane Andrea, Jack Eidt, Avery Faeth, Maryanne Knight, Chris Casey Logsdon, Cynthia Ray, Rick Shaw, Silver Webb, Frederick Williams, Cheryl Owen-Wilson, and Eric Witchey.
MeCo Visions 
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