Spirit of the Valley – An Ecological Mythology of an Oak Savanna

Spirit of the Valley
168 Pages
Sierra Club Books
ISBN 1578050618

In Spirit of the Valley the reader buys one ticket and takes two trips. One is through the sunny and tangible realm of a California oak woodland; the other is through the enchanting province of mythology. Both journeys lead the reader into comfortable and charming country.

Baxter Trautman transports the traveler with the black and white pen of science dipped in the colorful ink of myth. Throughout, words pave this journey through the landscape; from the relatively young, 300-year-old literary origin of the state name, to the Babylonian name for one of the brightest summer constellations. Backed with a comprehensive index and reference section, Spirit of the Valley offers a thought-provoking and entertaining read.

Baxter Clare Trautman

About Baxter Clare Trautman (San Luis Obispo, California Author)

Baxter Clare Trautman

Trautman wrote the seven-book L.A. Franco mystery series, The River Within, and Spirit of the Valley. After earning a master's degree in biology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo she promptly turned her hand to writing. Her stories live in rough places - South Central L.A., war zones in the Middle East, the Big Sur mountains - with characters raw around the edges.

Trautman says of her writing, that “if readers would rather be moved than distracted, and care about hope more than happily ever after, then they’ve found their author.” A practicing wildlife biologist, she lives in central California with her wife, dogs, cats, and chickens. Trautman is a Lambda Literary Award finalist, GCLS Award finalist, and Rainbow Award Winner.