After the Storm

＂After a tornado destroys the Gale family farm, eleven-year-old Dorothy goes missing. As the days pass, the Gales are increasingly terrified the worst has happened. But when the girl turns up unharmed four days later, the townsfolk breathe a sigh of relief. That is, until Dorothy herself relates her account of the events that took place during her disappearance. In vivid detail, Dorothy describes a fantastical land and its magical inhabitants: a scarecrow, a tin man, a cowardly lion, a wizard, a witch. Her recollections are not only regarded as delusional, but also as pagan and diabolical in nature, especially when the body of a local spinster is found matching Dorothy’s description of a witch she claims to have killed＂--

Gordon McAlpine was the author of Girl with a Blue Pencil and Holmes Entangled and a contributor to Orange County Noir. An Edgar Award finalist, he taught creative writing and literature at U.C. Irvine, UCLA., and Chapman University.