The Black Tree Atop the Hill

 
Marisol is the first to see the tree on the hill, but that's only to be expected. She is the witch of Jack Boyd's ranch and her job is to notice threats, even amid a disastrous calving season. No one seems to remember the tree was not there yesterday.

The forest begins to spread, and it is up to Marisol and the ranch's ghost to work together to stop the trees from taking over their ranch, California, and the entirety of the country. But all magic requires sacrifice, and Marisol is not certain she is prepared to accept the consequences of what she must do to stop the trees' advance.

 The Black Tree Atop the Hill is set in an alternate American old-west that is hauntingly familiar yet strangely off-putting. This is a story about believing in intuition against the rain, about the violence of nature and of those who inflict it. Gothic gardeners explore the question of nature's home in a progressing world, leaving readers with conflicting resolutions and twisty insides.