The First Raven Mocker

The Four Souls of Man

In my first published work, The First Raven Mocker, the secret of how to acquire a man’s souls and thereby steal his remaining years to add on to his own life is revealed. The technique was extrapolated from the Cherokee legends and myths surrounding their most feared witch, the Raven Mocker. In searching for clues, I researched many sources including James Mooney’s writings from living among the Cherokee while working for the Bureau of American Ethnology and from the insightful findings of Alan Kilpatrick’s investigative book, “The Night Has a Naked Soul.” I, of course, had to guess how the Raven Mocker actually would have transferred the souls to himself. When writing the novel, I debated how I should present the Raven Mocker. I decided that I would portray him as he was believed to be. Whether or not we believe that a witch is capable of these things is up to the reader. But what I wanted to give to the reader was the authentic version of what the Cherokee once believed he was capable of and to do it in a way that made some practical sense. Used to introduce the Raven Mocker in this book, the scene is taken from book three, “Gihli, A Chief Named Dog.”