The Wolf Tone

Winner of the 2017 Elixir Press Fiction Award

THE WOLF TONE is a novel of classical music, medical marijuana and the complexities of motherhood. The 2017 Elixir Press Award winner takes readers on a wild ride through Deaton, Montana, a fictional college town on the continental divide.  Middle aged cellist Margot Fickett is beset by young, single mother Eva Baker, who claims her three-year-old boy is Margot’s grandson. Complicating issues include Eva’s much-older boyfriend Sully, who runs a medical marijuana shop financially backed by a well-connected, sinister but magnetic man called Dutch.

Read an excerpt and brief interview from HYPERTEXT here.

See the novel’s opening pages at Fresh Fiction.

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Praise for The Wolf Tone:

A quick intelligence reminiscent of Iris Murdoch lurks in the interstices of The Wolf Tone, brightening ordinary moments … Like Murdoch’s characters, Stillwell’s struggle admirably to transcend the limits of their own perspectives, to see more in each other than just themselves.

—Book Review, Necessary Fiction

For me, Christy Stillwell’s novel The Wolf Tone was like a wonderful vacation to a beautiful, arty Montana town, where I got to live for a season among musicians, art patrons, locals, and owls. I met a tough-minded single mother, a solitary classical musician, and a vet with a start-up medical marijuana dispensary. By the time my stay was over, I’d heard the unexpected and profound story of these unlikely literary bedfellows, a resonant tale about the choices we make, the secrets we keep, and our (often misguided) expectations regarding love, children, and career. No Airbnb booking required.”

—Debra Spark, author Unknown Caller

Sharp and smart about every subject under the Montana sun from classical musicians to marijuana cultivation to the daily choices love requires, this is an extraordinarily assured debut. Wolf Tone makes beautiful music.”

—Liam Callanan, author, Paris by the Book

The Wolf Tone is a wild, roller coaster ride through the mysteries of ambition and desire.  Set in the snowy landscape of Montana, it is a wise and steady gaze at the meaning of family. What a great read: thrilling and completely surprising.”

—Megan Staffel, author The Exit Coach

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Amnesia

These poems catalog bright moments, and not so bright, as a mother experiences her second-born’s  first year of life. Here we find a writer struggling with the impossible balance of artistry and motherhood, both the rewards and the costs.

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Praise for Amnesia:

Set in a world of loss, these poems by Christy Stillwell deliver with certainty the daily rhythms of home. The whir of fans in August, the insistent pull of an infant’s mouth, and the scrape of snow shovels after a storm compose a new measure of stability for a mother of two young children. I am grateful for the simplicity and courage with which these poems declare, “I believe,” “I understand,” “I wish,” “I love,” “I see.” Stillwell reports the intimate, the difficult, and the awkward as if her life depends on not forgetting. As a result, her poems are unforgettable.

—Diane LeBlanc

With Christy Stillwell’s help, we learn to see with new eyes. Her voice is vulnerable and reflects deep truths of our lived lives. With clarity, her poetic vision invites us into a fuller humanity in her beautiful collection, Amnesia.

—Leah Maines