F. Jay Fuller

Novels: 

Shadows in Winter: 
The complex journey of a young man, Ahto, who discovers early in life that he is not only oddly out of place in the modern world, but haunted by an ancient spiritual tradition that calls to him from the shadows of the past.  The book opens in northern California with ten-year-old Ahto and his extended family celebrating the Christmas season steeped in the traditions of their Finnish and Sámi heritage. Each Christmas Eve, while others sleep, Ahto sits alone in the window of his bedroom eagerly anticipating the arrival of his mysterious great uncle, Jaakko, with whom he has developed a deep friendship and shares a remarkable affinity. But when Jaakko fails to appear during the Christmas of Ahto's severnteenth year, Ahto and his estranged father travel to the wilds of Canada's Yukon Territory in search of his reclusive great uncle.  But this expedition takes Ahto farther than he could have imagined when he discovers that he is successor to an ancient family linage of noaide -- Sámi shamans, and the inheritor of an instrument of immense power that has been passed down from hand-to-hand since the last ice age.  And as his latent powers become actualized and focused, he learns stunning methods to open the portal of time that permit him to experience historical events in arctic Finland, just before and during World War II, to the otherworldy home of his Sámi ancestors, the Land of Shadows.    

Whispers of the Loon:
In the sequel to Shadows in Winter, twenty-year old Ahto Twickanen struggles to come to terms with the demands of his college education and the subtlties of his spiritual naoide appreticeship under the tutulage of his great uncle Jaakko.  When a letter arrives from a trusted friend who is looking to recover his First Nation heritage, Ahto travels north to British Columbia's Vancouver Island.  While assisting in teasing-out the details of his friend's convoluted First Nation status, Ahto is confronted with a vivid and disturbing vision of a Loon, who beckons him to the shores of Canada's Great Slave Lake.  Once there, Ahto is reunited with his great uncle Jaakko, and together they form an alliance with a host of colorful characters to solve a mystery of deception, famine and murder.  And, in the process learns new lessons about what it means to be human by gaining insight into the relationship his First Nation hosts have with the land and the animals around them. (in progress)

Bone Singer:
On the verge of heading off to graduate school, twenty-four year-old Ahto Twickanen is once again called to the arctic by his great uncle Jaakko to face new challenges in his quest to develop into a full noaide.  In a quest that starts innocently as a road trip to the southwest to learn about America's native cultures, Ahto is unwittingly thrust into a struggle that pits the hard realities of modern living with the spiritual realities of traditional societies, and must comes to terms with loss of his greatest teacher and the birth of his future. (in concept)

Sirens of the Sandhills:
The descendants of Finnish immigrants struggle to maintain their traditional way of life in the Sand Hills of Nebraska, all the while hiding a mysterious past and harboring a collective reserve of ancient power. (in concept)