On the banks of Lake Drummond, on the edge of The Great Dismal Swamp, there is a tree in the shape of a woman.

One dark, moonlit night, two artists met at The Lake Drummond Hotel, built directly on the borderline of North Carolina and Virginia. One was a young woman with the ability to see spirits trapped in trees and stone, anchored to the earth beyond their years. Her gift was to draw them, and then to set them free. The other was a dark man, haunted by dreams and visions that brought him stories of sadness and pain, and trapped in a life between the powers he sensed all around him, and a mundane existence attended by failure. They were Eleanore MacReady, Lenore, to her friends, and a young poet named Edgar Allan Poe, who traveled with a crow that was his secret, and almost constant companion, a bird named Grimm for the talented brothers of fairy-tale fame.

Their meeting drew them together in vision, and legend, and pitted their strange powers and quick minds against the depths of the Dismal Swamp itself, ancient legends, and time.

Once, upon a shoreline dreary, there was a tree. This is her story.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This novel is a direct spin-off from "Kali's Tale," the fourth book in the DeChance Chronicles - initially it was going to be the prologue to book V - but is now a fully separated, stand-alone work - though the stories tie together, and are all one big story - as novels, over time, tend to become. Book One, "Heart of a Dragon," is only .99 and books 2-4 are now available in a single omnibus edition. If you enjoy Nevermore, you may find The DeChance Chronicles to your liking. Book V - "A Midnight Dreary," draws directly on elements of Nevermore.