When moonshiner Mac Emery raised his shotgun and fired blindly into the darkness, he did more than just bring about the death of his friend the revenuer, Agent John Callaway, he set into motion events that would ultimately threaten his family and it's proud 160-year legacy as distillers of the best tasting whiskey east of the Mississippi. For over a century and a half, the Emery's uniquely designed moonshine still lovingly called the 'wormstill' and the delicious whiskey that dripped from its faucet provided for the family, protected it, and bonded father to son, mother to daughter, through the ages. Mac’s ancester, Asa Emery, the popular village blacksmith convicted of a murder he did not commit, escaped into the deep recesses of the Okefenokee Swamp where he and his wife, Sally, struggled to survive. Their only salvation was the contents of a leather pouch containing his grandfather’s design for a moonshine still and the secret recipe. A recipe so valuable that men died to obtain it and Emerys died to protect it.
Asa’s descendents, Eliza, Simon, Jeremiah, Joshua, and, of course, Mac, were determined, resilient, and resourceful. Love, murder, miracle, and death are backdrops to the stage set by their fierce independence; and, a family's complete reliance on their moonshine still for their very survival. When the homesteaders are forced to leave their beloved swamp so it can become a wildlife refuge for outdoorsmen and tourists, the Emery family must adapt to life away from their island. In the end, Mac's only son, Sheriff John Emery, whose namesake was the murdered federal agent, uncovers a dark family secret that could destroy the very people whose legacy he’s trying to protect.
The Wormstill Chronicles, though a work of fiction, is a reflection of the lives of actual pioneers who risked everything to settle on the remote islands of the Okefenokee Swamp following the Revolutionary War and who successfully homesteaded there, raising their families and burying their dead, far removed from civilization, until civilization forced their exodus.
Asa’s descendents, Eliza, Simon, Jeremiah, Joshua, and, of course, Mac, were determined, resilient, and resourceful. Love, murder, miracle, and death are backdrops to the stage set by their fierce independence; and, a family's complete reliance on their moonshine still for their very survival. When the homesteaders are forced to leave their beloved swamp so it can become a wildlife refuge for outdoorsmen and tourists, the Emery family must adapt to life away from their island. In the end, Mac's only son, Sheriff John Emery, whose namesake was the murdered federal agent, uncovers a dark family secret that could destroy the very people whose legacy he’s trying to protect.
The Wormstill Chronicles, though a work of fiction, is a reflection of the lives of actual pioneers who risked everything to settle on the remote islands of the Okefenokee Swamp following the Revolutionary War and who successfully homesteaded there, raising their families and burying their dead, far removed from civilization, until civilization forced their exodus.
