Description: Gypsies, faith-healers, moonshiners, and snake handlers weave through Drema's childhood in 1940s Appalachia after her father is killed in the coal mines, her mother goes off to work as a Rosie the Riveter, and she is left in the care of devout Pentecostal grandparents. What follows is a spitfire of a memoir that reads like a novel with intrigue, sweeping emotion, and indisputable charm. Drema's coming of age is colored by tent revivals with Grandpa, poetry-writing hobos, and traveling carnivals, and through it all, she serves witness to a multi-generational family of saints and sinners whose lives defy the stereotypes. Just as she defies her own. Running on Red Dog Road is proof that truth is stranger than fiction, especially when it comes to life and faith in an Appalachian childhood.
Brief description: Drema Hall Berkheimer was born in a coal camp in Appalachia, the child of a West Virginia coal miner who was killed in the mines, a Rosie the Riveter mother, and devout Pentecostal grandparents. Her tales of hobnobbing with gypsies, moonshiners, snake handlers, hobos, and faith healers are published in numerous online and print journals. She is a member of West Virginia Writers, Salon Quatre, and The Writer's Garret. A longtime resident of Dallas, she lives with her husband and a neurotic cat that takes after her. Her husband is mostly normal.