Like witches and want to read the latest research and stories about them? Check out my new title, The Book of Witches, on Amazon?
Isabella Hunter’s latest interview, with Haunt Manchester, about her work with The Book of Witches: ‘I haven’t written about witches previously. It is probably one of the few popular supernatural beings I haven’t used before. It is one that I have in a lot of my ‘To be written’ pieces and because they are so versatile the genres are quite varied, including queer romance all the way to horror. I grew up in Lancashire, which has a strong history of witchcraft, and the infamous Pendle Witch Trials. So it has been something that I have grown up being acutely aware of rather than it being something that happened in a far away part of the country I couldn’t point to on a map. I’ve always been interested in witches and have owned my own tarot decks and practiced aura reading, so writing about them really was an inevitability.’
‘The history of witchcraft is explored from a range of perspectives, highlighting angles and aspects that are often neglected. This includes some of the chilling truths behind the Pendle Witch Trials, why Henry VIII was the first to outlaw witchcraft and the real reason why ‘Witchfinder General’ Matthew Hopkins was keen to fuel a craze. Yet despite containing many accounts of hardship and the horror of people being persecuted under the accusation of ‘witchcraft’, The Book of Witches also offers hope. Crucially, the collection reflects on the innocent individuals who suffered persecution and how it still persists in some areas of society today – and yet through learning and awareness, there is still the possibility of transformation.’
You can find The Book of Witches on Amazon. And you can read Isabella’s full interview here.
The Witch of Endor in the Bible is very far from being a negative figure, so why then have women and others been persecuted for witchcraft in the UK for centuries? Dr A J Dalton-West explains: https://siriuseditorial.com/2020/08/04/a-j-dalton-book-witches/
In a contemporary USA, when a young person shows signs of magical ability, they’re whisked off to a military academy where they are trained as frontline troops for the Witchcraft Army. The first season of Motherland: Fort Salem is set in a female-dominated society (really!), due to the persecution of witches having ended three hundred years previously, on the back of the Salem witch trials when an agreement known as the Salem Accord was ratified by human and witch kind. (In addition, the world finds itself at odds with a terrorist organization known as the Spree, a group against the military conscription of witches.)
This brave YA series shows how the institution of society both entraps and sacrifices young people as much as it gives them any sort of guidance and discipline. Indeed, the fresh-faced head witch is over three hundred years old only because new conscripts magically sacrifice their youth to her!
At the same time, the series empowers females – allowing them more sexual licence than males and complete ownership of their own bodies. The series is never voyeuristic, however: it is body positive and the female cast comes in all shapes and sizes, all equally celebrated (give or take).
The series isn’t perfect, of course, as some of the plotting and continuity is a touch ropey. But the actors involved manage to carry things off, and the characterisation and world-building are compelling. I enjoyed a lot! So I’m gonna score it a slightly generous 8 out of 10 (cos it has chops and I’m up for series 2).
Oo, and if you like narratives about witches, check out The Book of Witches too!
…or not.
So, another year all but done. It’s been a strange one, that’s for sure. Spent 8 months in Cornwall, teaching at Falmouth University. But university student recruitment is down 22% in the subject of English… so Jan-August was pretty much the end of that gig. Still, I wrote a murder-mystery novel while I was down there (The Mists of Falmouth), so something may come of that.
Happily, I then got a secure position at Middlesex University (norf Lundun, init), which is lovely place to work. It’s filling a few of the gaps on my academic CV too. I’m leading on the Frankenstein Resurrection mobile phone app development at the moment! I spend four nights a week in a small studio flat in Golder’s Green, and three nights back up in Manchester, with the beloved cat… oh, and Nades.
I’ve got a modest little book coming out in April 2020: The Satanic in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Unless you have a Scrooge-like heart, you might wanna help me out by pre-ordering a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Satanic-Science-Fiction-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B07Y7NQVR7/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=satanic+dalton&qid=1577280363&sr=8-1. Oh, go on! It’s flaming xmas. Whatever.
In further news, Kristell Ink have green-lighted The Book of Witches (as a follow up to The Book of Dragons, The Book of Angels, and The Book of Orm… what do you mean you haven’t got copies of ’em?!). I’m delighted to say we’ve got two big-name authors onboard: John Marco (US fantasy author, of whom I was a right fanboy when younger) and Adam Lively! And Charlotte Pang has done a wicked cover:
I love it.
Well, I’d better get back to my roasting chestnuts – don’t want them to burn.
Have a merry ol’ Christmas, y’all.
adz x
