This Week in Books | 03/01/18

This week I'm joining in with Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost & Found to talk about the books I've been reading recently!

Now: I tried reading Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons a few years ago and couldn't get into it, but recently I've started listening to the audiobook in my car to and from work and I'm enjoying it so much more this time around. I don't know if it's because my tastes have changed or simply because I enjoy the book more when it sounds like Lady Trent herself is talking to me but I'm not complaining!

Then: My first read of 2018 was this little novella by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Prime Meridian, which is officially being published in the summer but I was lucky enough to get a copy of in December because I backed the campaign to get it published. As always I loved Moreno-Garcia's storytelling - look out for my review!

Next: Owen Davies' Grimoires: A History of Magic Books was a birthday present from one of my closest friends who knows how much I love the history of witchcraft. It's been calling to me recently, I'm really in the mood for some non-fiction, so I think I'm going to start it soon.

What are you reading?

2015 Witches and Witchcraft Reading Challenge!

 

In December I graduated with an MA in Creative Writing after spending a year working on a historical fiction/magical realism novel exploring witchcraft in Tudor England, so naturally I just had to sign up for this reading challenge when I came across it!

Much like the 2015 Fairytale Challenge, this challenge runs all year from January 1st to December 31st 2015, and the goal is simply to read books that feature witches and witchcraft! You can sign up all the way up until December 15th 2015, so if you're in the mood to read some witchy books then sign up - just click the image above to go to the sign up page!

The Levels!

Initiate: 1-5 Books

Maiden: 6-10 Books

Mother: 11-15 Books

Crone: 16-20 Books

My Tentative 2015 Witchy TBR!

The Winter Witch by Paula Brackston

The Witch's Daughter by Paula Brackston

Witchstruck by Victoria Lamb

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

Half Bad by Sally Green

Half Wild by Sally Green

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

The Witch of Edmonton by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford

Witches: A Tale of Scandal, Sorcery and Seduction by Tracy Borman

The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker

Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

Burn Mark by Laura Powell

The Thickety: A Path Begins by J. A. White

My Witchy Recommendations!

Witch Child by Celia Rees

Sorceress by Celia Rees

Corrag by Susan Fletcher

Malkin Child by Livi Michael

Witch Hill by Marcus Sedgwick

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Witch by Damian Walford Davies

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson

The Witches by Roald Dahl

Happy reading, and good luck!

Waiting On Wednesday | The Penguin Book of Witches

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted over at Breaking the Spine as a way for us readers to share the upcoming releases we're most looking forward to!

My pick this week is: The Penguin Book of Witches ed. by Katherine Howe

Expected Publication Date: 30th September, 2014

Publisher: Penguin Classics

From a manual for witch hunters written by King James himself in 1597, to court documents from the Salem witch trials of 1692, to newspaper coverage of a woman stoned to death on the streets of Philadelphia while the Continental Congress met, The Penguin Book of Witches is a treasury of historical accounts of accused witches that sheds light on the reality behind the legends. Bringing to life stories like that of Eunice Cole, tried for attacking a teenage girl with a rock and buried with a stake through her heart; Jane Jacobs, a Bostonian so often accused of witchcraft that she took her tormentors to court on charges of slander; and Increase Mather, an exorcism-performing minister famed for his knowledge of witches, this volume provides a unique tour through the darkest history of English and North American witchcraft, never failing to horrify, intrigue, and delight.

Why I'm Waiting: I'm a big history nerd, and this year I've been working on a novel featuring witches and witchcraft, so this book is calling to me! I own so many novels about witches, but I'd love to get my hands on a book full of actual historical accounts of witchcraft. I think this book will be really interesting!

What are you waiting on?

What's Up Wednesday! | 20/08/14

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk as a way for writers and readers to stay in touch!

What I'm Reading

I finished rereading The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe, and enjoyed it as much as I did the first time, and then last night I decided to revisit my childhood by reading Even More Terrible Tudors by Terry Deary. No regrets.

I'm not sure what I'm going to read next, but I'm hoping it'll be The Thickety: A Path Begins by J.A. White if my copy has arrived!

What I'm Writing

I'm sure you all know this by now: I'm working on my portfolio. Over the past few days I finally managed to get one of the big, climactic scenes of the novel written, and though I'm sure it needs a lot of editing I'm strangely proud of it - hopefully that doesn't jinx how other people receive it!

What Inspires Me Right Now

Today is the 402nd Anniversary of the Pendle Witch Trials, one of the most famous witch trials in Britain, and this year the Castle opened up the dungeon they were kept in and allowed people to go down in groups and be told the story. This was great news for me as one of the main characters in my WIP is accused of witchcraft and imprisoned in the same castle so it was great research, but being the sap that I am I actually found being in that dungeon quite emotional. I didn't cry, but there's something so painfully sad about the injustice of the witch hunts in the late 16th/early 17th centuries.

I wish I could say witch hunts don't happen now, but they're still happening in the Niger Delta where children are bathed in acid, buried alive and tortured to extract confessions. Stepping Stones Nigeria is a charity who are trying to put an end to this, but sadly not many people know of them - please spread the word of the great work they do!

What Else I've Been Up To

The Castle was really busy on Saturday when I went - which is great, it's awesome to see so many people enjoying this fascinating building - and there were so many different events on, including a birds of prey demonstration. The birds were adorable, so naturally I got some pictures on my phone while I was there, including this one of Rio the barn owl:

While I was in town I was also ecstatic to come across a small pile of Horrible Histories books in the editions I had when I was younger. The majority of my childhood books and all of my childhood toys aren't with me any more, for various reasons, and as someone who places a lot of sentimental value on things it's always made me very sad. The books were 60p each, so naturally I got seven of them. No regrets!

I'm also currently holding a giveaway over on my tumblr, so if you're tumblrer yourself why not check it out and enter? You could get a free book out of it!

What's new with you?

Review | Witch Hill by Marcus Sedgwick

Witch Hill

by Marcus Sedgwick

My Rating: 

At first, Jamie isn't too worried about the bad dreams he's been having since coming to his aunt's house. Most people awoken in the middle of the night to find their house burning down would probably have nightmares, too. But instead of fire, he keeps dreaming of a "horrible, scary old woman," relentlessly coming after him for some awful, inexplicable purpose. Even though he's come to Aunt Jane's to recover from the fire's aftermath, he doesn't want to bother her or his cousin Alison with his silly fears. He can see that they are very busy with their village's community service project--cleaning off an age-old carving on the side of hill that overlooks the town. But when the carving turns out to be a peculiar primordial figure instead of the "crown" that the people of Crownshill expected to see, and Jamie uncovers evidence of an ancient witchcraft trial in local history papers, he is swept into a centuries-old mystery to which he unwittingly has the key. Who is the old crone chasing him, and what does she want? Jamie will have to endure an experience worse than fire to find out.

Marcus Sedgwick is one of those authors I'd never heard of before until I came across his Swordhand Omnibus over on Goodreads. After that, I started seeing his books everywhere. His work sounded pretty interesting, so I found myself a second hand copy of Witch Hill on Abebooks for around £2, and when I eventually got around to reading it I read it in about an hour. My edition is only 161 pages long, so it's definitely more of a novella than a novel.

I have mixed feelings about this book. Despite my rating, which is relatively low, I actually have a lot of good things to say about this novella, so I'm going to start with those!

I would definitely class Witch Hill as a middle grade novella, but I'd be a big fat liar if I said it didn't give me the creeps. A lot of this story focuses on the nightmares Jamie has been having since going to stay with his aunt and his cousin, and the descriptions in his nightmares gave me the heebie jeebies. In fact reading those dream sequences was quite nostalgic, it reminded me of the way I felt as a child when I read ghost stories before bed that I probably shouldn't have been reading. I find myself reading middle grade so rarely these days that it was a real joy to read it again!

As I've grown older and learned more regarding the history of witchcraft, I find myself sympathising with the word 'witch' rather than fearing it. This book, in the hour I read it, reminded me why witches can still terrify children; in fact it reminded me of those frightening, self-inflicted afternoons of my childhood when I would watch Roald Dahl's The Witches.

Having said that, one of the elements of this story I appreciated the most was its historical accuracy, and I think that's especially important in a middle grade story; writers of historical fiction should try just as hard to be accurate for their younger readers as they would their adult readers. One of the characters is a historian from whom Jamie learns a lot about the witch trials in the 17th century; she shares information with him such as crushing the myth that accused witches in England were burned at the stake.

Alongside the terrifying woman on the hill, we also have the story of a young girl from the 17th century who was accused of witchcraft by her neighbours, and murdered because of it. Honestly it was nice to see Sedgwick use the old witch for the fright factor, but also use the story to remind his readers, most of whom we can presume are children, that the witch trials which occurred in our past were incredibly unjust and resulted in the horrific deaths of many innocent people.

Now, it's time we moved on to some of the stuff I didn't like that much.

I have to admit I was expecting a different kind of story when I started reading Witch Hill. The blurb on my copy is a little different to the one at the top of this review, and when I first read it I assumed the story was going to be about a modern day boy befriending the ghost of a 17th century girl who was wrongly accused of witchcraft, and the evil, old crone was going to fit into the story somehow. Honestly, I sort of wish it had been that story and I can't help thinking that, my edition at least, was a little misleading. The story is much more focused on Jamie and his fears, which isn't a bad thing, but I did sometimes find him a little boring as a narrator.

In fact the other major problem I had with this novella is that Jamie's narrative voice seemed to be all over the place. I kept having to remind myself that he was 12 years old, because at times he seemed a lot younger and then at other times he said something that made him sound more like a teenager. I would have liked to have gotten more of a sense as to who he was. Despite the story being told from his POV I don't think I could tell anyone anything particularly interesting about him; as far as I can remember he doesn't seem to have any hobbies or interests. He just felt a bit bland.

Though there were definitely elements of the story I appreciated and enjoyed, I thought the story as a whole was underwhelming and pretty obvious. However, I am in my 20s so I'm not exactly this novella's target audience, which is why I have such mixed feelings about it. While I might not recommend this book to one of my friends, I definitely recommend it to younger readers; especially younger readers who like their stories on the spooky side, or readers who have an interest in history but don't want to dive straight into historical fiction.

This story might not have blown me away, but parts of it still creeped me out so I'd like to check out more Sedgwick in future - I'm interested in seeing what some of his YA fiction is like.

J.

Meet My Main Character!

On Sunday I came across a fantastic new blog hop/chain of posts for historical fiction writers to introduce the main character from their WIP or soon to be published novel. It looked like so much fun that I simply had to join in, so the lovely Beth von Staats tagged me in her post. Make sure you check it out, it's a really interesting read!

I must also give honourable mentions to Debra Brown, who started this blog hop, and to Farida Mestek, whose post inspired me to join in!

What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?

My novel has two protagonists, but the protagonist we see the most of is Jane Ask, who is 21 years old at the beginning of the novel (apart from the brief prologue, in which she is 6). She is entirely fictional, and very dear to my heart.

To the right is a picture of how I imagine Jane, made with this dollmaker because, sadly, I can't even draw stickmen well.

When and where is the story set?

The novel is set in Lancaster, Lancashire, and at the beginning of the novel the year is 1554. Mary I sits on the English throne.

What should we know about him/her?

After her mother's sudden death when she is 6, Jane grows up with just her father and two older brothers. Her oldest brother, Matthew, and her father eventually die, and her other brother, David, moves to London to work as a carpenter there. Jane elects to remain in Lancaster, near the countryside that she loves, and away from the wilderness that is London.

At the beginning of the novel London, and indeed all of England, is a dangerous place for Jane to be, for she is a Protestant, and therefore a heretic in the eyes of the queen. She must keep her beliefs incredibly secret, as Lancashire, like most of the north of England, is devoutly Catholic. 

She lives a quiet life as a healer, with only a select few friends, and enjoys her own company. She's also rather proud, despite being on the poorer end of the social scale, though she would never admit it.

What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?

During the autumn of 1554 Jane is accused of witchcraft. She is arrested, questioned and tortured via thumbscrew, leaving her hands forever maimed. Determined not to be hanged for something she hasn't done, Jane still refuses to admit to the charges. She is eventually ducked and found innocent when she sinks, but spends the rest of her days struggling with PTSD; she suffers from nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks.


Jane eventually marries a Scottish tutor, a Protestant like herself who has fled London after seeing some of his friends arrested and executed, and has four children, three of whom survive infancy. Her oldest child and only daughter, Thora, gives her something of a shock when one day she summons fire in her palm.

The realisation that her beloved daughter is the very thing Jane was once accused of being brings back memories she'd rather forget. She is forced to question everything she knows about the world and the true circumstances of her mother's death, all while trying to protect Thora from herself as her powers begin to grow stronger.

What is the personal goal of the character?

Ultimately Jane wants nothing more than to keep her children safe, and she will do anything to make sure that they are. Due to her PTSD she suffers from mild paranoia, and is fiercely protective of all three of them.

Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

Yes! My novel is titled Bloodroot and Bracken, and a few weeks ago I took part in WeWriWa and posted the first eight sentences of the novel. Other than that, however, I keep it mostly to myself. For now!

When can we expect the book to be published?

Ha - I need to finish writing it first! Ideally I'd like to have it ready to send off to agents either at the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

I hope you enjoyed finding out a little more about Jane, and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Once again, thank you to Beth von Staats for tagging me. I'm going to pass the torch to Carrie-Anne Brownian, an author of 20th century historical fiction whose characters I'd love to learn more about, and also to Amy Brashear, who, I believe, is working on a novel which takes place in the 1960s. Exciting!

If anyone else would like to join in, let me know and I'd be more than happy to tag you!

J.

Why Witches?

Most of us don't believe in magic, and yet it constantly bleeds into our stories, and has done for as long as we've been telling them. So what is it about witchcraft that still fascinates us? Why are we still reading - and writing - about it?

Even now there's still a stream of new releases either inspired by witchcraft or featuring witches. Books like the Harry Potter series and Laura Powell's Burn Mark have brought witches into modern day Britain, as has the newly released Half Bad by Sally Green, which came out just this month.

Or if the Salem Witch Trials are of more interest to you, July will see the release of Katherine Howe's Conversion, and last year saw the premiere of American Horror Story: Coven.

Or if you'd rather not read something set in the modern day, this month will also see the release of Paula Brackston's latest novel, The Midnight Witch.

As someone from Britain, I whole heartedly believe that witchcraft is a big part of British culture. That may sound odd. I'm not trying to say that the population of Britain is sitting around performing the odd magic spell while their neighbours aren't looking, merely that it's an undeniably huge part of our history, and so it should be. During the witch hunting frenzy of the 16th and 17th centuries, 40,000 people were executed for witchcraft in Britain alone. If we look at how many people populated Britain's largest cities in the early 17th century, then the number of people executed is the entire population of Newcastle four times over.

In hindsight we know now that the witch trials in Britain came about because of superstition - particularly after England broke away from Rome and adopted Protestantism over Catholicism - and fear. Fear quickly turned into hysteria, and hysteria turned into slaughter. It's worth mentioning that throughout the rest of Europe there was a fairly even split between men and women who were executed for witchcraft, whereas in Britain over 90% of the victims were women.

These were independent women - in the sense that they often lived and worked alone, making it easier for their neighbours to turn against them - many of whom were practicing an early form of science. In a society ruled by men, religion, or a combination of the two, these women were a threat to the social norms, and to the immortal souls of the other townspeople.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Historical Fiction is often used as a way to say something about the present; it appears as though it's talking about a time long ago, and then suddenly you find yourself discovering echoes of the story, and of whatever time period you were reading, in the world around you. It's clever that way.

Though, as I said, men were accused of witchcraft, it is a predominantly female thing, and in a lot of fiction I think we can view it as a metaphor. In a way magic is representative of the repressed potential so many women have inside them, and how they were unable to convey this potential in an era of history ruled over by a superstitious and sexist patriarchy. Essentially, they were women before their time.

After all, not only were women accused of carrying out the devil's bidding, but also of sleeping with him. So not only had these women dared to have sex - for pleasure - outside of marriage, they'd done it with the worst imaginable creature.

Perhaps one of the most famous examples of a woman ahead of her time is Anne Boleyn, the second, ill-fated wife of Henry VIII. Whether you believe she was a whore, a martyr, or you don't care all that much, there's no denying that she was fiercely intelligent and ambitious, and ultimately her ambition cost her her life.

The crimes for which she was executed? Adultery and witchcraft.

We might not like to think it, but there are echoes of this kind of behaviour even now. How often are women shamed for wanting a career over wanting children? How often are women made to feel ashamed of being aware of their own sexuality, by men and even by other women, and of happening to enjoy safe sex with as many partners as they choose? More often, I imagine, than we would like to admit.

Obviously feminism has come a long way since the 16th century, but it still has a way to go. That, I believe, is one of the reasons why we still read and write stories about witchcraft today. It's about giving women their power back, and giving them voices that matter.

Magic is power, and so often in stories we like to see power reside in the hands of those who most deserve to wield it.

Thanks for reading! J.