Why, people ask, would a woman who lives part of the year in the southwest corner of Ireland, an author who created successful Irish/Scottish time travels, among them NELL, IRISH LADY, CATRIONA and LEGACY, write a novel set in, of all places, Salem Massachusetts? Isn’t the British Isles a safer venue for a book’s success? Does America really have a serious history?
The answer to the original question is the same as the one I give to those who wonder why I explore the possibilities of DNA memory and time travel or why I create left-handed characters with interesting mutations and clairvoyant heroines who dabble in white witchcraft. The unusual fascinates me. It has since that September 17, 1964 evening when beautiful, blonde Samantha Stephens twitched her turned-up nose, hooking me forever. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, I thought, to have the power to sway the mortal universe to my way of thinking? I remember rolling my pre-teen eyes at the doddering predictability of Samantha’s husband, Darrin who, with typical mortal myopia, wanted an ordinary wife. I empathized with Endora, her mother, over the stupidity of mortals and cheered when Aunt Clara’s magic actually worked.
Years later, during post midnight feedings, I introduced my infant children to the magic of Samantha’s spirit world, occasionally twitching my own nose in credible imitation, hoping that my colicky, wide-awake infant would magically fall asleep. Sadly, the gift of magic continued to elude me until I first put pen to paper and realized I could create my own bewitching heroines, endowing them with all the characteristics I longed to claim as my own. The latest, of course, is WITCH WOMAN’s, Maggie McBride, a child sent forth 400 years to escape the horror of Salem’s witch trials.
Slain abwale,
Witch Woman – available on Kindle and eBook formats
Legacy – available in bookstores and on Amazon
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