fuonlyknew

Haunted Inspiration

I grew up in Lancaster, a historic city in northern England. It’s where the trials for the Pendle Witches were held, and where they eventually lost their lives. They’re known as the Pendle Witches locally, but in the UK, they’re more broadly known as the Lancashire witches. These trials were the largest witch trials in England, even though they happened decades before Hopkins, who is very well-known for his association with witches and trials in England.

Lancaster has always been popular with occultists, paranormal investigators, and those who believe in spiritual powers. I fully believe it is haunted. Many locals and investigators believe they’ve encountered witches. In my first book, I had Demdike describe how many ghosts linger in the city. Using personal experience to describe how some places feel.

When I decided to write this second book, One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches, I really didn’t want to cover the trials. I did have a title (Trials and Tribulations), but every time I stared at the blank page, I couldn’t force the words. I knew how it ended, and I didn’t want to cover their deaths. My love for the characters left me wanting to give them a more optimistic ending.

During this time of constantly thinking about what I could write, I saw a post on social media. It featured another group of people talking about the castle and how the witches were still there, and my first thought was, “Why would they stay where they died?”

My brain then fell down a rabbit hole. I focused on the idea, ‘If they were still here, why would this be?’. I did consider having them tied to the castle through the trauma of their death, but then they’d only be able to contact (attack) investigators and those who came to see them. I believe a book like this already exists from the lead of ‘Most Haunted’. But this also wouldn’t have fit how I described my characters. They weren’t evil; they were simply spiritual women who became victims of politics.

Therefore, I knew I needed a way for them to still be here and bound to our plane, but also able to move around. The spell they performed in the first book (Whispers of the Pendle Witches) turned out to be the solution. They cast a spell to keep their bloodlines alive; they just didn’t expect to be bound to them.

The witches are then forced to watch over their descendants. To help while being unseen and rejected by the very people they’re meant to protect. Until now, when two descendants seem unusually connected to them. Both women have fire in them, and their souls are strangely familiar… As things start heating up in the ether, the deceased witches are finally needed, but will they be prepared to fight against an ancient being with the powers of a god?