The Witch of Tin Mountain(96)

My mother’s anecdotes also have a place in this novel. For example, Deirdre’s vision of the wolf attacking Gracelynn was a vision my own grandmother had about my mother. (Unlike Gracie, my mother did not go to the tent revival she was warned away from!) My grandmother was a deeply religious woman of the Pentecostal faith, who often had visions. One of the characteristics of Ozarkian folk magic and mysticism is its symbiosis with Christianity. If you ever go to a Pentecostal church service or a tent revival in the Ozarks, you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.

Concerning my research on early Ozarks “hillbilly” culture, I consulted Vance Randolph’s Ozark Magic and Folklore, as well as Ozark Mountain Folks. Randolph spent a great deal of time in the Ozarks during the Depression, and his entertaining and unique experiences with the granny women, water witchers, and other hill folk helped to infuse my own work with eyewitness authenticity—including midwives who placed axes beneath the beds of laboring mothers to “cut the pain,” as Ebba does within this novel. Randolph was also one of the first historians to catalogue our unique Ozark dialect, vocabulary, and the colloquial speech of rural Missouri and Arkansas. Many of those colloquialisms are featured in this book, and I can attest from personal experience that most are still in use to this day. The Facebook page Dark Ozarks and the excellent online magazine StateoftheOzarks provided many anecdotes that helped shore up the historical detail in this novel.

For the history of late nineteenth-century Charleston and its unique architecture and culture, I consulted several online sources, photographs, and maps. Charleston! Charleston! The History of a Southern City by Walter J. Fraser Jr. was also very helpful. Miss Munro’s school is entirely fictional, although such finishing schools were in abundance in the South during the time in which Deirdre inhabited the city.

For the green witchcraft, herbology, conjure work, midwifery, and magic mentioned within, Green Witchcraft: A Practical Guide to Discovering the Magic of Plants, Herbs, Crystals, and Beyond by Paige Vanderbeck; Old Style Conjure: Hoodoo, Rootwork, and Folk Magic by Starr Casas; and for Ebba’s Norse form of magic, Trolldom: Spells and Methods of the Norse Folk Magic Tradition by Johannes Bj?rn G?rdb?ck were invaluable resources. I’m also grateful to Astrid Grim for her authenticity read of this manuscript and her guidance with the Nilsson family’s characterization and her advice concerning the Swedish language used herein.

Gracelynn’s ad hoc “trial” was directly inspired by the Salem witch trials. Truth is often stranger than fiction, and much of what transpired during the actual magisterial proceedings in Salem far outpaces anything I have written. American Witches: A Broomstick Tour through Four Centuries by Susan Fair, Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials by Marilynne K. Roach, and A Delusion of Satan: The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials by Frances Hill were consulted in my research, and they extensively cover the truly fascinating and disturbing aspects of the trials and the unfortunate men and women who were the victims of collective delusion and hysteria. What happened in Salem is a cautionary tale to this day, and a call to employ our own critical thinking and personal judgement in the face of sensation, public opinion, and hyperbole.

In closing, I’ve always found the thought of angels mildly terrifying. Ever watching. Ever present, ostensibly to protect us but also functioning as supernatural hall monitors, waiting to report our indiscretions to a higher power. The verse in Hebrews about “entertaining strangers” also strikes me as a bit ominous, and that verse inspired my antagonist’s various incarnations. Ironically, while revising this novel, I spent the winter at my mother’s house, being stared at by her collection of angel statuary in the wee witching hours of morning. (This may also have had a formative impact on my editorial decisions.) However, this novel is in no way an indictment of Christianity, or religion, but of hypocrisy. In my opinion, the most effective tool an evil being, fictional or otherwise, can use against us is our own capacity to judge others more harshly than we judge ourselves.

This novel is a work of fiction. Any errors within this novel are completely my own, and I take full responsibility for any and all historical inaccuracies.





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The time period in which I wrote this novel was rife with unexpected challenges. Shortly after Lake Union Publishing acquired The Witch of Tin Mountain, I received a devastating phone call that had me packing a suitcase and flying home. Soon after, I became my mother’s live-in caregiver while she underwent treatment for cancer. That this book exists at all seems something of a miracle, and there have been many times over the past two years, in general, where I’ve looked at my relatively new role as a published author with a combination of bemused disbelief and gratitude. This gratitude is extended to the many talented, compassionate, and patient people who have contributed to my success as an author, and I relish the opportunity to thank them on paper.

First, to my agent, Jill Marr, and the entire team at Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, thank you for tirelessly championing my work and helping it find its way to readers. You encourage me to reach high and to believe in the worth of my words.

To my acquiring and developmental editor, Jodi Warshaw, who presented The Witch of Tin Mountain at her final acquisitions meeting at Lake Union and set me on the path to publication in 2020 with Parting the Veil, my gratitude is boundless. You are brilliant and kind, and I will always be thankful for your patient guidance and belief in my work.