Witch – Samantha Henthorn Finds The Right Words

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The title of this post is taken from one of my favourite songs; ‘Celebrity Skin’ by Hole.

The lyrics of the 1998 album are about the opulent LA lifestyle but I only heard the line listed above and in my head, I spelt out ‘Daemonologie’.

Are your senses attracted to witchcraft narratives? Mine are.

Twice this week, I was asked ‘What do I think of witchcraft?’ And I was unable to give a satisfactory answer. This troubled me until I realised that I couldn’t answer because it is something that’s always been in the background. What do I think about witchcraft is like asking me what do I think about music? I don’t have an answer because music is ever present.

Nevertheless…

Sorcery, magical thinking and a clove-scented antagonist filled my head and dreams while writing My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister last year.

There will most definitely be a sequel but I must write another book first (the idea has pecked my head for quite some time). AND Pippa took so much out of me when I recounted her story. I realised on revisiting witch-based media that there are certain things that I do and have always done that could be interpreted as sorcery, I ‘have my ways’ (that could also be put down to quirks and foibles).

In the interest of researching my novel’s sequel, having fun and spending time with my good friend Lindsay*, I visited the ‘I AM WITCH’ exhibition hosted by The Silver Spoons Collective in Lancaster.

*Lindsay McKinnon is the talented actress responsible for narrating the audiobook version of my books.

We didn’t go into Lancaster Castle but the exhibition was a ‘no photos allowed’ type of event so here are some snaps I took just outside (Lindsay and I stood outside the castle and had a conversation where both of us recounted we had been here before).

The exhibition itself I AM WITCH (tales from the Roundhouse) was both peaceful and powerful and explored the history of The Burning Times. This is an umbrella term for the past’s hysterical and ultimately brutal reaction to witchcraft -though I believe they only burned witches in Scotland in this part of the world. When we entered the space, we were given a red ribbon to tie around our wrists to commemorate our ancestors who were victimised during The Burning Times. Mine kept falling off – and although Scotland popped up in only four per cent of my DNA search I can’t help worrying if this means something. My overly sensitive mind told me I didn’t belong (but I absolutely do). The ribbon is now safely tucked in the cauldron of a doll I keep at the side of my bed named after my grandmother, Ethel. I’m not sure which side of my family kept magical thinking although Mum’s side was collectively superstitious.

‘Ethel’ from https://www.witchesgalore.co.uk/

Bunting decorated with the names of convicted witches and spoon motifs hung around the room and posters lined the walls telling the history and individual meaning. I had to ask about the significance of some of the displays; spoons were symbolic of medicine. I do trust the medical model (former nurse and I’ve lived with MS for seventeen years), so this was good news for me. In the centre of the room was a piece specifically about spoons, visitors were invited to add their own spoon (red ribbons provided). I don’t mind sharing that I left a silver baby spoon. I have one daughter and she is about to turn twenty-five; at forty-six years old I needed to let go of it. I ‘birth’ books now and I thanked my ancestors for my creative genes (I wasn’t quite sure how to do this, so I just thought a while about relatives I met, and relatives I haven’t, yet am connected to – I wouldn’t know if any of them were witches – too suspicious to advertise such a label).

Before we left, we had a really interesting conversation about literature, language and witchcraft. I learnt there is a resurging interest in all things witchy because of the generation who grew up with Harry Potter. I wanted to say that I had a similar experience as a child because I’m named Samantha, and I enjoyed children’s literature with witch characters. It is common knowledge about Shakespeare, the Scottish play and King James I but I don’t think this was reflected in children’s books when I was young. Jill Murphy’s ‘The Worst Witch‘ is a book I related to at the time and still love now. The inclusion of the word ‘worst’ in the title did not and does not mean that witches are the worst things you’ll ever encounter. Same with Grotbags, she rocked her green face and stripy tights.

The Worst Witch is about Mildred Hubble. She doesn’t fit in, she is the WORST pupil in the spells class at Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches and has all the stereotypical interests required to look like a witch. Sound familiar? I clung to this narrative or a marginalised girl, and on rereading my childhood copy today, it seems the words are imprinted on my brain. I don’t know much about Jill Murphy, but a quick glance at Wikipedia informed me that ‘The Worst Witch‘ was rejected in the early 70s because it was deemed too scary for children. I didn’t find it scary; knowing that another girl was struggling to fit in gave me strength, I have a lot to thank Mildred Hubble for.

I had no reason to think I was hard done to or an outcast at the time, so why did I? Did I need to heal my ancestral wounds? Am I included in this celebration of witchcraft?

I think it runs deeper. The Burning Times are one of a marathon of injustices. Rich meets poor, xenophobia, the north-south divide (by coincidence, I rewatched Mike Leigh’s Peterloo before setting out to Lancaster – my DNA is made up of 96% North West England so this is where my ancestral wounds come from).

Have I answered the question ‘What do I think about witchcraft?’ I think lots of things. I wrote the prologue to My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister as Pippa sharing a memory of swim class. She is petrified of getting into the water, and subconsciously, Pippa was feared for the potential outcome. She was about to sink or swim, and neither option was favourable.

I was able to describe this in detail because I went through exactly the same thing. It could be that I felt unnecessarily marginalised by some genetic memory, or it could have just been a simple case of low confidence. Either way is fine by me – sensitive people are highly creative.

Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com

What do you think?

Have a great day, Samantha 🙂

PS: Along with My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister, I wrote the series below. Curmudgeon Avenue is a funny Coronation Street.

Inspiration attacked me from several different angles when I wrote my new novel, ‘My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister’.

A while ago, everywhere I looked there was a book title that included the word ‘sister’. The Stepsister by Jenny O’Brien, My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, Dead Sis by Jane Holland, and The Herb Sisters by Marina Johnson to name just four; sisters were everywhere in literature (I blame the Brontes).

Even though I knew that by the time I had written my ‘sister book’ publishing trends would have progressed, but I couldn’t get ‘sister’ out of my head.

Siblings never go out of fashion.

One of my favourite books (and my own sister’s teasing stick) was My Naughty Little Sister by Dorothy Edwards (illustrated by Shirley Hughes).

‘Sisters’ are not the only trope that has been swirling around my writing for years. I’ve been obsessed with witches since I was little. If you’ve read my blog before you will have seen how I was named after the protagonist from 1960s sitcom Bewitched, you will have seen how I read books such as Witchdust by Mary Welfare and The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy and met and was baptised a witch at age 6 on a family day out to Pendle.

(Or was I?)

Pippa, the protagonist of My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister is not a witch, she is a forty-year-old woman trying to make sense of her life. When Sadie visits (her sister’s half-sister), Pippa starts to think that her mother and sister Heather are witches. All the evidence is there; Heather is a green goddess and Jacquetta (Pippa’s mother) is obsessed with the patron saint of keys. You would have to read on to find out the details – I want readers to either believe in Pippa’s breakdown or that her family are actually a nest of vipers.

If you’ve ever read or seen Fight Club or read Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih you’ll be well versed with books that leave you not knowing what to believe. Plus, we have all lived through some uncertain times recently, so I think mind-bending is on its way in literature.

There is a debate going on (I’ve heard it in pubs, I’ve read it in reviews and I’ve tormented my own thoughts) about lockdown in literature. If you saw the Channel 4 drama Help earlier this year then you’ll know that this kind of pandemic narrative must be highlighted in any genre it can be. I am of the opinion that literature has a job; if stories are about people then people should be about stories. We are all wondering if the pandemic has taught us anything, and we should be reading books to help process the volume of information, emotions, bereavement, culture shocks and psychic storm-trooping we’ve all been through.

I’m not saying My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister is the answer to any and all pandemic woes; what I am saying is it HAD to be set at the end of the lockdown… it just had to be. Pippa needed to have an epiphany.

When writing My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister, I had to come up with an occupation for Pippa. I had also been reading and rereading Good Morning Midnight by Jean Rhys (for my creative writing degree). I really wanted to include an intertextual reference, and before I knew it, Rhys’s Mr Blank became Pippa’s Mr Bland; and Pippa became an accountant ‘doing sums’ (Sadie’s words).

Actually, my darling daughter is an accountant. We text each other every day and have our own little ‘text speak’ language. A while ago, I started asking her if she had ‘done any really hard sums’ at work… obviously I was teasing (that’s just our sense of humour) but it stuck. I asked my daughter, and she didn’t mind if that Pippa also ‘does sums’ at work (creative licence applied – I know that accountancy is a complicated occupation).

I used to be a psychiatric nurse until it was made impossible for me to continue working (my RMN career ended after I was diagnosed with MS). Reading and writing saved my mental health when faced with the vast culture shock of retiring at 39. That was almost eight years ago, and I’ve come a long way since. The older I get, the easier it becomes to face up to the serious side of life (especially when you write). It all fitted into place, and the protagonist of My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister started to shape into a character who could inspire hope (or at least seek help).

Because Pippa loves reading, I had to make literature part of the narrative. I achieved this with plenty of intertextual references, starting with the nursery rhyme ‘Here we go Round the Mulberry Bush’ (said to be written by female inmates of HMP Wakefield in the 19th century), and fitting because Pippa is stuck going round in circles with her female relatives.

Pippa compares herself to two of Hardy’s protagonists, the forsaken Tess Durbeyfield and the confident heroine Bathsheba Everdene. In the story, this reflected Pippa’s journey.

During writing, I was concerned about overdoing the references to other texts, then I remembered reading and loving the modern classic ‘Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit’ by Jeanette Winterson. There is almost an intertextual reference on every page, and Jeanette Winterson is a genius.

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit (Paperback)

By this stage of writing My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister, Pippa had taken over and told me what to write (see my other posts about my writing being powered by witchcraft).

If I really dig deep, this book started with a memory. When I was a child (about four or five), I remember going to visit two ‘aunties’ who lived in a marvellous house with a big bay window on a road that my dad had called ‘Millionaire’s Row’. These two women were extremely glamourous, with mauve and grey-toned clothes and knee-high boots. I don’t remember their names. ANYWAY, years later I asked my mum who these two women were; she had no idea. Maybe I dreamt them, or maybe they were Jacquetta and Heather – two of the main characters in My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister.

Pippa has a secret, will you believe what she has to say?

I do have an older sister, and no the book is DEFINATELY NOT about her. However, this is why I chose the hyphenated way of writing half-sister for the title – there are actually five ways to write the title My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister:

My half-sister’s half-sister My Half Sister’s Half Sister
My Half-sister’s Half-sister My half sister’s half sister
My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister

(thank you https://www.alisonproofreader.com/)

I recently had a conversation with my sister-in-law about enjoying books with a quirky and different plot (like mine) so I dedicated the book to her.

Deeper inspirations flow through My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister that I can’t reveal because that would be a spoiler!

Thank you for reading my blog today, My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister is available to pre-order from Amazon now (release date 30/11/21). See my Facebook Author page for #BlackFridayDeals. Audiobook in production.

Happy reading, Samantha 🙂

PS I also wrote these:

Tag: Witch

A Walking Study in Demonology

On How I Wrote My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister