Finally!

The Magic Around Us is finished, and is available now on Amazon, in print and for Kindle!

I'm sitting in my living room here, by a warm fire in the fireplace, I'm drinking egg nog coffee that is using egg nog instead of half and half as a creamer, and I'm feeling a sense of satisfaction that I finally got the book done. I remember sitting in this exact spot back in June, blueberry coffee in hand, with all the windows open on a beautiful, breezy day as I watched across the fields out of my living room window, along with my cats, and talked about how soon I'd be finished. I really thought I would be finished by mid-August.

So what the h*** took me so long, anyway??

Research. A healthy dose of fear. A couple of scary trips to the hospital (which is a different story for a different day.)

When I started writing The Magic Around Us, I had NO clue that the story arc for Helena and her sister Rosa would take them home to the places their family was from in Czechia, or Slovakia. Even once I *did* know, I hopelessly underestimated how much research was involved to tell the story correctly. It's like that old line, "I didn't know how much I didn't know." (Or reminiscent of the time I tried to put an entire dining room set into the back of a Dodge Omni - 4 chairs, a table and a hutch - because to me - it looked like it would fit. I grossly underestimated. It wasn't the first time I underestimated something, and I'm sure it won't be the last, either, lol.)

The other story that gave me mental grief - along with an extra side of research! - was Lizzie's story, that of a Muslim woman who wants to be a witch but doesn't want to be on the wrong side of her faith. That story could potentially have lots of people angry for even discussing such a thing.

I FINALLY finished writing both of those stories. I re-read both of them multiple, multiple times. That's where the 'healthy dose of fear' came in. I can research; I'm good at it. I'm not an expert in either of those subjects by any stretch. I'm a middle-aged, rotund pasty-white witchy woman, who wrote stories about things WAAAAAAY outside of her wheelhouse. No...instead, I wrote about the Roma people, and the Porrajmos (the Roma Holocaust of WW2), and the touchy subject of Muslim witches. If the words "imposter syndrome' means anything to you, I was having a heaping helping of it. It made me question whether I'm even qualified to write about them.

Could I have picked harder topics? Maybe I did, depending on your point of view. I also wrote Hope's story (she's a beautiful, strong black woman who comes face to face with unexpected love); I wrote about the Bideford witch trials, in three parts - I'm sure there will be some who may not like the 'liberties' I took with the history or the lack thereof; and I wrote the homecoming story for Val's niece, Ana, who is gay and has a less-than-understanding mother who is unaccepting of her life choices. Oh, and one of the stories has a sex scene that's non-consensual. It's not terribly graphic, but I still put a warning at the front of the story for those who might be triggered. I didn't plan for THAT to be there, either, but it needed to be in order for readers to understand the character and why she made the choices she did (and still will; Marylyn's story will conclude in the "Power Among Us.")

'Who am *I* to write about these things?' My brain was screaming at me. I'm not a historian. I'm not Roma. I'm not Muslim. I'm not black. I'm not gay. It's a bit like when I wrote TechnoWitch. My brain kept screeching at me that "You're not an expert!!" Finally, I had to make myself happy with the thought that I did the research, before coming to the conclusions I came to. You can only ever do your best.

This is much the same. I did my research, and it shines through the stories. Yeah, I'm not Roma. I'm not Muslim, black, or gay. What I am is a writer. Sometimes, it's the job of a person that sees something to shine a little bit of a light on it. Yes, this is a fiction book, and it's meant to be entertainment. Helena and Rosa don't really exist, and neither does Lizzie; Still, the things that happened to Helena and Rosa in the story happened to 'someone.' Their family's misfortunes were true to form, and happened in varying degrees to all the Roma who were subject to the Nazi regime during WW2. Similarly, are there Muslim girls out there who are afraid to be even a little witchy for fear of disappointing their families or God? Sure. My job is to see the story in my head, and then write it down for everyone else. That's it. Hopefully, those that read it enjoy it....and if you learn something new or interesting along the way, all the better.

Be on the lookout for announcements about a book launch that's in the works, along with giveaways, and some fun stuff coming up! Sign up for my email list to not miss a thing!

Finally.