Something Witchy this way comes
Over the level 4 lockdown, a group of New Zealand speculative authors decided to collaborate on a shared-world writing project resulting in cosy, locally based, witchy-themed novellas with a dash of romance.
When people think about witches in fiction, the image conjured in their minds can go a lot of different ways. Gone are the days of one-dimensional evil in cautionary fairy tales where female power was negatively stereotyped into scary, ugly hags. These days, witches come in many forms.
If you grew up at the same time as many of our authors, then you may have encountered shows like Sabrina, Buffy, and Charmed or read books like The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy, Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, Terry Pratchett’s witch books or Tripswitch by New Zealand author Gaelyn Gordon. These were the kind of stories that didn’t take themselves too seriously; works that steeped you in different kinds of witchy worlds. There was banter and love interests, small towns and found families. These shows and books explored magic in a cosy and familiar way and you wanted to binge-read them or watch them on the couch with your friends because they felt good.
For many of us, those were the stories we were searching for as writers and readers during the stress and uncertainty of lockdown. We wanted to write stories where the end wasn’t nigh and where love triumphed; stories of comfort grounded in the communities we saw around us. And we wanted to do it with our friends.
That concept was where our author collective—Contemporary Witchy Fiction—was born. But the foundation was built some months earlier with the establishment of an online writers group called Speculative Collective. The ethos of the group was to provide a collective support network for speculative writers at all stages of their careers. It is as much a place for celebration and laughter as it is for critique and advice. It is a small and inclusive community that has provided a point of connection that many of us needed.
The supportive principles of this community formed the core skeleton of our witchy project. The members of our collective had varying levels of experience in all aspects of writing and publication that we could draw from. The advantage of a group project meant we could work together, teaching and learning as we went, to produce something much more exciting than the sum of its parts. And along the way we got to enjoy the same kind of banter and found-family that we’ve provided our characters.
Many of the members of our group have experiences of chronic illness, disabilities and neural-atypical brains and other diverse experiences. We drew on our own varied identities and life experience and created a similarly diverse range of characters. We wrote about straight, queer, cis and non-binary, and polyamorous characters and relationships. We gave our characters hobbies and interests that complement their powers; reading, quilting, mountain biking, baking, reading tarot. We asked ourselves what would happen when these characters met with magic (it may not be what you’d expect).
We agreed on some basic guidelines for our stories - our protagonists were all to be witches, the stories set in Aotearoa New Zealand, and romance was to be part of, but not central to, the story. We drew from hometowns and memories of childhood holidays to set our novellas in a variety of locations from the Hauraki Gulf to Dunedin, to the banks of the Waikato River to Wellington’s hilly windy streets.
And the final important component was that while bad things might happen, while darkness might edge in and tragedy may strike, our books would ultimately be hopeful, with elements of lightness and humour in them. The endings would be happy enough and the characters would come out the other side of their situation in a better place.
Most of us walked a lot in lockdown. We got to know our local areas better, outside of rushed commutes. We paid attention to the natural world; the plants, the birds. People said there were more kererū, more wax-eyes, in suburban streets, with the traffic reduced to supermarket trips and the journeys of essential workers. We thought: if a witch lived here, which house would they live in? What herbs would they grow? What would they want to protect?
Melanie Harding-Shaw explored the empty Makara Mountain Bike Trail that was closed to riders during lockdown, free to wander the wrong way on the single tracks and explore the expert and extreme trails with her children to photograph the locations she would send her protagonist to. Trinity, the protagonist in Against the Grain also has coeliac disease, hence the title.
Nova Blake, on the other hand, wrote about the village in Taranaki where she grew up, tapping into her memories of the place. Nova could walk the streets in her head, and include some familiar spots from her childhood. In Hexes and Vexes, the main character, Mia, returns after some time away, re-entering the small town, nervous about what rumours might be still circulating about her after a rapid departure in her late teens.
As we all lamented not being able to pat other people’s pets while in lockdown, Helen Vivienne Fletcher began incorporating the dogs she saw on her walks into her novella, Familiars and Foes. A story which was originally supposed to feature just one assistance dog soon was bursting with many more friendly animals. Helen was in a bubble of one, with just her own assistance dog for company, so the animal-human bond of magical familiars felt especially significant at a time when many people were struggling with this lack of companionship.
While many of us made up stories as we walked, Isa Pearl Ritchie literally wrote as she ambled around Wellington’s Aro Valley, dictating words into transcription software on her phone while pretending to be on a call. She spent her breaks from work walking up and down Holloway Road where her dad lived when she was a child. The quirky street provided excellent inspiration for Holloway Witches, where protagonist Ursula returns to house-sit for her grandmother only to find mysterious forces at work. Isa also decided she was sick of standard heteronormative romances and so her novella has a bisexual and polyamorous love story.
Jamie Sands found themselves locked down in their new hometown of Auckland, a place they have only lived in for five-ish years, after growing up in Wellington. Prevented from visiting family, Jamie looked instead at one of their favourite places in the Northern city they were trapped in, Mt Eden village. Mt Eden has been the place where Jamie’s writing group met up for years before lockdown. Their main character, Basil, is also isolated from his family, although largely by choice, and the action of Overdues and Occultism takes place in Mt Eden centred around the public library where Basil works.
Sam Schenk spent lockdown snuggled up tight with her partner and young daughter. A Gap in the Veil recalls days of quiet, un regimented freedom, set in a turn of the century cottage from Sam’s flatting days. Greg, the protagonist, is in a lonely place with only birdsong and memories for company, the perfect start for something magical and ghostly to stir things up.
Rem Wigmore went into lockdown with a lot of spare time. Some of this they spent puttering around a small garden, and Ash, the protagonist of Rem’s novella Riverwitch, ends up doing a lot of gardening. The rest of lockdown Rem was busy missing friends and loved ones, so they put a lot of love into the friendships and relationships between characters in Riverwitch, set in their hometown of Hamilton, with the aim of crafting a story full of warmth, hope and environmentalism.
Anna Kirtlan's contribution to the project is an extended version of a short story. Raven's Haven fit in so well with the ethos of the Witchy Fiction project that she knew she had to get in on it. It’s set between the Wellington CBD and an undisclosed suburb that houses a rest home for troublesome witches. Raven's Haven is full of shenanigans, includes an unreasonable amount of cats, an epic magic showdown and of course, a dash of romance. Being a part of the Witchy Fiction crew has also been incredibly therapeutic post lockdown for Anna too. Having a project to focus on amid all the chaos and an amazing, supportive group of people to bounce ideas off and have a laugh with has really been a lifesaver at times.
Andi C Buchanan’s story started from their own flatting experiences, and the determination to make a poorly-maintained home liveable despite not having much control over it. From there came houseplants and a few harmless spells worked on the landlord, a herb garden, an exhausting job, and the long familiar struggle of finding direction in life. Queer characters still (still!) don't get enough positive, optimistic, enjoyable stories - and neurodivergent characters fare even worse. It was important to Andi that Succulents and Spells was an opportunity for these characters to have ridiculous adventures, cute dates, and learn about each other's passions.
Kim Jackways, who was frantically working and teaching her kids, while locked down in Christchurch, created a witch who is constantly exhausted. Kim wanted to explore how it would feel to be a character who is ultimately powerful, but she’s not quite put together. In Brand of Magic, Hazel works too much in her marketing job for the Dunedin Council, but her house needs repairs and her garden is woefully neglected. She can carry out a spell with a click of her fingers, but trembles at the thought of having a few friends over to the house.
Janna Ruth set her story near her once-chosen home city of Christchurch. Witching with Dolphins is set in picturesque Akaroa on Banks Peninsula. If the lockdown taught us anything, then that there are many types of heroes, from those big flashy heroes on national television to the countless supporting characters in essential positions. This is the story of one such supporting character, teaching us that even those with seemingly little power can save the day.
Often, we think of “strong” characters as being either physically strong - kickass people fighting for what’s right - or confident, emotionally-stable and bold people coming up against internal or external challenges and rising above. While these types of characters are important, this sometimes misses out on a different type of strength - strength that comes from bodies and minds that don’t always work in the typical ways, strength that lives in people who are shy, aging, or physically restricted. Magic gave us the opportunity to show the power - magical and otherwise - in characters who aren’t always seen as capable of that power.
This project has given some of our newer writers the opportunity to learn about self-publishing from more experienced authors, and get involved in the behind-the-scenes jobs of publishing. The supportive atmosphere of the group means that everyone learns from everyone else, and there’s a strong element of mentoring and skill sharing. It also means that we can play to our strengths, doing things we love, while learning what we’re interested in.
There are other benefits, too. For some, this will be their first book-length publication. For others, it’s a great confidence boost. There’s also the companionship and camaraderie of the group. We hope to shine a spotlight on New Zealand authors, stories, and settings in the contemporary fantasy genre.
Writing about witches saving their communities, finding their true powers, and protecting the environment is fun, and wholesome, and meaningful. It’s given us stability, and something good to focus on in a time of shifting alert levels and constant change. We hope our books will offer readers something similar. We hope to offer a New Zealand perspective, of hope in the face of darkness and disconnection from the rest of the world, and sometimes, our own history.
The first Witchy Fiction novellas will be released on the 22nd of September, with new books from a range of authors following on a regular basis after that. The books mentioned above are finished or on the way and additional novellas from Marie Cardno, A.J. Lancaster and Toni Wi as well as others will be forthcoming. Check out our website Witchy Fiction for more information about the authors behind the books, and sign up to the Witchy Fiction newsletter for updates about new releases.
Verb Festival 2020 is celebrating this project in a Witchy Fiction event on Sunday 8 November, 1pm at Book Hound in Newtown as part of the Newtown Sunday Stroll programme.
