Автор бестселлера о ведьмах Маделин Мартин проведет встречу с читателями в Бетани-Бич

Author Madeline Martin will sign her new book, “A Time of Witches,” at Bethany Beach Books, writing “There is a little witch in all of us” inside front covers and chatting with guests at the free event from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 1. Martin, 46, of St. Augustine, Fla., who will be in Bethany Beach as part of a two-month book tour that will include stops in England and Canada, has had the idea for the historical fiction book — with a dual timeline and magical realism — for years, since having a recurring dream about being a witch, burned alive at the stake. “Being the dramatic, highly imaginative teenager that I was at the time, I wondered if this was me in a past life or an ancestor,” Martin said during a recent telephone conversation with the Coastal Point. “That was my first thought. In the dream, I could feel everything — the pain of being burned at the stake — and I could smell it. It was very real. It was scary, but it was also fascinating. “Later my mom said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ I don’t know. It would have been kind of a weird thing to tell her. I wanted to write this book for 25 years, but people kept saying, ‘Witches don’t sell.’ Now witches are popular, so I wrote the book.” On her website at www.madelinemartin.com, the book is described as: “Two women. Two centuries. One chance to rewrite history before they are both erased. Lilith Legare’s life is unraveling. Since her mother’s death, strange things have been happening — plants turn toward her touch, animals linger in her path, and the birthmark on her arm has started tingling. Worse still is her recurring nightmare of being burned alive at the stake. Her search for answers brings her from Savannah to England, to the decaying Brackenmere Manor where the past blurs with the present. There, Lilith discovers a legacy she never asked for and along with it, the threat of peril. History must be rewritten, or she too will die.” Martin — the mother of two daughters, 17 and 20, and wife of John Somar, to whom she refers as “Mr. Awesome” — said she doesn’t completely discount the idea of reincarnation but considers it a gray area, especially since she has always been “pragmatic and having a scientific explanation for everything.” She started writing while on maternity leave after having her first daughter. “I used to write historical romance. I have written over 30 historical romances. Then I switched in 2020 and started historical fiction.” “What I would like people to take away from this book,” she said, “is to believe in yourself and trust in yourself and learn to love yourself, and realize maybe there is a little bit of witch in all of us. I wanted magic in this book to be connected with nature, and I wanted this to feel like it could happen to anyone,” she said. When guests meet Martin at book signings, “They tell me they loved my previous books, or that they haven’t read my books but they are excited to start reading them,” she said. “Or they ask me which books they should buy. I tell them about my books. Bethany Beach is more of a signing — but sometimes I give a presentation, so for 45 minutes I will talk about my book, the creation of it, how I traveled to England to do research. I wouldn’t be surprised if people feel they have that magic inside of them and that connection with the earth. I’m trying to take back the power of the word witch and not have it be negative, but empowering,” she said. For the 384-page “A Time of Witches,” priced around $25 for the paperback, Martin traveled to Bury St. Edmunds, England, where the largest executions of witches took place and where, in August of 1645, 16 women and two men were hanged after being accused of witchcraft. The trials were instigated by Matthew Hopkins, who called himself “the Witchfinder General.” Later, the Salem witch trials, in 1692 and 1693 in Massachusetts, were a series of hearings and prosecutions of those accused of witchcraft. A total of 19 people were hanged, one man was pressed to death with heavy stones, and others died while they were in jail. At the back of the book, there are charms and spells for readers to try, including to attract creativity, friendship, a safe home, strength and grounding, and sweet dreams. The charms and spells call for everyday items, such as cinnamon sticks, honey, orange peel, dried rosemary and essential oils including lavender, tea tree and chamomile. Martin has experimented with all of them. She is now working on her next book, “The Forgotten Pages,” which will be published in the fall of 2027 and is about “the women’s history they want you to forget, the magical books that record their history, the adult fairytale you didn’t know you needed,” she said. Growing up, Martin said, she enjoyed writing and making outlines for books, “but I thought being a writer didn’t happen to real people,” she said. So, in college, she earned a degree in business administration “because real people don’t become writers,” then found out differently and later earned a master’s degree in creative writing — with the intention of continuing to write for the rest of her life. “For me, it’s important to keep telling stories and history. I love to find stories of women, especially the history that is apt to be forgotten. I like to tell those stories and let people experience history through their eyes in the stories I have told so far,” she said. “My husband says, ‘When we retire…’ and I say, ‘When you retire.’ Because I have more books in my head than I have life in my body.”