1) There is no origin story for the word witch.

There is no record of the first usage of the word. It’s believed it could have come from the word “wicce”. Wicce means “female sorceress”. Wicce is the basis of the word Wiccan. It makes sense.

2)Witches didn’t wear pointy hats.

In 1215, Pope Innocent III decreed all Jews must wear a peaked hat. This caused rampant anti-Semitism. I equated the Jewish people with demons and heretics. In the 1700s, the image of the Jews wearing this hat became the image of an old hag, with a crooked nose and a witches’ hat. Rude!

3) Witches did “Fly “on broomsticks, although, not the way you’re thinking.

Witches were herbalists. They experimented with a lot of plants and flowers. The herb and potions they created for rituals contained mandrake. Mandrake contains chemicals that cause feelings of euphoria. In higher doses, it causes hallucinations.

The ointment was used in rituals that required the witch to be astride a broom. This would create a pleasant feeling that gave the witches the feeling of flying. I’ll let you use your imagination on that one.

4) Not all witches were wicked.

There were good witches that practiced “white magic” as it’s called. These were herbalists, healers, and therapists. One of Booktubes’ favorite good witches is Diana Bishop from A Discovery of Witches. The books, written by Deborah Harkness, show witches as well in a few words, nice, caring, and gracious.

5) There are entire books dedicated to the art of witch-hunting.

Zen and the Art of Witch Hunting? Witch Hunting for Soccer Moms? Probably not.

In 1486, a German priest, Heinrich Kramer, wrote a book called “Malleus Maleficarum”. This translates to “Hammer of Witches”. This book elevates witchcraft to the criminal status of heresy.

The Royal Court in the 16th and 17th centuries used this book. The “Malleus Maleficarum” led to increased brutality towards witches.

James I of England (the guy that took over after Elizabeth 1 died.) wrote a book called “Daemonologie” in 1597. This book let the people know that witch hunters had the King’s full support and how to hunt witches.

These books are still available on Amazon. Don’t hunt any witches, ok?

6) Pope Innocent VIII confirmed witches exist.

In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull, recognizing the existence of witches. He deemed them a threat to the Catholic Church and its followers. The Pope read the “Malleus Maleficarum” which confirmed all his fears. Because of the papal bull (a public notice), Kramer and Sprenger, the authors of the book carte blanch to handle witches as they saw fit.

7) Witchcraft laws were in place until the mid-20th century.

Yep. But then again, there are also some strange laws that are still on the books. In 1944, they found Jane Rebecca Yorke guilty of witchcraft. This was because the Witchcraft Act of 1735 was still in effect. It’s believed that they actually arrested her for defrauding people. They finally took this law off the books in 1951.

8) Witch hunters targeted everyone, not only women.

It’s true. Witch hunters arrested, tried, and executed men, women, cats and birds as being witches. Cat’s especially, were the prime targets of witch hunters. It didn’t matter. If they thought it to be a witch, it was a witch.

9) They needed no evidence to arrest, convict, and execute suspected witches.

Who knew? <—that’s actually extreme sarcasm. It is unfortunate that this is true. People were being accused of witchcraft for the simplest of reasons. Your cow dies, three days after Goody Whatever looks at you strangely in church. She’s a witch. They have cursed you and that is why your cow died.

10) They did not burn witches at the stake.

When thinking about the executions of witches, we can’t help but imagine the guilty person on a burning pyre. During the Salem Witch Trials, they burned no one at the stake. Actually, no one was executed by burning at the stake in the American colonies. There was one man, Giles Corey, that was pressed to death by court order. History has given us a lot of gory, horrific execution stories of witches. They mostly hung the convicted witches.

Cats have long been associated with witches. Ever wonder why?  The answer is quite simple really, by today’s standards anyway.  The Yersinia pestis bacteria lived on the fleas that lived on the rats of London. Basically, it’s germs on fleas on rats. 

During Medieval times, it wasn’t common knowledge that cats killed rats. You can see where this is going, right?  Well, the men of that era saw no use for cats. Because they had no idea what cats actually do when they aren’t licking their paws or judging us all.  Women, however, like cats. Not all of us, but for the most part, we do. They’re cute and fluffy.

Cats would go to the women because they would slip them a little milk, or a bite to eat. So the cats became more affectionate with the women, hung around their homes, and scared off the rats. The rats went elsewhere, places where cats were no longer a danger, like the more populated areas of London, and the areas around the palaces. For the rats, this was like hitting the lottery as food and shelter for them were easy to find, and there were very few cats in the city that they would have to avoid.  Not only were the rats happy, but their fleas were also happy too because the better the rats ate, the better fleas ate. Now, this is where the problem started. The bacteria that was carried by the fleas began to pass onto humans, who did not have the immune system to deal with this particular germ, and passed away within days. Approximately 25 million people succumbed to the plague, including Lady Margaret Beauford’s husband Edmund Tudor the 1st Earl of Richmond. This is important because they were the parents of Henry VII, who in turn was the father of Henry VIII, the dude who had six wives. The war of the roses…those guys.

When the aristocracy started dying from this illness, the people became terrified for their families and began looking around for someone or something to blame. 

Well, guess what? They couldn’t find where the plague came from, because it couldn’t be the manure-lined streets or the chamber pots being emptied out the windows, it wasn’t God’s wrath, or even the streets being overrun by rats. It had to be witchcraft!  And who were these witches? The ones who didn’t get the plague – those people surrounded by cats! 

The anger and fear mixed with hatred. Anyone with a cat was arrested for witchcraft, along with their cats. Because as the people of medieval London thought, that was the only way that so many people could die of the same thing. They were cursed by these witches and their familiars: their cats.

And thus started the great witch burnings in London, as well as the executions of 79 of their cats. The more cats they killed, the worse and more far-reaching the plague became. 

That, my friends, is why cats are associated with witches. So now when we look at Halloween decorations, we almost always see a witch accompanied by a cat.

If the people of medieval Europe had only known.

History is so fascinating.

Cheers,
Alex

If there is anything you want to know, please don’t hesitate to ask. Until next time.

Cheers,

Alex

My husband, our girls, and I went on a family trip to Victoria, BC. Why? Because I was whining that I hadn’t had a decent scone since we left Ireland.  While on this trip, I was having a bad lupus day and my whole body hurt, but my feet were the worst; it felt like the bones of my feet were slowly being crushed. We stopped at LaConnor Inn in LaConnor, Washington. 

It was the smallest town I had ever seen.  The inn was comfortable, cozy, and right across the street from this amazing restaurant.  We went inside to check-in and behind the desk stood Chloe: blonde-haired, big-eyed, dressed in pink and ruffles. Even with the giant pink sneakers she had on, she looked like a Victorian-era porcelain doll.  

We checked into our rooms, and I asked my oldest to go downstairs and get some change or something. I don’t recall. She would not go down without her younger sister. It was so funny. My soon-off-to-college daughter was terrified of the girl behind the counter. I thought, and still do think, she was absolutely adorable, in the girliest of ways. My oldest thought she was one of those haunted dolls, like Annabelle. I thought… But what if she were a ghost? My youngest thought it was hysterical, and my husband, as always, just shook his head and walked away. 

During that trip, I found myself watching a lot of YouTube because walking wasn’t an option. Though we did walk down the short street that was this whole town,  my feet just couldn’t do it long-term. So, I was watching videos on YouTube, and one of the videos was about those coincidence photos, you know the ones. Where right before a couple’s wedding, they find a photo of the bride at Disney World and the groom in a stroller with a family in the background.

I knew I had to write this story.  So, check out Snapshots in Time.  It’s got it all: romance, a tower, a dash of time travel, and, of course, a ghost.”

Happy August Hauntlings. I can’t believe that it’s the last month of the summer.  Anyone else lusting after backpacks and notebooks? Have you gotten your planner for next year? I haven’t done that yet, but I am working with a great accomplishment planner. Let me know if you want me to do a review on that. 

Now let’s get down to some fun. But before I do. Please note that my blog posts are not edited by my amazing editor Kim. Although “Chloe’s Diary” <final name> is now in her capable hands. I am researching #ProjectRoyals.  

SO let’s have some fun. These Youtube links are my TOP TEN Historical WOW Moments.

Some are meant to be funny, some are edifying, and some are just plain interesting. So let’s take a look into the past, via the creative content makers over on YouTube.

10) Fascinating Facts About Anne Boleyn

https://youtu.be/-_7Dqs5unqs

Anne Boleyn was executed on May 19, 1536. This video has the Top Ten Fascinating facts about her. Some are well known, like that Anne’s sister Mary was one of Henry VIII’s mistresses. Ooooh, Tudor Sister Swap?

9) Death and Diseases of the Royals

 https://youtu.be/SV3k15110HY

Oh, those Royals. We talk about their heirs, their weddings, and always what they are wearing to this event or that, but here we are talking about their deaths and diseases. Of course with any historical documentary you want to check the facts, if three reputable sources confirm a fact, you be rest assured, you did your due diligence. 

8) Deadly Things Hiding in the Victorian Home

https://youtu.be/K3Jef7i7v1U

Were the Victorians Suicidal? Probably not, but they sure had some inventive ways of accidentally killing themselves. Sorry to say but those poor people weren’t even safe in their own homes. Arsenic anyone? Would you like some lead with your tea and biscuits? 

7) Catherine the Great #GirlBoss

https://youtu.be/LdcsGV1HaQU

This one is a full hour and a half documentary on Catherine the Great and how she took herself from being the proper and obedient princess to being the most powerful person in Russia’s history. One of the first #GirlBoss 

6) Ten Rulers in History Who Were…Not Quite Right?

 https://youtu.be/mrv8iaWBouQ

I’m not qualified to psychoanalyze anyone but…these people might consider making an appointment with a mental health professional or two, and in some cases, maybe just commit themselves. Yep, these are some baaaad dudes and dudettes. Although I don’t think Vlad was insane, he was just very good at scaring people into obedience and kind of evil. 

5) Marie Antionette: Her Clothing Pissed off a Nation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN4RQiYPSqM

Marie Antionette, poor girl, she loved the fashion but got her head lopped off for her faux pas. Honestly, she had no understanding of the demoralizing and mocking message the way she dressed because she thought it was a compliment. Fashion misunderstandings at it’s most deadly.

4) Thug Notes…I love this guy.

 https://youtu.be/K-qgVmsV3hM

This one doesn’t deal with history directly. It navigates its way into the topic by way of literature, written by historical people, who became history by writing the literature. You can see where I am going with this…, right?

3) You will snort. I snorted. Aubrey Plaza is the bomb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ab4rYDR0yY

Aubrey Plaza and Cleopatra? This shits funny. Historically accurate? Probably not but OMG, have tissues because you might laugh yourself to tears. Parks and Recs loss, History’s gain. Seriously, there might be some offensive stuff in here so watch with caution, not a lot offends me, but…I can understand how some parts can be on the wrong side of humor. Oh, and the person telling the story…she’s more than a little drunk. 

2) Crime Scene Investigation: Medieval Royals

https://youtu.be/lmZFwPMyKvc

This one is gruesome, creepy and just plain Ewww. But so worth the watch. It’s like CSI: Medieval Madness. Dark Arts, Murder and Mehem mentioned, for those who are easily freaked out..you might want to skip this one. But it’s so interesting. It’s a full 45 minutes longish. 

1) Why wasn’t Historian on my career paths listed in HS?

https://youtu.be/LxPdqeUPGBI

Dr. Lucy Worsley. My hero. If you don’t know who she is, you only need to research history, look on Amazon for her books (which are good too, btw). She looks at all sides of history, in this video, she compares the historical clothing of Harlots, Housewives, and Heroines.  Her Youtube videos are tasty little niblets of her BBC shows. You want to know what the whores of yore wore, I can tell. 

Well, that is enough frivolity from me. What’s your favorite Youtube Channel or topic, let me know in the links. Don’t be shy. I watch a variety of Youtube channels from cursed objects to Jeffree Star: Both of which I am living. 

Cheers and until next time: Happy Reading.

Alex

Nora Roberts has been posting about this on her blog, which you can get to by clicking the link.  I don’t want to repeat what she said because you can go read it but in a nutshell, those 99 cent or free books that are being downloaded are most likely plagiarized. There is a trend now where scammers are hiring ghost writers to write books quickly, and they are using the copy/paste feature to copy other author’s books. That way the “author” can pump out books one after another, which is what they do.

So how do you define plagiarism? Plagiarism.org explains it like this.

” In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else’s work and lying about it afterward.”

I think its much more than that. An Indy authors profit is usually 35% of the cost of each book. So if an author has a book special and sells that book for a dollar they earn 35 cents. Yep, 35 cents. Unfortunately this scam is not only hurting the authors that these ghost writers steal from, they are hurting all Indy authors. They are pushing out a book a month (usually more than half of the book is stolen) publishing it and then selling it for a dollar. The reason this works for them is because people can’t resist a bargain and a bargain on a book is well in my opinion, the best kind of bargain.

Besides the obvious wrongness of this. People aren’t buying well written books because they think they cost too much or because it takes too long to get the next book in the series. A book can not be written in a month, with any piece of art, no matter the medium, to create something meaningful, it takes time.

There’s the actual writing of the book, that is after you have done the research, the plotting, the character development and if it takes you less than that, someone is either very very good or very very lucky.

Once a rough draft is done then its revised until it is a really good story. Then revisions, this is where any inconsistencies, plot holes or any other issue the manuscript may have are fixed. This again usually takes a couple of months.

After those revisions are done, its off to the beta readers. The further look for inconsistencies, plot hole and so on and so forth. This step is important because after a while, authors can’t see the issues a book might have. We need those extra eyes.

Another go through to check grammar and its off to the editor. I use a professional editor and she’s amazing.

This and all the things that go with all of the above, like the cover design, and store blurb, the pitches, acknowledgements and dedication pages, must be done before the book should be published. And that takes way longer than a month.

This is why I chose to go traditional. I need an agent. I need someone who is going to look out for me and my books and make sure that the content I am sending them is 100% the best that it can be. If my career depended on me plagiarizing or scamming anyone, I would never write another book. It’s horrible thing to do. And I don’t know how these people live with themselves.  Indy author’s make very little money from their book sales to begin with, usually it doesn’t cover the cost of the cover or editing. As an Indy Author, I write for the sheer love of writing. And of course to pay maybe one bill.

Plagiarism is just bad news. Its bad for everyone. It’s bad for writers because can’t put out a book a month nor are we willing too.  So to the people who are doing this. You will get caught, because what you are doing is theft and fraud.  It’s wrong and the truth will come out.

Below is my editor, Kim Huther’s ad. She’s amazing and you can get to her website by clicking on her name above. She does NOT edit this blog, no one does. So this is just my ramblings and unedited going ons.

Cheers Everyone!

And have a great week.

Alex

So why ghosts? Aren’t they supposed to be terrifying? Perhaps not,  Perhaps they are proof that love remains even after death parts us.

I can’t remember the first time I watched The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, but even though it’s in black and white and came out in 1947, way before many of us were born, it has remained a favorite.  It’s probably the biggest influence on what kind of stories I write. If you haven’t seen it, click on the title and it will take you to Amazon where you can rent it. I highly recommend it.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is a story of a widow named Lucy, who moves to a seaside home and and develops a friendship with the ghost of a cranky sea captain, who haunts her home and helps her keep her independence during a time where very few woman could make it alone without a husband.  That is until a real flesh and blood suitor shows up.  Lucy is played by the amazing Gene Tierney and the Captain is played by Rex Harrison.  I think anyone who watches this movie will find that a little bit of their heart was taken by Captain Daniel Gregg. <sigh> Or perhaps I am just an old souled hopeless romantic.

This movie may be the reason that my books will all contain a ghost, either as a main character or as a supporting character.

I hope you watch this and find it as romantic as I always have.

Cheers

And Happy Valentine’s Month.

Alex

Today we are going to talk about planners, reading, and how I started the year and of course writing in all it’s glory.

I set up my Erin Condren On-the-Go Folio,

This is what I had planned on doing on the 1st of this year. As you can see I wrote all of my goals in teal and crossed off the completed items in pink. I did manage to film and post a video. You can see where I migrated (moved the task to another day, for those of you that aren’t bullet journal savvy> all unfinished tasks to the next day.  I did end up doing my four pages of plotting at 3 am when I woke up in severe pain. I also read for fun last night and I am currently 55 pages into Game of Crowns by Christopher Andersen. I’m really enjoying it so far. Although I do think the author is making the Queen sound emotionless and uncaring. Is anyone else reading this as well?

Today I woke up in serious pain and only managed to wash the sheets, go to the grocery store, which wasn’t on the list, but I did get a last minute order (the youngest informed me that I needed to bring 3 dozen cooked breakfast sausages to soccer for their team breakfast on Friday, at 8 am. I figured since I was in too much pain to sit for any period of time, I would go to the store and buy the sausages. I did manage to call Butch (my brother) and create a character card for Finn. Finn Asher is the hot guy in Chloe’s Diary (yep, working title). The character cards are something that will be exclusive to the newsletter until the reveal on my blog weeks from now.  I didn’t end up looking for agents today either so that is going on tomorrows task list. This is what I mean by shouldering unrealistic expectations of myself.

And here is where we are now.

In the morning Thelma will be here to clean my house, she is a life-saver. I don’t know what I would do with out her. Also Blue Apronarrives tomorrow as well. It’s one of those delivery services that bring you fresh ingredients to make a whole meal for your family. It’s a great help when your schedule changes daily.  I also added more work stuff as well. Because I didn’t get a chance to read The Author Blog: Easy Blogging for Busy Authors by Anne R. Allen, I moved that to tomorrow and I will only get to read the other book if I get time. I hope how my mind and planning works makes sense to you all.  Whatever was on yesterday’s plan that didn’t get done gets moved to today (January 3rd), If I don’t get all of that done then whatever is left over gets moved or migrated to the next day.

Friday is going to be a busy day. I’ll be in an out of the house all day. And so far nothing is planned for coming weekend. So I will show you how all of this worked out on Sunday.

As far as writing goes. Here’s the scoop. I have been using The Writer’s Plotting Workbook by L.R. Ryan. I got my book in the floral pattern. Let’s take a look

This is the first writer’s plotting workbook that I will be using and reviewing on this blog. There are so many out there and I really want to find the best one for me and to help you all find the one that will work the best for you. There was no particular reason I picked this one to do first other than the fact that its been rainy and drab and wanted something pretty, there are many different covers to chose from, from fantasy to horror. Check them out on Amazon.

This book shows you a sample of each page before you fill it out. I found that very useful when filing out this time line. Yes, it’s actually realistic. I will however have a huge decision to make before April 5th. This is the day I have to decide if I am going to self-publish or traditionally publish. I have found from my first book Planners, Poison and the PTA, that there is a time to publish your book and it’s best not to be in a rush.

This was the next page where you plug in the basic idea of your book. After reading the directions and looking at the sample, I plugged in the information for Chloe’s Diary. It clarified my story for me and now I have a clear view of my characters intentions. I can now see how the story is going to play out and everything that I need to make sure I add into the story seamlessly. Honestly at this point I am loving this workbook.

I think this is a good place to stop. Here you see I took one of the most important scenes in the book, this is the meet/cute, when Finn and Mandy meet. <goofy sigh>. I also drew a rough draft of the Hawthorne Manor Inn and its surrounding area. As I come up with scenes, and their locations, I have plenty of pages left to create a visual reminder of what that location looks like. Next on the list is creating the main characters and their arcs. I for one can not wait to get to it.

I’ll update you all on Sunday and let you know if I made my goals for this week in both life and writing, what worked and what didn’t, and my overall feeling of what’s going on.

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I know this was a long post, and the pictures weren’t exactly great, but this is a learning curve for me, so if you have any advice, please by all means shoot me an email at Authoralexandersen@gmail.com.

Cheers,

Alex.