Welcome to my stop on Mark All's Blog Tour for The Spellcaster's Grimoire. Please leave a comment or question for Mark below to let him know you stopped by. You can check out my review here.
________________________________
Why We Love Witches by Mark All
Tales of witchcraft and sorcery have been popular for millennia throughout the world. They’re in the Bible, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, movies, and TV shows. In recent years, Gregory Maquire’s novel Wicked was not only a huge success as a book but as a Broadway musical. A 2013 film revisits the land of Oz. Both the Paranormal and Young Adult genres of books have spawned more witch tales than the Spanish Inquisition.
Why do we love witches? (I’m not discussing the Wiccan religion here, only spellcasters in popular fiction.) We find witches both scary and tantalizing. Their prominent characteristics are that they are women, they are powerful, and they command magic. What’s not to love?
Paranormal and Urban Fantasy novels typically feature strong heroines. Protagonists are often witches or women with similar magical abilities. Buffy the Vampire Slayer played a major role in popularizing the “kick ass heroine,”but witchcraft has always been a potent metaphor for the power of women.
In the stressful 21st century, we all need escape and to experience vicarious thrills in the exploits of Heroes and Heroines, but witches are (typically) women, offering a female alternative to Bruce Willis and James Bond. Fiction provides us flawed characters facing challenges even more daunting than our own, who model successful problem-solving and personal growth and self-actualization. And who could resist the illicit thrill, the permission to experience through a fictional avatar being naughty, being a bit of a bitch when the need arises, or just serving comeuppance to some deserving S.O.B.?
But witches are inherently frightening. Could this be an expression of societal attitudes? Many men and even women sometimes fear powerful women. One way to interpret the witch trials and wholesale slaughter of up to 60,000 women between1480 and 1750 is the purging from the human race of strong and threatening women. 75% - 80% of those executed for witchcraft were women. They weren’t called Warlock Hunts.
Yet today we benefit from the revolution and empowerment of the women’s movement. And our witches are no longer constrained to hiding their abilities when their husbands have their boss over for dinner, but proudly mug on their own book covers, in tight black leather and with broadsword in hand.
The allure of witchcraft itself is that it is basic and elemental, seeking to command the forces of nature, a symbolic control over our reality and our lives. It also offers the power to inflict harm on our enemies, which is always a temptation lurking in the depths of our psyche, though hopefully in real life we resist!
Bun in fiction, we love our witches and enjoy the vicarious excitement and empowerment they enjoy.
________________________________
ABOUT THE SPELLCASTER’S GRIMOIRE
Bestselling witchcraft author Trish Sinclair has a shameful secret: she’s a lousy spellcaster, and the spells in her books belong to others. So when a dying warlock entrusts her with an ancient and powerful grimoire, she runs for her life from his murderer, psychotic witch Kate Cavanaugh. Kate pursues Trish relentlessly to obtain the grimoire, which holds spells to command the fearsome power of a magic crystal hidden in town—and Kate is determined to have that power.
When the town coven refuses to help Trish protect the grimoire, she is forced to turn to cynical warlock Aidan McCarthy, who has a secret agenda of his own, and Rain Devereaux, a novice witch whose spellcasting abilities are even worse than Trish’s. As Kate unleashes the elemental might of tornados and ice storms on the trio, they desperately struggle to defeat her.
But Kate is too powerful, and she manages to steal the grimoire and unearth the crystal. Trish knows Kate will use the stone’s power to exact her deadly revenge on Aidan and the town coven unless Trish can manifest her latent magical abilities to save them.
Bestselling witchcraft author Trish Sinclair has a shameful secret: she’s a lousy spellcaster, and the spells in her books belong to others. So when a dying warlock entrusts her with an ancient and powerful grimoire, she runs for her life from his murderer, psychotic witch Kate Cavanaugh. Kate pursues Trish relentlessly to obtain the grimoire, which holds spells to command the fearsome power of a magic crystal hidden in town—and Kate is determined to have that power.
When the town coven refuses to help Trish protect the grimoire, she is forced to turn to cynical warlock Aidan McCarthy, who has a secret agenda of his own, and Rain Devereaux, a novice witch whose spellcasting abilities are even worse than Trish’s. As Kate unleashes the elemental might of tornados and ice storms on the trio, they desperately struggle to defeat her.
But Kate is too powerful, and she manages to steal the grimoire and unearth the crystal. Trish knows Kate will use the stone’s power to exact her deadly revenge on Aidan and the town coven unless Trish can manifest her latent magical abilities to save them.
Purchase The Spellcaster’s Grimoire!
ABOUT MARK ALL Mark All is the author of paranormal thrillers The Spellcaster’s Grimoire and Mystic Witch, published by ImaJinn Books in trade paperback and eBook formats. He has won two international writing awards and contributed to Computer Legends, Lies & Lore.
Mystic Witch received a 5 Star review from the Paranormal Romance Guild, and 3½ stars (out of 4½ possible stars) from RT Book Reviews.
Mark is a full-time author after a career as an instructional systems designer at a Fortune 16 company. Prior to his work in computer-based training, he held jobs ranging from gravedigger to FM radio announcer to professional rock guitarist.
Mark presents writing workshops and taught his “Planning Your Novel” course at the Spruill Center for the Arts.
He earned a Masters degree in computer-based education and a Bachelor of Music cum laude.
You can visit Mark All’s website at www.MarkAllAuthor.com
Connect with Mark!
TWITTER | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS
The Spellcaster’s Grimoire Virtual Book
Publicity Tour Schedule
Wednesday, May 22 – Book Review & Guest Blogging at Queen of All She Reads
Thursday, May 23 – Book Review at My Cozie Corner
Thursday, May 23 – Guest Blogging at Janna Shay’s Fair Play
Friday, May 24 – Interview & Book Giveaway at Melissa’s Midnight Musings
Monday, May 27 – First Chapter Reveal at Books Books the Magical Fruit
Tuesday, May 28 – Book Review at Sapphyria’s Book Reviews
Wednesday, May 29 – Guest Blogging at Literarily Speaking
Thursday, May 30 – Book Review & Book Giveaway at Mary’s Cup of Tea
Friday, May 31 – Book Review at Offbeat Vagabond
Looks like a really interesting book.
ReplyDelete