If you’re a fan of Alice Hoffman’s novel, Practical Magic, you’ll like this series. I picked up Book One on a free promotion. I’m not fond of the cover; in fact, I wouldn’t have bought it based on the cover. But I was intrigued by the teaser and it was free, so I gave it a chance.
It turns out that The Witches of Dark Root is one of the few paranormal fantasies I’ve read that offers a great storyline, believable magic, clever writing, and enough light to balance the darkness.
Maggie-Mae Maddock, with wild red hair hanging to her waist, is sarcastic, complex, and funny. Some folks call her a wilder. I warmed to this Welsh witch right away.
In the beginning, Maggie and her boyfriend, Michael, are religious leaders living in Woodhaven Compound in Northern California. She followed him out of Dark Root, Oregon seven years before.
Then her older sister, Merry, calls to say their mother, Sasha Shantay, is quite ill and they need her to come home. (Merry is the Herald.) Michael has become way too friendly with Leah, another woman in the compound, who’s threatening to replace Maggie as star of the religious show and seems to have Michael under her thumb. So Maggie decides to leave Michael and goes home.
This is a family of women. There are four sisters: Ruth Ann, Merry, Maggie, and Eve. They all meet up in Dark Root, except for Ruth Ann who left years ago and hasn’t been heard from since. The sisters all have witchy gifts. Maggie’s is electrokinesis, the ability to manipulate the energy of electrical devices like the radio and cell phone. Eve is an actress who can create potions and spin love spells. Merry is a healer and mother to sweet little June Bug. Their mother, Sasha, once led the coven, but now she’s old, frail, and near comatose. The family have been living in Dark Root for generations since their witchy ancestor, Juliana Benbridge, escaped there with her children. A few men appear as love interests but the romance is second place to the relationships between the women.
This book is contemporary urban fantasy, spliced with flashbacks and dreams where Maggie reveals her memories and family history. There are a few scary moments but the antagonists are quite tame and easily vanquished.
April Aasheim is a clever writer. Music is interwoven through this book’s pages. Chapter titles are all 70s songs so you’ll find yourself singing along. Really, this book has its own built-in soundtrack as some of the characters are performers. I’m a fan of cool chapter titles and this gimmick caught my eye.
Aasheim also has an excellent grasp on Wicca and spices up the brew with gems of magical knowledge:
“all homes were said to be alive and should thus be named” (I like to name my home.)
“There are no coincidences … there are forces in the world at work, whether we see them or not” (Too true.)
“a witch never cuts her hair … the longer her hair, the more powerful the witch” (I didn’t know this Sampson twist.)
“one can never stay down long when there’s music in the house.” (Yes!)
When drawing a pentagram with white powder “the star must be inside the circle, but the two shapes must not touch.” (Always good to know for when you’re drawing pentagrams.)
“the symbol of the cross predates Christianity. It has been used since the dawn of civilization as a means of keeping the dark at bay … Symbolism, like any form of Magick, is reliant on a collective belief system.”
At Halloween “the veil between the worlds was lifted. Spirits moved freely between planes, spells were stronger and a witch’s power was doubled.” (True. It’s the beginning of the witch’s new year.)
“Magic could be found through music and laughter and love and, above all, family. This everyday magic was more powerful than any incantation or spell or working of the craft. This was the magic that lit up the world.” (This, I believe, is the story theme.)
If you’re curious about witchcraft, The Witches of Dark Root is a great place to start. And if you’re knowledgeable, you’ll enjoy the romp. Because it’s a series, when you finish one, there’s another waiting. I might just buy the boxed set. I feel like this is the kind of series that blossoms and grows with each book, filling in holes and letting us sink into the complex characters. And I like this cover!
As I’m packing for my upcoming move, I’m weeding books.
I found this charming 1958 hardcover edition of Shirley Temple’s Storybook that was a gift to my sister and I from our aunt and uncle. It contains the fairy tales Shirley Temple loved to read to her own children.
I set it out in the sunlight for some fresh air, and while I was leafing through it, felt taken by the beautiful illustrations.
The fact that it’s 62 years old lends it magic, but it’s also very well presented with large type, small colourful illustrations, and huge bright images.
Rip Van Winkle
The Valiant Little Tailor
Dick Whittington & His Cat
Rumpelstiltskin
Beauty & The Beast
The Nightingale
The Little Lame Prince
The Sleeping Beauty
Dick Whittington & His Cat
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Rapunzel
Ali Baba & The Forty Thieves
The Magic Fishbone
The Land of Green Ginger
The Emperor’s New Clothes
The Valiant Little Tailor
The Wild Swans
Rip VanWinkle
Rumpelstilskin
I can’t wait to curl up in the stillness of winter and read these stories again. Such a treasure.
This is an excellent post by a kindred spirit who explains mediumship from a clear and simple perspective. As you might know, I’ve been studying mediumship and exploring my skills the past couple of years.
I’m sending a virtual hug to Green Magick for all her wisdom and offerings. If you explore and follow her blog, you’ll find out what I mean.
Do you buy a book based on its cover? If I don’t know the author, I often do . . . if it ticks a few other boxes. A book cover is the writer’s extended hand and must be more than a marketing pitch. I want my cover to represent the story, excite my readers visually and viscerally, fit with the genre, and offer a taste of what’s waiting inside. The cover itself has to be finely detailed for the print edition, but also look striking as a thumbnail image because that’s how digital readers will see it first.
So, why new editions now?
When I wrote To Charm a Killer, I had no idea it would evolve into a series. That’s not how I work. Mine is an organic process. One book flows into another as the witches live their lives. At the end of each book, I sit down and journal. What did we learn in this story? What questions are still unanswered? Which characters can be developed further? What happens now?
For example, To Sleep with Stones arose because I’d grown fond of Dylan McBride and wanted to tell his story. I knew he’d lived for a while with his granddad in Tarbert, Scotland and that he had some amazing gifts like the ability to communicate with stones. Then I went to the Inner Hebrides and fell in love with the landscape. Getting Dylan arrested for murder seemed a good way to entice Estrada across the sea. But what would happen to our brooding Byronic hero, Michael Stryker, without Estrada’s grounding presence? What mayhem would this sexy faux vampire inspire when left alone back home?
When Michael meets the vampire Diego, he thinks he’s about to be murdered, and blurts out a confession. That mistake inspired a whole third book—To Render a Raven.
The vampire’s hand slid up his arm and bit into his shoulder and Michael swayed with the pain.
“Ah, but what do you know of love? You’ve never loved anyone but yourself.”
“That’s not true,” Michael said. “I love Estrada.” If he was to die here alone on this beach, he would tell the truth.
“Estrada?” The cackle was deafening. “A Spaniard? You love a Spaniard?”
“Yes, and there’s nothing you can do to change that!” He was ready to die, hoped to die before this filthy monster turned him into something vile and monstrous.
Diego stroked his beard. “Ah, but there is, brainless boy.”
A cuff to the side of the head sent Michael reeling. It was only the creature’s grip that kept him standing upright.
“This Spaniard will become my progeny and then he will drain you dry.” Each of his final three words was punctuated by a stronger squeeze.
After to Render a Raven I had three books—a Wiccan trifecta. But, I couldn’t leave the hero I love so distraught. Plus, I’d mentioned a character from the second book who seemed to be in a precarious situation herself. So I wrote a fourth book—To Kill a King—where Estrada and Dylan time travel to Iron Age Ireland to rescue Dylan’s ex-lover, Sorcha, from a druid king destined to be ritually murdered and buried in a bog.
That left me with trilogy covers and a fourth book. I had two options. Add a fourth cover to match the other three or do something completely different. Anyone who knows me, knows I can’t pass up a good adventure.
Introducing my Cover Designer
In 2019, I studied mediumship and psychic development with Joy. That’s where I met Yasaman Mohandesi. We did several classes together and got to know each other in a very unique way—by reading for each other. I knew Yasaman was a graphic artist and was impressed by her drawings on Instagram. So I messaged her and asked if she designed book covers. She hadn’t yet, but was excited by the prospect.
We met on zoom and shared our thoughts. I talked about the books themselves, the characters, and my vision for something simple, clear, and symbolic. We looked at several images of current urban fantasy series to see what other publishers were doing and what we were drawn to. Quickly, we decided that black on white with a splash of colour would work well.
Why Tattoos?
On our blank white canvas we wanted a symbol—a meaningful symbol. I mentioned Estrada standing, arms upraised in his long black hooded trench coat, and that got me talking about the man which, as you might know, is something I love to do. I mentioned his tattoo and described the tattoos of other characters in the story, and we both got chills. Now, if you do any psychic work at all, you know that chills are a positive sign. Then, I pulled quotes from the text that described the tattoos and sent them to Yasaman.
I’m used to working with cover designers who photoshop images but Yasaman brought something unique to the table. She’s a gifted illustrator who works in several mediums including ink. People have asked if they can use her hand-drawn designs for tats. I’d love to see someone get a tattoo of one of my book covers!
I asked Yasaman about her experiences creating the tattoos.
Q: Can you describe your artistic process with this project?
A: For each design I created “dream boards”, researched, took notes on the details and went for walks in nature to gather my thoughts. Every time I spotted a crow or a raven I observed the shape of their wings when they flew.
Art is a source of meditation; I also like to listen to solo piano music as it helps me to focus when I’m working on an art project. With each stroke my mind and thought was completely in the art. I feel I put a part of my energy into it.
Once all the designs were finalized and inked, I scanned each image in high resolution to be used as digital images for each book cover.
Q: What did you find the most challenging aspect?
A: The most challenging aspect was putting what I was visualizing on paper. Of course as a perfectionist, in my standard it has to be perfect.
Q: Did you have any magical moments?
A: I did! At one point I was stuck with the inking part of the raven’s head. I sat on it for couple of days. Even though I had a tight deadline I didn’t want to rush it. One morning I woke up with the raven’s “caw” outside my window. Later in the day while I was working in my home office/studio I looked outside and saw a raven sitting on our garden shed. I thought to myself that ravens are actually beautiful birds with their coal black feathers. That’s when I knew how I wanted to finish the drawing.
Also when I was working on the Celtic war horse for To Charm a Killer, I had the horse sketched on paper but I was struggling with the ribbon Celtic knots for the mane and tail. I don’t know how many times I sketched and erased the knots. I was having creator’s block. Finally, I got frustrated and literally asked for Irish Fairies to help me. My sister who was sitting next to me (we share home office space) looked at her phone and said “11:11 make a wish.” An hour later, I had the sketch done and ready for the final draft to be inked.
Q: Has this experience inspired you to work as a freelance book designer? If so, how can authors connect with you?
A: It has. It never crossed my mind to ever design book covers, or for my original art to be used on book covers. As a booklover this truly has been an amazing experience for me.
Authors can connect with me through my Instagram account which profiles my art @ym_blackrose_art or on Behance which profiles my graphic design work.
Q: What other things have you designed?
A: As a freelance graphic designer I have designed: business logos, a logo for a boat, brochures, invitations, a restaurant menu and design work for a law firm.
I wanted to be a Graphic Designer for a very long time, but life lead me to a different path. Somehow through this turn of events, I fell back on that path again. It has been a bumpy road, but I know it will lead me to a great destination.
Other Curveballs
I confess, I threw Yasaman a couple of curveballs. One was time constraints. I needed all three covers completed by the end of June. Creating one cover is difficult enough, but creating synchronized trilogy covers is triple hard—I know because I was editing and formatting the content for all three myself. Because of the time pressure, I worked on choosing fonts and colours so she could focus on the art. I spent hours staring at urban fantasy, gothic, and thriller fonts, but ended up going back to Copperplate Gothic for the headings and Sabon Next LT for the text. I was able to match the inside print with the cover print—a design detail I really like in a print book.
Another challenge arose when I went for a walk with our psychic development teacher who casually mentioned that there was a rose in one of the drawings. She does that sometimes. But a rose wasn’t in our plans. We had decided on the horse, the angel wings, and the raven. Then I realized how crucial roses were to To Render a Raven. There are roses at each of the crime scenes because the vampire’s insignia is a rose encircled with a calligraphic D for Diego. “Maybe it’s in the raven’s mouth,” Joy said slyly. I texted Yasaman: “I was just out walking with Joy and she says the raven has a rose in its mouth.” Yasaman just ran with it. You’ll see it there now.
Introducing the Tattoo Editions
On the back of each print cover, I added a quote from the story along with the blurb, to explain the tattoo.
“Maggie lifted her long black sleeve and stared at the stinging tattoo on her left inner forearm. It hurt like hell, but she hadn’t flinched. An exquisite Celtic war horse, it reared up on its hind legs and kicked out with its front. The body was solid black, the mane and tail, a rippling white and black ribbon of Celtic knots. It had amber eyes and nostrils that flared like an angry dragon.”
(It’s an extraordinary feeling to see your words become art.)
“Estrada scrutinized the tats, wondering how far the ink extended beneath the worn leather kilt, and just how painful it would be to have your genitals tattooed. He knew about ink—wore the black lacy wings of an angel on his back. Her feathers extended across his shoulders and down his glutes. That ink had broken more than his skin.
It was strange how memories were triggered by the oddest things. He’d seen plenty of tats and not thought of Alessandra. She was seventeen and extraordinary. He was thirteen and insatiable. They’d fallen in love, however crazy that seemed, and she’d refused to accept payment for her work. It was an act of adoration. She wanted to immortalize him by painting his body in pictures, words and love knots. Only she hadn’t had the chance.
Alessandra was not just his first lover—she was his first love. And, when he’d heard she’d been killed in a revenge shooting for something her younger brother had done, Estrada discovered he truly was a black angel.”
“Estrada flexed his bicep and stared at his latest tattoo. Corvus Corax. The raven’s back broke into a flurry of feathers and deranged birds to remind him how he’d split the terror asunder with the sheer force of his right arm. He could still feel the damp steel, the hot blood, the hollow pit of his pulsing gut as he struck. The creature held a bloody rose in its beak so he’d never forget how close he’d come . . .”
(Estrada gets this tattoo after To Render a Raven and this quote appears in Book 4: To Kill a King)
What’s next?
The book cover for Book 4, which will, of course, be some kind of Irish tattoo since we’ll be in Iron Age Ireland (200 BCE). If you have any ideas please leave a comment.
And, since To Kill a King ends with a steep cliffhanger, I expect there’s a Book 5 lurking in the not-so-distant future.
I’d rather be writing books, but if I don’t wade into the promo stream, how will I ever send my babies out into the world? Like any new endeavour, the path is uncertain and fraught with hazards. There is enough information—good and bad—to make your mind spin. So, sometimes we make mistakes.
Recently, I wrote that people who don’t buy my book from Amazon can’t leave a review. I was so convinced of this statement; I offered my first book free for five days so readers who’d previously purchased a print copy at a reading or local bookstore could purchase it for $0.00 and it would show as a verified purchase.
Now I’m reading that’s NOT TRUE! You don’t have to buy my book from Amazon to leave a review. As I’m sorting this out (in my own confused mind) I thought I’d share my discoveries with you. As much as I hate being wrong (don’t we all?) I think it’s important to correct misinformation. I mean, it was misinformation that got me here in the first place.
Who can submit an Amazon review?
Bottom Line: Anyone who’s made any $50 purchase from Amazon can leave a review. Amazon is a huge distributor, so they make their own rules and sometimes tweak them. I tested this theory just to be sure.
I bought Wren Handman’s urban fantasy novel, In Restless Dreams, from her at an author reading in February. When I tried to submit to Amazon.com (US) I didn’t make the cut—I haven’t purchased anything from the US—but I was able to leave a review on Amazon.ca (Canada) because of those supplements I ordered back in March.
What does this mean?
If you picked up a print or digital copy of any of my books sometime, anytime, in the last few years, (even at the library) and read it, you can leave a review (as long as you bought something else from Amazon.) Now that I know this, I’m going to cut/paste some of my Goodreads reviews to Amazon. It only takes a minute and every review helps an author.
What does “Amazon Verified” mean?
Simply that the customer who wrote the review actually purchased the item at Amazon. Some customers like to see this badge before they buy so it gives more credibility to a product or book review. People used to rig reviews by creating thousands of fake names and accounts, so now Amazon is more careful, which I like. Ethical and honest is good.
What if you don’t use Amazon Kindle?
As of July 2020, I’ll still be on Amazon, but I’m taking all my books wide. So, you’ll be able to find them on Kobo, Apple IBooks, and other distributors. You can post reviews in any of several places. I’ll outline some below.
Why are reviews so important ?
Reviews aren’t just important to an author, they’re important to a reader. Do you read reviews? I do. A good reviewer doesn’t just say I liked it or I didn’t. They reveal enough about the story to allow you to make an informed decision. For example, although I write urban fantasy, I usually read and watch murder mysteries, psychological thrillers, and action adventures—which is why there’s a “twist of murder” in my books. I like eccentric complicated characters who live big in the here and now . . . unless I’m delving into history. So that’s what I look for in a review.
How do reviews help an author? First, they help potential customers decide if they want to read this book from the millions available. Many books I compete with have hundreds and thousands of reviews. Seriously. I’m still trying to figure out how to make that happen. I think I should create a coven and get a magic wand!
Book Promoters
Most of the book promoters I want to approach have strict eligibility requirements. For example, Adrenaline sends out thousands of weekly newsletters highlighting free and discounted mystery & crime e-books, but to be considered you need a minimum of 10 reviews and ratings (stars). I recommend you sign up for Adrenaline if you like mystery and crime. I’ve discovered and downloaded a few e-books lately that look fantastic.
Today, I should have just enough reviews—THANK YOU EVERYONE!—to submit to Adrenaline for a July promotion.
Another e-book promoter is The Fussy Librarian. Join for free, and choose your genres and email frequency. I’m running a promo for To Charm a Killer with them on July 7.
Goodreads is fairly well known. I track books I’ve read and want to read there. I also post reviews. Goodreads keeps Listopia—lists of books where readers vote for their favourite books.
My books were just listed and you can vote for them! You’ll find the lists on each book page. Please vote and follow me on Goodreads!
Bookbub is another site that can really drive author and book ratings, and you can sign up to receive emails from them that feature free and discounted books. You need heaps of reviews to become one of their featured authors—it’s like winning a lottery—but I know someone who did it this year, so it’s possible.
You can leave reviews for books you’ve read on Bookbub without making any purchase whatsoever! Here’s my Bookbub page.
This is just a smattering of the marketing know-how I’m learning as I roll along as an Indie Author and Publisher. You can see why I’d rather be writing or walking my dog in the woods!
Thank you SO much if you’ve already posted reviews for my books! You have no idea how much I appreciate your support.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkNoPrivacy policy
