📚 A Bookish Chat with 'One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches' Kayleigh Kavanagh | Author Interview | #AuthorInterview
Kayleigh Kavanagh is a disabled writer from the North-West of England. Growing up in the area, she learnt a lot about the Pendle Witches and launched her debut novel around their life story. Her main writing genres are fantasy and romance, but she loves stories in all formats and genres. Kayleigh hopes to one day be able to share the many ideas dancing around in her head with the world.
Her latest book is the historical fantasy, One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches.
You can visit her on Facebook, Instagram, Goodreads and Tiktok.
One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches offers you paranormal, witchy and historical. Which of these was the most intense for you to write?
The fight scene was difficult, largely because it was spiritual, and yet I needed physical description to make it make sense. Plus, I didn’t want it to be repetitive. There was a lot of pausing and revising words while trying to explain what I meant and which could be easily pictured in the reader's mind.
Which of the characters from One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches do you most closely identify with and why?
Demdike is old and done with just about everything, which I feel on a spiritual level. Though probably Claire, since the need to balance so many plates and protect what's important to you is a universal experience.
What do you think sets One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches apart from other books of the same genre?
I could say it’s the reincarnation, which doesn’t seem to be a huge theme in the historical fiction genre. Though really, I think it’s the characters and how they relate to each other. There’s just something magical about how they came together.
Surprise me. What is something that happens in the book that would make my mouth drop without giving too much away?
“We remember when god was a woman”.
Who is your favorite author?
I can’t pick a favourite food, movie, TV show, colour, or drink, so I can’t really answer this question. However, I can say there are many amazing authors in the world, and I hope to keep finding more in the future.
Do you think writing a historical paranormal novel is more complex than writing books of other genres?
I think every genre has its issues, but as long as you have a good storyline and have written it well, the reader will engage.
What’s next for you?
To keep writing and complete the many stories stored on my hard drive.
I’m also working on turning my books into audiobooks. One is already available, “Secrets of Olde: The Hades Interview.” The first Pendle story, “Whispers of the Pendle Witches,” is currently in production, and this one should hopefully soon follow.
Demdike and Chattox, famed witches of Pendle Forest, might be dead, but they’re not gone. Bound to their bloodline, they’ve spent the past two and a half centuries watching over their descendants, waiting for when they’ll be needed.
When 14 year old Yana comes into her psychic abilities and inherits the ‘eyes of the Chattox family’, she can see the long-dead witches, as well as an encroaching evil. But even with this foreknowledge, she’s trapped by marriage interviews and being unable to see her own future, and more importantly, whoever her future husband will be.
Demdike’s healing gifts are alive and working in Claire, a mid-30s midwife well renowned for her skills and holding her tongue. The Secrets of Pendle are safe with her and her midwives. However, when surgeons looking to make standardisation the norm encroach on her territory, she soon realises how, even a respected woman is vulnerable in a patriarchal system.
The two descendants must come together to protect the ones they love from an ancient evil, all whilst balancing their lives and the cruelties of being a woman in a man’s world. Set in late 1800s NW England, this book has all the elements of the area: strong, hardy people, atmospheric horror and days as unpredictable as the weather.
One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches is available at Amazon.
The Writer’s Life
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