Behind the story.
Research & author’s notes.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. While some characters and abilities are inspired by anecdotal accounts, media reports, folklore, and lived traditions, the story itself is my own. This writing is not intended to cause offense or harm to any religion, belief system, or identity; I have done my best to honor its historical context, while asking forgiveness for any inaccuracies—especially around the complex, living meanings of witchcraft and Christianity today, which this story does not attempt to fully address.

James Stuart, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, was crowned James VI of Scotland in 1567 and became James I of England and Ireland in 1603, binding the three crowns under one monarch. Though some praised it as a great union, it forced together people of different faiths and cultures, sowing mistrust and resentment that would later erupt into the Bishops’ Wars, the Irish Rebellion, and the bloody Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

Some of that unrest sparked the attack on the 5th of November that followed the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, still marked today through church services, bonfires, and fireworks. He was patron of the Bible that bears his name, the King James Version. He also ruled during a time when conformity was enforced through law, religion, and fear. The English Witchcraft Act of 1604 and his book Daemonologie helped strengthen a world ready to name women and men who did not fit its mandates as witches.

King James died in 1625. The Legend of the Ghost Witch is set in 1661, and I have kept him as king in my tale on purpose. His fear, his divisions, and the systems he helped strengthen did not die with him. They continued to shape persecution long after his death, and in many ways, they still shape the world we live in now.

John Kincaid, the notorious Scottish witch-pricker, was active between 1649 and 1662. He built his reputation on “unmasking” witches across Scotland. His trade ended abruptly when the Privy Council exposed his deception: the bodkin he used to draw “proof” of witchcraft was found to be a trick device, collapsing into itself instead of piercing the skin. Branded a fraud, Kincaid was imprisoned in the Edinburgh Tolbooth for a short time before securing bail on the condition that he never again practice witch-pricking. His exact date of death is unknown, but his downfall marked the discrediting of one of Scotland’s most infamous witch-finders.

Christian Caldwell, alias John Dickson, was a Scottish witch-pricker in the 1660s who disguised herself as a man to hunt witches. Exposed as a woman while imprisoned, she was punished by being sent as an indentured servant to Barbados. Her career highlighted the fraudulent practice of witch-pricking with retractable needles, a scam that contributed to the profession’s eventual downfall.

More of Dickson’s story is coming in Book 2.

Discussion questions · Draft for author review

1. How does Fiona’s desire for revenge shape her understanding of justice? Did your feelings about her choices change as you read?
2. What does the story suggest about the relationship between fear, belief, and power?
3. How does trust develop between people whose roles put them on opposing sides? Which moments felt most significant to you?
4. What does the coven offer its members beyond protection? How does the story explore solidarity among women?
5. How did the blend of historical persecution and fictional magic affect your experience of the novel?
6. The author asks whether some abilities exist beyond what we are taught is possible. How did you respond to that question within the world of the story?
7. How do the animals and the characters’ relationships with them shape the story? Did those relationships affect how you thought about listening and connection?
8. Which scene or character stayed with you after the ending, and why?

The magic system in this book may feel a little confusing to some, because it is all based on real-world research. This book is inspired by the gifts of nature and the things that may exist just beyond the boundary of what is widely known or accepted.

Are some people born gifted? Can we learn skills that push beyond what we are taught is possible? Can attunement to the elements, to animals, to God, and to spirit bring us closer to understanding the deeper layers of life? Those are some of the questions behind the magic in this story.

The character Fern, with her gift of seeing through objects, is inspired by reported accounts of extraordinary perception. These include Natasha Demkina, sometimes called “the girl with X-ray eyes,” and Marina from the Superhuman Experience docuseries by Lee Holden and David Verdesi [shared with permission]. There are also anecdotal stories of individuals in India and Africa said to have similar abilities. Fern’s talent is a creative, fictional representation of these accounts and of the question of what people may be capable of seeing beyond ordinary perception.

The gifts of the newcomers at the end of the novel are also inspired by people and abilities featured in the Superhuman Experience docuseries, as well as other stories, reports, and traditions that speak of gifts reaching beyond what we are usually taught to believe. Their journey, and the fuller story of their abilities, will continue in the next book.

Rituals in this story draw from saining, divination, herbs, folk healing, prayer, the elements, and seasonal traditions. I became fascinated by quantum physics and noetic sciences after reading Dan Brown’s novels all those years ago, and the way those concepts have shown up throughout history and in the present day.

All of the fight moves Fiona uses are ones I have personally trained and performed, though the stabbing and killing are, of course, exaggerated for the story. I was a kickboxing instructor for a time, have also trained in Krav Maga, jiu-jitsu, and Muay Thai. The “reaction circle” is from Krav Maga.

The “body medicine test” in the story is from the naturopathic practice of muscle testing, something that personally saved my health as a young adult.

My original intent was to write this as a screenplay, because my big, wild dream is to make it into a film and play Fiona myself. I was a theater kid growing up, and have trained for film and television as an adult. I have been lucky enough to work on some wonderful projects, but I also wanted to write my own dream role, and that shaped so much of how Fiona came to life. I eventually decided that I wanted this story to become a book first, so I could build the characters deeply and give readers the chance to enter their world before it becomes a film. Writing Fiona meant writing some of myself into her, from the hazel eyes to the crooked jaw.

Animal communication has changed my life. It is something I am working on learning, have taken lessons with Danielle Tremblay, and something that has opened my mind and my world in a whole new way. A big reason I wrote this book is to introduce people to animal communication and to the possibility of listening to animals in a deeper way.

For writing the hunting scene, I consulted with Julie Hirt and with a deer. In the book, I explain what I mean by an oversoul: a representative for a species as a whole, or a collective consciousness through which Deer can be consulted. I presented that scene exactly as the Deer requested.

Mera was the name of the horse I learned to ride with and care for while growing up in Minnesota. She taught me so much about horses, trust, responsibility, and the relationship between people and animals.

The quote, “We’re all just magic waiting to dust the earth,” is a direct quote from the horse, Apollo, shared with approval from the Emma Jensen’s “Lessons from our animals” podcast. Apollo also asked for his photograph, if possible, to be included in the book, and in some copies, his image will appear here. :)

The names of animal communicators that helped open this world to me:

Emma Jensen http://www.connected-consciousness.com/

Julie Hirt https://www.juliehirt-intuitive.com/

Danielle Tremblay https://insightwithanimals.com/

There are many incredible communicators out there that help support our connection to animal and plant life, I am so grateful for the work they do.

Because AI developed rapidly while I was finishing this novel—and the book industry became full of controversy and suspicion around its use, I want to be clear in how it was used for this book. I used AI sparingly for editing help and to flesh out a few ideas, but this was a human-written book. AI helped me pull together this historical and notes section at the end here. I had around 50 pages of notes and links, and it was really useful in getting this organized and summarized. But for the book itself, human proofreaders, editors, coaches, and two dozen beta readers were hired to help me make the story stronger. I worked on this novel for over three years and have endless drafts and versions saved across two different laptops. I consulted with ghostwriters and writing coaches, hired editors, and kept learning to become a writer as I wrote. This is my first novel, and as imperfect as it is, I’m proud of it.

To help verify myself, I ran my manuscript through a Pangram report, which returned 1% suspected AI use and 99% human-written content. So there you have it, the AI helped prove that my work is human. What a peculiar thing to say. I know the work, time, learning, and soul that went into these pages, and I truly hope you've enjoyed them.

Source links from my research are available on my website www.kellsiemoorebooks.com