By Liz, happy to welcome another magical cozy writer to the blog today! Angela Sanders writes the Witch Way Librarian series, which I was immediately attracted to because of my Full Moon Mysteries. And how funny – we share some magical character names in both our series! I have a Fiona and a Josie in my witchy books too 🙂 Take it away, Angela!
You know how when you buy a green sedan (for example) you suddenly see green sedans everywhere? Or how when you adopt a shaggy dog with spots, shaggy spotted mutts trot past you all the time?
Ever since I started writing the Witch Way Librarian series, that’s how it’s been with me and magic. Some days, I practically feel like a witch myself.
As I plotted Bait and Witch and Seven-Year Witch—the series’ first two books—I got in touch with an old friend, Pomegranate Doyle, an established witch in town. I didn’t intend for my protagonist Josie to be a typical Wiccan, but I wanted to get a handle on witchcraft’s basics so I could bend them to suit an inquisitive, slyly observant librarian who discovers that books talk to her.
Pomegranate was a wealth of information about curses, land spirits, ancestral guidance, and more. She told me, “Magic is subtle, but it’s everywhere. The more you look for it, the more you’ll see it.” Magic can be as mundane as thinking about your cousin right before she calls, or having a cookbook fall open to the recipe you need. It can be your sudden urge to vary your daily walk, then finding the perfect color to paint your house, the color you’ve been searching for all summer. It can be as profound as feeling sad and bewildered, then turning on the radio to a story that puts it all into perspective.
I’ve had a few magical experiences recently. My car was stolen, recovered, and towed to my mechanic (this is NOT the magical part of the story). As I dragged myself to the mechanic to check it out, I turned on my “walking” playlist, unconnected to data, to discover it had spontaneously added a new song: “What a Difference a Day Makes.” I took this as a hopeful message.
Another story: My furnace takes unusual filters. I’ve called a dozen hardware stores, and no one carries them, so I have to order them online. Last fall as I realized cold days were coming and I’d better get on the filter situation pronto, I found a brand new furnace filter of the perfect size, still wrapped in plastic, on the sidewalk a few blocks from my house.
Reading this, some of you are undoubtedly muttering, “Furnace filters? Songs? Undoubtedly coincidence and cognitive bias.” Or even, “Plain old dumb luck.” I get it. I could see it this way, too. But for me the world is so much richer when I imagine mystery coursing through it, bringing solace and lessons.
With this view of the world, magic is everywhere. It’s in your garden, sitting next to you on the bus, and, yes, on your bookshelf. If you choose to open yourself up to magic, it will find you. As Pomegranate said, all you have to do is look.
Have you had any magical experiences or synchronicities? Please comment! I love to hear about everyday magic.
Angela M. Sanders writes the Witch Way Librarian cozy mysteries and the Joanna Hayworth vintage clothing mysteries. When Angela isn’t at her laptop, she’s often rummaging in thrift shops, lounging with a vintage crime novel and her shelter cats Squeaky and Bitsy, or pontificating on how to make the perfect martini. Don’t miss her monthly newsletter! www.angelamsanders.com.
About Seven-Year Witch:
Finding your feet in a new job isn’t always easy. That goes double for Josie Way, who’s settling in as Wilfred, Oregon’s, new librarian–and has just discovered she’s a witch. But will her fledgling powers be enough to save her from a spell of murder?
While Josie develops her witchcraft with the help of letters left by her grandmother, there are other changes happening in her new hometown. A retreat center is being built at the old mill site, and rumor has it that the location is cursed. That piques Josie’s interest almost as much as Sam Wilfred, handsome FBI agent and descendent of the town’s founder…
When Sam’s soon-to-be ex-wife, Fiona, goes missing at the same time that a bloodied weapon is found, Josie enlists her witchy insight, and her cat familiar, to clear Sam’s name. But then the mill project’s architect is found dead, and it’s clear that someone has been drawing up a vicious plan. Now Josie will have to divine her way out of fatal mischief, before this deadly trouble turns double…