The Once and Future Witches, Alix E. Harrow’s sophomore novel, is the story of three witch sisters fighting for the power to vote in an alternate history America during the suffrage movement. We recently got to ask Alix how current events shaped the fierceness of this story, who some of her favorite witches are, and more!
Hi Alix! Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for The Nerd Daily. Let’s start off with you telling us a little bit about yourself and your writing journey.
The inside flap of my book assures me that I am a Hugo Award-winning writer living in Kentucky with her kids and husband. That strikes me as pretty unlikely (well, not the kids part, as the two year old is currently Velcro-ed to my leg, asking for graham crackers, but everything else). My writing journey has been pretty abrupt, thrilling, sometimes terrifying, and very lucky.
Now, can you tell us a bit about The Once and Future Witches and what readers can expect from it?
The pitch for this one is short—suffragists, but witches—but the book is a little more complicated. It’s the story of three sisters joining the American suffrage movement, in a world where there’s no such thing as witches, but there used to be. The fight for women’s rights becomes a fight to restore their magic, and a thorny tangle of plot ensues.
There is a lot of fight and anger in the sisters in this story. How did the current events while you were writing shape some of their fight?
Quite a few people have commented on the anger of this book, and I’m always a little surprised! I guess I’ve been swimming in fury for so long I don’t notice it anymore; I guess I thought everybody was in here with me. Although actually, in the case of this book, a lot of my anger came from research rather than reality. It’s very hard to read about the history of women’s rights or of witchcraft without ending up without wanting to set at least one mid-sized city on fire.
Was there a sister or other character that was a favorite to write?
Juniper was my favorite in the beginning—who doesn’t love a troublesome shit-stirrer with bad judgement to move the plot along? But by the end I think I loved Agnes the most, because her fears are my fears, and I wish her strengths could be mine too.
What was the research process like for this novel and did you uncover any interesting historical tidbits you didn’t know about before?
Because this was the first book I’d begun and finished on a deadline, I didn’t get to submerge myself in a seminar’s-worth of research ahead of time. Instead I did a feverish sprint at the beginning and then sort of kept researching the entire draft, splitting my attention between historical witchcraft and women’s suffrage.
The coolest tidbits are already in the book—almost everybody’s name is based on a real suffragist or activist or witch, there are nine million references in this thing, ranging from “nearly invisible” to “painfully obvious”—but I would like everyone to know that the children’s sampler that gives them a plot-significant clue is based on this real one from the real Salem.
Do you have any favorite witchy characters from pop culture or old stories?
Serafina Pekkala will always be my favorite witch. I was used to witches who followed rules and did their homework, and Serafina was the first witch I’d ever met who was truly wild. I always loved the idea of her, windswept and moonlit.
Was the writing experience different between your debut novel and this second book?
Writing your first book is like setting out on an ambitious cross country hike with nothing but a map and a compass; writing your second book is exactly the same, except you already know your compass is busted and your map is wrong, and also there’s a time limit. So, you know, second books are fine.
Do you have any traditions or practices that get you in the writing mindset?
I am desperately trying to avoid them! I’m afraid that the second I form a habit or a ritual the natural disorder of my life will swallow it whole, cackling to itself. Right now my most regular habit is to drive to the empty parking lot behind the utility building and sit in the sweaty front seat of my car with my laptop propped on the steering wheel.
If you could recommend one book from 2020 to our readers, what would it be?
This question is too stressful and I rebuke it. But, out of respect, I will restrain myself to three: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, for the Crimson-Peak-Wuthering-Heights-type girls; The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson for the adrenaline junkies who really want to see Tenet but can’t because movie theaters are death traps; and Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart for anybody who wants a heartfelt, fascinating fantasy like Avatar: The Last Airbender for grownups.
And to finish this interview off, can you give us any insight into what you are working on in the future?
The next thing I have coming is a pair of novellas from Tor.com! The first one is a Sleeping Beauty retelling, except that I Spider-Verse-ed it, which means there are lots of sleeping beauties bouncing through dimensions as they try to escape their terrible story! It was absolutely unbearably fun to write.
