Welcome to the second installment of the Witches Save the World Micro-Interviews! In honor of the upcoming Halloween/Samhain holiday, and in celebration of the release of Witches Save the World, Forests Haunted By Holiness will be featuring a series of interviews with the contributors throughout October.
Witches Save the World was a labor of love. Across these two volumes you will find poems, short stories, and essays celebrating the witch and their role as wisdom keeper, protector of nature, avenger of the forgotten, and defender of the oppressed. Individual poems and stories range from historical fantasy to contemporary horror to science fiction, with many questioning the nature and cost of honor, integrity, and freedom.
In concert with these interviews, one physical copy of Witches Save the World — either Hags, Harridans, and Hexes Gone Right or Covens, Cauldrons, and Curses Gone Right— will be given away at the end of the month! Two books, two winners! To enter the drawing, just comment below and share the interview on your favorite social media platform.
Ready? Let’s get started!
Forests Haunted by Holiness: What is the title of your story and can you give us a spoiler-free summary?
Jesse Sterling Harrison: I contributed the short story “Rootmother.” It’s about a very committed elementary teacher who welcomes a new student into her class. Young children, especially in tough circumstances, often emulate a strong, trusted adult … even talking and dressing like them. The adult role model this girl emulates is a witch.
FHBH: How did you go about writing your story? Lot of research? Or did you just wing it?
JSH: Years ago I worked in a special education classroom and we had a teenaged girl who had been adopted after being a ward of the state, apparently removed from some kind of cult. She had really attached herself to her new mom, so we had this 14-year-old who talked, acted, and dressed like a very conservative fifty-something farm wife. At the same time, she apparently had this bizarre backstory of doing rituals in a graveyard with cult members, and at times she would create some truly disturbing drawings.
I was thinking about this one day and did an online search for groups that do graveyard rituals, and from there I went down the rabbit hole about the Hoodoo tradition, “banes,” and all the associated arcane practices. Thus the Rootmother was born.
FHBH: What draws you to the character and theme of “the witch”? What do you find so compelling about it?
JSH: I am a person motivated in large part by spite. I can admit that. Most notable things I’ve achieved in life have come either after an embarrassment or after being specifically told some task was over my head or impossible. I grew up in a very religious town during the “Satanic Panic” era, so every time an adult saw a bonfire in a cornfield they assumed it was satanists doing unspeakable rituals (it was usually high school kids with a 12-pack of cheap beer). I guess that’s why I’ve always been drawn to the things they warned us about: dark magic, punk rock, comic books, pinball … you know, all the wicked stuff!
