Sometimes Characters Are Easy To Discover
Sometimes when I’m writing a story I have to stretch a bit for a character as I try to figure out exactly who this person is. Writers are like actors in the sense that we have to understand the evolution of the characters we’re writing about.
Sometimes I have to struggle to understand who these characters are, what they want, and how they grow (or don’t) through the story. Sometimes I get lucky and the characters come fully formed.
That was the case with the mother/daughter witches Olivia Phillips and Jennifer Mandel in the Loving Husband Series. I’m both thrilled and amazed that Olivia has turned out to be such a beloved character in the stories. Olivia plays an important role in the three trilogy novels (Her Dear & Loving Husband, Her Loving Husband’s Curse, and Her Loving Husband’s Return) as well as the newest book in the series, The Duchess of Idaho.
A Mother and Daughter Team of Witches
In their witchy ways, both Olivia and Jennifer materialized out of thin air to guide James and Sarah toward their destiny. I knew fairly early in the writing of this story that it would take place in Salem, Massachusetts, and I knew that it would include elements of the Salem Witch Trials.
With James being James, a vampire who has been alive for more than 300 years, I knew that there had to be a supernatural element to the story as well. By the end of the first draft of Her Dear & Loving Husband, I knew that Sarah would discover her first inkling of the paranormal world through a psychic reading.
A Hotbed of Modern Mysticism and Practicing Wiccans
When I first started writing Her Dear & Loving Husband I knew virtually nothing about Salem, Massachusetts except that it was the epicenter of the witch hunt hysteria in 1692. Since I knew the story would go back and forth between the 17th and 21st centuries, I had to learn about Salem in its present-day reality.
It didn’t take much of a Google search to realize that 21st-century Salem is a hotbed of modern mysticism. Many who practice the Wiccan religion live there. I haven’t yet been to Salem during October, but it looks to be a lot of fun with all of the Halloween and psychic festivals.
All over Salem, there are magical, mystical shops that sell incense, books of spells, candles, and other witchy accessories. Of course, Sarah would visit one, and that would be where she’d have her psychic reading. Who would run the shop? Who would give Sarah the reading? It had to be someone Sarah knew or was at least acquainted with.
Being new to Salem, and not being someone with an inherent belief in the mystical world, Sarah needed a push in the direction of getting that psychic reading, and that push came in the form of Olivia Phillips.
Who Was the Inspiration For Olivia Phillips?
I have this odd habit of putting favorite actors into the “part” of characters I’m writing to help me get a sense of the characters’ movements and their cadence when they talk, as well as other mannerisms, and I definitely had someone in mind while writing Olivia Phillips. While I’ll never reveal my sources, I have had readers who contacted me saying that they guessed who Olivia was based on, and they were right! It amazes me when readers read with such an eye for detail.
As of yet, no one has guessed the actor who stood in Jennifer’s shoes while I was writing Jennifer’s scenes, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone guessed who she was at some point as well.
It just so happens that Olivia has her own psychic shop in Salem, located on scenic Pickering Wharf, and she knew to expect Sarah at the Witches Lair not because of any psychic visions but because Olivia’s daughter, Jennifer, knows Sarah from the university library. After all, Sarah needs friends in Salem, and Jennifer, with her steady heart and open mind, is a good match for Sarah.
A Fictional Scene Based on a Real-Life Psychic Reading
The scene of the psychic reading was inspired by a real-life incident. My mother returned to university as an adult to get her degree, and she took a religious studies course. One of the assignments she had to complete was to go to some sort of psychic reading and write about the experience (yes, this is what happens to Sarah in the story).
I went with my mother just to see what it was like, and it was kind of fascinating, to be honest. The psychic was a young girl, about university age herself, and a lot of what she said was general and could have applied to anything. But then she said something about a move far away, which did startle me because I was planning on moving across the country and I don’t recall having given any clues in that direction.
That psychic reading, with some modifications, of course, ended up in Her Dear & Loving Husband. Just goes to show–you never know what experiences are going to play out later in your fiction!
With all the mysticism to be found in present-day Salem, Massachusetts, and since Olivia is a psychic, is it that much of a stretch to say, yeah, the mother and daughter duo practice the Wiccan religion, among other things?
As the Loving Husband stories continue we realize that it’s not just pagan practices that Olivia and Jennifer participate in. They cast real spells that have real consequences for James, Sarah, and everyone they love. They are, in fact, real witches. Real witches in Salem, Massachusetts? Who knew?
It was a coincidence that the place where I chose to set the story of the Loving Husband Series, Salem, Massachusetts, is a place where mystics, psychics, and others in touch with the supernatural world choose to congregate. After all, Sarah needs an introduction to the paranormal world. She has the preternatural James waiting for her.
Olivia and Jennifer are the perfect companions for Sarah as she discovers a whole world beyond what her logic and senses tell her. Olivia is the warm, motherly, wise, compassionate person I wish I had in my life. Jennifer is the best girlfriend we love to confide in.
Sarah is lucky to have found two such kindred spirits so soon after moving to Salem.