REGION – On Aug. and 9, join acclaimed authors Eileen Charbonneau, Eileen O’Finlan, and Jane Willan for a spirited look at the darker sides of Old and New World folklore.
Eileen Charbonneau’s novel, “Spectral Evidence,” relates the escape to Canada made by the family children when Mary and Philip English are accused of witchcraft during the Salem hysteria of 1692. “I thought I knew a lot about witches before my coauthor Jude Pittman and I began researching ‘Spectral Evidence,’” Charbonneau explains. “But much of that came from popular culture depictions. Did the great witch hunts of history peak during the so-called ‘Dark Ages?’ No – the period of the Renaissance is where we find them at their worst.” In the case of Salem, they even seeped into our own modern American origins. “Witch hunts happen in periods of change, and are born out of fear,” Charbonneau discovered, “fear of change, fear of the power of women, fear of the world being turned upside down.” Eileen found that the Salem persecutions spread around New England, but its disastrous consequences did not reach other parts of England’s colonial empire. “Setting my novel both in 1692 Salem and also in its close trading partner, Canada’s Newfoundland, helped me explore the reasons that it did not take hold there.” Charbonneau’s award-winning fiction has been praised on the pages of The Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and Publisher’s Weekly.
For Eileen O’Finlan, writing “The Folklorist” brought her home to her Vermont roots. Her novel explores the less well-known history of the New England Vampire Panic of the 1830s, through the eyes of a young scholar of the 1970s with a family connection. Much like our understanding of witches, our notions of vampires stem from the 1897 novel “Dracula” and all the popular culture interpretations and spin-offs that followed. But vampire stories and practices are much older. “Stories of the undead coming back to harm the living are quite old in Europe,” O’Finlan explains.
O’Finlan also found fear to be a great motivator in her study of how whole communities of New England tried to fight the surge of tuberculosis (then known as consumption) by resorting to Old World practices. These gruesome deeds were based on the superstition that the already dead were coming back to feed off living relatives. It included many ways to move, tamper with, or desecrate the bodies of loved ones. “They frequently burned the dead person’s heart, often having the sick relatives breathe in the smoke,” O’Finlan explains. “In Woodstock, Vt., a heart was burned on the Town Green. In Manchester, hundreds attended a heart burning on the blacksmith’s forge.” Reviews of “The Folklorist” have been stellar, including, “Setting and characters brought to vibrant life, and history is woven into the story skillfully,” and “Voices authentic to each era in a wonderful story.”
Jane Willan divides her time between composing sermons and dreaming up murder. She’s the author of the popular and heartwarming Sister Agatha and Father Selwyn Mystery series. Of her latest, “Abide with Me,” Publishers’ Weekly says, “Willan’s loving and witty portrayal of convent life in rural Wales will delight…who doesn’t enjoy reading about a busload of nuns riding to the rescue?” Readers will attest that you don’t have to be a church person to love Willan’s books. But she believes that liturgy, ritual, potluck dinners, and the drama that comes with church life makes for twisty plots and quirky characters. Reverend Jane says, “Sister Agatha often finds herself entwined in puzzles as dark and impenetrable as the tomb. Yet each mystery unfolds to reveal truths about humanity, redemption, and hope.” The author’s goal is for her novels to do more than entertain, but also “reflect on the nature of faith, resilience, and rebirth.” Jane will be discussing her book “The Shadow of Death.”
Together Charbonneau, O’Finlan, and the Reverend Willan offer a talk about the fascination with witches, vampires, and murder that continues to hold a firm grasp on our imagination.
The authors will be speaking at the Rockingham Library, 65 Westminster Street in Bellows Falls, on Thursday, Aug. 8, at 6:30 p.m.; and at the Springfield Library, 43 Main Street in Springfield, on Friday, Aug. 9, at 1 p.m. For more information, please call, email, or stop by either of these libraries.