I've written about witches before, but the idea for Wisteria Witches came to me shortly after I was struck by an idea while I was in the shower. I pulled back the shower curtain and called out to my husband, “We should move! Let's move!”
He was elated. He'd been bugging me for a few years about moving, always looking at property listings online and showing me adorable houses that could be ours. But I wasn't ready to leave our big city for small-town life... until the day I was.
We weren't the first ones to leave the city. Friends our age with children had been moving away for years because they had no choice. We'd stuck around with our cats (who didn't have the same needs as human children), moving around to different neighborhoods, looking for a place that felt like home but never quite settling anywhere for good.
Now it was time to move away. I felt it. So, off we went, on long drives and ferry rides to look at properties in other towns that were far enough away to offer a different lifestyle, but not too far. It was during one of our trips to look at an adorable “witchy” house that I was inspired to start writing Wisteria Witches. I imagined being Zara Riddle, moving her teen daughter to a new town that might seem boring at first but had way more going on below the surface.
The book's writing flowed easily. Both Zara and Zoey were so vocal and had such a wonderful relationship with each other that they practically wrote themselves. One of my inspirations for the Riddles was my childhood best friend and her mother. My friend was an only child, and each school year she moved back and forth between her two divorced parents who'd never remarried or gotten stepchildren. My friend's relationship with each parent was vastly different from my own home life. She and her single parents were more like best friends. I loved staying over at her house, whichever house it was that week. My mother would have been appalled at the food we ate (chicken wings and Coke for dinner; candy for breakfast) and even as a child I sensed the nutrition should have been better, but I loved hanging out in their atmosphere. Years later, when I'd bump into her parents in our home town, I would feel that we had been buddies as well.
So, the book came together quickly, and I loved spending time with the Riddles. The first novel in the series went out to all of you lovely readers, and then... my own life plans changed. Due to economic circumstances beyond my control, I wasn't going to move to an adorable house in a small town where I'd start a new adventure.
Why the change? Our timing wasn't great. Apparently, the reason I'd decided to move was that I'd been swept up in a larger movement of people getting the heck out of that city. And all of these people were eyeballing the same outlying areas where my husband and I were looking. Houses started selling within 24 hours of the first open house, with multiple offers and bidding wars. The price people were paying for tear-downs was scandalous. We took a good look at our current life and said, why jump from one frying pan into another fire?
Our friends were relieved to hear that we weren't moving away. I bought some plants for my office. We moved some furniture around. We tried to forget about moving.
I feel lousy and petty admitting this to you, dear reader, but when I didn't get to move to a new town, my spark for the Wisteria Witches series went out. I couldn't write with joy about life in a new town while I was still living in the old place, listening to heavy trucks go up and down the busy street, and going for walks through a hollowed-out neighborhood, with its lovely old Craftsman houses being torn down to get replaced with empty mansions. Folks, they call it “progress,” but I don't know. It sure doesn't look like progress to me. (And here is where I break out my guitar and spontaneously sing a protest song from the sixties – ha ha!)
Back to the witches. Reader response to the book was phenomenal, so I made notes about what would happen next, and I waited to get over my jealousy of the characters (Yes, an author can be jealous of her own characters!) while I worked on some other projects.
My husband kept looking online at properties, though. He kept the flame going. We went on more trips to look at other places, but as the weeks went by, the bidding wars were even worse. The aura at open houses was cutthroat. So, we expanded our search radius to include some areas we hadn't considered before.
And then it happened. We met with a great Realtor who was as excellent at her job as the character Dorothy Tibbits is terrible at hers. She showed us around the area where she'd moved to a few years earlier, and we found a home that wasn't too expensive or too falling-apart. It's a modest house that looks like a plain vanilla wafer, on a quiet street with a rural feel. The woods are just across the street. I can leave my office, start walking, and be sitting on a rock overlooking a pristine lake in fifteen minutes.
To say that I'm happy with my new home would be an understatement. There are times I very nearly have to pinch myself because I can't believe how lucky we are. (Hubby and the cat love it, too!) I've always felt a connection to the forest and huge trees, which is funny because I grew up in the Canadian prairies. Now I live at the edge of a rainforest and I couldn't be happier if I could turn into a little red squirrel and run up a tree trunk!
The first new book I started writing after we moved was book 2 in the Wisteria Witches series. I was excited and relieved to dive back into Wisteria and spend time with the Riddles, and I was thrilled to release Wicked Wisteria. It took me a little longer than expected, but I think it all worked out. In the past year, I've also released book 3, and as of the time of writing this note, I'm working on book 4 and beyond.
When I take a break from writing, I go for walks in the forest, and I've even been out paddling a kayak a few times. Seeing a starfish in the wild for the first time is a thrill, as is being checked out by curious sea lions. And I couldn't believe my eyes the first time I saw a flock of black oystercatchers, with their long red beaks. Nature never disappoints, and always inspires my work. (You'll see that my ocean adventures found their way into Wisteria Wonders.)
I wish the same quiet contentment that I now feel for you, my dear reader. I don't know if you're a forest person or a beach person or a city person, but I hope you can get in touch with your element – the type of natural world that gives you joy – and have more of it in your life. Hold on to your dreams and the people who share them. And if you're not getting what you want, expand your search radius.
Once again, thank you for reading my book and then also my long-winded author's note. I promise you many more fun books and more weirdly oversharing author's notes.
Love, Angela
(Turn the page for a list of all my books and my newsletter.)
Series Reading Order
Current Series:
Wisteria Witches Mysteries - Angela Pepper
#1 - Wisteria Witches
#2 - Wicked Wisteria
#3 - Wisteria Wonders
#4 - Watchful Wisteria
#5 - Wisteria Wyverns
Stormy Day Mysteries - Angela Pepper
#1 - Death of a Dapper Snowman
#2 - Death of a Crafty Knitter
#3 - Death of a Batty Genius
#4 - Death of a Modern King
#5 - Death of a Double Dipper
Completed Series:
Restless Spirits of the Southwest - Angela Pepper
#1 - Date with a Ghost
#2 - Interview with a Ghost
#3 - Dancing with a Ghost
Eli Carter & the Ghost Hackers - Angela Pepper
#1 - The Cat Who Went Bump in the Night
#2 - The Ghost Who Wasn't There
#3 - The Dog Who Barked Fire
For links and Angela's news, visit www.angelapepper.com
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Stormy Day Mysteries 5-Book Cozy Murder Mystery Series Bundle Page 146