Hallelujah

As a former community college English instructor, I've spent a lot of time thinking about the sad state of American literacy. Why don't (many) people enjoy reading?

Reading helps you develop compassion, as you learn to experience life through other people's eyes. It helps you become a better writer, as you unknowingly pick up vocabulary, style and grammar. It opens up new options for how you might live your own life, as you see how others live.

Laurie Halse Anderson has a wonderful essay that is now several years old (an address she gave to high school English teachers) but I just came across it and it rang true for me. It moved me, actually.

It's called, Loving the Young Adult Reader Even When You Want to Strangle Him (or Her). I hope you enjoy it. Click here.

Art makes writing possible

My best friend is artist Kirsten Stolle. She has been making a living as an artist for at least a decade now. She has had solo shows and group shows in major metropolitan areas, and her art is in the collection of the Crocker Art Museum and the San Jose Art Museum. Most recently, her solo show at Dolby-Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco included an exhibition catalog. See images here.

She let me purchase some master proofs recently at a friend price, and I just adore them. Someday I hope to finish a non-historical novel and talk the publisher into using her work for the book jacket. I actually showed some darker abstract images to Random House for possibility with Hexe, as the Witch's Trinity was initially called.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Jon Stewart the other night spoke of the Congolese Penis Theft Panic, where men fear witches either steal or shrink their members.

My own heart shrank when I heard this. This is directly out of the middle ages, literally. In the Malleus Maleficarum, the 1500s witchhunting manual that figures in my novel The Witch’s Trinity, there are many passages about witches shrinking penises or making them outright disappear. It is puzzling and sad that parts of the world still labor under superstitions of the Dark Ages.

A quick glance at the Malleus table of contents reveals that Part One addresses the question “whether witches may work some Prestidigitatory Illusion so that the Male Organ appears to be entirely removed and separate from the Body.” In Part Two, that sticky issue rears its head again (oh the terrible puns): “How, as it were, [witches] Deprive Man of his Virile Member.”

Luckily, there was hope offered for those miserable emasculated peasants, as Chapter Four of Part Two offers “Remedies prescribed for those who by Prestidigitatory Art has lost their Virile Members or have seemingly been Transformed into the Shapes of Beasts.”

Curiosity compels me to learn about these remedies. I have a copy of the Malleus, which is alive and unwell in reprints.

Well, pshaw, the member is still there, only “hidden by a glamour.” So how might these suffering men make the invisible visible again? The authors of the Malleus suggest that “They should as far as possible come to an amicable agreement with the witch herself.”

Riiiiiiiight. ‘Cause she’s gonna want to help with that right before she steps up to the stake to be burned.

You may notice that the section title also includes how to get out of being transformed into a beast. This section explores the anecdote of a sailor ashore in Cyprus who ate the eggs sold him by a local. An hour later, he went back to his ship, but his fellow sailors ran him off with a stick, crying, “Look what this ass is doing! Curse the beast, you are not coming on board.” The eggs had rendered him into a donkey.

He went back to the witch’s house, since his ship had sailed, and served her for three years as a beast of burden—with a few coffee breaks in which she and her fellow witches acknowledged him as a man and talked with him.

In the fourth year of his servitude, he and the witch passed by a church ringing its bell at the moment the Host was elevated. He knelt outside it, which piety was remarked by some merchants. The witch tried to beat him to get him to move, which only exposed her witchcraft. She was questioned and tortured, confessed. She agreed to transform him back to a man in return for her release. He sailed home, but she…well, the Malleus puts it in this succinct, chilling language: “Being again arrested, she paid the debt which her crimes merited.”

The New York Times recently wrote about children being accused of witchcraft in Angola, the Congo Republic and Congo, where this penis theft panic is happening. My blog post about it is here.

Write Free

My friend Jordan Rosenfeld recently interviewed me for her monthly e-newsletter Write Free. This is a newsletter supporting the book she co-authored of the same title.

I picked up a copy and it’s a great way to start thinking about how to turn negatives to positives. There are exercises inside to start changing the way you think and write.

The website is http://www.writefree.us/. You can subscribe to her e-newsletter, which is FREE and has good content to help you on your writing path.

Jordan’s also written a book called Make a Scene, which I’m eager to read next.

On the shelf

This jpeg sent to me by someone very, very cool. She saw Witch's Trinity at Book Passage in San Francisco's Ferry Building.

Stoker results

The Bram Stoker Awards were given out Saturday night in Salt Lake City. I couldn't attend, but the ceremony live streamed, so I sat in front of my computer (along with 75 other people--the website kept a tally!) to watch.

I was pleased Jonathan Mayberry won in his category, since we have corresponded a bit and he is a very nice guy. Gary Braunbeck gave an absolutely extraordinary acceptance speech in his category, about a loss he experienced which had me blinking back tears and counting my blessings.

And since I couldn't win in my category, I was very happy that the person who did is also a Colby graduate! Congratulations, Sarah Langan!

The next day, I attended the "Have you read it yet" bookclub in Oakland, which has met for an astonishing 18 years! These ladies know how to have fun. Unlike my book club, which merely tries to (sometimes) cook meals to match the book we read, they actually dress up. Since they had read Woman of Ill Fame, they all showed up in garters and lingerie with curled hair and ribbons and boas...they certainly dispelled any momentary gloominess over the Stoker!

Not only that, but they had created cardboard replicas of the signs the prostitutes hang over their beds so their fellas know who to request next time, replete with flowers and cirlicue handwriting. I've got my Erika sign, so if I ever fall on hard times...

We drank champagne, ate a fabulous brunch, and they actually read aloud passages from the book that they liked... I pretty much wanted to lie on the floor in a delirium of shamefaced happiness.

Thank you, Dale Marie and all you wonderful "lasses with asses."

Forgery associated with the Malleus Maleficarum?

A reader contacted me about the Malleus Maleficarum, the witch hunter’s Bible mentioned in my novel The Witch’s Trinity. She wanted to be sure I knew that the pope’s endorsement of the Malleus Maleficarum was a forgery—but research shows something a little different.

Printed at the beginning of the Malleus is a papal bull from Innocent VIII, a reference letter of sorts for the authors, Kramer and Sprenger. The bull, known as the Summis Desiderantes Affectibus, says that the two inquisitors, “our dear sons,” were empowered to witch hunt and preach the word of God to the faithful. The bull dates to 1484. It is not a forgery, but its placement at the beginning of the book may be somewhat misleading, as if the pope endorsed the book and not simply the witch hunting activities of its authors.

There is difficulty dating the first edition of the Malleus, but certainly the bull predates it by a few years.

There is, however, a forgery (at least most scholars think it is a forgery)—a letter of endorsement for the Malleus Maleficarum purportedly written by the faculty of the University of Cologne. This too was inserted in some editions of the Malleus, but not in my Dover reprint of the Montague Summers’ 1928 translation so I didn’t know about it.

However, a little quick googling yields the information that at least one scholar is opening the case back up and asserting that the letter is not a forgery. This scholar recently translated the Malleus –actually there were two new translations in 2006 and 2007. Read this article for more information.

The Montague Summers translation is very strange because he believed in witches and in witch hunting. Rather than writing an introduction that reflected dolefully on how women and men of the past were persecuted, he calls the Malleus “one of the most important, wisest and weightiest books of the world.” More on this later.

Van, what ARE you talking about?

On the way home from Sacramento from the Authors on the Move event, I was listening to the radio and an old Van Morrison song came on. I vaguely knew the chorus, “Oh, the water, oh, the water” but because I was trying fiercely to stay awake, I listened to the lyrics for the first time.

And immediately I was confused. What was that song about? Something stung him to his soul… something in the water stung him. Was it a jellyfish? He does talk of a jellyroll, but is that what they call jellyfish in Ireland?

I listened and puzzled and finally had to google when I got home.

Actually, he was STONED to his soul.

That makes sense.

This has nothing to do with the Witch's Trinity.

. . . .

Authors on the Move

The event I participated in this weekend in Sacramento was amazing! Incredible orchestration on the part of the organizers, who drew together 300+ guests and around 30 writers for a dinner and auction.

We writers would sit at an eight-top for 20 minutes and talk about our books with the guests, then move on to another table. That sounds nervewracking...but the kindness of the people I sat with made it actually very pleasant. Plus, what a great cause: the Sacramento Public Library's literacy programs and other library projects.

The writers pre-ate together before the guests arrived, and that was really nice too. I got to meet some great people and talk shop. I haven't met any writers in my new community, so it was so relieving to get a chance to hang with other writers.

Thanks, Kathy Les and other organizers!

It gets naughty

My editor suggested I subscribe to Google Alerts, a free service that emails you anytime your specified search term shows up on any website. So whenever someone writes about "Witch's Trinity" or the misspelled "Witches' Trinity," I get a link to it.

Let us pause for a moment and reflect how scary that really is. Privacy is a thing of the past.

And paranoia and egotism are a thing of the now!

Anyway, this morning I got an alert about a blogger who thought my book was a little too risque. Here's what she wrote:

So as of yesterday I finished a book called the Witches Trinity. Not one I would recommend to anyone. It gets naughty and I am embarrassed to say that I read it.

I had to laugh and say, if you think that's naughty, don't read my first book!




. . .

The Pterodactyl Interview

I’ve been nominated for a Bram Stoker award by the Horror Writers Association, and here is a quick 10-minute podcast interview about it with Rick Kleffel. It’s not the smartest I’ve ever sounded—among other things, I’ve somehow picked up an annoying overuse of the word “certainly”—but I love this interview because my 10-month-old stars in it! In the background you will hear her pterodactyl shrieks.

Rick's a great interviewer and, as we talk about in the interview, he's the one who suggested I look into the Stoker awards. I owe him big-time!

Here's the link to the podcast.


. . .

Murder, a la Francais

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting writer Cara Black several times. Her mystery series is set in Paris—not the moony Paris of the Eiffel Tower, but the gritty working-class city of hidden WWII Nazis, immigrants without papers and 1970s terrorists—and that’s just the first three books!

Her main character Aimee Leduc is clever, sexy and vulnerable, and I’ve loved the unfolding story, as the series progresses, of what happened to her parents. Cara’s latest is out, Murder in the Rue de Paradis, and here are a few of the events you can catch her at, to get a signed copy and hear her read.

February 28th @ 7:00 pm
*** Launch Party for Murder in the Rue de Paradis! ***with Pari Taichert
M Is for Mystery
86 East Third Avenue
San Mateo, CA 94401
Contact: Ed Kaufmann
Phone: (650) 401-8077
Email: ed@mformystery.com

March 4th @ 7:00 pm at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd. in Corte Madera

March 5th @ 12:30 pm at Stacey’s Bookstore, 581 Market St. in San Francisco

More events are listed at www.carablack.com.





. . .

I'm stoked about the Stoker!

I am so happy to announce that The Witch’s Trinity has been nominated for a Bram Stoker Award in the category “Superior Achievement in a Novel.” The awards are given by the Horror Writers Association—their definition of horror includes psychological as well as supernatural. There is fierce competition just to land on the ballot, so I’m honored and amazed.

The trophy is a sculpture of a haunted house. The front door opens to show a plaque with the winner’s name. What could be more cool?

My international class

The other day I posted about my upcoming Mediabistro class which, as it is online, is accessible to people around the world. The course starts Thursday, February 21, with online chats each Thursday thereafter.

As my novel has been released in England and Australia (and other countries) by the publisher Hodder & Stoughton, I thought it might be useful for potential students in those countries to know when that chat happens.

So I did some googling of Greenwich Mean Time. I actually prefer to use GNT (Greenwich Nice Time), but alas the world is as it is. Here's the results:

If you are in London, the Thursday chat actually happens on FRIDAYS... at 2 a.m. Perhaps not that manageable for most folks...either you're safely in bed, or you're out clubbing and a class on writing is not the most attractive thing to do on a Friday night.

If you are in Melbourne, the chat also happens on Fridays, but at 1 p.m. You could make it a late lunch break if you are working!

If you're American, the class is at 9 p.m. EST.

For me, it's 6 p.m. PST.

The world is very large, it turns out.

Write for Me

I like to teach novel writing, and through a great organization called Mediabistro, I'm able to do it from the comfort of my own home.

That is to say, I teach online. My next class starts in a few weeks (Feb. 21) and it'd be great to have you. Since the course is online, you can live anywhere in the world. Two semesters ago, I had a student from Sweden--for her, the class was at 3 a.m. or something!

The format is:

1. I post a lecture every week that students read at their leisure
2. Students post assignments several times during the 12 week course--either portions of a novel-in-progress or introspection on some aspect of their own writing--on an electronic bulletin board only visible to those in the class
3. Other students comment on those posts, as do I.
4. Finally, once a week for one hour, we gather "live" in a chat room to discuss the posts, the lectures and whatever else comes up.

The course is designed for students to complete a novel draft in 12 weeks. That sounds very ambitious, but many have done it. I coach students and cheer them on, but also provide feedback to improve their writing. One aspect of the course I really like is when we talk about the publication business--how to draft query letters to get an agent's attention, how to format the manuscript properly, and the ins and outs of the tough business of getting your book published.

If this sounds interesting to you, please check out the official course site at mediabistro.

Witches and cows

In the Malleus Maleficarum, there seems to be a lot of discussion of witchcraft vis a vis cows. Probably not surprising, given how important cows were to daily life in the middle ages: milk to drink and render into cheese, meat at slaughtertime, heat for those who kept them indoors with them.

Here's a passage about how cows inform on witches:

For sometimes when a cow has been injured in this way, and they wish to discover who has bewitched it, they drive it out into the fields with a man's trousers, or some unclean thing, upon its head or back. And this they do chiefly on Feast Days and Holy Days, and possibly with some sort of invocation of the devil; and they beat the cow with a stick and drive it away. Then the cow runs straight to the house of the witch, and beats vehemently upon the door with its horns, lowing loudly all the while; and the devil causes the cow to go on doing this until it is pacified by some other witchcraft.

A frightening image, the cow battering the door with its horns. And god save you if it was your door the cow chose.

Did the Malleus Maleficarum really exist?

Emphatically and unfortunately, yes.

You can buy a copy of the Malleus Maleficarum today on Amazon. At my website, www.erikamailman.com, in the right hand column there is a running display of some particularly egregious quotes from the book (each time you refresh, a new one appears).

The authors, Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, wrote it to guide courts in their prosecution of witches. The book reads like a pseudo (and psycho) legal text, including questions to be put to these witches, and how to proceed based on what they report.

Freud would have a field day with the recurring sections on how women can make the male genitals either shrink or completely disappear.

The book is threaded through with anecdotes that break your heart. I’ll be writing about some of those, so please check back later (but not too soon. Blogging with a newborn is a tenuous undertaking!)

The second painting of "Mary Bliss Parsons"

This doesn't depict Mary Bliss Parsons; see discussion in previous post.

I had saved the image on my hard drive so I'm able to post it, although I can't refind where a google image search led to information on the artist, sitter and provenance. The yellow garment is the tip-off, somehow an extraordinary choice for a painting of this time period.


UPDATE THANKS TO MY MOTHER:

My mom was able to locate the painting; it's in the collection of the Worcester Art Museum. It's a painting of Mrs. Elizabeth Clarke Freake and her daughter Mary. View the info on provenance here (you will then click on the painting on the upper left--for some reason, the specific page isn't clickable). Thank you, Mom!


. . . . .

Mary Bliss Parsons, is that you?

Yipes!

I was looking through my archives and realized I never corrected a major error. In this post, I attached an image that I identified as a painting of my ancestor Mary Bliss Parsons. It’s not! (and one of the commenters references another painting of her with a child, which also cannot be the case.) The image was posted at the UMass website with no caption. Because the site is about MBP and because (I must say it) the woman looks VERY MUCH like members of my family, I made the hopefully-understandable assumption that it depicts her.

I got in touch with the UMass webmistress to request permission to possibly use the image in The Witch’s Trinity, which has an extensive afterword about Mary Bliss Parsons. She informed me that there are no images of MBP. The UMass people had simply noticed the website was devoid of images and cast about to find some. The painting is of the same era, illustrating “Colonial America,” so they used it. They ran out of time and funding to properly caption the image.

(But I hasten to say the website is in all other regards completely amazing. Where else would I have been able to see—handwriting and all—the testimony in Mary Bliss Parsons’ witchcraft cases, without traveling all the way to Massachusetts? It also has a very in-depth analysis of my ancestor’s circumstances versus her accuser’s.)

The funny thing is, the woman in the image is basically a dead-ringer for my mom dressed as a Colonial woman. I’m blown away that this doesn’t depict our ancestor! (By the same token, it initially amazed me that after eleven generations, faces could still be so similar).

Interesting crinkle #1:

There was a second painting on the website (the one I think the commenter on my original post was referring to). I have to give my mother credit for questioning it. She said that she had seen it somewhere before (no, not in our attic!). With a strong interest in Colonial painting/furniture/antiques, she recalled that this portrait was unusual for that era in its use of yellow for the woman’s garment. I googled while she pulled out her books. And I was able to locate the painting, which identified the sitter as the wife of someone—not a Parsons. I just now tried to again locate the image; why didn’t I bookmark it? Can’t find it now.

Interesting crinkle #2:

I just went back to the Umass website and am unable to locate either painting. Looks like they took them down. And added some new content: nice work, guys!

Calling Down the Rain

This image from De Lamiis shows witches bringing down the rain. It looks like they are feeding the cauldron with a snake and a rooster.

Witches were feared for their ability to affect natural phenomena. For people whose lives were staked upon whether crops would fail or succeed, the elements were a fearsome unknown. A cold snap could kill the harvest, or too much or too little rain. If power to affect these elements was in the hands of malevolent neighbors, who were assisted by the devil, well, they were to be hated. And executed.

In The Witch's Trinity, townspeople whose village has been famine-struck look about themselves wildly to find who has kept the fields barren. And thus the witch hunt begins.

***
Image is from Witchcraft in Europe 1100-1700 by Alan C. Kors and Peter Edwards