Witches - Softcover

Griffith, Kathryn Meyer

4.06

176 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0821740318 ISBN 13: 9780821740316

Publisher: Kensington Pub Corp, 1993

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When an evil coven filled with creatures from the depths of hell torments the residents of Canaan with unspeakable horrors, it threatens to unmask quiet Amanda Givens, a resident of Canaan, as one of its own. Original.

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From the Author:

The Story of Witches
(Originally a 1993 Zebra mass market paperback)
By Kathryn Meyer Griffith

In 1991 I'd already been writing for about twenty years,on and off (though there was a long gap where I didn't write because of a divorce, thefinding of a full time job to support myself and my son, and aremarriage...life) when I contracted my fourth novel, my first of fourto Zebra paperbacks, a romantic horror called Vampire Blood, about a family of vampires who ran a movie theater in a small town. I'd already had a fifth novel, The Last Vampire, completed and in with them when they asked me for another novel.
Got anything about witches, they asked. Witches are hot right now. Hmmm.
For many years I'd played around with an idea about a present day whitewitch who finds a diary of a long dead witch - either good or bad, Ihadn't decided - in her old house's attic, or basement, or under afloorboard. The story would have been about the good witch reliving theother dead witch's life through the diary. I'd always called thatpossible book Rachel's Diary in my head.
So in 1991 or 1992 I began the witch book and it quickly metamorphosed into a story of a present day good witch, Amanda Givens, who's yanked into a perilous seventeenth century past by an evil witch,Rachel Coxe, to take her place...and die a horrible death as an accusedwitch. I had the idea then to actually send Amanda into the past to live (for a while) the other witch's life. Of course, being a good witch,Amanda, changes the other witch's unsavory reputation but still ends upin a prison waiting to die for Rachel's earlier crimes. The story,simply put, would be how Amanda overcomes her trials and tribulations, findsher lost eternal love again in the past, and finds a way to return tothe present alive. In the process, learning some important life lessonsabout accepting what life has dealt her and the value of sisters,friendships and the love of those around her. Or good versus evil and,in the end, good wins and is rewarded. I also threw in a few touches ofhumor in the form of three precocious witches' familiars...amind-reading and speaking cat called Amadeus, a mouse, Tituba, and a tiny bat, Gibbiewackett...all with feisty personalities and quirks of their own.
I was excited about the book as I was writing it and when it was done,pleased with it, but had no idea that over the years it'd become thejewel of my writing career and the book that my fans would love the best of all my books. I loved the cat face cover Zebra did for it (a rareoccurrence as I'd learned the hard way that covers weren't always whatI'd envisioned and in the early days I had no choice but to acceptwhatever the publisher's gave me...and some weren't so hot, let me tellyou!).
Witches came out in 1993 anddid well. I noticed soon after as I went on to publish other books that I got the most response and admiration for it. Readers loved the threesisters,Amadeus and Amanda, Gibbiewackett and Tituba. In those days I was too busy working full time as a graphic artist,living my life and writing new books to notice. It went into a secondprinting in 2000 and after that, sadly, went out of print. But my fansnever forgot it. I'd find comments on it and discussions on theInternet...even customer reviews raving about it years and years later. I tried talking Zebra into reissuing it but after Zebra and I parted ways there was no talking them into it.
The book was brought out, revised and updated, again in2010 and in 2015 I got the fullrights back and self-published it along with my other 21 novels. Istarted self-publishing in 2012 and now will never go back topublishers. I love having total control and the money's much better.
I've often been asked what I think of e-books and I have to say it feelsstrange, all these years later, to be so into them. I think it'sfantastic to be able to put thousands of books on one little lightweight hand-held contraption and sell them as inexpensively as we do. Istarted publishing e-books four years ago and have seen such greatchanges in even that short a time. I love the editing process now. WithTrack Changes it's truly a collaborative effort between the editor andthe writer and it's taught me far more about the craft of writing thanthe old way of just sending off the manuscript, being asked to changecertain things, but then never seeing any of those changes or the basicedits until the book was printed and in my hand. Now,no more pages added by an editor (That actually happened in Evil Stalks the Night.The editor, who I never met, added three pages of his own and I didn'teven know about it until I held the book in my hand. And the three pages didn't make sense...ech!) that I never know about or see until the book comes out. Yeah.
With a chuckle I recall a writer's convention I attended in 1990-yes, that far back-and the main topic back then was...OMG the electronic books are coming! They're going to make us authors obsolete!Print books are going to die a terrible lonely death...etc., etc. Lack and alas, what are we going to do?Ha, ha. It's ironic that 25 years later I'm in love with e-books. They'rethe future. And I think there will always be room for print books aswell as electronic ones.
So Witches...of all my 22 novels, I'm most proud of it. It's held up pretty well. I hope it finds many more readers and fans.
So that's the story of Witches...the little book that wouldn't die.

About the Author:

About Kathryn Meyer Griffith...
Since childhood I've been an artist and worked as a corporate graphic designer and for newspapers for 23 years before I quit to write full time. I began writing novels at 21, forty years ago, and have sixteen (eleven romantic horror, one historical romance, one romantic suspense, one romantic time travel and two murder mysteries) previous novels and twelve short stories from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books and Eternal Press.
I've been married to Russell for thirty-four years; have a son, James, and grandchildren, Joshua and Caitlyn, and live in a small quaint town in Illinois called Columbia, which is across the JB Bridge from St. Louis, Mo. We have three quirky cats, ghost cat Sasha and live cats Cleo and Sasha (Too), and the five of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I've been an artist, and a folk singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I'll probably write stories until the day I die.

My books Revised and all out again from Damnation Books (damnationbooks.com/people.php?author=79)and Eternal Press. (eternalpress.biz/people.php?author=422): Evil Stalks the Night-Revised Author's Edition; The Heart of the Rose-Revised Author's Edition; Blood Forge-Revised Author's Edition; Vampire Blood-Revised Author's Edition; The Last Vampire -Revised Author's Edition; Witches-Revised Author's Edition; The Nameless One short story; The Calling-Revised Author's Edition; Scraps of Paper; All Things Slip Away; Egyptian Heart; Winter's Journey; The Ice Bridge; Don't Look Back, Agnes, novella; In This House short story; The Nameless One, erotic short story; Always & Forever, erotic contemporary novella; BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons; The Woman in Crimson; The Guide to Writing Paranormal Fiction: Volume 1 (I did the Introduction);Dinosaur Lake; and four 99 cent each SPOOKY SHORT STORIES on Kindle. ***

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