Witch of the Lake

Preface

PREFACE

There is no end to the number of stories waiting to be told. Between Nicolette and me, we already have dozens competing for their place in the sun, with her continuing Dragon Saga and Thornwood and my ongoing Blade and Rose series and the Dark-Elves of Nightbloom. Our characters claim greedy spots in our creative minds, always giving their two cents (whether we want them to or not) and continually reigniting our passion to write them. And with so many of them, and only two of us, it came as a complete surprise that when we met, new—co-written—stories demanded to be told. And now!

Sometime during one of our madcap daydreaming sessions, Jin and her world in the Celestial War series came into being, and we contractually agreed to set out to work on that. And then, an invitation to write for an anthology centered around witches and the autumn equinox put a pin in that, and we each got to work on brainstorming a short story. I had long crafted a world based in my Polish heritage, wrapped in Slavic mythology, tradition, and superstition. Nicolette had imagined a cabin in the woods, where a young witch lived with her mothers. As we shared our ideas with one another, they converged as if it were meant to be, and the witches moved into an Eastern European forest, serving gods of the Slavic pantheon. Tada!

In a flurry of feverish drafting, we quickly reached—and overshot—the word count for the short story, and it sprawled into a novel… and into a trilogy. We had planned to release Celestial War this summer, but Brygida, her mothers, and Kaspian gave far more than a character’s usual two cents and would not pipe down… so here we are, and Jin has gracefully agreed to hold her peace until next summer.

That was the spark that set us on this book’s path, but several steps followed. Nicolette dove into art research while I studied books on Slavic mythology written in Polish to round out and confirm what I already knew. We gathered notes and fleshed out the characters, the story, and let them speak to us. We were extremely fortunate to have the help of our author friends to critique the story and see if it worked, thanks to Alisha Klapheke, Katherine Bennet, J.M. Butler, Clare Sager, and Emily Allen West, and our editor, Deborah Nemeth. Their tireless help was critical to bringing our vision of Brygida, Kaspian, and Czarnobrzeg to life. And our assistants, Charity Chimney and Lea Vickery, worked constantly to make sure everything ran smoothly, and our proofreaders Patrycja Pakula and Anthony S. Holabird helped us deliver cleaner books.

And most of all, we had each other, not just co-authors but the closest of friends. In bringing this story to its place in the sun, we have not only strengthened ourselves as writers, but the growing friendship we have with each other. And we’re overjoyed to share with you Brygida’s story, Feast of the Mother.

Sincerely,

Miranda Honfleur & Nicolette Andrews

July 2019